Bayek is a fictional character in Ubisoft 's Assassin's Creed video game franchise. He serves as the protagonist of the 2017 title Assassin's Creed Origins , in which he is portrayed by British actor Abubakar Salim through performance capture , though his first appearance was in the tie-in novel Assassin's Creed: Origins – Desert Oath , which further explores his backstory. The character has also made minor appearances or been referenced in subsequent games and spin-off media of the franchise.
129-716: Within the series' alternate historical setting , Bayek lived during the final years of the Ptolemaic Kingdom , shortly before it was annexed by the Roman Empire as the Province of Egypt . Born and raised in the remote settlement of the Siwa Oasis (hence his epithet Bayek of Siwa ), he dedicates his life to ensuring the security and welfare of the Egyptian people as the last of the Medjay ,
258-523: A Megaduke and commander of its armies and manages to fight off the invading Ottoman armies of Mehmet II . He saves the city from Islamic conquest , and even chases the Turks deeper into lands they had previously conquered. One of the earliest works of alternate history published in large quantities for the reception of a large audience may be Louis Geoffroy 's Histoire de la Monarchie universelle : Napoléon et la conquête du monde (1812–1832) (History of
387-431: A multiverse of alternative worlds, complete with the paratime travel machines that would later become popular with American pulp writers. However, since his hero experiences only a single alternate world, the story is not very different from conventional alternate history. In the 1930s, alternate history moved into a new arena. The December 1933 issue of Astounding published Nat Schachner 's "Ancestral Voices", which
516-455: A POD only to explain the existence and make no use of the concept, or may present the universe without explanation of its existence. Isaac Asimov 's short story " What If— " (1952) is about a couple who can explore alternate realities by means of a television-like device. This idea can also be found in Asimov's novel The End of Eternity (1955), in which the "Eternals" can change the realities of
645-412: A Pennsylvania State Police officer, who knows how to make gunpowder, is transported from our world to an alternate universe where the recipe for gunpowder is a tightly held secret and saves a country that is about to be conquered by its neighbors. The paratime patrol members are warned against going into the timelines immediately surrounding it, where the country will be overrun, but the book never depicts
774-460: A Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. When a story's assumptions about the nature of time travel lead to the complete replacement of the visited time's future, rather than just the creation of an additional time line, the device of a "time patrol" is often used where guardians move through time to preserve the "correct" history. A more recent example is Making History by Stephen Fry in which
903-465: A bitter war with the "Spanish" in Mexico (the chief scientist at the laboratory where the experiment occurred is described as a Gnostic, and references to Christian Gnosticism appear repeatedly in the book). Although not dealing in physical time travel, in his alt-history novel Marx Returns , Jason Barker introduces anachronisms into the life and times of Karl Marx , such as when his wife Jenny sings
1032-574: A brief voiceover cameo when the protagonist Eivor finds the Magas Codex in the side mission "A Brief History of the Hidden Ones". Like other series protagonists, Bayek's default outfit is an unlockable cosmetic option in most subsequent releases, including the remastered versions of Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed Rogue . The outfit he wears in The Hidden Ones expansion for Origins
1161-759: A career highlight. The complexity and contradictions of his identity and personality - a friendly character with empathetic traits as well as a seasoned and ruthless killer who ends up murdering thousands during his lifetime as part of his vendetta - has invited commentary from various sources. Xalavier Nelson Jr. from Rock, Paper, Shotgun considered him to be one of the best fatherly archetypes in video games. Alice Bell from Videogamer.com considered Bayek to be an even better Assassin's Creed protagonist compared to Ezio, whom Bell considers to be another favorite. In an article published in February 2019, Jason Guisao from Game Informer praised Bayek's characterization as one of
1290-412: A certain drug, and the agent is constantly trying to maximize the consistency of behavior among his alternate selves, attempting to compensate for events and thoughts he experiences, he guesses are of low measure relative to those experienced by most of his other selves. Many writers—perhaps the majority—avoid the discussion entirely. In one novel of this type, H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen ,
1419-546: A character in Ada makes a long-distance call, all the toilets in the house flush at once to provide hydraulic power. Guido Morselli described the defeat of Italy (and subsequently France) in World War I in his novel, Past Conditional (1975; Contro-passato prossimo ), wherein the static Alpine front line which divided Italy from Austria during that war collapses when the Germans and
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#17328760889101548-552: A cult worshiping him being established in Thebes, where the veneration of Akhenaten is heresy. Believing the relics will grant the user the same power as the Apple that Flavius used to subjugate Cyrene, Bayek resolves to return the relics to their proper places. He tracks both relics to a Greek official named Tychon who is based in the Temple of Hatshepsut . After recovering the relics, Bayek visits
1677-618: A different history. "Sidewise in Time" has been described as "the point at which the alternate history narrative first enters science fiction as a plot device" and is the story for which the Sidewise Award for Alternate History is named. A somewhat similar approach was taken by Robert A. Heinlein in his 1941 novelette Elsewhen in which a professor trains his mind to move his body across timelines. He then hypnotizes his students so that they can explore more of them. Eventually, each settles into
1806-462: A disturbance in Thebes which she believes is a sign of another Piece of Eden. Bayek arrives to find the city in the grip of fear as apparitions of the undead plague the region. He learns that two relics have been stolen from nearby tombs: the first, belonging to Nefertiti , was taken by black-market antiquities dealers who intend to sell it; the other, belonging to Akhenaten , was stolen in retaliation for
1935-764: A divided United States , in which the Empire of Japan takes the Pacific states, governing them as a puppet, Nazi Germany takes the East Coast of the United States and parts of the Midwest , with the remnants of the old United States' government as the Neutral Zone, a buffer state between the two superpowers. The book has inspired an Amazon series of the same name . Vladimir Nabokov 's novel, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969),
