Assassin’s Creed comic hides a secret, frustrated artist message

This year the Assassin’s Creed Franchise turns 15. In that time, the franchise has expanded into multiple games, mobile spin-offs, books, movies, shorts, and more. It’s a large, complicated universe that includes historical conspiracies, shadowy cults, and ancient aliens. And these ancient aliens, the Isu, have a complex language, and that language seems to have frustrated an artist working on a new release Assassin’s Creed cartoons

Since 2007 in the original Assassin’s Creed Adventure, each part of the franchise has added more and more lore. At this point, it’s a batshit wild universe and an important part of the madness are ancient beings, later called Isu, who were technologically advanced, lived on earth like gods long ago and were wiped out 77,000 years ago after a war with ancient humans who had enslaved them. Whatever the case, the Isu created all sorts of gizmos and trinkets that thousands of years later are still sought after by those obsessed with power. And many of these articles are in the Isu language, most of which has not been translated until 2021, when fans finally cracked it.

But apparently working with that language is a pain in the ass, as a bit of text in the recently released comic book seems to show, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – The Converts. At one point we see a close-up of an ancient Isu tablet covered in the language of the ancient aliens. And translated part of the text reads:

“If anyone knows exactly how to spell this shit it would be greatly appreciated”

It’s pretty easy to spot what this person was probably trying to say in the Isu language, even if it has a few errors. The message should probably read:

“If anyone can explain how to write this shit that would be greatly appreciated.”

This funny little message was first spotted by the Assassin’s Creed Super fans over at Access the Animus—the same people who first cracked the Isu language a few years back. They also discovered “several pieces of incorrect Isu language” in the comic, suggesting that the artists or writers involved did not receive enough information or instruction about the Isu language, hence the errors and the frustration.

my city contacted Ubisoft, the comic book writer, and the artists.

While some fans laughed heartily at this angry Easter egg, others were upset that the creators behind the comic book hadn’t consulted fan guides and translation tools before working on the book. However, it should be noted that it would be very strange for an official Ubisoft Approved Assassin’s Creed comic to rely on fan translations, assuming the people behind the comic were even aware of that work. (Which would explain why they included that Isu Easter egg in the first place: maybe they didn’t expect anyone else to read it!)

Personally, as a big fan of Assassin’s Creed and its wild lore, I totally understand how frustrating it must be to tell stories within this universe. It’s fun to experience the mess from the outside by looking inside, but working on it is probably a pain in the ass at times, and I don’t begrudge an artist if they take a little dig at how annoying and absurd it must be.