#valhalla ask

[valhallakonbi]

always love seeing Hanekawa :3

kitty from memory

[thou-babbling-brook]

I ranked ac characters based on how well I think they can line dance

[valhallavalgrace]

How have your interactions with your floormates been? Do any of them seem particularly friendly?

I think this might be your guy to talk to, Leo, just a hunch...

prev ask

[bansheeoftheforest]

*knocks on the door*

Hello? Is anyone here?

Hi Banshee! I was wondering if you’d be willing to write a few hcs for Hytham? Among all the voices echoing through Tumblr, yours speaks of him with the most depth. And your Valhalla and Mirage storytelling? It’s magic; the kind that makes people stay a little longer just to hear one more tale! ✨

*sets down a small bundle*

I brought a few snacks, enough to share with anyone else who might be gathering around! We’ll be sitting here quietly, happily listening —ready for whatever you choose to share!

AAAAAA HI!!!!!! First of all you have no idea how happy this made me, I'm so glad you think so highly of my stories and storytelling!!! 😭

I will be so happy to share my hcs!!! Because I have an rp that involves Hytham with a friend, I have... Well... A LOT of personal, niche hcs and some more general ones I've seen around Tumblr. I'm also just going to ramble up as many as I can because I am a yapper at heart and I like throwing things at walls and hope that they stick 🫡 All of this is in absolutely no particular order and regarding no particular Hytham pairing as well! And it ended up. Long. Hence a read-more link!

He 100% was raised by a single mother and I don't think he either knew much about or liked his father at all. Solely based on the fact that he is orphaned in Mirage and he only mentions his mother, not "family" or "parents". My very personal hc here is that his father passed away before he was born, so it was always just him and his mother. Lately I also hc his mother's death as being directly related to the Order, hence why she was avenged by a Hidden One and why Hytham is so strongly passionate in his hate to the Order.

(We never get to know if Hytham actually has a 'last name' or second name at at all, he is always just Hytham, but I'd like to think he went against tradition and chose a matronymic instead of patronymic. It's not like he even still exists according to the Caliphate, since he joined the hidden ones, so no one can really stop him.)

Having been raised by a single mother could also be (one of) the reasons Hytham attaches so much to Basim! I'm thinking mostly in the sense of the father/son bond that is more or less the canon version, like that boy is probably desperate for fatherly approval he has never experienced before and he certainly has been around Basim more than he has been around Rayhan, even if Rayhan is his "true" mentor.

Anyways. Other hcs! He is a polyglot. He knows a LOT of languages for someone that never really had a formal or expensive education, like Syriac would be his mother tongue (since he canonically is from Syria), then when he ended up in Baghdad he learned the more commonly used older Arabic, when he was formally introduced into the Hidden Ones he learned Persian since Alamut is in what today is Iran, in his later teens when he and Basim were in Constantinople he learned the older Turkish or equivalent of the byzantine empire/the region they stayed in. Then he of course learned Norse and Old English when staying with the Norsemen in England. I also fully accept the hc that he is a big fanboy of the Greek Myths so I think he taught himself a bit of Greek as well.

The injury he gets after the fight with Kjotve is so vague but I personally think most of his problems come from broken ribs and at least one broken leg that never managed to get set correctly afterwards. He limps quite a lot (more or less severely depending on the day) and he always have to be careful with his torso movements to not make rib fragments poke into his lungs. There is probably some nerve problems there too with how mangled he was. Shakey hands? Occasional tremors? Fatigue and muscle tension? Yes pls. He probably handles it all quite well but better during the warmer months, all of this + his general inexperience with the cold just makes it all miserable.

On that topic: SEASONAL DEPRESSION! England being rainy and miserable and the winters being cold and dark and damp and he feels like he never sees sunlight for MONTHS. And all he can do is still light some candles and strain his eyes against the light as he tries to work, being relieved when Yule passes and the days grow longer and the snow begins to melt. Not to even mention how vitamin-c deficient he must be.

On the contrast I bet he loves the English/Northern spring and summer. It isn't as warm as back home (for better and worse) but everything would be lush and green and vibrant and full of LIFE and if that doesn't just sum up everything he loves with the world... Assuming he doesn't have any allergies, that is.

