Assassin's Creed
A historical conspiracy spanning ancient worlds, hidden orders and the modern struggle over who gets to control humanity's future.
10 regions22 characters4 reading paths7 turning points
What is The Assassin's Creed timeline?
Assassin's Creed is not one uninterrupted historical plot. It is a network of memories accessed through the Animus, where different protagonists confront versions of the same ideological conflict: freedom with risk versus order imposed from above.
The historical games can be read by setting, but the modern story matters too. Desmond's arc connects the first era of games; Layla's research anchors Origins through Valhalla; Basim carries the modern thread forward after Valhalla.
This guide covers the main games and narrative spin-offs. Expansions are included with their parent game when they change a character's arc; remasters are listed separately only when they are announced as new releases rather than new canon.
Assassin's Creed moves through separate historical settings but returns to one hard question: whether order can be built without reducing human freedom to something managed by a hidden authority. The Isu artifacts intensify that question; they do not replace the responsibility of the people who use them.
Read each era through the people most affected by its politics. Bayek and Aya turn grief into a creed, Altaïr interrogates his own order, Ezio learns succession, and later protagonists test whether inherited ideals survive empire, revolution, industrial power and modern surveillance.
Quick paths
Short routes through the regions, in the order that makes the most sense.
- The modern story in release orderabout 24 min
Desmond, Abstergo, Layla and Basim: the thread that makes the Animus memories one saga.
The Levant → The Ezio era → Colonial America → The pirate Atlantic → Revolutions and industrial cities → Ancient worlds and the Isu → Egypt and the Hidden Ones → The Viking age → Baghdad and the modern story
- How the Brotherhood changesabout 20 min
From Altaïr's reform to Bayek, Ezio, Connor, Arno, the Hidden Ones and the modern conflict.
The Levant → The Ezio era → Colonial America → Revolutions and industrial cities → Egypt and the Hidden Ones → Baghdad and the modern story
- Historical timelineabout 30 min
Read the playable eras from ancient Greece and Egypt through Baghdad, Renaissance Europe and Japan.
Ancient worlds and the Isu → Egypt and the Hidden Ones → Baghdad and the modern story → The Levant → The Ezio era → The pirate Atlantic → Colonial America → Revolutions and industrial cities → The Viking age → Japan
- Assassins, Templars and controlabout 17 min
The ideological conflict without pretending either side is morally simple.
Ancient worlds and the Isu → The Levant → The Ezio era → Colonial America → Revolutions and industrial cities → The Viking age → Japan
Pick a region
Each page tells that place's story in four steps and says where to go next.
- Odyssey / JadeAncient worlds and the IsuAncient Greece, Qin China and the first layer of the franchise's long historical map.6 steps
- OriginsEgypt and the Hidden OnesThe founding of the Hidden Ones and Layla's first modern-day arc.6 steps
- Mirage / Valhalla / NexusBaghdad and the modern storyThe modern story from Desmond through Layla to Basim, with Mirage explaining Basim's earlier life.6 steps
- Assassin's Creed I / Altaïr side storiesThe LevantThe Crusades, Altaïr's reform and the first playable Assassin conflict.6 steps
- II / Brotherhood / Revelations / DiscoveryThe Ezio eraItaly, Rome, Constantinople and the three-game arc that connects Ezio to Altaïr and Desmond.6 steps
- Black Flag / Freedom Cry / RogueThe pirate AtlanticEdward Kenway, Adéwalé and Shay Cormac show three different responses to a Brotherhood that is failing its own ideals.6 steps
- III / LiberationColonial AmericaConnor, Aveline and the American Revolution from two different positions inside a changing colonial world.6 steps
- Unity / Syndicate / ChroniclesRevolutions and industrial citiesArno, the Frye twins and the Chronicles protagonists bring the Creed into political upheaval and industrial power.6 steps
- ValhallaThe Viking ageValhalla links the Hidden Ones, Isu inheritance, Eivor and Basim in a story with major modern-day consequences.6 steps
- ShadowsJapanThe Japanese historical setting of Shadows, with its individual guide linked from the broader franchise map.6 steps
Who is who
Every character has a short profile and links to the people they are tied to, so you can follow one story into the next.
Every game in this guide
Main games, narrative side games, mobile and archived titles, plus announced chapters. Remasters appear only when they have a distinct release status.
- Assassin's Creed20071191 · Third CrusadeAltaïr is demoted after breaking the Creed and must investigate nine targets across the Levant.
- Assassin's Creed II20091476–1499 · Renaissance ItalyEzio enters the hidden war after members of his family are executed through a political conspiracy.
- Assassin's Creed Brotherhood20101500–1507 · RomeAfter Cesare Borgia attacks Monteriggioni, Ezio moves to Rome and turns a personal defeat into a campaign to rebuild the Brotherhood.
- Assassin's Creed Revelations20111511–1512 · ConstantinopleEzio searches for keys to Altaïr's library while supporting the Ottoman Brotherhood and confronting a Templar succession plot.
- Assassin's Creed III20121754–1783 · Colonial AmericaRatonhnhaké:ton, known as Connor, joins the Assassins to defend his people as the American Revolution reshapes the colonies.
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag20131715–1722 · CaribbeanEdward Kenway steals an Assassin identity for profit and becomes entangled in the search for the Observatory.
- Assassin's Creed Origins201749–43 BCE · Ptolemaic EgyptBayek and Aya pursue the masked group responsible for their son Khemu's death and discover a wider Order shaping Egypt.
- Assassin's Creed Odyssey2018431–422 BCE · Peloponnesian WarKassandra searches for her fractured Spartan family while dismantling the Cult of Kosmos during the war between Athens and Sparta.
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla2020872–878 · Viking EnglandEivor leads the Raven Clan from Norway to England and builds alliances needed to sustain a new settlement.
- Assassin's Creed Shadows2025Late 16th century · JapanNaoe and Yasuke investigate the forces reshaping their lives during the violence and political consolidation of late Sengoku Japan.
- Assassin's Creed Codename JadeAnnounced3rd century BCE, Qin ChinaAnnounced mobile game
- Assassin's Creed Mirage2023861 CE, BaghdadMain game
- Altaïr's Chronicles / Bloodlines20081190s, Levant and CyprusNarrative side games
- Assassin's Creed Discovery20091491, SpainNarrative side game
- Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy2010Modern-day Animus databaseArchived social game
- Assassin's Creed: Multiplayer Rearmed2011Multiplayer Animus trainingArchived mobile game
- Assassin's Creed: Recollection2011Historical memory conflictsArchived card game
- Assassin's Creed Liberation20121765-1777, New OrleansNarrative side game
- Assassin's Creed Pirates20131716, CaribbeanMobile side game
- Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry20131735, Saint-DomingueStandalone expansion
- Assassin's Creed Rogue20141752-1760, North AtlanticMain game
- Assassin's Creed Memories2014Multiple historical settingsArchived mobile game
- Assassin's Creed Unity20141789-1794, ParisMain game
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China20151526, ChinaNarrative side game
- Assassin's Creed Syndicate20151868, LondonMain game
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India20161841, IndiaNarrative side game
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia20161918, RussiaNarrative side game
- Assassin's Creed Identity2016Renaissance ItalyMobile side game
- Assassin's Creed Rebellion201815th century, SpainMobile strategy game
- Assassin's Creed Nexus VR2023Multiple historical memoriesVR game
- Assassin's Creed Black Flag ResyncedAnnouncedCaribbeanAnnounced remake/remaster; no new canon assumed