Despite there often being centuries between Assassin’s Creed settings, there’s usually some connecting thread. In Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed 2 through Revelations, and Assassin’s Creed 3, there’s roughly 600 or so years, but Desmond is there with the modern-day storyline to tell it through. Black Flag, Rogue, and Unity, for example, are connected by the piracy of Edward Kenway (which connects to three as Connor’s grandfather) and the betrayal of the Brotherhood by Shay Cormac leading to the French Revolution. Now, in the modern iterations, there are 400 years between Odyssey and Origins, but they set up the points of conflict: the Tainted Ones and the Origins of the Brotherhood.
There have been outliers, however, such as Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and if rumors concerning Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok are also true, then it appears it could very well be an outlier as well. Not only in its portrayal of the Assassins, but how the Templar Order (if it could be called that) operated at this time as well.
The Children of Cain & Order of the Ancients
It’s worth looking at the history of the Order and their rise to prominence to see how they logically would be depicted differently in Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok. Following the Human-Isu War, Adam and Eve’s son Cain would kill his brother Abel in order to acquire an Apple of Eden. This left him outcast with the Mark of Cain, the Red Cross that the Templar Brotherhood would adopt. The Children of Cain would be the earliest known predecessors of the Order, who would be followed centuries after by the Order of the Ancients.
Founded in 1334 BCE, the Order would go on to spread through Egypt, Persia, and then beyond, as depicted in the events of Assassin’s Creed Origins. They would continue to spread, but the years following Origins all the way to the first Assassin’s Creed is a huge blank in the Order’s history. It’s possible that the Order of the Ancients directly became the Templar Order, but in the huge time span, it seems even more likely that the Order of the Ancients underwent some other transformations.
The Modern Templar Order
The Templar Order as it exists today was founded around 1129, around the same time as the first Assassin’s Creed. It would re-structure a couple of times in the 1300s and early 1900s, but it would more or less exist as the same entity, meaning this is the Order that appears in every mainline game aside from Odyssey’s DLC and Origins. This founding or re-christening of sorts is what makes the Templar Order suspect in Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok.
The Timeline of Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok
The next game is highly corroborated to revolve around the Viking era, even if some of the Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok rumors are false. This places the game around 800-1066, 50 or so years prior to the events of the first game. In other words, the Templar Order as it exists in the following games has not been established yet, which leaves behind a couple of possibilities.
The game may explain that the Order of the Ancients survived this long, though it would be remarkable that this iteration itself existed for 2400 odd years (1300BC-1129AD). Perhaps the likeliest scenario is that there is another iteration of the same ideology, another predecessor to the Templar Order that at some point superseded or overcame the Order of the Ancients. The essential tenants of control would likely remain the same, but the identity and operations thereof could be changed. After all, the Templars were active to some degree, just publicly becoming a big thing during its first major establishment.
It’s also possible that, like Odyssey, Ragnarok is less of a tale about the Assassin-Templar Conflict and a focus on another key element of the modern day’s on-going conflict. Assassins, as Hidden Ones, were active at this time as indicated by Otso Berg, but that doesn’t mean that the Templars, as Templars, were active. It could be something entirely different prior to the Crusaders. For now, fans will just have to wait and see what the Order’s role in in the next game proves to be.
Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is rumored to be in development.