2064-609: A few months. As a result of the Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit, the Gawker Network including Kotaku underwent a series of ownership changes after 2016, eventually falling under the G/O Media family in 2019. The new G/O management was more demanding of what content the sites carried, which resulted in a major incident at Deadspin , the network's sports-oriented site, in October 2019 leading to
2193-474: A live audience or for film performance where camera positioning is very important. In a later interview, Salim reflected that his work for Origins gave him a better insight into the development process for video games, which eventually inspired him to pursue a career in video game development and establish his own studio, Silver Rain Games. In Assassin's Creed: Origins , the player experiences Bayek's life as part of
2322-404: A lot on building the in-universe world and defined the rules as they went along. He noted that while there are no recordings which show how an ancient Egyptian accent would really sound like, it was important that they could develop, with assistance from multiple experts on ancient Egyptian culture, an accent that was recognizable but not too similar to the modern Egyptian accent. Salim recalled that
2451-474: A nation. It assumes that by giving a nation an alternative history, alternative values can be made to grow." In the English language, the first known complete alternate history may be Nathaniel Hawthorne 's short story " P.'s Correspondence ", published in 1845. It recounts the tale of a man who is considered "a madman" due to his perceptions of a different 1845, a reality in which long-dead famous people, such as
2580-463: A nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Character at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards . For his role as Bayek, Abubakar Salim was nominated for Best Performer at the 14th British Academy Games Awards . Salim was also selected as one of 20 newcomer actors across film, games and television by a BAFTA jury for 2019's Breakthrough Brits ; his casting and performance as Bayek was recognized by BAFTA as
2709-419: A place where it will never be found.... A teenaged Bayek is the protagonist of the 2017 novel Assassin's Creed: Desert Oath , which serves as a prequel story to Origins and was published prior to the release of the video game. The novel explores Bayek's backstory and his relationships with Aya and his parents, Sabu and Ahmose. In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (2018), Bayek makes a non- canonical appearance as
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#17328760889102838-452: A report by Jason Schreier from Bloomberg claimed that Bayek was originally meant to be incapacitated or killed off early in the story, and the game's narrative would continue with Aya as the player character. Senior game writer Jana Sloan van Geest responded to fan comments about the report and explained that while she loved Bayek as a character, she admitted that Aya's personality is "underdeveloped", and confirmed Bloomberg's story about
2967-464: A self-imposed exile for a year while hunting down the masked men responsible for Khemu's death. After killing his first two targets in the Bent Pyramid and Siwa, respectively, and acquiring an Apple of Eden from one of them, Bayek travels to Alexandria to reunite with his wife Aya, who reveals that she has also killed two masked men, leaving only one target. Bayek identifies and assassinates him, but
3096-626: A simulated lieutenant on the player's ship, the Adrestia ; he can be unlocked via the Ubisoft Club. Bayek is available as an unlockable character for Assassin's Creed: Rebellion (2018), a mobile free-to-play strategy RPG action game. As part of an event crossover with Capcom 's Monster Hunter franchise, Bayek's layered armor was available for a limited time and unlockable by players who completed seasonal challenge rewards for Monster Hunter: World . In Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020), Bayek has
3225-440: A simulation played by another in-game protagonist, Layla Hassan, through her Animus device. The game's backstory establishes that Bayek served as the last Medjay of Siwa , acting as a protector for his people, until 49 BCE, when his son Khemu was killed during an altercation with five masked men who sought to open an underground vault in the Temple of Amun . Seeking to avenge his son, Bayek abandoned his Medjay duties and went into
3354-637: A sixteen-part epic comic book series called Captain Confederacy began examining a world where the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War . In the series, the Captain and others heroes are staged government propaganda events featuring the feats of these superheroes. Since the late 1990s, Harry Turtledove has been the most prolific practitioner of alternate history and has been given
3483-592: A staple of the alternate history genre. A number of alternate history stories and novels appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (see, for example, Joseph Edgar Chamberlin 's The Ifs of History [1907] and Charles Petrie 's If: A Jacobite Fantasy [1926]). In 1931, British historian Sir John Squire collected a series of essays from some of the leading historians of the period for his anthology If It Had Happened Otherwise . In that work, scholars from major universities, as well as important non-academic authors, turned their attention to such questions as "If
3612-470: A subgenre of science fiction , alternative history is a genre of fiction wherein the author speculates upon how the course of history might have been altered if a particular historical event had an outcome different from the real life outcome. An alternate history requires three conditions: (i) A point of divergence from the historical record, before the time in which the author is writing; (ii) A change that would alter known history; and (iii) An examination of
3741-619: A third. Robinson explores world history from that point in AD 1405 (807 AH ) to about AD 2045 (1467 AH). Rather than following the great man theory of history, focusing on leaders, wars, and major events, Robinson writes more about social history , similar to the Annales School of history theory and Marxist historiography , focusing on the lives of ordinary people living in their time and place. Philip Roth 's novel, The Plot Against America (2004), looks at an America where Franklin D. Roosevelt
3870-503: A time machine is used to alter history so that Adolf Hitler was never born. That ironically results in a more competent leader of Nazi Germany and results in the country's ascendancy and longevity in the altered timeline. While many justifications for alternate histories involve a multiverse , the "many world" theory would naturally involve many worlds, in fact a continually exploding array of universes. In quantum theory, new worlds would proliferate with every quantum event, and even if
3999-463: A title he inherited from his father. In Origins , Bayek fights against the imperialist incursion of Roman troops into Egypt as his tragic past of conspiracy, loss, and death is gradually revealed. Alongside his wife Aya , he is the co-founder of the Hidden Ones, the precursor organization to the series' fictional Assassin Brotherhood, which is inspired by the real-life Order of Assassins . As leader of
