Unmarked spoilers below.
Main Story
- Layla is implied to have become estranged with the rest of the Altair II crew as a result of inadvertently killing Victoria in Odyssey, and in her e-mail Trash folder you can even find an incomplete e-mail meant for Victoria's parents explaining what happened.
- She's also clearly in the process of becoming estranged from her brother Rami, who (via email) is increasingly frustrated and over having to cover for Layla's extended absences, as well as Layla's (necessary) obfuscations about it.
- And since Layla dies in the end, in a manner that leaves her body unrecoverable, her family is never going to see her again, not even in a coffin.
- Rosta screaming and pleading for Varin to pick up his axe when it becomes clear he is going to try and sacrifice himself for his clan. When Kjotve kills him, she loses it and runs forward to murder him in turn only to receive an axe in the back. Eivor is Forced to Watch all of this.
- Reda can be heard telling the children of Ravensthorpe about the story of a Protector and a Scholar in a faraway desert kingdom. Longtime players know full well he's talking about Bayek and Aya and that even though they raised hell with the Order of the Ancients, their romance never recovered, though he gives hope that two eagles meet each year to meet one another, or that every eagle throughout the series is their reincarnated descendant.
- Ceolwulf decides to side with the Vikings as their puppet ruler out of the belief that it'll lessen bloodshed on both sides, even it he believes he'll be damned to hell for siding with Norse and Dane pagans over his king, and most Mercians believe that he only did it out of lust for power. His only son ends up getting murdered by one of the very same Dane leaders he made the deal with, and he admits to Eivor afterwards that something in him died with Ceolbert.
- After that conversation, Eivor can go visit Ceolbert's tomb, where they do a short eulogy.
Eivor: "Ceolbert. You are now with your god. I am left here to mourn the loss of a fine young man." - Dag's betrayal. Throughout the second act, Eivor and Dag begin butting heads increasingly over the direction of the campaign, with Eivor wanting to keep up the momentum after several victories while Dag feels that Eivor is becoming more concerned with their personal glory than fulfilling Sigurd's vision. This all culminates with Dag openly challenging Eivor's authority, and despite Eivor's attempts, he refuses to back down, forcing a Duel to the Death. After Dag's defeat, Eivor has the option to either let him die with his axe in hand (thus assuring him entrance into Valhalla), or scornfully kick his axe away from him as punishment for his treason.
- Eivor and Dag's relationship gradually deteriorates as the game goes on up until the climatic betrayal and duel. At the start of the game, they were good friends who worked very well together, even if Dag grumbled a little over being placed under Eivor's command rather than Sigurd's. However, as early as the first two arcs, Dag can be seen questioning some of Eivor's decisions, pointing out (perhaps rightly) that many of them seem more concerned with expanding Eivor's own glory rather than securing the Raven Clan's position. These disagreements become more frequent as time goes on, and by the time Sigurd is captured by Fulke, they explode into open arguments, with Dag wanting to go immediately rescue Sigurd while Eivor insists they need more time to prepare. Dag also begins lashing out at the rest of the Clan due to him being the No-Respect Guy despite his accomplishments. This even extends to gameplay; at first, whenever the crew laughs at Dag's tall tales while sailing, he can be heard laughing and joking along with them. Once things begin souring, however, whenever they laugh Dag starts to angrily snap at them to shut up.
- Eivor's standing in Ravensthorpe is damaged regardless of their choice. If they refuse to give Dag his axe as he dies, they are seen as brutal and vindicating Dag's claims while also damaging their relationship with Sigurd. If they do give Dag his axe, they're seen as weak for giving a traitor an "undeserved" honor.
- When he's reduced to around half health, Dag will rage that all of this could have been avoided if Eivor had just taken a moment to listen to his input at any point. And the tragic part is, he's not entirely wrong.
- Sigurd's return to Ravensthorpe would be cause for celebration if not for the fact that his torture at the hands of Fulke left him very unhinged. Eivor's excited at first to have him back... until Sigurd accuses them of trying to usurp his authority before loudly proclaiming he is a god and shouting in Eivor's face, right in front of everyone in the settlement. Worse still, Sigurd's rant to Eivor consists of him talking about order, obedience, and who sits at the top. You would be forgiven for thinking Sigurd sounds more like a Templar than a viking.
