Assassin’s Creed Mirage Ending Explained

Following its release, do you need the Assassin’s Creed: Mirage ending explained? We’ve got you covered. Here’s an overview of the game’s ending with further insight into its connection with past entries.

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage tells the origin story of Basim, a hero-turned-villain that we first met in the last entry, Valhalla. As we take to the streets of Baghdad in the prequel, we get a firsthand look into the character’s past. This ultimately results in the kind of plot twist you’d see in a David Fincher film. And that’s quite the feat, considering the last installment revealed Basim to be the present-day reincarnation of Loki, Norse god of mischief and rival of Odin. If you’re having trouble connecting the dots between Valhalla and the ending of Mirage, here’s an in-depth explanation.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage Ending Summarized

On Basim’s mission to decapitate the Snake, a high-ranking member of the Order of Ancients, he learns its identity is Qabiha, a former wife of Caliph. You’ll recall that Basim murdered this character in the story’s prologue. Even so, Qabiha urges Basim to continue seeking answers. Before she’s able to divulge any more intel, Basim’s master, Roshan, kills her and warns the assassin not to delve any deeper into his past.

Of course, Basim chooses not to heed this warning. He heads to the temple of the Alamut to find answers, where he is eventually met with what looks to be an advanced Isu-made chamber. He fights off Roshan in his search for the truth that lies within. With his own blood, Basim then opens the vault to find Nehal trapped inside a sarcophagus. This is precisely where things get interesting, as it’s revealed that Nehal and Basim are one and the same. In Tyler we trust, anyone?

How AC Mirage Connects to Valhalla

Fight Club parallels aside, we now know that the actions of Nehal were orchestrated by Basim all along, though unknowingly. This is because Nehal was merely a projection of a suppressed aspect of Basim’s reincarnated being, locked away from his consciousness. In this way, Nehal is essentially a manifestation of the trickster god, Loki. Or his memories, at least.

This can be explained by what we’ve learned from past Assassin’s Creed titles, wherein it was explained that Loki and the rest of the Isu race had developed the Yggdrasill to survive the apocalypse. The invention of this technology enabled the Isu to be reborn in new bodies as a means to survive. From this, we can deduce that Nehal is the aspect of Loki that was reborn in Basim’s body.

We see this reflected during the scene in which Nehal activates an eerie set of holograms depicting a jailer and their prisoner. In this scene, Basim is represented by the prisoner. He soon realizes that his jailer is inflicting the very suffering and hardships that he once faced as Loki in a previous lifetime. Of course, this begs the question: Who is the jailer?

While we can’t say with utmost certainty who the jailer is meant to represent, we can pretty confidently hypothesize that the figure symbolizes the god, Odin. In Norse mythology, Loki was infamously bound as a result of his wrongdoings. So, it only makes sense that the culprit in Mirage reflects the original story.

This ties up loose ends, as Basim swears to exact vengeance on his torturers, calling back to the premise of Valhalla. Technically, this serves as more of a foreshadowing event, since Mirage acts as an aptly titled prequel. That said, we now know why Basim is hellbent on hunting down Eivor, none other than Odin reborn.

For more on Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, check out these additional how-to guides from our team: How to Pickpocket Successfully, How to Get Skill Points, and How to Use Tokens.