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4128-411: A tyrannical US Government brushes aside the warnings of scientists about the dangers of time travel and goes on with a planned experiment - with the result that minor changes to the prehistoric past cause Humanity to never have existed, its place taken by tentacled underwater intelligent creatures - who also have a tyrannical government which also insists on experimenting with time-travel. Time travel as
4257-427: A vehicle to expound them. This book introduced the idea of a person being transported from a point in our familiar world to the precise geographical equivalent point in an alternate world in which history had gone differently. The protagonists undergo various adventures in the alternate world, and then are finally transported back to our world, again to the precise geographical equivalent point. Since then, that has become
4386-531: A verse from the Sex Pistols 's song " Anarchy in the U.K. ", or in the games of chess she plays with the Marxes' housekeeper Helene Demuth , which on one occasion involves a Caro–Kann Defence . In her review of the novel, Nina Power writes of "Jenny's 'utopian' desire for an end to time", an attitude which, according to Power, is inspired by her husband's co-authored book The German Ideology . However, in keeping with
4515-477: A video game was completed by a target date. While crunch time had been identified before in larger firms from other sources, such as at Rockstar Games , Schreier's reporting identified crunch also tended to persist at smaller studios. In 2017, Schreier wrote a book about the video game creation process titled Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made . In addition to working conditions, Schreier wrote stories on
4644-429: A weekly column at Joystiq on Japanese role-playing games , and works published at Kill Screen , Edge , Eurogamer , G4TV , GamesRadar , and Paste . Around 2011, Schreier was contacted by Stephen Totilo, the editor-in-chief for the website Kotaku , offering him a position as a full-time news reporter. Kotaku had been founded in 2004 as the video game front under Gawker Media . Schreier accepted
4773-491: Is a form of historiography that explores historical events in an extrapolated timeline in which key historical events either did not occur or had an outcome different from the historical record, in order to understand what did happen. The earliest example of alternate (or counterfactual) history is found in Livy 's Ab Urbe Condita Libri (book IX, sections 17–19). Livy contemplated an alternative 4th century BC in which Alexander
4902-405: Is a play on the Egyptian hieroglyphic word for falcon or vulture , in line with a longstanding tradition of naming protagonist characters in the series after birds of prey . Bayek shares a symbiotic relationship with his eagle , Senu, who aids him in reconnaissance . Senu is considered to be the living precursor to the series’ Eagle Vision, and can be upgraded to distract and attack enemies. For
5031-405: Is a story of incest that takes place within an alternate North America settled in part by Czarist Russia and that borrows from Dick's idea of "alternate-alternate" history (the world of Nabokov's hero is wracked by rumors of a "counter-earth" that apparently is ours). Some critics believe that the references to a counter-earth suggest that the world portrayed in Ada is a delusion in the mind of
5160-512: Is also available to wear in Assassin's Creed Valhalla . Like other protagonists in the series, Bayek has been subject to various merchandise. These include t-shirts, key rings, caps, mugs, artwork, a rolltop bag, and a 32 cm high PVC model of Bayek. Franchise owner Ubisoft have released numerous items of merchandise for the character, which is available for purchase on the official Ubisoft Store website. A player-assembled figurine of Bayek and Senu
5289-505: Is another attempt to portray a Utopian society. In Aristopia , the earliest settlers in Virginia discover a reef made of solid gold and are able to build a Utopian society in North America . In 1905, H. G. Wells published A Modern Utopia . As explicitly noted in the book itself, Wells's main aim in writing it was to set out his social and political ideas, the plot serving mainly as
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5418-477: Is defeated in 1940 in his bid for a third term as President of the United States, and Charles Lindbergh is elected, leading to a US that features increasing fascism and anti-Semitism. Michael Chabon , occasionally an author of speculative fiction, contributed to the genre with his novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007), which explores a world in which the State of Israel was destroyed in its infancy and many of
5547-546: Is included in the Dawn of the Creed Legendary Edition for Assassin's Creed: Origins . Bayek's likeness, along with five other series protagonists, was used for a line of character-themed wine labels as part of a joint collaboration between Ubisoft and winemaker Lot18 ; the full name of his label is "2015 Bayek of Siwa Spanish Tempranillo ". In April 2018, Ubisoft published an opinion piece by Youssef Maguid, an employee who
5676-511: Is not convinced that all of the masked men are dead. Later, Bayek meets the deposed Egyptian Queen Cleopatra , who confirms that the masked men are members of the Order of Ancients, the same organization that removed her from the throne and seeks to control all of Egypt by using her brother Ptolemy XIII as their puppet. After Cleopatra confirms there are more Order members at large, Bayek tracks them down and eliminates them while Aya convinces Pompey
5805-664: Is set in Europe following the Nazi victory. The novel Dominion by C.J. Sansom (2012) is similar in concept but is set in England, with Churchill the leader of an anti-German Resistance and other historic persons in various fictional roles. In the Mecha Samurai Empire series (2016), Peter Tieryas focuses on the Asian-American side of the alternate history, exploring an America ruled by
5934-495: Is stopped from killing Septimius by Caesar. Following Ptolemy's death during the battle, Cleopatra secures the throne as undisputed ruler of Egypt and cuts ties Bayek and Aya, which leads them to realize that Cleopatra and Caesar are now allied with the Order. In response, Bayek gathers his allies to form a secret brotherhood to counter the Order and protect the people of Egypt from the shadows, vowing to fight for justice and freedom instead of revenge. Bayek and Aya later discover that
6063-488: Is suggested that, had Gordon Banks been fit to play in the 1970 FIFA World Cup quarter-final, there would have been no Thatcherism and the post-war consensus would have continued indefinitely. Kim Stanley Robinson 's novel, The Years of Rice and Salt (2002), starts at the point of divergence with Timur turning his army away from Europe, and the Black Death has killed 99% of Europe's population, instead of only
