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If you’ve been playingAssassin’s Creedfor a while now, you’re definitely used to its anthology stories, at least when it comes to the past characters. That means we usually get a different protagonist per game, and in some cases, we even get multiple protagonists. While most protagonists consist of interesting characters with powerful backstories, one of them stands out for the uniqueness of her origins: Eivor Varinsdottir.
When entering the Animus to explore her memories, you can change her gender, even though they’re both considered Eivor, and she stands out for not being part of the Hidden Ones - aka the Assassins - while being quite relevant to their story and the story of their enemies, the Templars.
Spoilers ahead
What Is Eivor’s Canonical Gender?
Though you can choose between playing as a male or a female version of Eivor, you may have noticed we’ve addressed Eivor as a woman.That’s because the correct version of Eivor is the female version.Why are there two, then?
The reason is thatEivor is a resurrected version of Odin, and because of that, the Animus gets confused when reading her genetic material.You can even let the Animus decide when you’re a woman and when you’re a man for the more accurate way to play the game, as Eivor has visions of herself as Odin.
Still, canonically, the woman version of Eivor is the one that was actually there in the past. In fact,the old version of Odin that appears during certain moments is just an old version of male Eivor.
How Is Eivor Tied To Odin And Yggdrasil?
Before we tackle Eivor, let’s then talk about her first life. Just like all the gods here in the series,Odin was an Isu,a member of an ancient civilization that created and enslaved humansbefore having a war against them.They ultimately died from an event known as the great catastrophethat destroyed most life on Earth. Many games also refer to this species as those who came before.
The Isu attempted many solutions to either prevent the catastrophe or survive it,and one of them, known as the seventh solution, involvedusing a machine known as Yggdrasil to store Isu’s consciousness and reincarnate themas the beings who would survive the catastrophe: humans.
Thus, Odin and a few other Isu, such as Loki, Freya, and Tyr, used the machine and eventually reincarnated as humans.That’s how we go from Odin to his reincarnation, Eivor,and why the Animus gets confused with her genetic material. While Eivor is completely human, Odin’s psyche still influences her life, and some events in her life even mirror his, such as having multiple conflicts withLoki’s reincarnation, Basim.
Still, it’s worth noting that he didn’t die once he stored his consciousness. Instead, the machine made a copy of it, and once the deed was done, he still left Yggdrasil and met his end.
Who Is Eivor?
As for Eivor herself,she was born in Norway in the year 847.She and her brother Sigurd (who’s the reincarnation of Tyr), along with a few others from her clan, flee from Norway because they don’t want to be part of the unification of Norway caused by Harald (who’s the reincarnation of Freyr). Thus,Eivor and her clan establish themselves in England,where most of the game takes place.
Most of the game focuses on Eivor obtaining allies throughout the landand ultimately becoming the jarl (leader) of her clan. She also learns about her past life through visions that mix the events of Odin’s life with the mythological interpretation she has of such events due to her culture - which is why the vision sequences in the game feature a lot of mythology. That’s also why, if you let the game choose your gender, it’ll turn you into male Eivor during these sequences.
Along her journey,she also has to deal with Basim,Loki’s reincarnation, who wants revenge for what Odin did to his son, Fenrir, in their past life.This confrontation also leads to an internal struggle between Eivor and Odin,which ultimately results in Eivor shunning that part of herself and living as her rather than as him.
In the end,the fight against Basim took place near Yggdrasiland ended with Eivor leaving him stuck in the machine.
Ending The Order Of The Ancients
Though Eivor wasn’t a Hidden One, she maintained a good relationship with them,even after Basim’s betrayal. They created an alliance because people who Eivor had a personal vendetta were members of the Order of the Ancients, a group the Hidden Ones opposed. In other words, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
With the help of the Hidden Ones and Alfred the Great- who is also a member of the order -she eradicated the order in England by hunting each member down.While this was a good thing,Alfred helped Eivor do this because he wished to reorganize the order from scratch,and because of these events,he successfully created the Templar order,thus creating the group that opposes the Hidden Ones to this day.
Because of that,Eivor is both a hero to the Hidden Ones- despite not being one of them -and also the catalyst for the creation of their mortal enemies.
Death
Eventually,Eivor made peace with her memories of Odin,creating a balance between not letting them dictate her life while still accepting and learning from them. Thus,she ultimately left England and went to Vinland(America), a place that she had been before,and spent her final days learning about her past life.
That is the reason her remains are found in America,which areused by Layla and the modern assassins to start the whole journey through her memoriesusing said remains. This allowed the modern assassins to learn the location of Yggdrasil and culminated with Basim coming back to lifethanks to Isutechnology.
