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Assassin's Creed:
The Isu
I came to the Assassin’s Creed series late, starting with AC Origins, which is set in ancient Egypt. I was lured into the story of Bayek and Aya, the tragic loss of their son and the need to seek revenge against the Order of Ancients. At the time, I knew very little about the Isu, so when I encountered mentions of Egyptian gods such as Set and Horus, I did not correlate these with Those Who Came Before. But as I explored other games in the franchise, I learned more of this mysterious ancient race, and why their history is a pivotal thread that ties together the AC franchise.
Assassin’s Creed is a collection of video games that span different time periods and cultures. The narrative revolves around the conflict between two ancient and secret societies: the Assassins, who are portrayed as fighting for peace and free will, while the Templars / Order of Ancients are portrayed as being power-hungry, cruel and corrupt. In Origins, this was clear - the Order of Ancients was brutal and controlling, dominating Rome and using the child pharaoh as a puppet to their own ends. However, as I progressed through the AC games, I began to question the black and white portrayal of the Assassins and Templars, as in the end both sides want to possess the artifacts of the Isu for their own gain. The lines began to blur, I wanted to understand why the Isu artifacts were so important.
"Your son's death made the Order bow to me.
Caesar, even. I had Rome.
It gave me an empire of a thousand sons,
each one greater than the last."
―Flavius Metellus to Bayek
in his final moments, 47 BCE,
Assassin's Creed Origins
The Isu were an ancient race of technologically advanced beings who were native to Earth, humanity’s precursors, who developed artifacts and weapons that enabled them to create humans. They had superior knowledge, power and technology and would have been seen as gods in their time.
What I found interesting in playing AC Valhalla and Mirage was how the hero assassins in each were so deeply connected to the Isu. Both Eivor and Basim are reincarnations of Isu, they struggle with memories of Odin and Loki (although Loki isn’t mentioned specifically, if you have played Valhalla then you know it already). Some of the AC assassins are hybrids, meaning they have a sixth sense, referred to as eagle vision or Odin sight. If all of this sounds confusing, this video explainer helps to make a bit more sense of the Isu lore.
So rebellion is a part of Assassin’s Creed lore, as are hybrid offspring of the Isu and humans, hybrids who have unique powers or gifts which allow them to see the “code” of this world (a bit like the Matrix movies, they can see things which are hidden, and also like the Matrix there is an element of reality simulation as the characters can be accessed through a machine called an animus).
And there we saw the Nephilim, the Bnei Anak,
which come from the Nephilim;
and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers,
and so we were in their sight.
The specific references to the Nephilim in Assassin’s Creed and the stories of the Isu and their creation and control of humanity, points to the video game series being influenced heavily by various mythologies including the Watchers and Nephilim.
The Isu created humans from their own DNA mixed with that of lesser creatures. They wanted a docile and obedient workforce, one that would never be able to rise up against their masters (yeah, that never works out though, does it?). The Isu did mate with humans from time to time, and they had hybrid offspring, similar to the Watchers. Two of those offspring, Adam and Eve, manage to obtain two of the Pieces of Eden - technology that allowed the Isu to control emotions and thoughts through neurotransmitters - and thus start an uprising against the Isu. The conflict between humans and the Isu lasted for a decade before a cataclysmic event called the Great Catastrophe wiped out most of the Isu and much of the human population. The Isu were not immortal, so those who remained moved into underground vaults to find ways to prevent future cataclysms and preserve their species.
They tried different solutions, but found most would take too long to implement to be successful. One of their final solutions was to build a supercomputer called Yggdrasil to upload their consciousness. A later coronal mass ejection, similar to the Great Catastrophe, spun the Earth on its axis. The planet burned for weeks, but humans survived, along with the Pieces of Eden.
