The main campaign of Assassin's Creed Valhalla is centered around the historical Viking invasion of England during the 8th Century AD, with a shadow war of Assassins vs. Templars thrown into the mix. The upcoming season passes for Assassin's Creed Valhalla will also let players experience the Viking incursions into Celtic Ireland and the siege of Charlemagne-era Paris, but developers could also plausibly introduce a third DLC set in Constantinople, capital of the "Byzantine" Eastern Roman Empire. By moving the plot to Constantinople, the developers of Assassin's Creed Valhalla could depict the origins of the Varangian Guard, a historical force of Vikings who guarded the Byzantine Emperor, while also homaging the Constantinople-centered plot of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
In the very first Assassin's Creed, a New York bartender named Desmond Miles is kidnapped by a shadowy conspiracy and forced into a machine which reconstructs the memories of his ancestor – the 12th century assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, sent on a mission to eliminate nine men whose deeds prolong the Crusades in the Holy Land. Subsequent games used this basic premise to tell stories about Assassins from different epochs of history, ranging from ancient Egypt and ancient Greece to renaissance Italy and revolutionary America. In each of these stories, real-life historical events are influenced by an an ancient conspiracy of Assassins fighting another conspiracy of authoritarians over relics from a pre-human civilization.
The developers of the Assassin's Creed series have frequently stated that "history is their playground" – i.e., they use famous people, events and settings from the vast saga of humanity history to build their game's stories. For this reason alone, the 8th century Byzantine Empire, the homeland of Assassin's Creed Valhalla's supporting character Basim, would be a very interesting setting for a DLC or spinoff, as well as a way for Ubisoft to reference the plot of their earlier Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
Valhalla DLC Could Revisit Constantinople From Assassin's Creed: Revelations
In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, the Florence-born Ezio Auditore journeys to the sprawling, architecturally diverse city of Constantinople, capital city of the Ottoman Empire, to help his fellow Assassins smoke out a faction of Templars within the city, one which is predominantly composed of Byzantine Romans who want to overthrow the Sultanate who conquered them in order to restore their long-fallen Empire. An Assassin's Creed: Valhalla DLC set in 8th century Constantinople would let developers both re-visit and re-imagine this ancient city at the height of the Byzantine Empire, showing players the glory days the antagonists of Assassin's Creed: Revelations were so desperate to recover.
When stalking Byzantine Templar foot-soldiers through the tangled streets of Constantinople, Ezio will sometimes encounter Varangians, elite soldiers with heavy armor, halberds, and the intelligence to poke at the haystacks Assassins throughout the ages so often like to hide in. At first glance, they just seem to be another challenging enemy type for players to overcome. Students of history, though, will realize that these units are references to the historical Varangian Guard, an elite force of the Byzantine Empire formed by Vikings from the same era as those in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Valhalla DLC In Constantinople Could Show The Varangian Guard's Origins
While the Vikings were invading England in the 800s, the Byzantine Empire was undergoing a political and cultural resurgence after enduring outbreaks of plague, several brutal sieges against Constantinople, religious schisms over the use of Christian iconography, and a massive riot of disgruntled sports fans. As part of their diplomatic overtures to various foreign powers, the Byzantine Emperors and Empresses, particularly those of the Macedonian Dynasty, starting recruiting warriors from Norse cultures in Scandinavia, Sweden, and modern-day Russia to serve as mercenaries, eventually formally establishing a band known as the Varangian Guard. In true Viking fashion, these elite soldiers wielded two-handed axes, upheld the virtues of boldness and loyalty, and were feared by the Empire's enemies for their ruthless brutality on the battlefield.
An Assassin's Creed Valhalla DLC in Constantinople would let players, in the role of their Viking protagonists, help found the historical Varangian Guard and navigate the cutthroat political schemes of the infamously deadly Byzantine royal Court. By fiddling with the historical timeline a little bit, developers at Ubisoft could even construct a plot centered around players working with Basil I, a peasant's son who founded a new royal dynasty by personally assassinating the Emperor of the previous dynasty. Indeed, what better way to tell a story about fictional assassins than by involving them in the plots of an actual, historical assassin?