The 11 best historical characters in ‘Assassin’s Creed’

Assassin’s Creed is renowned for delivering its trademark murder and mayhem alongside beautifully realized (and often twisted) interpretations of historical events. Half the fun in any of the franchise’s many games is wondering which half-remembered icon from history class might show up next, and each game has delivered on that promise in a variety of ways. 

Throughout Assassin’s Creed, players have fought the Borgia Pope, schemed with Cleopatra, palled around with George Washington, and sailed the high seas with Blackbeard, but some of those figures loom larger in the franchise than others. 

There are sure to be still more historical characters arriving with the release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla later in 2020, as 9th century Britain was dominated by legends like Ivan the Boneless and King Alfred the Great. 

But before looking forward, let’s take a step back. These are some of the most interesting characters, in-game and historically, that have made an appearance in an Assassin’s Creed major console release. 

1. Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin might set a franchise record for being the historical character who shows up in the most non-sequel Assassin’s Creed games. He’s a prominent figure in III, has his own plotline in Rogue, and pops up for a cameo in Unity. His appearance across all three games speaks to Franklin’s prominence on the world stage in the 1700s as a scientist, a diplomat, and…a rampant horndog. 

Players who stick around to listen to Franklin in III are treated to his graphic, eight-point soliloquy on sex in the colonies, primarily with older women. Later in the game, he does big history stuff like sign the Declaration of Independence, and in Rogue, he completes some of his famous experiments with lightning. But it’s Franklin’s extreme commitment to being horny on main that really makes him a memorable addition to Assassin’s Creed. 

2. Leonardo da Vinci

Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood used Leonardo da Vinci’s brilliance and legacy to create one of the best (and beloved) historical characters in the franchise. He’s a weapon-designing, codex-decoding, body-hiding ride-or-die for the Assassins, and his loyalty to Ezio makes their decades-long relationship the heart of Ezio’s trilogy. 

Without Leo, there is no flying machine in Venice, no Brotherhood tank battle, no chasing after Leo’s cheating boyfriend Salai through the streets of Rome, and — most importantly — no heartbreaking quicktime event where you have to press square to give him a hug or live with the regret of not showing the foremost genius of the renaissance that Ezio appreciates him too. 

3. Alcibiades

Who would have thought that the breakout star of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey would be a devious pansexual Athenian whose introduction to the main character involves olive oil, a sex party, and a goat? He may not have the most straightforward morals (he does make Alexios or Kassandra steal an enormous dildo to blackmail his rival), but by Zeus, Alcibiades is fun to have around.

Alcibiades’ real-life history is even more outrageous than his appearance in Odyssey can possibly describe, so it’s a shame that the game didn’t include a mission where the misthios helped him knock all the penises off the Hermes statues in Athens, or followed him as he became a hero of Athens, Sparta, Persia, then Athens again as he played every side of the Peloponnesian War. 

4. Brasidas

Brasidas wins the Assassin’s Creed “holy crap, that guy was real?” historical character award, since his badass entrance in Odyssey and even more heroic death seem like something only a video game developer could come up with. And yet, Brasidas was a real general whose success at war made him a hero in his native Sparta and whose oratory skills were admired even by his enemies in Athens. 

When Brasidas teams up with the misthios in Odyssey, he’s a one-man army who’s down to help his fellow Spartan in any way he can, as long as he gets to crunch some skulls along the way. Pour one out for Brasidas, everyone. The man could fight. 

5. Blackbeard

Black Flag is one of the best loved Assassin’s Creed games and characters like Edward Thatch aka Blackbeard contribute mightily to its greatness. Because Black Flag covers many years in the life of pirate-turned-Assassin Edward Kenway, the player gets to watch Blackbeard’s legend grow alongside Edward’s adventures, including an all-time great scene where Captain Thatch reveals the motivation behind his legendary costume. 

Simply by putting on a hat trimmed with flaming paper, Edward Thatch transforms into the smokey, mysterious demon of the high seas and gives Kenway a lesson that any pirate, and indeed any Assassin, should take to heart: “Caution is nothing without charisma. For if a man plays the fool, then it’s only fools he’ll persuade. But appear to be the devil, and all men will submit.”

6. Caterina Sforza

Ezio ran into some of Renaissance Italy’s more colorful characters in his adventures, but Caterina Sforza is one of the most memorable. Not only did she seduce Ezio the day before his villa got destroyed, but she also dared Templar forces to kill her captured children by flashing her whole crotch while standing on the battlements of her castle to show the invaders she “has the instrument to make more.” That’s a real move Caterina Sforza pulled when Forli was under attack in 1488, by the way. She intimidated an army with her hoo-ha and it worked. 

