Layla Hassan

"I am, in a sense, a reader of the calculations. As the Isu were in days past. Perhaps one day I will be able to harness this talent to see into the future. To predict, to correct, to avoid. That would be worth something."

―Layla Hassan

Layla Hassan (1984 – 2020) was a member of the Assassins and former employee of Abstergo Industries. Forced to leave Abstergo following a Templar attempt on her life, she was offered a position with the Assassins by their leader, William Miles.

Though initially reluctant, she eventually joined the Assassins and became an important member of the Brotherhood, taking control of her own cell within a year. In 2018, her exploration of the memories of the Spartan misthios Kassandra led her to the ancient Isu complex of Atlantis, where she received the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus from Kassandra.

With the Staff in hand, Layla made contact with the Isu Aletheia, whose consciousness resided within the Staff, and took on the title of Heir of Memories. During the trials prepared by Aletheia, Layla lost control and accidentally killed her friend and fellow Assassin cell member Victoria Bibeau.

Following this event, Layla's relationships with the other members of her Assassin cell became strained, and she was reassigned to an Assassin cell with Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. Her old teammate Kiyoshi performed one last mission with her, in addition to Shaun and Rebecca. Together the four of them traveled to Tokyo to infiltrate an Abstergo facility, investigate their experiments and extract Dr. Kazui, a modern day descendant of the Venetian Assassin Bastiano da Mezzo, whom Abstergo were holding hostage to extract his DNA. Eventually, they were able to succeed and escape the facility with Dr. Kazui. Following this, Kiyoshi left Layla's group for good.

Months later, the team received a strange message that promised a solution, which led them to a 9th century Viking grave in New England in United States. Using the Animus, Layla was able to relive the memories of the shieldmaiden Eivor Varinsdottir. They worked together to stop a possible Third Disaster, and Layla's journey ended below Hordaland, Norway within the Yggdrasil Chamber which had been continously running for centuries. Making the ultimate sacrifice, Layla stayed behind in the Grey with the entity known as "The Reader".

Biography

Early life

Photo of a young Layla in 1989

Born in Cairo in 1984, to parents Ashraf and Zeniab Hassan, Layla and her family emigrated to the United States in 1986 when she was two, before finally settling in Queens, New York. It was there that Layla grew up alongside her two younger brothers, Rami and Kaden. She was granted American citizenship through a process known as naturalization.

In her childhood, Layla often drove her parents crazy as she always disassembled her toys rather than playing with them. She also disliked surprises and objects that seemed to work by magic, Growing up, Layla began showing a penchant for rule-breaking and she disliked the regimented nature of formal schooling, due to having an unpleasant experience of being punished for playing by the rules. This cemented her existing tendency to buck authority.

At some point during her youth, Layla found and became a fan of the band Rha Victoria. She even met them backstage after a gig of theirs at the Madison Square Garden in 2000.

After high school, Layla was pressured by her father into post-secondary enrollment despite her plans not to continue studies as well as her poor grades. However, she showed promise in engineering and this led her father to enroll her in the University of California in Berkeley under the electrical engineering program.

Early years at Abstergo

However, Layla remained uncommitted to her studies and found herself thriving in the campus' highly politicized atmosphere, feuding with the school's administration. It was during this time she met Sofia Rikkin, who was part of a delegation of Abstergo touring the campus with the company's "young innovators" recruitment program.

Sofia was intrigued by Layla's interest in technology, and as such offered her a job with Abstergo where she could work her way up to the Animus lab. In 2006, Layla dropped out of the university and joined Abstergo Industries, working first in the I+D division of Abstergo Fitness and later in the Research and Development division.

Over the years, Abstergo used several of her ideas to make adjustments to the Animus, though she was never made aware of the company's Templar affiliations. Although Layla worked for Abstergo for eleven years, the one thing she wanted more than anything else was a promotion to work on the Animus Project. However, she was denied this offer due to her numerous transgressions against Abstergo protocols.

Egyptian revolution activism

In January 2011, protests against then-president Hosni Mubarak and his regime erupted in Cairo and other Egyptian cities. Layla, feeling the need for revolution, asked for a leave of absence and returned to her home country. She was present for the Tahir Square demonstrations. Although her fluency in Arabic was minimal, she managed to become strongly involved in the country's revolutionary youth culture. She helped her new friends communicate via social media and also in hacking digital devices despite the widespread government censorship.

