Ubisoft brought Assassin's Creed Valhalla to life by melding extensive research of 9th century Scandinavia and England and 14 years of experience of crafting the adventure series. The RPG was a faithful adaptation of the Viking mythos that clearly excluded gritty historical details and included fantasy elements to fit the Assassin's Creed series. Still, there are many surprisingly accurate details in the title, like the existence of a real-life town named Ravensthorpe.
Early in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, protagonist Eivor sails from Scandinavia and settles in central England with a group of Vikings. Once they arrive, they set up camp and name their new home Ravensthorpe, which eventually becomes a sprawling settlement as players progress through Valhalla's story. Eivor is a member of the Raven clan, so the outpost's moniker was meant to reference the fictional Viking kin's name. It turns out Ravensthorpe is actually a real-life English village that Ubisoft included through pure happenstance.
Darby McDevitt Valhalla's Narrative Director, who recently left Ubisoft (via Game Rant), explained in a Reddit comment that the development team had no idea of Raventhorpe's existence when they were building the game. "We chose the name Ravensthorpe because Eivor's clan was the Raven clan, and Thorpe means 'farmland...We had NO idea that there was a real Ravensthorpe.'" Fate would have it that the company didn't only get the village's name right, but it wasn't too far off with its geographic location either.
Where AC Valhalla's Ravensthorpe Is
The real village of Ravensthorpe has a population of 646 according to a 2011 census and is located east of Birmingham in Central England. Valhalla's Ravensthorpe is right in the middle of the game's map, which McDevitt also revealed was a coincidence. "We set the settlement in the middle of Mercia so it was centrally located on the map." Even after this seemingly unbelievable lucky occurrence, there were some geographical discrepancies with Ubisoft's rendition of Ravensthorpe.
Valhalla's settlement was surrounded by rivers that allowed Eivor and her crew to quickly traverse fictional England on Assassin's Creed's Viking longboat. The largest body of water near the real Ravensthorpe is a reservoir, and it doesn't have any major waterways running through it. Even though the United Kingdom is known for its interlocking rivers, Ravensthorpe residents would need to head towards Birmingham to access the same type of canals Eivor and the Raven clan traveled on in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Despite some small differences, it's incredible that Ubisoft guessed the name of a real-life English village. McDevitt called it a "sign from Odin."
Source: Reddit/Darby McDevitt