- When Eivor returns after completing a Pledge Mission from Lincolnscire, they find out that Holger is up to no good againExplanation and has to sit in judgment. Sigurd storms in and once again gets angry at Eivor before performing the judgment himself. Holger tries to plead his case, only for Sigurd, who is clearly biased against him for past dealings, has him pay thirty times the silver he would have to pay Gudrun for defacing her sailcloth, knowing full well Holger cannot pay the silver, and even if he could it would ruin him. Even Gudrun, who was pissed at Holger, finds the punishment too harsh and tries to plead for Holger's behalf. Sigurd has none of it.
- If you go check up on Holger and Gudrun afterwards, you'll find the two outside the longhouse with Gudrun consoling a sobbing Holger.
- When Eivor returns after completing a Pledge Mission from Lincolnscire, they find out that Holger is up to no good againExplanation and has to sit in judgment. Sigurd storms in and once again gets angry at Eivor before performing the judgment himself. Holger tries to plead his case, only for Sigurd, who is clearly biased against him for past dealings, has him pay thirty times the silver he would have to pay Gudrun for defacing her sailcloth, knowing full well Holger cannot pay the silver, and even if he could it would ruin him. Even Gudrun, who was pissed at Holger, finds the punishment too harsh and tries to plead for Holger's behalf. Sigurd has none of it.
- If you choose to let Halfdan kill Faravid for betraying him, he breaks down crying immediately afterwards and falls into a deep depression, wandering the countryside. Luckily, Eivor helps him snap out of it.
- After Aelfred tells Eivor and Guthrum about Ubba's death at the hands of Odda's forces as if it were an afterthought, while having issues getting his name right, Eivor can go to Hamtunscire and find his body impaled upon two spears with the remains of at least two other spears and numerous arrows piercing his body amongst all his men also lying dead, implying a total rout. As Ubba was the most decent of the Ragnarsons, it's a sad way to go.Eivor: Ubba. So Aelfred spoke true. May you join your brother, old friend. Wherever he found his final peace. Rest well, my friend.
- What breaks Eivor out of the Yggdrasil simulation? The presence of their father in the halls of Odin. Odin's Valhalla was reserved for those who died valiantly. Eivor's father died a coward in the eyes of their child. It's been decades since the event, and Eivor still cannot forgive/accept the rationale behind their father's death. This only changes upone their battle with their past-life Odin, wherein they are forced into the same essential choice Varin was 20 years ago: Hold onto their axe and fight Odin for all eternity in exchange for letting their brother Sigurd die, or literally let go of their pride by dropping it so they can save their family. As Eivor lets go of the "glory, wisdom and power" that Odin offers, they lovingly embrace the spirits of both their mother and father, finally forgiving and loving him once more.
- The fate of Svala, Valka's mother and a Sage of Freya. She feared death so much that rather than make peace with it and live on in the memories of the future, Svala willingly hooked herself up to Yggdrasil to live on in a simulation, appearing as Freya did (young and beautiful) but doomed to live in a simulation that Eivor felt was empty and hollow. While Svala is aware that the world she's in is not real, and that she is essentially just going to replay the same scenario over and over again, she chooses the lie over death all the same.
- What makes it worse is that centuries later Svala is still hanging from the Yggdrasil when Layla makes her way to the temple. And unlike Basim, she doesn't go free.
- Layla sacrificing herself to slow down the magnetic field that will end the world. Her realization that she'll be dead within the next few minutes if she does not leave Yggdrasil, and the reveal that it was all a plan by Basim/Loki to bring himself to the modern day. Shaun and Rebecca aren't pleased, to say the least.
