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Those who playedAssassin’s Creed Valhallaprior to embarking onMiragewill know that Ubisoft’slatest protagonist, Basim, was a returning character from the franchise, whose origin was yet to be revealed.
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With Mirage serving as a prequel to Valhalla, Basim was tasked with navigating 9th-century Baghdad to take down theOrder of the Ancientson behalf of the Hidden Ones, but the hero’s story turned out to be a much more complicated one to digest. We explain everything you need to know about the ending of Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Basim Is A Thief Turned Hidden One
to explain the ending of Mirage, let’s indulge in a brief recap of Basim’s place in the narrative. Basim was introduced as a common thief working the streets of Baghdad with his friend, Nehal, but he dreamed of being something more and grew tired of his life of poverty. Following the work he did for the Hidden Ones through his friend Dervis, Basim’s goal became to join the brotherhood despite Nehal’s opposition.
The leader of the Hidden Ones, Roshan, rejected Basim’s request to join, and in order to prove himself, he decided to break into a palace in Anbar to steal a mysterious item being sought by the Order of the Ancients and the Hidden Ones. After discovering that the object was an ancient disc that projected holograms of two individuals when Basim tried to touch it,Nehal ended up killing one of the Caliph’s, al-Mutawakkil, and the pair escaped with the item.
An order was then actioned to kill every thief in Anbar until the disc was recovered, which resulted in many of Basim’s friends dying. Angry at Nehar for killing the Caliph and pinning the slayings on him, Basim abandoned her and went to train under Roshan. Despite a change in lifestyle,Basim continued to be haunted by a frightening shadow referred to as the “Jinni,” which seemed to be torturing him with a part of his past yet to be discovered.
Qabiha Encourages Basim To Discover His Past
After years of training, Basim returned to Baghdad in order to eliminate the Order of the Ancients, whose power was steadily spreading throughout the land. His search led him to the Palace of the Green Dome, and he was tasked with eliminating the head of the snake, Al-Bahamut, who was later revealed to be called Qabiha.
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Instead of slaying the leader, Basim realized that Qabiha had been searching for him too, ever since her son, Abu ‘Abdallah, witnessed Basim activate the disc back at the palace.Qabiha insists Basim investigate a secret Isu temple located beneath Alamut that would give Basim answers about his pastand explain why the Jinni has been haunting him.Qabiha’s time is cut short when Roshan arrives and kills her, much to Basim’s annoyance.
Roshan Wants Basim To Stay True To His Oath
Roshan is then in the spotlight as Basim questions why she would get in his way of discovering the truth.Turns out Roshan knew about the haunting of Basim’s Jinni and about the secret temple located beneath Alamut, but she refused to tell Basim about it. Angered by her betrayal, Basim continues his pursuit and travels back to the Hidden Ones’ base to find they have been attacked by the Order.
After rallying the troops and defeating the enemies, Basim then makes for the temple’s entrance, but he’s stopped by Roshan and challenged to a fight. The leader is clear that she will kill him if he pursues this personal quest, but she is eventually bested by Basim, which is a nice parallel to his training with Roshan at the beginning of the game.
Roshan is technically right for trying to stop Basim, primarily because he swore allegiance to the Hidden Ones, and the oath he took stated that he had to leave his “shadow” behind and abandon the person he was. Roshan is simply being loyal to the creed, while Basim is showing disrespect, and the leader is well aware that Basim will change after discovering his true past, and she doesn’t want to lose him to that.
Basim Discovers His True Identity
After leaving Roshan behind, Basim reunites with Nehal, and the pair enter the temple to find an Isu pod that contains the big twist of Mirage. Nehal is suddenly inside the pod instead of beside Basim, andit’s revealed that Basim and Nehal are the same person. This reveal is being heavily compared to the dynamic between Tyler Durden and the Narrator in David Fincher’s 1999 movie Fight Club, becausewe soon realize that Basim was the one who killed the Caliph back at the palace.
Nehal then activates the ancient disc, which displays the same hologram shown before of two people, and Basim begins to surf a series of memories that leads him to confront the Jinni as a manifestation of his past life, and he decides to accept it. This prompts Basim and Nehal to become one.
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Fans who played Valhalla previously will recognize these Isu pods as the ones connected to Yggdrasil, which is a device that allows the Isu race to upload their consciousness into a system in order for them to be reincarnated into the human race, thussustaining their civilization.
Basim’s Jinni Is Actually Odin
At the end of Valhalla,it’s revealed that Basim is actually the God Loki, therefore, Nehal was the consciousness of Loki that was uploaded to Yggdrasil at the end of the previous game, who was tethered to Basim but unable to fully regenerate within his body until Basim accepted his truth.
Now, it’s time to address who the two individuals are in the disc’s hologram, depicting two figures with one beating the other. The one being tortured is revealed to be Basim, and the other was previously thought to be the Jinni. However, this hologram actually shows Basim’s previous life as Loki, operating similarly to a Memory Seal, when the God was bound to a cave for poisoning the son of Odin, Baldr, as stated inNorse mythology.Therefore, it implies that the figure torturing Basim in the hologram is Odin himself. In Valhalla, the protagonist Eivor is revealed to be the human reincarnation of Odin.
Enkidu Senses Basim Has Changed
The ending of Mirage shows Basim accepting his true origin by becoming one with Nehal and essentially letting the consciousness of Loki merge with his human body in order to complete the reincarnation.
However, after Basim callsthe eagle Enkiduto his side,the bird decides to cut his face instead of landing on his arm, clearly sensing that Basim is no longer the person he was, but instead, the full reincarnation of Loki. This decision is a testament to how intelligent animals are, especially the Hidden Ones’ eagles, and the bird was able to sense the evil now within Basim.
Mirage closes with Basim vowing a revenge mission against those who tortured him in another life and this declaration of vengeance perfectly tees up the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which will lead Basim to track down Odin’s reincarnation in Eivor.