6192-643: The Crosstime Traffic series for teenagers featuring a variant of H. Beam Piper's paratime trading empire. The concept of a cross-time version of a world war, involving rival paratime empires, was developed in Fritz Leiber 's Change War series, starting with the Hugo Award winning The Big Time (1958); followed by Richard C. Meredith 's Timeliner trilogy in the 1970s, Michael McCollum 's A Greater Infinity (1982) and John Barnes' Timeline Wars trilogy in
6321-469: The Empire of Japan and the Germans (and doing almost as much harm as good in spite of its advanced weapons). The series also explores the cultural impacts of people with 2021 ideals interacting with 1940s culture. Similarly, Robert Charles Wilson 's Mysterium depicts a failed US government experiment which transports a small American town into an alternative version of the US run by Gnostics , who are engaged in
6450-755: The Worldwar series , in which aliens invaded Earth during World War II . Other stories by Turtledove include A Different Flesh , in which the Americas were not populated from Asia during the last ice age ; In the Presence of Mine Enemies , in which the Nazis won World War II; and Ruled Britannia , in which the Spanish Armada succeeded in conquering England in the Elizabethan era , with William Shakespeare being given
6579-561: The crunch culture within the industry. In April 2020, Schreier joined the technology focus team at Bloomberg News . Jason Schreier was born on May 10, 1987. He attended the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University (NYU), graduating with a degree in writing in 2009. Schreier initially worked as a freelance journalist covering local news stories. He worked for Wired from 2010 to 2012, covering video games and related technology. Other freelance work included
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#17328760889106708-571: The time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp in which an American academic travels to Italy at the time of the Byzantine invasion of the Ostrogoths . De Camp's time traveler, Martin Padway, is depicted as making permanent historical changes and implicitly forming a new time branch, thereby making the work an alternate history. In William Tenn 's short story Brooklyn Project (1948),
6837-450: The "Bayek's Promise" quest involving finding twelve different stone circles throughout the in-game world. Locating each circle triggers a flashback conversation between Bayek and his son Khemu while the two stargaze. These conversations approach topics like love, family, and loss, with each tying to a specific Egyptian deity represented in a constellation and provides insight into the family's culture and religious beliefs. According to Guesdon,
6966-522: The "fair world" parallels our history, about fifty years out of step, there is functional magic in the fair world. Even with such explanation, the more explicitly the alternate world resembles a normal fantasy world, the more likely the story is to be labelled fantasy, as in Poul Anderson's "House Rule" and "Loser's Night". In both science fiction and fantasy, whether a given parallel universe is an alternate history may not be clear. The writer might allude to
7095-538: The 1920s. In Jo Walton 's "Small Change" series, the United Kingdom made peace with Hitler before the involvement of the United States in World War II, and slowly collapses due to severe economic depression. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have written a novel, 1945 , in which the US defeated Japan but not Germany in World War II, resulting in a Cold War with Germany rather than
7224-484: The 1980s; Chalker's G.O.D. Inc trilogy (1987–89), featuring paratime detectives Sam and Brandy Horowitz, marks the first attempt at merging the paratime thriller with the police procedural. Kurland's Perchance (1988), the first volume of the never-completed "Chronicles of Elsewhen", presents a multiverse of secretive cross-time societies that utilize a variety of means for cross-time travel, ranging from high-tech capsules to mutant powers. Harry Turtledove has launched
7353-468: The 1990s. Such "paratime" stories may include speculation that the laws of nature can vary from one universe to the next, providing a science fictional explanation—or veneer—for what is normally fantasy. Aaron Allston 's Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil take place between our world, the "grim world" and an alternate "fair world" where the Sidhe retreated to. Although technology is clearly present in both worlds, and
7482-509: The American Civil War (named the "War of Southron Independence" in this timeline). The protagonist, the autodidact Hodgins Backmaker, travels back to the aforementioned battle and inadvertently changes history, which results in the emergence of our own timeline and the consequent victory of the Union instead. The American humorist author James Thurber parodied alternate history stories about
7611-412: The American Civil War in his 1930 story "If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox", which he accompanied with this very brief introduction: " Scribner's magazine is publishing a series of three articles: 'If Booth Had Missed Lincoln', 'If Lee Had Won the Battle of Gettysburg', and 'If Napoleon Had Escaped to America'. This is the fourth". Another example of alternate history from this period (and arguably
7740-721: The Austrians forsake trench warfare and adopt blitzkrieg twenty years in advance. Kingsley Amis set his novel, The Alteration (1976), in the 20th century, but major events in the Reformation did not take place, and Protestantism is limited to the breakaway Republic of New England. Martin Luther was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church and later became Pope Germanian I. In Nick Hancock and Chris England 's 1997 book What Didn't Happen Next: An Alternative History of Football it
7869-517: The Church Peter Damian in the 11th century. In his famous work De Divina Omnipotentia , a long letter in which he discusses God 's omnipotence , he treats questions related to the limits of divine power, including the question of whether God can change the past, for example, bringing about that Rome was never founded: I see I must respond finally to what many people, on the basis of your holiness's [own] judgment, raise as an objection on
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#17328760889107998-516: The Great had survived to attack Europe as he had planned; asking, "What would have been the results for Rome if she had been engaged in a war with Alexander?" Livy concluded that the Romans would likely have defeated Alexander. An even earlier possibility is Herodotus 's Histories , which contains speculative material. Another example of counterfactual history was posited by cardinal and Doctor of
8127-418: The Great to ally with Cleopatra. However, Pompey is later assassinated by Lucius Septimius , a member of the Order, forcing Bayek and Aya to sneak Cleopatra into the palace to meet Julius Caesar , where she impresses Caesar and secures his support in her civil war against Ptolemy. During a battle between the two rival pharaohs and their forces, Bayek kills Pothinus , Ptolemy's regent and an Order member, but