In July 2013, after the coup d'état that installed Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as president, Layla decided to reluctantly return to America to work for Abstergo again.

Return to Abstergo

Layla returned to Abstergo and continued her work there for the next three years: she was issued her own portable Animus, but her satisfaction with her job grew stale, as her infamous reputation caught the Templars attention and she started suffering disciplinary measures. In one occasion, she was harassed by Juhani Otso Berg, because of her lack of rule following. In February 2014, Layla made a suggestion to Sofia about the designs and functions of the Animus that would be sent to the Aerie facility. This information was vital in the construction of the Animus 4.3, used later, in 2016, on the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center, and of the Animus 4.35, used on Abstergo Headquarters in London, but she never got to know this, since Sofia started ignoring her due to her trangressions on the company. Layla soon discovered that they had started working on a Portable version of the Animus models, information that was hidden from her. The near-lack of contact with Sofia angered Layla over the denied professional opportunity. She also idealized and projected a new Portable Animus and had planned to present her new design to Sofia and finally be a part of the Animus team. However due to the Assassin attack on the Abstergo Foundation in October 2016, all contact with Sofia stopped.

At some point, Layla met Deanna Geary, a member of the Medical Team, and the two became best friends. With her help, she also secretly started modifying her Animus and, much to Dee's worry, running experimental simulations with DNA of those not related to her. After months of work, she managed to build an Animus capable of processing DNA not her own and also excessively damaged DNA.

Assignment in Egypt

Layla using her Animus HR-8 in Egypt

In October 2017, as part of a Historical Tactical Team, Layla and Deanna were assigned by Simon Hathaway to find and retrieve an important historical artifact from the Qattara Depression in Egypt. During this expedition, she discovered the artifact to be the mummies of the ancient Hidden Ones Bayek and Amunet. Without informing her superiors, Layla used her own Portable Animus to relive their memories from around the year 48 BCE in order to prove her worth to the Animus Project, while Deanna monitored her vitals remotely at a nearby hotel.

Layla's refusal to check in with Abstergo led to the company deploying Sigma Team to find her and Deanna. Layla was swiftly woken up by Deanna during her Animus session. After recovering from a brief moment of disorientation, Layla attached Amunet's Hidden Blade, that she had recovered earlier, to her forearm with tape, making use of the skills she'd obtained through the Bleeding Effect to dispatch her attackers. Through a transceiver from one of the deceased operatives, Layla helplessly listened in on Sigma Team as they stormed Deanna's hotel room and eliminated her. Being stuck in the cavern due to a sandstorm, Layla screamed in frustration and vowed to complete her mission and bring down the organization.

Working with the Assassins

Layla meeting William

Later on in her Animus session, Layla was found by William Miles, Mentor of the Assassins after he had caught wind of her situation. He offered her a position within the Brotherhood and faced with no other option, Layla agreed to work with him, but refused to actually join as a member.

By the end of that year, she relented on her stance and became a member of the Assassins, befriending several members, including Charlotte de la Cruz, Arend Schut-Cunningham, and Harlan Cunningham. As part of her first Assassin mission, she and Kiyoshi Takakura went on a mission to Quebec. They searched the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec for a relic which had belonged to the Recollects. Things went sideways when they were confronted by Abstergo, but Kiyoshi's past as a yakuza helped him save Layla from danger.

Herodotos' Lost Histories

Layla with the Spear of Leonidas

In October 2018, during her quest for Isu artifacts, Layla discovered the Lost Histories of Herodotos, the earliest known Greek historian. From this work, she learned of the Spartan misthios Kassandra who had wielded an Isu weapon, the Spear of Leonidas. Leading a cell consisting of Kiyoshi, Alannah Ryan and ex-Abstergo employee Dr. Victoria Bibeau, Layla went out searching for the broken spear to relive Kassandra's memories.

After reliving Kassandra's memory of discovering Atlantis for the first time, Layla and her crew sailed from London to the coast of Santorini aboard the Altaïr II, hoping to find the secret underwater entrance to the ancient city. Layla, having found the entrance and the city, further explored Atlantis, looking for a way to open it. Not finding anything then, she decided to further relive Kassandra's memories to find out how she might open the city.

