The 10 Most Historically Accurate Characters In Assassin's Creed

The Most Historically Accurate Characters in Assassin’s Creed Games

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at characters where Ubisoft didn’t need to bend the truth to make them exciting.

Queen Victoria

“Assassin’s Creed Syndicate” (2015)

She only appears in “Syndicate” very briefly, in the final sequence and during the post-game missions, but being Her Majesty Queen Victoria, she was very memorable, nonetheless. In 1868, when the game is set, she was forty-nine, wearing the black mourning clothes she wore for the rest of her life after Prince Albert’s death in 1861. She’s perhaps more amenable than you’d expect, offering Evie Frye some cake and then enlisting both twins to help her on some clandestine missions to save parliament. She also knights both Fryes and Henry Green, only to be asked by Evie to abandon the ruthless colonialism of the British Empire at the end.

Blackbeard

“Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag” (2013)

It’s always difficult to ascertain any facts about the Golden Age of Piracy. Nearly all of what we know about these famed figures comes from the book “A General History of the Pyrates”; it was written anonymously, but it’s widely believed to have been written by Daniel Defoe – though, nobody knows for sure. “Black Flag” drew considerably from this book and what other sources are available and paints one of the most remarkably accurate pictures of its pirates, including the most famous, Blackbeard. In real life, his flag DID look like a skeleton stabbing hearts with a spear, he DID light his beard on fire, and he WAS killed in a dramatic naval battle off the coast of North Carolina.

King Louis XVI

“Assassin’s Creed Unity” (2014)

Another monarch, Louis XVI is barely in “Unity” at all – but “Unity” takes more liberties with its historical figures than most of the games, so by appearing in only one scene, they managed to avoid disputing anything too seriously. Arno’s trying to assassinate Germain at Louis’s execution, which doesn’t go well but we do get to see the execution play out. From what we know of the event, the King did make that exact speech as he approached the guillotine, attesting to his innocence. In a rare case for “Unity”, they also gave his speech entirely in French, as it was originally delivered, instead of translating it into English and having it read by a Canadian voice actor trying to do a British accent.

Alfred the Great

“Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” (2020)

One of England’s most popular kings, Alfred is renowned for freeing London from Viking rule and reforming many parts of English life, including bringing sweeping changes to education and literacy. It was under his direction that important books were translated into English instead of Latin, meaning that ordinary people could read them. In “Valhalla”, while Alfred has inherited control of the Order, he despises it and uses Eivor to eradicate its presence in England. When they meet for the final time, it’s in Athelney, where Alfred really did hide while planning his successful defeat of the Great Heathen Army in 878. He definitely wasn’t commanding an ancient conspiracy in real life, but the game effectively conveys his intelligence and mind for strategy.

Benjamin Franklin

“Assassin’s Creed III” (2012) & “Assassin’s Creed Rogue” (2014)

While we’re sure that in real life, Ben Franklin wasn’t constantly losing the pages of his almanacs and begging strangers in the street to chase them for him, other parts of his character are true to life. One of the most bizarre historically accurate moments is when Franklin tells Haytham Kenway about his treatise on the benefits of taking an older woman to bed, which really does exist. It’s called “Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress” and began as a letter but was eventually published in collections of Franklin’s correspondence and controversially censored in nineteenth century America. He actually wrote many NSFW essays, including a comedic one about farting called “Fart Proudly”.

Julius Caesar

“Assassin’s Creed Origins” (2017)

Like Alfred the Great, we’re sure that in real life, Caesar wasn’t being manipulated behind-the-scenes by an ancient, secret society obsessed with opening a magical door. But the likeness in-game is very good according to busts and sculptures of Caesar from the time, as is his eventual assassination at the hands of Rome’s senators. Though he was a great military leader who formed a key alliance with Cleopatra, he was eventually ousted and killed on the Ides of March. The senators – led by Brutus and Cassius – feared that Ceasar would go even more power-mad after being named “dictator for life”, so they killed him.

Bartholomew Roberts

“Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag” (2013)

Another pirate, Bartholomew Roberts is also represented relatively accurately. Better known today as Black Bart, Ubisoft resisted the urge to call him this in-game, as it would have been an anachronism since he was never called that in his lifetime. Roberts was one of the most successful pirates in history, taking 400 ships, and creating the pirate code. In “Black Flag”, he dies at Edward’s hand after being pursued in a ship chase, which is also accurate. And he did request to be buried at sea. In the game this is so the Templars can’t use his body for research since he’s a Sage, but it did happen in reality, too, and his body has never been found.

Leonardo da Vinci

“Assassin’s Creed II” (2009) & “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood” (2010)

Ezio meets Leonardo early in “Assassin’s Creed II”, as his mother is buying some of Leonardo’s paintings. Already, he’s becoming renowned as a Renaissance artist and thinker in Florence, but this culminates in the following game, when he’s enlisted by Cesare Borgia to build war machines. It IS true that da Vinci worked for Cesare as his military architect, but not that he was forced to do this; by all accounts, da Vinci did this willingly. The machines you destroy in “Brotherhood” – like the tank and flying machine – were never functional in real life, but they ARE based on real designs da Vinci made during his lifetime.

Socrates

“Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” (2018)

Was Socrates as annoying in real life as he is in “Odyssey”? Yes, actually! He’s a fun but infuriating friend of Kassandra and/or Alexios, frequently showing up to challenge people to think a little more about why they do the things they do. There’s no right answer to many of the questions he poses, which can make him an acquired taste, but he becomes an old friend A lot of what we see is reconstructed, though, because almost nothing of what we know about Socrates comes from him directly, but from his students writing about things he said and did – in philosophy, this is known as the “Socratic problem”. “Odyssey” is still as accurate as it can be here, though.

Charles Dickens

“Assassin’s Creed Syndicate” (2015)

Dickens is nearing the end of his life when Evie and Jacob Frye meet him but was still an active participant in the famous Ghost Club, of which he was also a founding member. The Ghost Club’s members were notable skeptics, who wanted to prove to the gullible, Victorian public that the psychics and spiritualists claiming to commune with the dead were frauds. In “Syndicate”, Dickens enlists the Frye twins in investigating various instances of alleged hauntings, some of which are suggested to be genuinely supernatural. He was so instrumental in the Ghost Club that, following his death, it was ultimately dissolved – though it has since returned.

Let us know in the comments which character you enjoyed spending time with the most!