When he leaves Ravensthorpe after Basim's 'death', he promises Tove he will grow his hair out so she can braid it when he returns (game canon be dammed). She makes special metal beads to thread the braids through too, coz this promise is the 1 promise he gives them that he will not be gone for good.

What can I say, the people of Ravensthorpe loves him. Be it as a friend or in a "poor dear has been inside all day, does he even eat dinner? He looks so sickly and skinny, should we give him some soup? What if he doesn't survive the winter? :("

Also can we all agree he mourns Basim much more severely than the game makes him out to? Like regardless of how one views their relationship, Hytham and Basim were each other's closes person, so of course he would mourn his mentor. Even if that mourning just seems like apathy and throwing himself back to his routine and his work to forget and not think about Basim dying mad and alone somewhere in the mountains of Norway.

Also. Hytham seemingly watched his mother's death (hence why he knows she was avenged). It would not be far off to say that Basim's death reminded him of that, in the way where he was just helpless and could do nothing but prevent the closest person he had from disappearing from him.

Hytham and Eivor are good friends. But imagine trying to act like everything is normal when your friend just told you they were forced to murder your closest friend/mentor/parent in cold blood. I personally think Hytham avoided Eivor for a while, not because he blamed him or thought he did the wrong thing, but because he kept flinching and shut down when Eivor was around.

... Anyways, some better hcs! If he became a father he would be a girl dad.

I also have never played the Wrath of the Druids DLC but despite that being decidedly not canon, I have decided he and Azar are old friends.

I've seen this hc a few times but I do find it funny to imagine Hytham having beef with Octavian regarding theories and translations of various greco-roman myths. Like Octavian is the one (1) person that is not an enemy of any kind that he just actively does not like.

A few people in the settlement wants to bell Hytham like a cat because he keeps (unintentionally) scaring them because his footsteps and he in general are very quiet.

Hytham sleeps curled up. I only thought of that hc bc his bed in the bureau seems quiet small in comparison to himself.

Reda and Hytham at least once has a one-sided 'pointing-spiderman-meme' moment when Hytham hears Reda tell the (other) settlement children about the story of Aya and Bayek and Hytham obviously recognises it.

I think Hytham in general (the Valhalla version of him, at least) is quite a mellow and generally content or happy person. In Mirage he has the teeniest bit of an attitude and, while i have not read The Golden City, the wiki summary makes me believe he had some teenage attitude. I think he can still be quite sassy if he wants to, but I also think he is just content with what he has and the situation he is in, in a way he wasn't really in Mirage and TGC. In Valhalla it is not like he is stuck on towers or nearly murdered every other day, after all.

Ooooh on the topic of murder attempts. Scars? I would assume it is a TGC canon scar bc many fics mention he has a large scar on his inner thigh and honestly, hell yeah. I bet he like many Hidden Ones have quite a lot of scars and knicks on his body and hands, especially from when he was beginning to train with actual metal weapons early on.

I also find it fascinating that Hytham doesn't hide his amputated finger or have a protective cover over it like Basim does, I suppose this could be that he doesn't feel any need to hide it, that the scar is very well-healed (in part because he kept having it out in the open, and therefore hardened/didn't become as sensitive), or perhaps that he has a bit of like. Texture issues? Like I wouldn't want to walk around with a single-fingered glove all day either.

I think Basim has given him at least a handful scars from their many many fights/sparring matches/training sessions. No hard feelings, of course, I just don't think Basim was as easy-going on Hytham as Roshan was on him in terms of actually fighting one's own student. Assuming one ignores the end of Mirage, that is.

Cant believe it's been around 1.3k words and I haven't mentioned Hytham being muslim yet. Anyways. In my mind he is muslim. That or syrian orthodox-christian, but I generally go for muslim. Either way he is religious and he takes his faith very seriously. Another hc I've seen before is that he told Eivor about the practice of Ramadan and Eivor entirely misunderstood and thought Hytham was actually not eating at all for 30 days.