8256-620: The Hawaiian Islands. Perhaps the most incessantly explored theme in popular alternate history focuses on the aftermath of an Axis victory in World War II . In some versions, the Nazis and/or Axis Powers win; or in others, they conquer most of the world but a "Fortress America" exists under siege; while in others, there is a Nazi/Japanese Cold War comparable to the US/Soviet equivalent in 'our' timeline. Fatherland (1992), by Robert Harris ,
8385-504: The Hidden Ones' bureau is fire-bombed, and Tahira is killed. Bayek is captured and crucified , but is saved by Amunet, who warns him that his actions in Sinai risk exposing the entire Brotherhood. Rufio arrives and begins slaughtering the villagers to subjugate the population. Bayek and Amunet stop the massacre, and the former kills Rufio, who reveals that Caesar had rebuilt the Order of Ancients before his death and that their influence extends to
8514-421: The Hidden Ones, he sometimes used the alias " Amun " when signing off on letters of correspondence. Bayek's character has been received positively by critics and fans of the Assassin's Creed series, and he is regarded as one of the franchise's best and most popular protagonists. As with the series' other protagonists, Ubisoft has released various merchandise promoting the character. The character's name Bayek
8643-601: The Imperium is one of the earliest alternate history novels; it was published by Fantastic Stories of the Imagination in 1961, in magazine form, and reprinted by Ace Books in 1962 as one half of an Ace Double . Besides our world, Laumer describes a world ruled by an Imperial aristocracy formed by the merger of European empires, in which the American Revolution never happened, and a third world in post-war chaos ruled by
8772-508: The Japanese Empire while integrating elements of Asian pop culture like mechas and videogames. Several writers have posited points of departure for such a world but then have injected time splitters from the future. For instance James P. Hogan 's The Proteus Operation . Norman Spinrad wrote The Iron Dream in 1972, which is intended to be a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler after fleeing from Europe to North America in
8901-460: The Jews and Israel, Chabon also plays with other common tropes of alternate history fiction; in the book, Germany actually loses the war even harder than they did in reality, getting hit with a nuclear bomb instead of just simply losing a ground war (subverting the common "what if Germany won WWII?" trope). The late 1980s and the 1990s saw a boom in popular-fiction versions of alternate history, fueled by
9030-571: The Moors in Spain Had Won" and "If Louis XVI Had Had an Atom of Firmness". The essays range from serious scholarly efforts to Hendrik Willem van Loon 's fanciful and satiric portrayal of an independent 20th-century New Amsterdam , a Dutch city-state on the island of Manhattan . Among the authors included were Hilaire Belloc , André Maurois , and Winston Churchill . One of the entries in Squire's volume
9159-420: The Myriad Ways , where the reality of all possible universes leads to an epidemic of suicide and crime because people conclude their choices have no moral import. In any case, even if it is true that every possible outcome occurs in some world, it can still be argued that traits such as bravery and intelligence might still affect the relative frequency of worlds in which better or worse outcomes occurred (even if
9288-511: The Order have stolen both the Apple of Eden and Alexander the Great 's Staff of Eden, using them to open the vault in the Temple of Amun and access a map with the locations of more artifacts. Bayek subsequently tracks down Flavius Metellus , the leader of the Order and the man responsible for Khemu's death, to Cyrene , where he kills him and recovers the Apple. Afterwards, he ends his spousal relationship with Aya on amicable terms once they both come to
9417-742: The Soviet Union. Gingrich and Forstchen neglected to write the promised sequel; instead, they wrote a trilogy about the American Civil War, starting with Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War , in which the Confederates win a victory at the Battle of Gettysburg - however, after Lincoln responds by bringing Grant and his forces to the eastern theater, the Army of Northern Virginia is soon trapped and destroyed in Maryland, and
9546-667: The Universal Monarchy: Napoleon and the Conquest of the World) (1836), which imagines Napoleon 's First French Empire emerging victorious in the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and in an invasion of England in 1814, later unifying the world under Bonaparte's rule. The Book of Mormon (published 1830) is described as an "alternative history" by Richard Lyman Bushman , a biographer of Joseph Smith . Smith claimed to have translated
9675-452: The authors did not alter the real history of the past when they wrote the stories. Similar to the genre of alternative history, there is also the genre of secret history - which can be either fictional or non-fictional - which documents events that might have occurred in history, but which had no effect upon the recorded historical outcome. Alternative history also is thematically related to, but distinct from, counterfactual history , which
9804-452: The breadth of the Empire, worrying Bayek. Amunet later asks Bayek to look into Gamilat, the rebel leader who has provoked fights with the Romans and then hidden his men among civilians, knowing that the Romans would kill indiscriminately, thus creating martyrs to motivate more people to join the rebellion. Bayek confronts Gamilat and kills him when he defends his actions as a necessary evil. With
9933-410: The camera's precise position is not important as it would be taken care of by staff in the editing room; the focus is on his interactions with the other actor. For performance capture of combat situations, he is given a stick with a ball attached and a dustbin lid to simulate a sword and shield respectively. For Salim, a motion capture performance felt liberating compared to theatre performance in front of
10062-438: The cancellation of Prey 2 that relayed internal communications he had been provided, is believed to have led Bethesda to "blacklist" Kotaku , denying the site any pre-release copies of their games or interviews at trade events since 2015. Schreier and Hello Games founder Sean Murray received death threats after Schreier reported on inside news that the highly anticipated No Man's Sky from Hello Games would be delayed by
10191-572: The case anymore." Shortly after leaving Kotaku , Schreier took a position as reporter at Bloomberg News in April 2020. There, he continued to cover the video game industry and game development. While at Bloomberg , Schreier wrote his second book, Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry , related to the volatility of the video game industry, which was released in May 2021. The book
10320-481: The cause of a point of divergence (POD), which can denote either the bifurcation of a historical timeline or a simple replacement of the future that existed before the time-travelling event, has continued to be a popular theme. In Ward Moore 's Bring the Jubilee (1953), the protagonist lives in an alternate history in which the Confederacy has won the American Civil War. He travels backward through time and brings about