Kassandra passing the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus to Layla

Once Layla had the necessary knowledge to open the city, she realigned the mirrors reflecting the light beam and the city was opened. It was then that she met with Kassandra herself, kept alive by the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus. Having travelled the world for millenia and personally witnessed most of their exploits throught history, Kassandra warned that as the Templars and Assassins represent order and chaos, either side prevailing over the other would result in the world's doom. Declaring Layla the prophesied one who would bring balance, she requested her to, when her job with the artifact is over, destroy the Staff and all the Pieces of Eden with it, continuing Kassandra's life work. At last, Kassandra passed the staff on to Layla and immediately lost her immortality and expired – Layla held her in her arms as she died. Layla then returned to the Animus to synchronize with the remainder of Kassandra's memories.

Unlocking the Seal of Atlantis

Whilst exploring Kassandra's memories, Layla encountered a hologram of the Isu Aletheia, who guided Kassandra to hold onto the Staff until she could hand it over to Layla, whom Aletheia referred to as the "Heir of Memories". Upon exiting the Animus, Layla heard Aletheia's voice coming from the Staff, instructing her to identify the three symbols to unlock the Great Seal to Atlantis. Layla, with the assistance of the Altaïr II, later located the symbols in the tombs of Agamemnon, Orion, and Eteokles.

All the while, Bibeau expressed concern for Layla's well-being while Aletheia warned that someone called the Interloper sought to stop her. Realizing that Kassandra's associate, Phidias, knew the meaning of these symbols, Layla relived the memories of Kassandra's brother Deimos, who was responsible for the sculptor's murder, despite the dangerous effects on her mind, at which Bibeau was forced to remotely pull her out.

After hearing from Aletheia that the Interloper was male, Layla soon lost contact with the Altaïr II as it was attacked by the Sigma Team. Uncertain of her team's status, Layla went to unlock the Seal, realizing that the three words Phidias had repeated when Alexios assaulted him were the password. Subsequently, she was relieved to hear that her team had fought off the Sigma Team. Furthermore, Alannah Ryan claimed that someone was listening in on their communications, so the Altaïr II was forced to go dark until it was safe to open up Atlantis.

Trials of Atlantis

Having successfully unlocked Atlantis, Layla entered the room, where she was greeted by Aletheia and joined by Victoria, who was concerned about her friend's wellbeing. Aletheia tasked Kassandra to enter simulations of realms created by her in order to master the staff. This was so that Layla would not fall to the Staff's influence and corruption.

Layla with a dying Victoria

As Layla continued to relive Kassandra's memories while the latter explored the simulations, Layla's behaviour became increasingly aggressive, which caused Victoria to forcefully pull Layla out of the Animus, citing the Bleeding Effect to be affecting her. This culminated in Layla accidentally killing Victoria with the Staff. Horrified at what she'd done, Layla was approached by Aletheia, who proclaimed that Layla might not be the true "Heir of Memories" after all, and that she needed time to reflect. Layla refuted Aletheia's statement, blaming the Staff for her actions though Aletheia reminded her that she dictated who the "Heir" was and not Layla. Layla later agreed to leave and take some time to reflect, requesting Aletheia to look after Victoria until she returned.

Layla and Otso Berg facing off

Layla subsequently returned to the chamber, wishing to finish the trials despite Aletheia's apprehension. Nevertheless, Layla was able to convince the Isu to let her back in. After reliving Kassandra's memories of her trials' completion, Layla was quickly woken up by Aletheia, who informed her that the Interloper, revealed to be Juhani Otso Berg, had arrived. Layla was briefed by the Templar of the things that had transpired since her team's discovery of Herodotos' Lost Histories. As Layla tried to negotiate with Berg by using the Staff to help his daughter Elina, Otso Berg interrupted and threatened her to hand over the Staff.

The two engaged in a fight which saw Layla defeating Berg with the Staff. She then proceeded to impale Berg's back with the Staff, rendering him immobile. As Berg passed out from his injuries, Layla approached Victoria's body, taking the earphones off her ear. In doing so, Layla regained communications with Alannah and her team, informing her of what had transpired and requested the team to pick her up from the vault. Following this event however, trust between the team broke down and Layla had to be reassigned to another cell.