I'm not at all well-versed in the more 'modern' games from more recent time periods but Bayek is religious so I will say that it is ok that Hytham is too, even if the modern assassins frown upon religion.

I feel like I sadly cannot say a lot about Hytham's personality because all my thoughts on it are vague and change from fic to fic. He is a lil jokester, he is passionate, idealistic, optimistic, and I think he is sassy and can have an attitude at times. Certainly more so pre-kjotve than afterwards, but I cannot get over his damn sass when Basim teaches Eivor to wield a hidden blade. He is a softie with dry humour, has a soft spot for animals and kids, and throws sarcastic comments out now and then that have the witnesses be absolutely bewildered because they had not expected for HIM of all people to say something like that. Occasionally he feels bad for sayings things like that, sometimes he feels it is entirely deserved.

This is long. My brain is fried. I cannot distinguish what is a hc and just a statement anymore /d

Hytham sees himself as a weapon and after Kjotve he feels kinda useless. What is a dented sword? A broken arrow? A bow without string? What is he if not a weapon? What is he if not a blade to which justice can be served? He becomes a shield on a wall and tries to find another purpose and tries to tell himself that he is okay with that because he is still alive.

I have so many thoughts regarding Hytham's injuries and how he coped with what he did, most of which i put in the Hytham of Ravensthorpe fic, although it wasn't canon-compliant. At some point I just think he has been through so much that he isn't continuing full force by sheer willpower, as he is choosing to pick up the pieces of himself and try to mend the metaphorically broken pot. He is not living as much as he is trying to work with what he has and make something worth continuing for.

I think that is also another part to why he kind of mellows out after Kjotve. In a way he learned his lesson with his own impulses and hubris, in another way he is fatigued, and in another he is just choosing to try to be better and try to be kinder, gentler, more thoughtful.

According to a TGC review/summary Hytham states he'd like to be a father one day and I think that if he never settled and actually got a child, training future generations of Hidden Ones sooths that urge, so to speak. Especially when he is older and the age gap between him and his students are larger, rather than when he and his first four students are all around the same age.

If an 11 year old came up to him and told him their parents were dead and they wanted to be a Hidden One he could NOT say no even if he reasonably knows that he should. RIP to Basim and RIP to Roshan the curse of the student wanting to be the opposite of their mentor continues.

And on my last hc of this list that took me approximately 3 hours to write. Hytham's fave fruits is citrus fruits and pomegranates. Why? No idea, but my brain says so 🫡

Is any of these hcs something you were actually looking for? No idea! I will happily elaborate on them tho, as I said, I'm a yapper at heart 💃

[raepritewrites]

maybe it's my freaky good memory for my special interests, maybe i just dont have anything better to think about, or maybe its that ive been in this fandom for too long and i am now a Wisen Elder but it seems like i come across a lot of posts or questions from demigods who dont know lore thats been known for a long while and im genuinely curious

No judgment if you haven't, and hey im not here to gatekeep. I am always down to gush about this series so if you have questions hit up my dms and ill answer

[daisydood]

why does no one talk about arthur grieving hosea. the whiplash from hoseas death to guarma to tuberculosis its like everyone forgot omusdgfg arthur was so miserable im sobbing

[aaronsinferno]

Oh, Tommy Kinard, I’d challenge the old gods in your name. *draws sword and kneels*

[goopus]

did something particular happen to ingen that makes her look the way she is??

Well considering the fact that she isn’t the most… dignified warrior, she actually has a lot of determination. You can even say she has potential. However, This lead to the problem of her not knowing when to stop.

Stubbornness and anger isn’t really uncommon for the Valkyries I’m sure XD

Anyways, she started a fight she could not win. Normally ripping the wings off or hacking off a head would be quick work but she refused lol

[teecupangel]

We got to see Evor find a kind of peace or alliance with Havi. Do you ever think about how, after killing Juno, there is no way in hell Elijah will have that. That boy is going to be fighting Aita tooth and nail for the rest of his life and I don't see Aita making it easy for him. In fact, I see him as the kind of person willing to destroy everything as long as it takes his wife's killer down with him.

My personal headcanon it that Elijah’s genetic lineage served to amplify his resistance to losing his body to Aita’s memories.