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood also gave fans a top notch (and completely made up) throwdown between Caterina and the game’s primary lady villain Lucrezia Borgia. Ezio is a great assassin, but even he held back from giving Lucrezia a beatdown. Caterina knocked her out against a wall just to get her to stop talking. Historically, Lady Sforza was later accused of trying to kill the Pope by sending him a poisoned letter and earned the nickname “The Tigress of Forli.” Hear her roar. 

7. Charles Dickens

Syndicate is packed with titans of the Victorian era — Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, and more all make an appearance as occasional allies of the Frye twins. Dickens is an especially great character because his side missions contain elements of the supernatural and play out like mini novels by Dickens himself. 

Whether it’s storming through the fog to take down the ghost of Spring-Heeled Jack or winding up in a jail cell after being hypnotized by a master illusionist, Dickens’ missions with his Ghost Club add a little spooky flair to Syndicate’s industrial vibe. One of his missions is also an episode-long Easter egg pointing to Dickens’ last and famously unfinished book The Mystery of Edwin Drood and offers a definitive answer to one of literature’s greatest questions. That’s the kind of world-building nerds come to Assassin’s Creed for.

8. Rodrigo Borgia/Pope Alexander VI

Yes, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia is the bad guy in Assassin’s Creed II, but he’s really really good at being bad. Anyone who isn’t familiar with his history before playing the games got the pleasure of being shocked when Ezio’s mortal enemy became Pope Alexander VI (and therefore the most powerful man in Europe), but even those who knew the twist was coming couldn’t anticipate the game’s bonkers final battle against him. 

You know, the one where Ezio tells Borgia to go fuck himself, tosses down his weapons, and fistfights the Pope under the Sistine Chapel. 

And yes, Ezio doesn’t kill him there since it takes until the events of Brotherhood for Rodrigo to kick it at the hands of his son Cesare, but boy howdy that II ending is the encapsulation of the creed. Nothing is real, everything is permitted…up to and including squaring up with the Pope. 

9. Queen Victoria

Syndicate takes “God save the Queen” to the extreme with its endgame missions featuring Queen Victoria’s special instructions for the Frye twins. After dubbing the twins for service to the empire (and being nice enough to offer them some cake), Queen Victoria summons her two favorite assassins to thwart bomb threats all over London, leading to a high speed carriage chase, a silent murder spree in the Houses of Parliament, and a mad dash to diffuse, like, way too many goddamn bombs. 

All through the missions, Queen Victoria is cool as a cucumber, barely blinking an eye at sending her murder pals out to do the dirty work of protecting her realm. Assassin’s Creed doesn’t go as far as to have her dissolve the British Empire for the good of the world (though Evie does ask her to), but it does add a little explosive edge to Queenie while she’s around. 

10. Aspasia

When Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was announced there was immediate hope that Aspasia would show up in the game, and show up she did. Aspasia was a huge figure in Classical Greece, wielding enormous power through her relationship with Pericles and her own unabashed brilliance. Most of her life remains a mystery to historians, but almost all acknowledge that Aspasia’s level of education and prominence in Athenian society was unusual and perhaps singular among the women of her time. 

In Odyssey, Aspasia retains her sparkle as the center of Athenian society and holds sway over other in-game icons like Socrates and Aristophanes. Pericles may be the leader of Athens, but it’s clear from the start that Aspasia is the one who actually holds the reins. 

11. Freddy Abberline

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…Freddy Abberline in one of his many hilarious disguises. Abberline became famous for being the Detective Inspector in charge of catching Jack the Ripper, but before Assassin’s Creed Syndicate addressed that part of his history in its expansions, Freddy was the Frye twins’ shapeshifting eyes and ears on the police force. 

Through the game, Freddy shows up dressed as an old lady, a royal guard, a banker, and whatever else suits him for his missions. Most of his disguises were good enough to fool Jacob Frye, who accidentally kidnapped him without knowing he was attacking his ally. Freddy’s exasperation with Jacob is one of Syndicate’s funnier aspects, since it’s rare that historical characters acknowledge that the Assassins’ lawless creed is incredibly annoying for law enforcement, but he turned out OK in the end. Probably drank his way through the last half of the game though.