For those who have been following up on all the "rumors" and "leaks" before Assassin's Creed Valhalla's reveal, there's been one lingering question since the Viking Era was brought into the equation. Namely, because of its spots in the Assassin's Creed timeline, would or even could it have Assassins and Templars?
Perhaps if Assassin's Creed Odyssey didn't mostly pull out of this conflict, removing the Hidden Blade(returning in Valhalla) alongside it, this wouldn't have been as big of a question. Templars don't officially exist for another hundred years, nor was the Brotherhood officially established by the Viking Era. So much like Origins and Odyssey (to a lesser extent), Assassin's Creed Valhalla will feature Proto-Assassins and Templars, precursor organizations of such.
As confirmed in a recent interview with creative director Ashraf Ismail by Game Informer, Assassin's Creed Valhalla will see the two proto-factions of Assassin's Creed Origins return. Players will be meeting pseudo-Assassins, who are better known as Hidden Ones, and pseudo-Templars, who still operate under the Order of the Ancients. This would mean that this facet of ideology, these particular factions, have lasted for a 1000 or so years before becoming legitimate Assassins and Templars in the next century or so.
It seems Eivor's journey doesn't begin as that of an Assassin, but Eivor will be able to align with them and work together. Ismail doesn't go much further, citing the potential for spoiler territory, but offers one final comment on the mantra of Assassin's Creed Valhalla:
In the journey of Eivor, yes, we run across Assassins and Templars (or Hidden Ones and Order of Ancients in this time period). They are part of the journey. They are an important part of the journey. At a certain point, Eivor’s personal motivations will align with some Assassin characters that we meet. So there will be some alignment there and they will work together in a certain fashion. Now we’re starting to get close to spoiler territory, but players can expect a really cool link. Again, I don’t want to get into what systems or features or narrative is linked to that just yet. But our mantra when we started this game was the Viking experience within the Assassin’s Creed world and both of those elements carry a lot of weight and are crucial to one another.
It's hard to take apart what that means exactly, but at the very least, fans know when they'll find out. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is now set to drop at the end of the year for current and next-gen consoles. Hopefully, more about the Assassin-Templar Conflict during the Viking Era is revealed by then.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla releases Holiday 2020 for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: Game Informer