Like, Valhalla, Mirage and Aita’s Sages showed the different fates a Sage can have.

They can buckle under pressure and go half mad like Valka’s mother.

Completely destroy their own psyche (although there were external forces who pushed that along) like Sigurd.

Or have their personality be rewritten like Basim.

Eivor had 2 versions of this.

The base game showed Eivor locking Odin out and this is something we’ve seen before with an Aita Sage Jacques de Molay who used his visions of Aita’s past to write his codex and suggest a more financial approach to world domination. He made no plans to find Juno or have any manic glee like Roberts or John Standish.

The final episode (or whatever that’s called) has the whole ‘inner peace’ thing and I headcanon that they grew to find peace (or atleast a truce) because Eivor left the only place they called home and was lonely. Whether Odin was truly trying to be kind or this was a ploy to get Eivor to lower their guard for him to take over is up in the air.

Going back to Elijah, my personal headcanon is that Aita wasn’t able to take a hold of Elijah’s mind because of both his genetic lineage and his willpower.

His will to remain human is further amplified by his hatred for Juno who, in many ways, caused the death of his mother to get him (it was Abstergo, sure, but many of the Templars were Juno’s pawns from the beginning).

Elijah never had an actual talk with Aita like Eivor. In some ways, he probably had a similar experience to Basim where Loki's memories appeared like a djinn BUT not have a similar experience to Basim where Loki took the form of Nehal.

To Elijah though, Aita has long been appearing like the boogeyman under his bed.

He said it so himself in the wiki

"What if your brain was already somehow different? What if you'd already learned to ignore and control voices, visions, in your head? Well then, maybe you could push him [Aita] down, just enough to access the things that he knows."

So we can say that Elijah is more of a case like Jacques de Molay who was able to keep Aita at bay, using his memories for his own benefit.

That doesn’t mean that Aita can’t try to take control after Juno’s death though.

Who knows, maybe the reason why we’ve never heard about Elijah since he faked his own death was because he’s off battling Aita internally.

It's gonna be a tough task though considering Elijah just showed that he's both stubborn and merciless.

(and not because Ubisoft is deliberately ignoring him when there have been many situations where Elijah could have been given a major role in the modern day story)

[beigetiger]

ur so big brained abt val and skulduggery’s dynamic swapping roles. and maybe this is a reach but ‘valkyrie’ coming from warrior women who literally guide those killed in war to heaven…hmm idk

True! Both Skulduggery's and Valkyrie's names have so many layers to them it drives me INSANE, every time I think I've thought of everything I realize something different.

Something also to be said about the fact that Valhalla is just. Fighting for fun. There could not be more accurate names for these two.

[valhallakonbi]

always requesting Hanekura

[valhallavalgrace]

Have you used your powers at all since getting to Hotel Valhalla?

Leo hasn't used his powers once in battle and it's probably costed him a couple losses. (The dreams are likely both from the gods and also from genuine demigod PTSD.)

I've posted a flashforward in-universe valgrace fanart about this arc here... he'll be happy again one day I'm sorry

prev ask

[ilikedetectives]

Asking the important questions here - are my eyes deceiving me or does Eivor wear a subtle, slightly smudged grey eyeliner? Or is it brown? I rarely wear makeup, but considering how cool she looks... Hmm. Might give it a try. Something similar going on with Aloy too. Thoughts?

Hi anon, for Eivor I don't think she wears bottom eyeliner (maybe with certain face warpaint or tattoo variants?), there may be some on top but it's hard to tell since I love giving her white eyelashes (which I always focus on asdasdsa). She does wear light eyeshadow though I notice.

In this one (my fav face tattoo, Hjarta) she def wears black eyeliner

For Aloy I think it's the same as well: depending on the warpaint/makeup variant you choose, like these don't have eyeliners (capture on HFW PS5 version)

And this is the default (captured on HFW PC version max settings). Looks like there's a tiny bit on the outer corner of her eye on the bottom and definitely eyeliner on top.

