Some Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Devs Wanted Eivor to Exclusively be Female
News that Assassin's Creed: Valhalla would include a female version of protagonist Eivor made waves across the fan community, as the practice was heavily appreciated by most players. With the feature allowing players to choose the character's gender in previous Assassin's Creed titles, like Syndicate and Odyssey, it seems like an obvious choice, although it seems some developers didn't initially intend it to be a choice at all.
According to reports from "Seiiki" Dell'Aria, the designer of the recently revealed Assassin's Sisterhood Symbol, the choice of gender for these protagonist's was caused by disagreements with former Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Director Ashraf Ismail. Dell'Aria proclaimed on twitter that an unnamed developer at Ubisoft had indicated that Ismail had shot down the original intentions of developers for Valhalla, Odyssey, and Syndicate.
The Ubisoft employee, an alleged victim of Ashraf Ismail's misconduct, claims that the original intent for Eivor in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla was for the character to only be played as a woman. It was only after a disagreement with the former Creative Director that the character was changed to be playable as either gender, with the male Eivor eventually going on to be the more prominent figurehead of the upcoming title. Additionally, Dell'Aria claims in the expanded thread on Twitter that the same disagreement is what led to the player being able to choose between Kassandra and Alexios in Odyssey, as well as Evie and Jacob Frye in Syndicate.
At the moment, it should be noted that this is all merely a rumor, although Dell'Aria claims to believe the source and is only remaining quiet on who it is out of respect and allow the developer to come forward on their own. However, considering the timing of allegations towards Ubisoft higher-ups, and the awkward timing of Valhalla's dual gendered Eivor, there is enough to lend some credence to these claims. The whole situation becomes all the stranger as well, as a female assassin in the Assassin's Creed series had been a consistent request before Syndicate offered the ability to play as Evie.
Of course, fears that the market for a female-led Assassin's Creed, or even a female-led video game at all, is nothing new to the industry. This same issue almost halted the creation of the highly successful Shantae series before it even had the chance to get off its feet. So it may be a blessing enough that players are given a choice on Eivor's gender in Valhalla, but hopefully, the positive response to the character will eventually lead to a female-led Assassin's Creed in the future.
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is set to release November 17th, 2020, for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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