10449-447: The changes the game introduced to the franchise's combat system. In response to Bayek's positive reception, then-chief creative officer of Ubisoft Serge Hascoët indicated that the character may appear in a future television or film adaptation alongside Aya. Matt Kim from US Gamer suggested that Hascoët played down the possibility of Ubisoft developing a direct sequel to Origins starring Bayek and/or Aya due to his company prioritizing
10578-424: The character's role being reduced over the course of development. Bayek was British actor Abubakar Salim's first major acting role. The role of Bayek was originally advertised as an animated TV series that involved motion capture . Salim recalled that when he reached the audition room, he was asked to read a completely different character, which lasted two rounds, before being informed that the role he auditioned for
10707-551: The conclusion that they can never return to their old lives. Instead, they both choose to fully dedicate themselves to their brotherhood, naming it the Hidden Ones, and part ways, with Bayek remaining in Egypt while Aya, now calling herself Amunet , travels to Rome . In the first story expansion for the game, The Hidden Ones , set five years after the main story, Bayek is called to the Sinai Peninsula by his friend Tahira who oversees
10836-435: The copies of you who made the same decision succeed too. What you do for the better increases the portion of the multiverse where good things happen." This view is perhaps somewhat too abstract to be explored directly in science fiction stories, but a few writers have tried, such as Greg Egan in his short story The Infinite Assassin , where an agent is trying to contain reality-scrambling "whirlpools" that form around users of
10965-482: The developers made it a point to ensure that players do not lose sight of his core personality. Bayek is described as more mature and stoic in nature compared to previous protagonists, but is also characterized as an intense individual. He is also depicted as playful and possesses a loving nature, with a particular fondness for children and cats and readily shows his tender side during these interactions, even as he carries his grief of losing his son with him. In July 2020,
11094-467: The development histories of troubled or canceled video games, typically through reporting from anonymized workers. His articles included the stumbling blocks that Bungie overcame for Destiny , for the planned Star Wars game Project Ragtag at Visceral Games that eventually led to the studio's closure, and the difficulties behind Electronic Arts 's and BioWare 's Anthem . Schreier's reporting on Bethesda Softworks , such his 2013 story on
11223-481: The development of Origins , including but not limited to audio, animation, narrative, level design teams, had to learn as much as possible about the history of ancient Egypt, which informs their approach in integrating the culture into more than just the environment. One of the ways this is accomplished is through the quest system for Origins , which allows players to learn more about ancient Egyptian civilization through intimate moments with other characters. For example,
11352-706: The disintegration of the US Federal Government after Albert Gallatin joins the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 and eventually leads to the creation of a libertarian utopia. In the 2022 novel Poutine and Gin by Steve Rhinelander, the point of divergence is the Battle of the Plains of Abraham of the French and Indian War. That novel is a mystery set in 1940 of that time line. A recent time traveling splitter variant involves entire communities being shifted elsewhere to become
11481-517: The document from golden plates, which told the story of a Jewish group who migrated from Israel to the Americas and inhabited the region from about 600 B.C. to 400 A.D., becoming the ancestors of Native Americans . In the 2005 biography Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling , Bushman wrote that the Book of Mormon "turned American history upside down [and] works on the premise that a history—a book—can reconstitute
11610-553: The emergence of the prolific alternate history author Harry Turtledove , as well as the development of the steampunk genre and two series of anthologies—the What Might Have Been series edited by Gregory Benford and the Alternate ... series edited by Mike Resnick . This period also saw alternate history works by S. M. Stirling , Kim Stanley Robinson, Harry Harrison , Howard Waldrop , Peter Tieryas , and others. In 1986,
11739-559: The exploration of new time periods and historical settings over pre-established characters. Alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history , allohistory , althist , or simply AH ) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alternate history stories propose What if? scenarios about crucial events in human history, and present outcomes very different from
11868-569: The firing of its editor in chief and subsequent quitting of most of the remaining editorial staff. This propagated across the other former Gawker sites, including Kotaku . Schreier left Kotaku in April 2020, specifically identifying issues with G/O Media management and the October 2019 Deadspin issue as his reasons for leaving. Schreier said of his reason for departure, "I’ve been through a lot of cataclysmic shifts because it always felt like, through it all, we were guided by people who always cared about journalism, and unfortunately, I'm not sure that’s
11997-518: The first that explicitly posited cross-time travel from one universe to another as anything more than a visionary experience) is H.G. Wells ' Men Like Gods (1923) in which the London -based journalist Mr. Barnstable, along with two cars and their passengers, is mysteriously teleported into "another world", which the "Earthlings" call Utopia. Being far more advanced than Earth, Utopia is some 3000 years ahead of humanity in its development. Wells describes
12126-402: The hero (another favorite theme of Dick's novels ). Strikingly, the characters in Ada seem to acknowledge their own world as the copy or negative version, calling it "Anti-Terra", while its mythical twin is the real "Terra". Like history, science has followed a divergent path on Anti-Terra: it boasts all the same technology as our world, but all based on water instead of electricity ; e.g., when
12255-460: The historical record. Some alternate histories are considered a subgenre of science fiction , or historical fiction . Since the 1950s, as a subgenre of science fiction, some alternative history stories have featured the tropes of time travel between histories, the psychic awareness of the existence of an alternative universe by the inhabitants of a given universe, and time travel that divides history into various timestreams . Often described as
12384-631: The larger societal issues at play in Ptolemaic Egypt such as class conflict between ethnic Greeks and native Egyptians . Bayek's narrative journey also reveals the origins of staple traditions in the series like the feather ritual, cut finger, and the leap of faith. Jean Guesdon, the Creative Director for Origins , noted that a holistic approach is essential in order to create an authentic in-game world, and remarked that "small details help make it feel real". This meant that every team involved in