This shot is from (PS5)

Feel free to try whatever makeup you feel comfortable and happy with, it's for yourself and your personal expressions ^.^

[artistofolympus]

Give me ur riordanverse characters/oc's to draw

this includes camp half -blood, camp jupiter, hotel valhalla and the Kane chronicles

tag me or send to my asks box

[hella-handsome]

That's a bread knife

[project-zorthania]

so what do you think are hytham and basims ages?

I hope you'll forgive the amount of snark and sass that I'm about to use to answer your question anon, because if I had the time and energy to spend making an hour long video essay to reply to this, I would.

You’d think tying in all your games around real historical events would mean creating a consistent timeline for your characters, but no! Ubisoft’s canonical timeline continues to be an absolute disaster, which makes this ask both a blessing and a curse as I’m left with a plethora of information to source for my answer.

I want this to make sense for everyone reading along so bear with me, I’ll try my best to keep this as short and sweet as possible.

A fair warning that this post will be riddled with spoilers for the following:

AC Valhalla

AC Mirage

The Golden City

Sword of the White Horse

Giermund's Saga.

Now without further ado, let’s break it down.

By the time we first see them in Valhalla, I estimate Basim to be in his late 30s and Hytham to be in his early 30s with no bigger than a 6 year age gap between them.

Here is what we know.

AC Valhalla starts with Sigurd meeting Basim and Hytham in Constantinople just a few months prior to their long trek up to Norway together in 872 CE.

We also know that the book 'The Golden City' takes place in 867 CE, during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Basil I in Constantinople. That’s exactly 5 years before the events of Valhalla.

And exactly 6 years before the start of 'The Golden City' was the era of extreme instability in Baghdad after the assassination of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil in 861 CE.

Here’s a visual of the timeline surrounding these events:

The following clip is from the official Ubisoft Developer Trailer Breakdown, the rest of the video is available to watch on youtube here.

According to the Narrative Director at Ubisoft Bordeaux, Mirage takes place 20 years before Valhalla, which...

*confused whale noises*

One could argue that Sarah Beaulieu meant 20 years before Basim’s betrayal in Norway, which takes place in 877 CE, (that’s still only 16 years) but if all of this were true, then the entire timeline for 'The Golden City' starts to get very messy.

If you haven't already read the novel, the story follows Basim and Hytham and their mutual struggle with fatherhood. The author, Jaleigh Johnson, seamlessly manages to tie in the AC universe with the reign of Emperor Basil and the very real assassination attempts on his child, Leo. It is the origin story to their inseparable companionship and elaborates on how Hytham develops a striking degree of loyalty and trust towards his partner/mentor.

There are a couple instances within the book that allude to Hytham's age.

The Golden City - Chapter 6: Hytham's first encounter with Justin, Leo's former personal guard.

The Golden City - Chapter 15: Justin defines his relationship with Leo.

The Golden City - Chapter 25: Basim's call-out.

A couple things to note here:

Hytham considers Justin, a man in his early 20s, young.

Justin considers Leo, a very small child no older than 10, a little brother.

Hytham is old enough to consider this same child his son.

If Hytham considers a man in his early 20s young, and said 20 year old considers a child his little brother, what on earth does that make Hytham? The book is telling us that Hytham must be between his mid to late 20s in order to think this way. His struggle with his paternal instincts and numerous conversations regarding the topic with Basim are a testament to that.

And if you're still not convinced:

Hytham is explicitly telling us that they're not far apart in age. This isn't speculation, he's telling us that he knows just how old Basim is. Granted, he doesn't know that Basim has merged with an Isu reincarnation, but right here, standing before all of us, Basim is still Basim residing in a human body that has lived through very human years.

Now if we go back to Mirage's canon of their ages and compare what we know from the book (and bear in mind, the book was released prior to the release of Mirage with intention to setup for it, so this really should've been something deeply considered by Ubisoft before Mirage released)

My god, it's like Ubisoft didn't even TRY.

Muhammad Ibn Tahir even makes a passing comment about Basim looking to be in his 20s. Granted, the man's definitely guessing here, but he's likely not far off given that the game starts with Basim being 17. If we go by what Muhammad says, this tells us that 3 years has passed since Basim killed Al-Mutawakkil in Anbar at the start of the game.

