A trailer analysis of the new Assassin’s Creed: Codename Witch, along with the scant info, paints a more accurate picture of the medieval AC.
Ubisoft has announced a mysterious new project called Assassin’s Creed: Codename Witch on the live Ubisoft Forward show and somehow the name sounds familiar, almost like we’ve heard it before.
Well, even the usually well-informed leakers didn’t have the trailer for AC Witch to offer, but it doesn’t reveal much more about setting or gameplay. At least at first glance:
But we at GlobalESportNews love to take apart mysterious game announcements for you: We therefore analysed the 30-second video in detail: What do you actually see there – and what does it mean? In addition, we were able to find out more details in an interview with the Ubisoft bosses and summarise all the important info from the livestream:
What we know for sure so far about Assassin’s Creed Witch
- Codename Witch will be “a different kind of Assassin’s Creed” according to executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté of publisher Ubisoft. In another interview with GlobalESportNews Côté spoke of Codename Witch being more gameplay oriented towards the older parts of Assassin Creed; it will therefore not be an action role-playing game like Odyssey, but presumably an action adventure without talent tree and experience points
- The game is being developed at Ubisoft Montréal (AC Valhalla), with Clint Hocking (Watch Dogs Legion) as creative lead.
- Codename Witch will be released as part of Assassin’s Creed Infinity just like Codename Red set in feudal Japan. The latter will be an online platform in which all future AC parts and their players will be connected in an Animus-like interface. A separate multiplayer game called Invictus is also in development.
- A leak by the usually well-informed industry insider Tom Henderson talks about Codename Witch being set in 16th century Europe, at the height of the witch hunts. Release is said to be targeted for 2026.
Trailer analysis: Do the runes have a hidden meaning?
What secrets does the first teaser for Assassin’s Creed: Codename Witch hold? First of all, the obvious: The video shows a gloomy forest at night, with leaves falling from the trees while mist wafts between the trunks. The familiar AC logo hangs from a branch, recreated from branches, while dogs bark in the background. At the end you see the logo one more time, surrounded by several runes and lines.
We asked GlobalESportNews writer Thomas Schwarz about the meaning of the characters at the end; Thomas studied scandivanism and communication studies, his master thesis was about the function of language in video games. He has researched and speculated for us, but he points out that his conclusions are in no way confirmed facts.
Thomas cannot assign or translate the runes at first go, they seem(!) to be neither Scandinavian nor (mainland) Germanic, Japanese or Sumerian. Looking at the characters in the outer circle, “one can guess that they are words with a different number of letters. Identical runes = identical interpretation/letters. “
We believes that the characters come from the magician’s alphabet and translates them – without guarantee – as follows, starting with the outer ring:
WE ARBAITE IN THE DUNQEL TO SERVE THE LIGHT
MEPHISTO
VENGEANCE
HATE/HOUSE
The first phrase in the outer ring is thus part of the Assassin creed, which continues with “We are “Assassins. Nothing is true. Everything is allowed.”. These words can be heard in Assassin’s Creed 2 and Origins, among others, spoken by Ezio Auditore and Bayek.
The middle part, on the other hand, could refer to the story of Assassin’s Creed Hexe; Mephisto is most likely to be familiar to you as the name of the Devil (for instance in Goethe’s “Faust”). Witches were often credited with making a pact with Mephisto to gain their supposed supernatural abilities. Revenge and hatred could take up the motif of witchcraft.
So much, then, for the characters. But what is the pentagram all about? Christian Schwarz has read several books on the subject:
“Behind the assassin logo made of sticks is a circle with eight corners. around an ‘eight-pointed star’. The important thing is: the star must have been formed by a continuous line (analogous to pentagram and co.). There is also an octagon formed by two squares laid on top of each other – but that is not it (that is an eight-place).
The dictionary of symbolic language says that the eight-pointed star is the sign of legal authorities, judges and notaries. It is a symbol for the scales, the eternally balancing justice and neutrality, for the natural equilibrium. The seven and the seven-pointed star describe the earthly measure of things and the end of a path. The eight (infinity!) and the eight-pointed star show ‘both sides of the coin’ – beginning and end of a path, earthly and cosmic justice – thus a supernatural justice.
The new path in each case results from the constant interplay between life and death as well as the various turning points that promise the beginning of a new time “
Thomas points out that the illustration of the Axis Star in the book consists of two squares, so it is different from the one in the trailer for Assassin’s Creed Hexe. “However, I(!) think the excerpt above already reads VERY much like Assassin’s Creed (balancing justice).
In Thomas’ personal opinion, the video might actually be the eight-pointed star described, and the visuals as an eight-cornered “pentagram” were chosen because of the wider prevalence in pop culture and the resulting ease of marketing. “But perhaps the book author only depicted one of the two variants,” Thomas says.
Finally, Thomas Schwarz directs our attention once again to the grey lines that run around the circle with the runes and the eight-pointed star framed in it. They are barely visible in the trailer, so we have brightened up the image afterwards:
For Thomas, “it suggests that the eight-pointed star in the graphic is once again enclosed in a larger eight-pointed star – symbolic, perhaps, of the larger thing that we can’t quite grasp.” Whether his analysis is accurate or the developers of Assassin’s Creed Hexe had something else in mind with the logo? Only time will tell.
What do you think? Let us know your theories in the comments!