12513-435: The local Hidden Ones bureau.Sinai is occupied by the Roman Empire , whose men are forcing the local population to mine turquoise . Tahira is concerned that the Hidden Ones' support for a rebel faction from Nabatea has led to their exposure and asks for Bayek's aid. Bayek agrees that the Hidden Ones are vulnerable and decides to kill the three lieutenants of General Rufio , the consul of Sinai, hoping to draw him out. However,
12642-431: The majority of the game, Bayek is not an Assassin but a Medjay, a well-known and respected man in ancient Egyptian society, and as such there is less emphasis for him to lurk in the shadows or blend in with crowds compared to previous Assassin's Creed protagonists. As the player character, Bayek also serves as a lens through which players could understand the importance of religion and ritual daily life in ancient Egypt, and
12771-450: The most respectful representations of blackness in video games. Bayek's relationship with Aya has been praised by various sources. Kotaku staff considers the story of their marriage to be one of the narrative highlights of Origins . Patrick Klepek from Vice found the depiction of their relationship and their shared grief over the loss of their son to be powerful and believable, and that it does as much to make Origins memorable as
12900-400: The novel's anachronisms, the latter was not published until 1932. By contrast, the novel's timeline ends in 1871. Jason Schreier Jason Schreier (born May 10, 1987) is an American journalist and author who primarily covers the video game industry . He worked as a news reporter for Kotaku from 2011 to 2020 and was recognized for several investigative stories , particularly on
13029-522: The people believing the Hidden Ones destroyed, Bayek decides to rebuild the Brotherhood discreetly and expand to Judea , the Levant and beyond. Due to the actions of Gamilat, he also decides to create a code of conduct with strict tenets that every Hidden One must follow, beginning with the prohibition of harming innocent lives. In the second expansion, The Curse of the Pharaohs , Amunet asks Bayek to investigate
13158-460: The poets Robert Burns , Lord Byron , Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats , the actor Edmund Kean , the British politician George Canning , and Napoleon Bonaparte , are still alive. The first novel-length alternate history in English would seem to be Castello Holford 's Aristopia (1895). While not as nationalistic as Louis Geoffroy 's Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812–1823 , Aristopia
13287-402: The point of view of an alternate history is variously known as " recursive alternate history ", a "double-blind what-if", or an "alternate-alternate history". Churchill's essay was one of the influences behind Ward Moore 's alternate history novel Bring the Jubilee in which General Robert E. Lee won the Battle of Gettysburg and paved the way for the eventual victory of the Confederacy in
13416-467: The position, which he started around the same time. He was promoted to news editor for the site prior to his departure. Besides standard reporting on video game news, Schreier gained an early reputation at Kotaku for getting stories from developers about their inside processes for various titles. Schreier found common stories of excessive use of " crunch time " by some developers and the use of excessive overtime over multiple weeks and months to make sure
13545-543: The protagonist's doppelganger. Philip K. Dick 's novel, The Man in the High Castle (1962), is an alternate history in which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan won World War II. This book contains an example of "alternate-alternate" history, in that one of its characters authored a book depicting a reality in which the Allies won the war, itself divergent from real-world history in several aspects. The several characters live within
13674-504: The purpose of presenting these side quests and complex non-player characters with their own personal stories is about reinforcing the connection between the player and ancient Egypt, and that by emphasizing on personal storytelling, the writing team built their interpretation of ancient Egyptian culture into the foundation of nearly every quest in Origins . While Bayek's story arc is filled with themes of revenge, political turmoil, and civil war,
13803-408: The ramifications of that alteration to history. Occasionally, some types of genre fiction are misidentified as alternative history , specifically science fiction stories set in a time that was the future for the writer, but now is the past for the reader, such as the novels 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Arthur C. Clarke , 1984 (1949) by George Orwell and the movie 2012 (2009) because
13932-415: The reality that is most suitable for him or her. Some of the worlds they visit are mundane, some are very odd, and others follow science fiction or fantasy conventions. World War II produced alternate history for propaganda : both British and American authors wrote works depicting Nazi invasions of their respective countries as cautionary tales. The period around World War II also saw the publication of
14061-511: The script for Origins contained many phrases and slang from the developer's idea of the historic Egyptian language to make dialogue a little more colourful, and that he was particularly fond of the Egyptian swear words. To perform his role, Salim wears a lycra suit and a large helmet, with an attached camera directed towards his face. He noted that the motion capture process would take place in one space without transitioning to another physical set or any interference from lighting issues, and that
14190-453: The slaughter of the innocent thus entailed, remaining solely in the timeline where the country is saved. The cross-time theme was further developed in the 1960s by Keith Laumer in the first three volumes of his Imperium sequence, which would be completed in Zone Yellow (1990). Piper's politically more sophisticated variant was adopted and adapted by Michael Kurland and Jack Chalker in
14319-570: The task of writing the play that will motivate the Britons to rise up against their Spanish conquerors. He also co-authored a book with actor Richard Dreyfuss , The Two Georges , in which the United Kingdom retained the American colonies, with George Washington and King George III making peace. He did a two-volume series in which the Japanese not only bombed Pearl Harbor but also invaded and occupied
14448-528: The title "Master of Alternate History" by some. His books include those of Timeline 191 (a.k.a. Southern Victory, also known as TL-191), in which, while the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War , the Union and Imperial Germany defeat the Entente Powers in the two "Great War"s of the 1910s and 1940s (with a Nazi-esque Confederate government attempting to exterminate its black population), and