This is the same 20 year old bearded Basim that we see meet Hytham atop a minaret in Karkh (approximately... we really have no idea what the timeline of events are within Mirage, which is another thing that irks me to no end).

I'm reluctant to entertain the idea that Hytham is any younger than 14 here because 'The Golden City' is dependent on portraying both Basim and Hytham as older men with relatively similar ages, and since the novel relies heavily on historical events, that leaves us with little to no wiggle room in moving the story's timeline around.

It must take place during the reign of Emperor Basil between the years of 867 to 886, and they're already in Norway by 872.

I want to honor the author’s dedication and research into making a cohesive timeline between all the main line games and their novel, especially when its story expands on the characters in question.

Because if we even attempt to go by Mirage's canon, we're going to run into all sorts of problems trying to make sense of a 22 year old Basim running around Constantinople with his acolyte, who is apparently... also a child.

The part that really breaks my heart? That scene between them atop the minaret is such a touching moment. I was beyond conflicted when I finally happened upon Hytham in Mirage, and now I'm being forced to contend with its canonimity :/

Hilariously, if Ubisoft truly intended for Basim to be 20 years older in Valhalla, it only further solidifies that they wanted to canonize an older Basim in his late 30s. The bad math could've been an oversight... even if it is a big one.

Let's delve into Valhalla next.

Thanks to Eivor's AC Rebellion bio, we know that her age ranges between 25-30 years old throughout Valhalla. This is further supported by Kjotve's comment about 17-18 winter's passing since the death of her parents near the beginning of the game, and further cemented when she's talking to Basim by the campfire, stating that she lost her parents at the tender age of 9.

This is important to note when observing the way Basim interacts with Eivor throughout the story, especially since Mirage's canon insists that they are only 2-3 years apart.

Early in the game Eivor teases Basim about jumping the gun to find a new apprentice to tutor, and his response is to lend her guidance.

In Cent, when completing the quest 'The Instrument of the Ancient's, a dialogue triggers when Eivor and Basim are on their way to infiltrate Canterbury's Cathedral to rescue Sigurd:

This is not how friends talk to each other in their late 20s. This is a man with years of experience, eager to impart his knowledge to one much younger. He's not using a condescending tone here, he genuinely believes he can guide her.

Also, have you SEEN the man?

Does that look like a 30 year old to you?

Better yet, have you seen Hytham?

Because this man looks like he's in his 30s, but according to Mirage he's supposed to be barely 20 here?

I'm sorry, I know this sounds like I'm harping on Mirage a lot, but you have to understand that all this frustration comes from a place of deep affection for a franchise I practically grew up with. Part of what makes Assassin's Creed so incredible is it's ability to immerse a player in a historical setting and create impactful stories within those settings, but so much of that has been lost overtime due to corporate greed, it's become disheartening.

Why on earth would Ubisoft create such an expansive and incredible recreation of 9th century Baghdad only to spend little to no effort on it's story? So little effort in fact, that they couldn't even tie in the story with their main line series properly. Imagine having a team of historians and architects dedicated to bringing an accurate depiction of old Arab/Persian/Levantine culture to life, only to drown it out with a lukewarm story and poorly constructed timelines?

The point I'm trying to make is that I'm being forced to pick and choose my canons because of inconsistency's like this. Will the canons I choose to abide by for the sake of world-building be the same as everyone else's? No! And I don't expect it to either. This is my opinion based on the research I conducted, and this is how I'm choosing to make sense of everything to provide myself with an ounce of sanity when creating fanworks.

Which is also the reason why I haven't included 'Giermund's Saga' or 'Sword of the White Horse' in this response, as I personally found their depictions of Hytham and some supporting characters a little ooc for my taste.

And before I get into why, I want to make a disclaimer that my intent in dissecting the stories told in these novels isn’t to undermine the work that the author has poured into these works. These writers have my utmost respect and admiration for dedicating so much time and effort in expanding the AC universe and bringing to life their own interpretations of these characters, and I feel it’s important to acknowledge that my opinions here are my own and not a reflection of the entire fanbase. This is not an invitation to dunk on any of the works that they’ve so clearly poured their passion into. I only mean to dissect it for the sake of analysis and I want to be honest for the sake of this ask.