- In the modern day, you can listen to two audio files from Desmond by accessing Layla's computer. In the second audio file in particular, Desmond noted how he had a hallucination of Ezio alone on the deck of a ship departing from Cappadocia, where he is described to have felt regret and guilt. Players and fans would immediately remember this particular moment in Ezio's life was shown in Assassin's Creed: Revelations... when he had just recently caused an explosion of the city's weapons depot to weed out his target, which caused rampart smoke and fire in the city, killing many civilians. It was at this point where Ezio had a My God, What Have I Done? moment, which may have contributed to him eventually giving up being an Assassin at the end of that game.
- The "Last Chapter" quest added in the final update can be this, especially for those who got the game early. For over two years, we've followed the life of Eivor as they attempted to make allies and forge a life for themselves. However, their past life as Odin troubles them, so they go and say their goodbyes to old friends before departing alone for unknown lands in the middle of the night to finally learn what Odin wants.
Sidequests
- Happening upon the small homestead owned by the vikingr Sten in Oxenefordscire, Eivor finds him standing before a large funeral pyre turning the bodies of his former raiding crew to ash. He soon reveals that he received some letters recently telling that his family, separated from him by the seas between England and Norway, had died from the plague, including his infant daughter. Eivor can challenge him to a fight for stress relief or, if their Charisma is high enough, command him to have a good, long cry. And cry Sten does.
- Again in Oxenefordscire, Eivor can come across a house ablaze and a woman crying out for her dog that is trapped inside. Upon leaping to the rescue and making an escape route, they find that the "dog" Dandelion is in fact a domesticated fox. The woman, dying from smoke inhalation, manages to voice her love for her pet before passing. Doubles as Heartwarming in the end, for Eivor elects to invite "Dandy" to live at Ravensthorpe, which it happily does.
- Yet again in Oxenefordscire, Eivor can walk onto a small farm tended to by an elderly man. Right away, when he calls them "Rose" and refers to them as his daughter, you know his life has taken a double-barrel sucker punch with both the death of his daughter and his slowly fading memory preventing him from understanding this for long. Though Eivor helps him as "Rose" and can listen to the story of how he met his late wife, and can even turn down the gift of a ring he hoped to give to his daughter, in the end you know his life will eventually end, with nobody to bury him next to his family.
- If you take the ring, and do a bit of exploring around the farm, you can find Rose's grave under an oak tree, next to her mother, and return the ring to her like her father intended.
- Coming across an old man sitting by the road in Cent, Eivor learns he was visited by a trio of men that, recently stricken with the loss of a friend, were looking for Death itself out of a drunken revenge scheme. They were directed to a large oak tree where they instead discovered a stash of silver. However, when deciding how to split the goods, greed defied friendship, and two of them strangled the third to death, but not before he schemed to poison the ale they drank afterwards, resulting in all three getting exactly what they said they wanted, and found death under the oak tree. The tears might be lessened when Eivor returns to the old man's spot and finds a notice revealing the "friend" the three were mourning over was their old enemy Kjotve the Cruel.
- When Eivor finds a young girl on the streets of Jorvik offering to sell her a goat, if they fork over the silver, she gets excited and cries out to her sister that she finally managed to sell one, despite no goats being in sight. Eivor takes after the supposed thief and finds her standing in front of a snow-laden grave adorned with a large straw goat. The girl reveals that the sisters used to enjoy making straw goats as gifts for Yuletide celebrations, until the late sister's death one winter ago. While Eivor can offer encouragement, the girl's situation hardly changes and she'll likely have to face another harsh winter in the future, on her apparent lonesome.
- While traveling in Eurvicscire, Eivor can find a riverside village that stinks of death. Searching around turns up evidence of an ongoing plague, with the people left alive lying on the floors of their homes in a state of catatonia. Spotting a fleeing woman, Eivor can follow her to one of the abandoned homes where she reveals that the disease heightens the victim's aggression, causing them to lash out at others until eventually, their entire body shuts down. Her family was taken that way and, though she risks falling to the same fate, seems resigned to stay and care for them. Eivor can agree, or convince her, surprisingly without the need of Charisma, to leave and let her family rest in death. Either way, they themselves affirm that it is a bleak situation.
