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Ever since we saw Basim turning his back on Eivor and his brother in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, we knew there was something dubious about his background. As it turns out, Basim is the reincarnation of God of Mischief, and this has a lot to do with Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s story ending. The master Hidden One is a very mysterious personality, and unpacking his character arc requires a detailed overview.
Keep in mind that this feature contains heavy spoilers for AC Mirage‘s story, but if you’ve clicked on this post and saw the title, you’re probably aware of that. Let’s dive in!
What Happens To Basim in Assassin’s Creed Mirage Story
Assassin’s Creed Mirage was initially conceived as a DLC, which was later turned into a full game. It takes place in 861 CE, nearly 12 years earlier than AC Valhalla’s timeline. In the game, we control Basim Ibn Ishaq, a young thief in the city of Anbar. Basim starts like many other protagonists of the main entries. With a big heart, yet too reckless for his own good and that of others.
After some petty thefts in the city, Basim sees the opportunity to impress Roshan, a member of the Assassins or Hidden Ones, as we know them during these years. Despite his boss telling him not to, Basim disobeys him and seeks to help this mysterious order with the help of his best friend, Nehal.
Both sneak into the castle and see masked men giving a task to the Calipha to protect a mysterious chest, the object the Hidden Ones are after, too. After sneaking here and there, Basim reaches the chest, and in an attempt to steal it, he accidentally opens it, revealing an Isu artifact. This device triggers visions for Basim and Nehal, which disorients them for a while, letting the Calipha enter the room and try to attack Basim. Thankfully, Nehal was close and killed the Calipha, saving Basim.
Finding Refuge on Alamut
Some of the pickpocketing missions that Basim had once done were for a group called The Hidden Ones. One of their leaders, Roshan, is the one that Basim encounters, helping him to become a Hidden One himself. Basim has no choice but to accept this new direction, as all his family and friends are now dead due to killing the Calipha at the Winter Palace.
After months of training, Basim finally joins The Hidden Ones and gets tasked to assassinate all the masked Order of The Ancient men. However, every time Basim kills one of these targets, he hears them saying he’s not a true Hidden One. This means that Basim has a different character and motives from a solid Hidden One, thus making him wonder why that is so.
Qabiha and Nehal Explained
During one of his assassination missions, Basim encounters a woman called the Qabiha. She was a wife to Al-Mutawakkil; the Calipha that Nehal killed at the beginning of the Assassin’s Creed Mirage story. However, this woman is not seeking vengeance on Basim as she rather wants to know more about him. When Basim opened the chest in Winter Palace and touched the Isu artifact, holograms were shown. And the son of Qabiha had seen these.
You should know that Qabiha is the head of The Order in Baghdad. The Order of The Ancients is the nemesis to The Hidden Ones, making them the Templars of the old times. Being the head of The Order means Qabiha knows more about the Isu artifacts, thus telling Basim that there’s a machine under the Alamut castle of The Hidden Ones, somewhere he can learn about his truth.
AC Mirage Ending And Basim’s Isu Origin Explained
Before Qabiha is done talking to Basim and leading him the way, Roshan, the master Assassin, kills her. This action is taken in cold blood, and Roshan tells Basim that if he follows what Qabiha told him, she will kill him herself. But this doesn’t stop Basim, as he ignores Roshan’s orders and heads to Alamut with Nehal.
Basim finally reaches the temple beneath the Alamut castle and defeats Roshan before reaching his destination. Ultimately, he finds out that his blood will open the door to the secret place Qabiha mentioned: a place full of Isu tech.
The big reveal is that inside this place, a machine is trapping Nehal. Yes, the character who’s been with Basim all this time. Here is where Basim learns that Nehal is Basim’s other part, or rather, the part that is Loki, the God of Mischief, and the Isu, meaning Nehal never really existed. Basim’s mind created her to justify some of his actions, like killing the Calipha.
Now that you know about the nonexistent nature of Nehal as a human being, it’s time to know more about the Isu holograms. This hologram shows that someone is being imprisoned, and another person is punishing him. It’s time we travel back to Valhalla to learn more about Loki and his role in both games.
Who is Loki and How He is Connected To Basim?
Loki is the God of Mischief in Norse mythology, or at least that’s what the myths say. As we learned from AC Valhalla, these mythological characters are Isu or creations of this ancient race. During the Isu period, Odin and all the other Norse gods extracted their consciousness and put them in a device that holds the human gene pool called Yggdrasil. Loki is not invited to this action as he was kept in prison for poisoning another Isu; still, he manages to break free and upload his DNA to Yggdrasil, too, after taking someone else’s place.
After several years, these Isu or Aesir gods are reborn as humans, hence why Eivor is the reincarnation of Odin, as AC Valhalla explains it. Yet, this doesn’t mean that these humans are controlled by that god. Valhalla explains that these Gods or Isu can only control the host if they want. That’s why Eivor gets along with All-Father Odin during the events of Valhalla. However, Basim gets totally consumed by Loki at the end of Assassin’s Creed Mirage story once he allows Nehal or his Loki part to join Basim’s consciousness.
After that, we see that Basim is talking about his destiny and how he seeks revenge on everyone who tortured him, in this case, Loki, while Enkidu, his eagle, won’t accept his company anymore and scratches his face, showing Basim is no longer with us as Loki has overtaken our protagonist’s mind.
This leads to the events of Valhalla, where Loki, now in Basim’s body, tries to hunt down Odin, also known as Eivor.
So, Who Was The Jinni?
The Jin is a creature that hunted Basim all his life before becoming whole with Loki. This creature is, in fact, a nightmare, which resembles all the pain and torture he went through in his past life as Loki. By the end of AC Mirage’s story, Basim confronts the Jinni and learns more about his past life. Many speculate the Jinni was Odin who tortured Loki during his Isu time. Hopefully, Ubisoft will tie some of these loose ends in the upcoming games because, as many know, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Basim.