Tokyo extraction

Layla infiltrating the Tokyo Abstergo facility

In mid-2020, Layla and her recently assigned replacement cell consisting of Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings traveled to Tokyo and reunited with Kiyoshi. Layla had previously intercepted a message from the Tokyo Abstergo facility involving extensive analysis of Isu artifacts upon non-voluntary subjects. While the main entrance was poorly guarded, the team entered through the roof bypassing their security. An informant within the facility left the group a note encrypted within an Animus, after obtaining and decrypting the note they discovered that the Templars were performing experiments on a Staff of Eden. After Layla, the only one with detailed Animus experience and training, entered the simulation of the Venetian Assassin Bastiano da Mezzo, they discovered that their informant was his modern-day descendant, Dr. Kazui, and they moved to extract him. Intent on hindering the Templars' plans, the group moved to the secure DNA analysis room and destroyed Dr. Kazui's DNA.

The group safely found Dr. Kazui before Abstergo could use him. On the way they also analysed any data and documents they could about their experiments regarding the Staff. Disguising the doctor in an Abstergo guard's uniform, the four Assassins were successfully able to exfiltrate him before Abstergo knew about it. Along the way however, the doctor got cut and trailed blood leaving clues. Returning to the premises, any trace of Dr. Kazui had to be wiped clean. They also stopped to erase his DNA data from the Abstergo database. Before they could leave they were cornered by Layla's nemesis Otso Berg, no longer a paraplegic. They faced off as the building began to be engulfed in flames. After a four-on-one fight, Otso Berg was subdued and the four Assassins escaped. This was the last time Kiyoshi worked with Layla.

Finding the Wolf-Kissed

Layla with Shaun and Rebecca in New England

After the events in Atlantis, Layla's relationships with Kiyoshi and Alannah became strained. By May 2020, she had been reassigned to an Assassin cell with Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane because of their experience with Desmond Miles when he killed Lucy Stillman while being influenced by an Apple of Eden. In August the same year, the Earth's magnetic field continued to increase in potency since the 2012 coronal mass ejection, resulting in huge electromagnetic disturbances worldwide creating an aurora borealis over the entire world. The team received a strange message, from an unknown location, that promised a solution, which eventually led them to a Viking grave in North America dating to the ninth century. Using her Animus, Layla was able to relive the memories of the Norse warrior, Eivor Varinsdottir. Shaun also placed a mood stabilizer on Layla's neck, to ensure she did not succumb to the Staff's influence again.

Layla completing an Animus Anomaly

Initially, Layla revealed difficulty while trying to synchronize to Eivor, as two different data streams overlapped in her DNA would sometimes destabilize the simulation. While inside the simulation, Layla encountered ten strange floating symbols that, when touched, revealed a complex digital structure, with a data packet at its top. Each one of the packets included a small clip of video that, when coupled together, formed an Isu memory that showed nine members of the Isu uploading their DNA to the human gene pool using an odd device, intending to reincarnate themselves in the future. Layla also witnessed some visions in the Viking's memories that confirmed to the cell that Eivor was indeed the late reincarnation of Odin, as the visions represented altered versions of the Isu's own memories.

After synchronizing with Eivor's memories, ending with her discovery of the Yggdrasil Chamber below Hordaland, Layla travelled to Norway to find the Isu vault. After find a way through the debris of the chamber, Layla connected herself to the Yggdrasil supercomputer, dropping the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus in the proccess and becoming vulnerable to the radiation present within the cave.

Layla meeting Basim in the Grey

She ended up entering the broken simulation of Valhalla that Eivor had experienced and eventually managed to access the Grey. There, she found Basim Ibn Ishaq, Loki's incarnation, and successfully slowed the machine down to return the planet to its normal state, but unknowingly released the former Hidden One. After noticing Basim's absence, she encountered "the Reader". He informed her that there was a specific node in time that demanded the world to end, with the event that she had just stopped being an attempt. Because of that, he was analyzing diverse calculations, trying to understand what the Assassins could do beyond that point, when Layla slowed down the Yggdrasil, to stop another eventual catastrophe.