- Braving the winds of Snotinghamscire, Eivor can find a girl living in a cabin on her lonesome near the river, frustrated at her failure to build "stone-men" to protect against the Picts. The Viking can happily help her learn to make the first one, to which the girl smiles. Then cheerily admits to the departed spirits of her Mama and Papa that she's fine on her own because she'll soon have "an army of stone-men to protect me". Stalwart though they may be, even the Stone-Men can't protect everyone...
- Meandering about Snotinghamscire, Eivor can come across a homestead where the apparent homeowner is in the midst of turning the charred corpses of his family to ash, in the hopes they would not return as vengeance-fueled draugr, but the small flame isn't doing the task. Eivor locates an oil jar to aid in the blaze. When questioning the purpose of preventing an undead threat from his own family, the man reveals that he killed them in the first place due to feeling cheated of an inheritance his brother was to receive instead of him. Mentally broken from his heinous deeds, he begs Eivor to kill him and send him after his family into the cold reaches of Hel. The Viking obliges with a final curse at such depravity.
- In Hamtunscire, Eivor can come riding upon a strange scene: a group of Norse warriors gathered at a tavern and being entertained by a Saxon bard, despite their political surroundings. Eivor is swept up in the merriment and competes in a drinking competition, only for all around them to start dropping dead from the first swig of ale. That's when the cheery bard reveals that he poisoned the barrel, hoping to kill them and more Danes in revenge for the death of his loved one killed by Danish raiders prior. Eivor is the only one who manages to remain in the living world, and so has to eliminate the grief-stricken bard, lamenting after that there was no good to come of it either way.
- Grendel. He is an uncommonly huge man with mental defects which make him very child-like in nature. Unfortunately, this means he often doesn’t know his own strength and kills those he attempts to “play” with. His mother, realising that her son is not only a danger to others but that he would be hated and shunned, raised him in an old half-submerged grave site allowing him and everything he touches to become covered in mold. His whole story is a tragedy even before Eivor becomes involved.
- You can have Eivor return to their home settlement of Heillboer, still a ruin decades after Kjotve the Cruel's forces ransacked it and killed most of its residents, including Eivor's parents. Some events include:
- Upon getting inside their longhouse Eivor talks about how their mother singing them to sleep in front of the hearth made them feel safe, but following the events of that fateful night they haven't felt truly safe ever since.
- If you interact with the sword stuck in a windowsill that Eivor dragged over and one of Kjotve's men got impaled on, Eivor wonders whether or not their parents would've survived that night, or even triumphed over Kjotve and his forces, had they followed Rosta's instructions to stay on the horse, implying some degree of Survivor's Guilt over the whole episode.
- And to add to this, there is only one NPC in the whole town, inside the longhouse. And who is this NPC? It's Varin, Eivor's father. He does react to things like being shot or swung at, but can't be hurt. It's unclear if this is Eivor just having a vision of their father, or if it's an apparition of him.
- In the crossover mission with Odyssey, Kassandra tries hard to hide her past from Eivor but it is easy to see that after living for more than two thousand years, she is now tired. Her home in the Ancient Greek world is no more, her friends and family from that point of time are long dead, and she was forced to separate from her son. Heck, at this point, she even misses her old caretaker, Markos. When questioned, Kassandra explains that she hasn't settled down for a long time, likely because she knows she will outlive the people around her and doesn't want to feel the same pain again.
- If the player plays her DLC in Odyssey prior to this, her lashing out towards Aletheia shows how angry she is for being given immortality and the task of preventing the Pieces of Eden from falling into the wrong hands. She had gone through a lot only to be prevented from taking a break. The only reason she even took the task in the first place is that Barnabas turned insane after touching an Apple, finally agreeing that these artifacts are better left alone.
- Near the end of the DLC, the Apple of Eden that gives nightmares to the people on the Isle of Skye begins to show hallucinations of Kassandra's past. One of these hallucinations is Chara, a wooden eagle sculpture that belonged to Kassandra's surrogate sibling, Phoibe, who was killed during the events of Odyssey. With the memories of her tearful past flooding into her, Kassandra falls to her knees and breaks into tears. Eivor, who doesn't trust her much before, can only sympathize with her.