Here's an excerpt from Giermund's Saga as Giermund meets Hytham for the first time.

Giermund observes that Hytham looks to be in his 20s. This observation is given from the perspective of an outsider. He is an unreliable narrator guessing the age of a man he has just met. I could easily do the same thing- guess the age of a stranger I see down the street and for all I know, I could be woefully wrong.

Additionally, Hytham appears to have pierced ears. Do I have a thing against pierced ears? Absolutely not 😂 and I'd be over the moon to see fanart of this, but has Hytham ever been depicted with them in Valhalla before? No! What an odd addition that contributes nothing to his character for this brief appearance.

In Sword of the White Horse, Hytham is described to having brown eyes:

Which again, I don't have a single problem with brown eyes, it's just not what canon Valhalla has depicted him with.

There's also mention of him sustaining a lasting leg injury from his assault on Kjotve. You know... the one where he's swatted away like a fly on the wall. This is supposedly the same injury that confined him to his bureau for the entirety of Valhalla, but it couldn't be farther from the truth because in actuality he sustained a punctured lung, likely from a cracked rib that never properly healed. This change almost feels like it's understating the severity of his inflicted injuries. A punctured lung would've been infinitely harder to tend to than a leg that long ago, especially since the fall of Rome in the 5th century ended the advancement of surgical knowledge in Europe (not that it was that advanced at the time to begin with).

However, the biggest deal breaker for me is Hytham and Eivor's reluctance to return an artifact belonging to it's indigenous ancestors.

The premise of the book revolves around the retrieval of a sacred weapon to the protagonists people, Excalibur. But Eivor's reluctance to do so is in direct conflict with her character in Vinland, as she quite literally comes across an apple of Eden and returns it to the indigenous population of the land without a second thought. Given Hytham's overall generous nature, and the fact that he's played an advisory role within Ravensthorpe for some time now, it would make just as much sense for him to respond similarly and give back to the people what is rightfully theirs.

Furthermore, neither of these novels follow historical events with impact to the Valhalla story line. With a bit of research, I was able to find that Giermund was a real viking but very little else is known about him.

I cannot reiterate enough that these works are fantastic and should be enjoyed and appreciated in their own breath, but for the sake of breaking down canons and making sense of their ages, I'm opting to keep them out of timeline discussions, along with any other material with depictions of Hytham and Basim that have little to no impact on their speculated ages.

With all of that out of the way, here's a side by side comparison of the timeline Mirage has setup vs what I'm proposing based on all the canon information we've dissected.

I sincerely think that the mess of Mirage's timeline could've easily been solved if Ubisoft had simply aged the boys up a little.

As much as I adore tiny Hytham being shown how to do a leap of faith, I would've equally settled for Basim being introduced to Hytham training under Rayhan in Alamut as a young man instead.

There's even a cleverly placed letter making mention of Norse warriors in Constantinople that can be found in Fuladh's office just beside Enkidu's perch.

A subtle nod to the plot of 'The Golden City' soon to come:

Which means that the writers fully intended to tie Mirage in with 'The Golden City,' making it impossible to ignore.

I will leave you here before I ramble any further. I promise I'm not always this exasperated with my replies _(: 」 ∠)_

I sincerely hope this wasn't too convoluted to follow. Please do with this information what you will anon, but this is how I've chosen to make sense of everything and I hope you can track my logic.

To those of you who managed to get this far, I send you all my love and many kisses. Thank you for reading, and please do feel free to send me any other questions you may have!

I'll try my best to keep my response shorter than this one ;)

PS: I am aware that Hytham's wiki states that he was born in the 850s, but this wiki entry infuriates me to no end because there is NO SOURCE. Never has Hytham's birthday been explicitly stated anywhere, and someone just decided to randomly give him one. Please be VIGILANT in your research when you look up stuff about your favourite blorbos, as wikipedia can be edited by literally anyone.

k, end rant, thank you for coming to my ted talk. That's all i wanted to add 😂