Assassin’s Creed is an endless series of mysteries and puzzles, of which the Isu language is the most enduring. While it was first introduced in 2009 Assassin’s Creed II, it was only last year Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gave substantial evidence that fans could finally crack the dead tongue.
In a video released on YouTube earlier today, the folks at fansite Access to the Animus detailed the steps they took to unlock the complex language of the Isu, a race of divine figures who, in Assassin’s Creed lore predates human civilization. But this was not easy substitution rate; deciphering the fundamentals of the Isu language was made possible only by Walhalla act as a kind Rosetta Stone allowing meaning to be extrapolated.
Access The Animus was able to identify grammatical cases, tenses, conjugations, and key sentence construction rules by comparing various pieces of Isu text with English translations that were recorded in the course of the Walhalla storyline. Then they were able to apply what they learned to their main goal: translating various Isu markings on the packaging of the game’s collector’s edition.
However, the work is far from finished. Valhalla makes it clear that the Isu were not such a monolithic civilization as the first thought, which explains the main differences between letters and syntax in different texts. Because the Isu text looks much different in older ones Assassin’s Creed games it is still unclear whether these specific findings can be applied to the entire series.
Access The Animus plans to cover even more topics in a future video, such as the Isu grading system and a huge in-game document known as the Canterbury file. It would probably be a chore to say the language is completely nailed down, but Walhalla narrative director Darby McDevitt has especially praised the achievement on Twitter. They are definitely up to something!