- In the Asgard visions, Odin prepares to deal the final blow to Fenrir, only for Loki to stop him and shield the wolf before he can kill him. When Loki tells Odin the wolf is his son, Odin looks horrified for a moment before he tries to finish what he started. It's only thanks to Tyr that Odin didn't kill Fenrir and Loki then and there.Loki: (Hugging the wounded Fenrir) You swore an oath to never spill my blood...
Odin: Get out of my way and I won't have to break that oath!
Loki: THAT IS MY BLOOD!
Expansions
- The climax of Wrath of the Druids. The Children of Danu have been routed, and the future of Ireland is looking bright... until the other lords decided they want to ensure the events of the expansion never happens again and want to either force the Druids to renounce their ways and turn to Christianity or drive them out of Ireland under threat of death. Ciara is horrified and outraged, more so when Flann gives in and agrees, setting up the final confrontation.
- Regardless of how the DLC ends, Flann's relationship with Ciara goes to ruins. Throughout the whole expansion, she maintains her belief that he'll do what's best for her people, or at the very least give them a chance. His decision to oust the Druids from Ireland results in her taking drastic measures and forces Eivor and Flann to stop her. In the aftermath, Flann recinds her decision, but it's little comfort regardless of your decision. Either Eivor kills Ciara and Flann will have to live with the fact that he alienated someone who had so much faith in him, or they spare her and their friendship will be soured for who knows how long.
- Siege of Paris introduces Sigfred, a Viking who really hates the Francians for murdering his brother, and in a way that denied him the honor of dying in battle. He gets annoyed or irritated whenever Eivor opts for a peaceful solution or argues for negotiations. During the titular siege, he even slaughters a church filled with refugees, even children. When an uneasy alliance is formed between the Vikings and Paris, he's the first to want to resume the war. As Eivor deduces, his aggression all stems from the grief of losing his brother, and the only way to get him to back down is to either kill him in a holmgang or tell him to combat his grief instead of taking it out on others.
- Charles the Fat is one very fucked up character, made moreso because of the artistic liberties Ubisoft has taken with him. The man wants to be good, but is driven mad by the failure to live up to his own standards, not helped by his traumatic childhood and having conversations with himself. It's best highlighted in regards to his relationship with his wife Richardis, who bore him a son. He genuinely loves her, but he can't see as anything but unfaithful and tries to have her burned at the stake. It's only by a seeming act of god and it starts raining right as the pyre is lit that his mind breaks.
- Tying into this is Richardis' own relationship with Charles. She knows the man is scary and demented, but she wants to believe there's good somewhere left in him. Her interactions might make for some disturbingly similar relationships between a couple in an abusive relationship.
- For anyone savvy enough in Norse Mythology, Dawn of Ragnarok is a Foregone Conclusion that will see Odin's efforts to save his son end in failure. It doesn't how hard he tries to save his son or how hard he fights, Baldr will die no matter what. It's somehow made even worse with The Reveal that Baldr is long dead before the expansion even begins.
- You don't even need outside familiarity - Eivor recites the story of Baldr's death to the Natives of Vinland during their time among them.
- At times, Havi murmurs to themselves about the possibility of Ragnarok coming soon, and Havi talking themselves out of the idea that it's nearing time, to the point that, eventually, Havi speaks of Ragnarok like it's certainly a long way off, but with the "certainty" of someone attempting to convince themselves that this is so, rather than genuine belief.
- The ending of The Forgotten Saga makes it even worse. It turns out Baldr was pulling a Thanatos Gambit with Hel's help but in order for it to work he traps Odin in an Amnesia Loop with the false hope that he can rescue him, not knowing that his "successful" rescue attempts won't work regardless.
- The sidequest available in Eitri has Odin run into a dwarf looking for his son's favorite toy. This would be the same Eitri that has been renovated into a burnt out volcanic ruin. It's pretty obvious what's happened, but the guy is too deep in denial to acknowledge it. Odin may even try to bluntly, but not unkindly, point out that his family are quite clearly dead and gone, and the best thing the poor bastard can do is leave the city while he still can. It doesn't work.
