If there’s one thing Ubisoft still knows after all this time making Assassin’s Creed games, it’s their history. They’ve always excelled at creating a sense of historical place, and the recent Assassin’s Creed Mirage is no exception—but the game, unfortunately, doesn’t spend much time on establishing when its stunning recreation of Baghdad is pulled from.
Like many Assassin’s Creed games, the time period it’s set in is a crucial part of the story, and not knowing when Mirage takes place can hamper your understanding of the plot’s historical context and even a few main characters within that plot. Fortunately, this time around, the answer is simple, as is the period of conflict that provides the backdrop for Basim’s story.
When is Assassin’s Creed Mirage set?
The bulk of Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s story takes place in the year 861 AD. This aligns it perfectly with the real-life historical period known as the Anarchy at Samarra, which stretched from 861 to 870 and saw Baghdad’s Abbasid Caliphate undergo unprecedented turmoil. Protagonist Basim is actually directly involved in the murder of the real historical figure and tenth Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh in the game’s prologue, which set off the Anarchy both in the game and in real life.
It was a tumultuous time for the Caliphate, with warring military groups installing a long line of rapidly deposed puppet Caliphs, making it a perfect setting for a typical Assassin’s Creed story of shadowy masterminds behind the scenes, courtly intrigue, and blades in the dark. Every Assassin’s Creed game loosely correlates to a real historical conflict, so it’s nice to see Ubisoft keeping up the tradition with Mirage.
This also places Mirage pretty early in the overall Assassin’s Creed timeline. If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which is set in 878 AD, you already know that Mirage sets up Basim’s eventual involvement in that game’s plot. The game also takes heavy cues from the first Assassin’s Creed, which is set centuries later in 1191, and even establishes many of the traditions that Altair would eventually follow in his quest for redemption. The only games Mirage takes place after are Odyssey and Origins, both of which are set centuries beforehand, in 431 and 48 BC, respectively.
Mirage takes place in the midst of one of the most turbulent times of one of the Old World’s most preeminent cities, giving Ubisoft yet another chance to flex its historical immersion skills. Everything fits perfectly for the time period, and you won’t find much that takes you out of it… except, perhaps, a few hidden sci-fi secrets.