14577-573: The tombs of Nefertiti and Akhenaten in the Valley of the Kings and finds them desecrated. The only way to restore balance is to cross over into the afterlife. Bayek discovers these are reflections of the mortal world and that the corruption that had taken hold in Thebes has spread to the afterlife. He realizes that Aten is actually the Piece of Eden he is looking for and that Akhenaten was not buried with it; instead, it
14706-505: The topic of this dispute. For they say: If, as you assert, God is omnipotent in all things, can he manage this, that things that have been made were not made? He can certainly destroy all things that have been made, so that they do not exist now. But it cannot be seen how he can bring it about that things that have been made were not made. To be sure, it can come about that from now on and hereafter Rome does not exist; for it can be destroyed. But no opinion can grasp how it can come about that it
14835-445: The total number of worlds with each type of outcome is infinite, it is still possible to assign a different measure to different infinite sets). The physicist David Deutsch , a strong advocate of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, has argued along these lines, saying that "By making good choices, doing the right thing, we thicken the stack of universes in which versions of us live reasonable lives. When you succeed, all
14964-522: The unwitting creators of new time branches. These communities are transported from the present (or the near-future) to the past or to another timeline via a natural disaster, the action of technologically advanced aliens, or a human experiment gone wrong. S. M. Stirling wrote the Island in the Sea of Time trilogy, in which Nantucket Island and all its modern inhabitants are transported to Bronze Age times to become
15093-559: The war ends within weeks. While World War II has been a common point of divergence in alternate history literature, several works have been based on other points of divergence. For example, Martin Cruz Smith , in his first novel, posited an independent American Indian nation following the defeat of Custer in The Indians Won (1970). Beginning with The Probability Broach in 1980, L. Neil Smith wrote several novels that postulated
15222-480: The world's Jews instead live in a small strip of Alaska set aside by the US government for Jewish settlement. The story follows a Jewish detective solving a murder case in the Yiddish-speaking semi-autonomous city state of Sitka . Stylistically, Chabon borrows heavily from the noir and detective fiction genres, while exploring social issues related to Jewish history and culture. Apart from the alternate history of
15351-513: The world's first superpower. In Eric Flint 's 1632 series , a small town in West Virginia is transported to 17th century central Europe and drastically changes the course of the Thirty Years' War , which was then underway. John Birmingham 's Axis of Time trilogy deals with the culture shock when a United Nations naval task force from 2021 finds itself back in 1942 helping the Allies against
15480-514: The world, without people being aware of it. Poul Anderson 's Time Patrol stories feature conflicts between forces intent on changing history and the Patrol who work to preserve it. One story, Delenda Est , describes a world in which Carthage triumphed over the Roman Republic. The Big Time , by Fritz Leiber , describes a Change War ranging across all of history. Keith Laumer's Worlds of
15609-451: The writer explicitly maintains that all possible decisions are made in all possible ways, one possible conclusion is that the characters were neither brave, nor clever, nor skilled, but simply lucky enough to happen on the universe in which they did not choose the cowardly route, take the stupid action, fumble the crucial activity, etc.; few writers focus on this idea, although it has been explored in stories such as Larry Niven 's story All
15738-487: The writer uses human decisions, every decision that could be made differently would result in a different timeline. A writer's fictional multiverse may, in fact, preclude some decisions as humanly impossible, as when, in Night Watch , Terry Pratchett depicts a character informing Vimes that while anything that can happen, has happened, nevertheless there is no history whatsoever in which Vimes has ever murdered his wife. When
15867-543: Was Churchill's "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg", written from the viewpoint of a historian in a world in which the Confederacy had won the American Civil War . The entry considers what would have happened if the North had been victorious (in other words, a character from an alternate world imagines a world more like the real one we live in, although it is not identical in every detail). Speculative work that narrates from
15996-520: Was a New York Times bestseller for non-fiction during the week of May 30. Play Nice , his third book, documenting the history of Blizzard Entertainment , was released in October 2024. Schreier is one of the co-hosts of the podcast Triple Click with former Kotaku co-workers Kirk Hamilton and Maddy Myers. It is hosted on the Maximum Fun network. Schreier lives in the New York City area. He
16125-569: Was born in Egypt and raised in the United States , about Bayek's importance as a figure of representation and inclusivity for him as an Egyptian American and a member of an ethnic minority. Bayek has been positively received by critics and series fans, with high placements on "top character" lists. Bayek was named "Best New Character" by Giant Bomb for its 2017 Game of the Year Awards, and received
16254-416: Was in fact the protagonist of the next Assassin's Creed video game. A self-confessed fan of the video game series, Salim initially reacted with shock, as well as elation at the realization that he would follow iconic series characters Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze . On developing a voice for Bayek, Salim said that it was a collaborative creative process with the developers, and they worked
16383-578: Was not founded long ago... One early work of fiction detailing an alternate history is Joanot Martorell 's 1490 epic romance Tirant lo Blanch , which was written when the fall of Constantinople to the Turks was still a recent and traumatic memory for Christian Europe . It tells the story of the knight Tirant the White from Brittany who travels to the embattled remnants of the Byzantine Empire . He becomes
16512-487: Was passed on to his descendants and is held by the cult of Amun. The curse plaguing Thebes was unleashed by Isidora, a priestess of Amun, as revenge for the death of her mother. Bayek follows her to the tomb of Tutankhamun , where she tries to justify her actions. When she refuses to stand down, Bayek kills her and takes possession of the Aten. He then gives it to Sutekh, a thief who aided his quest, and entrusts him with hiding it in
16641-450: Was quickly followed by Murray Leinster 's " Sidewise in Time " (1934). While earlier alternate histories examined reasonably-straightforward divergences, Leinster attempted something completely different. In his "World gone mad", pieces of Earth traded places with their analogs from different timelines. The story follows Professor Minott and his students from a fictitious Robinson College as they wander through analogues of worlds that followed
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