1

I am playing AC Origins and while exploring in the tomb of Eeyoo Sekedoo Aat, Bayek comes across a recording detailing the coronal mass ejection event witnessed by Desmond Miles in 2012.

In an article on The Great Catastrophe, it mentions the event of 2012. I have not played all the Assassin's Creed games, so the lore is a bit fuzzy.

Can anyone explain how the recording of an event that takes place in 2012 is being viewed by Bayek in 49 BCE?

2
  • @Raj, Layla is relieving the memories of Bayek through the Animus. What I am not clear on is that is it Bayek activating the mechanism and thus viewing the recording? Commented Apr 8, 2021 at 17:20
  • 1
    @LoreFriendly: The Animus has its limitations. It is not 100% factually accurate about everything. In some AC games, there are specifically "glitched" elements and/or things that are injected into the historical simulation that were not necessarily part of the actual past. Think of it like watching Star Wars A New Hope today. You'd think you'd be looking at the footage that was released in 1977, but George Lucas has been editing/retconning/remastering it since then, and what you're seeing now is not exactly what it used to be in 1977.
    – Flater
    Commented Apr 9, 2021 at 0:48

1 Answer 1

2

This message was intended for Layla, not Bayek. But it was known that Layla would be activating that stone while reliving Bayek's memories. Pay attention to the message itself.

The language of time works in many ways. Two of which you can understand... as you are now.

Layla is "now" reliving Bayek, so her mind is engaged in two timelines: her own and Bayek's. That is what the above quote is alluding to.

The fact that this is part of the message proves that the message was written with the knowledge of Layla's existence, and therefore modern day knowledge, such as what Desmond would've been doing 5 years before Layla relives Bayek's memories.

Can anyone explain how the recording of an event that takes place in 2012 is being viewed by Bayek in 49 BCE?

Bayek isn't viewing anything that you know of. Bayek's simulation (as experience by Layla) is viewing that message. Keep in mind that what we see Bayek do, as far as the story is concerned, is a simulation of the past, being replayed at the present time (Layla, 2017).

The Animus is not like a movie, whereby you see the actual past being replayed exactly as it happened. It's more like (funnily enough) a video game, where the player (Layla) has free range of movement within the simulation to approach things as they see fit, and the simulation will do its best to remain historically accurate.

There have been a few instances of modern day protagonists conversing with their historical ancestor (and I don't mean like in AC Odyssey - I'll not elaborate because of spoilers), but I mean instances such as Ezio knowing about Desmond.

As the lore has never incorporated true time travel, only an exceptional knowledge of things to come (part of the Isu mystique), the most likely explanation is that the simulated ancestors are at least to some degree sentient simulations (supported by the fact the Desmond and Subject 16 are able to be locked in the Animus while remaining sentient), and thus Desmond talking to Ezio is something that did not happen in the actual past, it's just the Animus being less-than-perfectly historically accurate with its "Ezio AI".

Similarly, that message to Bayek/Layla would then have been "hacked" into the system, in the sense that it isn't part of the actual simulation, but the Animus software was changed to forcibly inject that non-historical snippet into its simulation, like how I could put a random picture in this answer that doesn't need to be on topic.

4
  • +1 for this detailed answer. Is it ever revealed explicitly how these messages are hacked into the system? Or do we have to be vigilant during game play and draw our own inferences? Commented Apr 9, 2021 at 5:31
  • @LoreFriendly: There is no specific answer, but it is a thread that has been woven through every AC game (afaik). The Isu (previously called Those That Came Before Us) have some unspecified vested interest in particular humans such as Desmond and Layla and their ancestors (Altaïr, Ezio, Connor, Edward, Arno, Jacob/Evie, Bayek, Alexios/Cassandra, Eivor). This is too much to recollect easily, but I know that there are Youtube videos that aggregate everything we know about the Isu and how the AC timeline works which would answer most of your question, or as best as possible.
    – Flater
    Commented Apr 9, 2021 at 9:08
  • @LoreFriendly: If you're specifically asking about the technology itself, I'm fairly certain they're relying on the "our modern tech is based on ancient tech, and the ancients who built the ancient tech therefore have backdoors into our modern technology in ways that that we don't even know of" trope. I'm struggling to find it but it's been done before and should be a trope.
    – Flater
    Commented Apr 9, 2021 at 9:12
  • 1
    @LoreFriendly: Closest trope I could find. Interestingly, it specifically refers to AC as its main example quote: "To be fair, we don't invent them. We find them. They're gifts, Mr. Miles, from Those Who Came Before."
    – Flater
    Commented Apr 9, 2021 at 9:17

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .