Assassin Creed Valhalla

Plot

A year after the events in Atlantis, the unexplained and continual strengthening of Earth's magnetic field has started to disrupt global satellite communications and is adversely affecting the environment. The Assassins receive a mysterious signal leading them to co-ordinates in New England, where Layla Hassan, Shaun Hastings, and Rebecca Crane exhume the remains of a Viking raider. Layla, struggling under the influence of the Staff of Hermes and her guilt over her involvement in the death of Victoria Bibeau, enters the Animus to view the raider's memories.

In 9th-century Norway, during a feast honoring King Styrbjorn of the Raven Clan, a young Eivor Varinsdottir^[e] witnesses the sacking of her hometown by rogue warlord Kjotve the Cruel. Eivor's father, Varin, surrenders in exchange for the safety of his people, defying Viking tradition to die honorably in battle. Kjotve kills Varin before massacring the town. Eivor is rescued by Sigurd, Styrbjorn's son, but in their escape she is thrown from their horse and mauled by a wolf, earning her the nickname "Wolf-Kissed". Seventeen years later, Eivor has been adopted by Styrbjorn and his clan, and relentlessly pursues Kjotve. Her latest attempt fails, but she manages to recover her father's axe. Upon touching the axe, Eivor experiences a vision of Odin, leading her to consult the local seer, Valka. Valka induces another vision, this time of Sigurd losing an arm before being consumed by a giant wolf. Valka interprets the vision as a prophecy that Eivor will betray Sigurd, which she refuses to believe.

While Styrbjorn chastises Eivor for attacking Kjotve, which risks an open war the clan cannot win, Sigurd returns from a two-year raiding expedition, joined by a pair of mysterious foreigners, Basim and Hytham. Sigurd presents Eivor with a Hidden Blade, a gift from Basim. The siblings defy Styrbjorn's orders and attack Kjotve, retaking a village from his forces before being met by King Harald, who offers support in eliminating Kjotve. Basim and Hytham explain to Eivor that they followed Sigurd to Norway to kill Kjotve, but agree to let Eivor do the deed. With Harald's reinforcements, Sigurd leads an assault on Kjotve's stronghold and Eivor kills Kjotve in combat.

Following their victory, Harald announces his intention to unite all of Norway into a single kingdom under his rule. Styrbjorn pledges fealty to Harald, angering Sigurd, who had expected to inherit his father's crown. He and Eivor take their loyalists in the Raven Clan on an exodus to England to build their own kingdom free of Harald's rule. The Raven Clan settles in an abandoned Viking camp in Mercia and name it Ravensthorpe. In order to secure their position, they make alliances with local Viking clans and Saxon kingdoms, putting Eivor in contact with notable allies such as Ivar, Halfdan and Ubba Ragnarsson, Guthrum Jarl, and Ceolwulf of Mercia. Meanwhile, Hytham reveals that the Order of the Ancients—long-time enemies of his and Basim's brotherhood, the Hidden Ones—are present in England and enlists Eivor's help in eliminating their members in the cities of Lunden, Jorvik and Winchester. As Eivor eliminates the Order, she is aided by anonymous tip-offs from someone working under the pseudonym of a "Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ".

As Eivor's visions continue, Valka gives her an elixir that transports her to Asgard and into the body of Odin, who is attempting to avert his own fated death by Ragnarök. After Loki defies Odin's laws against wolves and conceives a son, Fenrir, Odin travels to Jötunheimr to retrieve a magical mead that will ensure their souls will live on and be reincarnated after Ragnarök. After returning to Asgard and binding Fenrir, Odin and the other Aesir—including Thor, Tyr, and Freyja—drink the mead and pass their souls to Yggdrasil, but forbid Loki from partaking in the ritual. Layla realizes these visions are actually of the Isu during the Great Catastrophe and that, unknown to the other Aesir, Loki defied Odin and ensured his survival as well.

Sigurd and Basim discover an Isu relic called the Saga Stone and Sigurd comes to believe himself a god. However, he is captured by Fulke, a fanatical Order agent and servant of King Aelfred of Wessex, who believes Sigurd to be an Isu or descendant thereof. Eivor and Basim track Fulke to her stronghold and kill her, though not before she had tortured Sigurd and removed his right arm. Sigurd becomes increasingly withdrawn and disillusioned with Ravensthorpe. Convinced of his divinity, Sigurd returns to Norway with Eivor, and together they uncover a hidden Isu temple with an advanced computer system. Both Eivor and Sigurd connect themselves to the computer and are transported to Valhalla, where they can enjoy endless battles in paradise. However, after seeing her father among the warriors, Eivor realizes that Valhalla is merely a dream-world, and tries to break free. Eivor's visions of Odin refuse to let her leave, but she is able to defeat him and escape with Sigurd. Outside the computer, they are confronted by Basim, who reveals that Eivor, Sigurd, and himself are reincarnations of Odin, Tyr, and Loki respectively. An enraged Basim attacks Eivor, seeking revenge for Odin's treatment of Fenrir, but Eivor manages to trap Basim in the computer with Sigurd's help.

Realizing the folly of his actions, Sigurd abdicates leadership of the Raven Clan to Eivor, choosing either to stay behind in Norway or follow Eivor back to England. In England, Eivor and her allies join Guthrum's assault on Wessex. Despite heavy losses, the combined Dane-Saxon force defeats Aelfred at the battle of Chippenham, forcing him to flee. Eivor later tracks Aelfred down, now living in exile as a commoner in the village of Athelney, and learns that he is not only the Grand Master of the Order of the Ancients, but also the "Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ". Having inherited leadership from his brother and father before him, but disgusted by the Order's apparent heresy against Christianity, Aelfred had worked to destroy it from the inside; with the Order of the Ancients finally destroyed, he plans to construct a new God-fearing order to take its place. Eivor returns to Ravensthorpe to a hero's welcome.

In the present, the Assassins deduce from Eivor's memories that the strengthening magnetic field is a result of Desmond Miles's activation of the Isu towers to protect Earth from a coronal mass ejection in 2012, with the field growing gradually but persistently ever since. To return the field to its proper strength, Layla travels to the Norway temple, bringing the Staff of Hermes to protect herself from the lethal radiation now within. Layla enters the temple's simulation computer and encounters Basim, who has been trapped for over a thousand years. Basim reveals that he was the one who sent the message leading the Assassins to Eivor, and instructs Layla on how to stabilize the magnetic field. This in turn releases Basim. Now trapped in the simulation, Layla encounters a being called the Reader (implied to be Desmond Miles), and together they work to prevent another inevitable extinction event. Meanwhile, Basim steals the Staff of Hermes (which contains the consciousness of his lover, Aletheia) and rejuvenates his body before escaping the temple. He meets with Shaun and Rebecca and requests to meet William Miles. After they leave, Basim re-enters the Animus to track down his missing children.