Speculation: What Could ASSASSIN’S CREED: RISING PHOENIX Mean?

Yesterday we reported on the mysterious picture leaked that featured the title Assassin’s Creed: Rising Phoenix. Whether it’s a console game, a Vita game, a social game, a comic or even a movie, we have no idea. But in typical fan boy fashion we’re going to speculate (sometimes baselessly) about what it all means!

(WARNING: SPOILERS for Assassin’s Creed 3 ahead, and also I haven’t finished AC3 yet, so any glaring errors, I do apologize!)

The first thing to point out is that the logo that appears just next to the S of Assassin’s looks like the Abstergo Industry logo but in fact it belongs to the Erudite Collective, or Erudito, that directly oppose the Templar order.

I’m not very familiar with the Erudite Collective but it sounds similar to the Liberalis Circulum – an order founded by Lugos that eventually joined forces with the Assassin’s.

Most interesting about this is that in the AC graphic novels Lugos is directly connected to Isis’s Ankh. This is an artifact from the First Civilisation that, surprise surprise, has the the power to resurrect people for a limited amount of time. If that doesn’t link to the word ‘Phoenix’ we don’t know what does.

Isis’s ankh from the AC comics – Possible resurrection?

SPOILERS FOR ASSASSIN’S CREED 3:

After Desmond’s death during AC3, he seems like a primary candidate for resurrection. With the Erudite Collective already having contacted Desmond, my money is on them trying to resurrect him for some anti-Templar purpose.

Next up is the connection to birds in the Assassin’s Creed series. If we have a quick run down of the characters take a look at their names:

Altair – The Flying One/The Flying Eagle

Ezio – Eagle, or a simplified form of Aetius (meaning eagle)

Aquilas (Desmond’s further anscestor) – Eagle

Aveline de Grandpre – Derived from Avis in Latin, meaning bird.

Haytham Kenway – Young Eagle in Arabic.

Lugos – Raven

Could Phoenix then be a new etymology for a new DNA strain or branch of Assassin’s? It’s worth noting the avian connection, as names are cloaked with meaning throughout the series. The Eagle Vision is an ability held exclusively by the Assassin’s (Except Haytham Kenway…) and is an ability received through the union of the First Civilisation and humanity – creating the first Assassin’s, Adam and Eve.

Collect all of the glyphs in AC2 to see Adam and Eve

Interestingly enough, Connor was not linked to birds, rather he was more in line with the Wolf. We already know from AC: Brotherhood that Le Volpe was of the Fox strand so it implies there are other animal connections, not just birds. Edward Kenway, hero of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, is the first to not wear a beaked hood, perhaps removing him from the avian links.

The word phoenix suggests an oriental theme, which would likely make the project a film or comic as the creative director for the series has said that a game set in Asia would likely be boring to play.

A final point worth noting is the title itself. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation maintained the 3 in the title, perhaps suggesting that the lack of a 4 means this isn’t the Vita tie-in to Assassin’s Creed 4.

At the end of the day, we wont know until Ubisoft see fit to announce it, or perhaps more likely, more information is leaked. Tell us what you want to see out of this ambiguous title in the comments below. Are you burnt out on the games? Want to see a bit of stabby Michael Fassbender action instead?

Whatever it is, the Assassin’s Creed universe remains deep and mysterious enough to leave us wanting more.