Layla joins the Reader in the Grey for eternity

Layla then suggested the analysis of what could've happened if the Second Disaster hadn't been stopped - perhaps the survivors could've learned something from it and would, somehow, prevent it from happening again. An hopeful Reader then hypothesized that the solution could be in those timelines that he had left aside, inserting them in his calculations. In order to manage to read each one of the billions of calculations in time, Layla volunteered herself to stay in the simulation to help him, to which The Reader quickly informed her that if she disconnected from the device at that moment, she would still have over a minute before succumbing to the outside radiation. In part to atone for the people she had hurt and redeem herself, Layla decided to stay with him and continue to search for a solution, in the process becoming a being of pure light.

From her new residence, the Grey, Layla sent one last transmission to her teammates. She told them not to come looking for her, noting the peril of such a task. Letting them know she was okay was good enough, and that she would help from the beyond if she could with calculations of the future. Following the death of her physical body her brother Ramy sent her an email expressing his worry at her absence, an email she would not be able to respond to.

Personality and traits

Layla screaming her frustrations at Abstergo

During her early years, Layla Hassan was noted by her colleagues for her strict adherence to policy and protocol. On the occasions in which she was forced to act outside of these boundaries, she often took on an apologetic tone; this was shown on at least one occasion when she emailed Juhani Otso Berg regarding his use of her allocated parking space at Abstergo's offices. Eventually, however, Layla's frustration at the perceived lack of respect from her colleagues convinced her to act outside of the company protocol and attempt to "prove herself" by undertaking the mission to sequence Bayek's genetic memories, alone, save for Deanna on the other end of a phone.

Layla seems somewhat addicted to the Animus and the freedom it gives her. This is evident by how she reacts when Victoria pulls her out with no warning. Along with the Staff's meddling and her experiences of the Bleeding Effect from Deimos and Kassandra, Layla has become prone to sudden bursts of anger, although she later forgets what she did or why. Having been affected by the power of the Staff, Layla taunted Berg after defeating him. Layla killing Victoria was later compared to the 2012 incident when Desmond Miles killed his ally Lucy by her former-teammate Kiyoshi in 2019.

Layla smoking

By 2020, Layla had started exhibiting depressive and nihilistic symptoms. In addition, she also started self-destructive behavior with her smoking and downing pills. Despite the mood stabilizer in her neck, Layla could still hear the hum of the Staff even with it being locked in a glass box; this hum would usually make her stare longingly at it before breaking herself away. She also had dark circles under her eyes, being constantly tired. Despite this apparent change in personality, Layla still valued her allies, new and old, selflessly choosing to stay in the Yggdrasil Chamber with the Reader and turn off the device.

Equipment and skills

After reliving the memories of the Medjay Bayek, Layla experienced the Bleeding Effect and was able to perform freerunning, leaps of faith and assassinations flawlessly. Layla is also an adequate swimmer, being able to dive underwater to find the hidden city of Atlantis, albeit with the assistance of scuba gear.

Once Layla had found Aya's hidden blade she taped it to her forearm as a make-shift hidden blade. With it she was able to dispatch the members of Sigma Team sent to find her without much effort. After being bestowed the Staff of Hermes, Layla was able to fight efficiently with her Bleeding Effect as her only training. She was able to defeat several members of Sigma Team and even succeeded in incapacitating the squadron's leader Juhani Otso Berg. She was also able to pinpoint Berg's lower spinal cord and sever it, effectively rendering him a paraplegic.

Behind the scenes

Layla Hassan is a character first introduced in Assassin's Creed: Origins as the new modern day story protagonist. She was voiced by Chantel Riley, who also performed her motion-capture.

Layla (ليلى) is a feminine Arabic name meaning 'night', while Hassan (حسن) is a common Arabic surname meaning 'strong, good'. Layla's father, Ashraf Hassan, shares his birth name with Ashraf Ismail, the game director of Origins.

Around Layla's equipment are a Moogle doll, a Cactuar statuette, and a Chocobo sticker. This was from a collaborative crossover with Assassin's Creed and the Final Fantasy series, particularly Final Fantasy XV.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Origins (first appearance)
• Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
  • The Fate of Atlantis
• Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece
• Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun (appears in flashback(s))
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
• Discovery Tour: Viking Age
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice – Tokyo XXI

An image gallery is available for Layla Hassan

References

de:Layla Hassan es:Layla Hassan fr:Layla Hassan it:Layla Hassan pl:Layla Hassan pt-br:Layla Hassan ru:Лейла Хассан uk:Лейла Хасан zh:蕾拉·哈桑