Isu incarnation

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"A human host? Do you mean... rebirth? As one of them?"

―Loki, to Aletheia

Reborn Isu are human incarnations of the Isu. While initially believed that this process only happened with Juno's late husband Aita, incarnations of whom are referred to as Sages, it has since been discovered that incarnations of nine Asgardian Isu surfaced around the 9th century, predominantly within Scandinavia.

Where the Sages of Aita and Vejovis, another Isu, manifest in different individuals throughout human history, instances of the Asgardians' rebirth are only known to have occurred in one person each. Among that group were Eivor Varinsdottir, the incarnation of Odin; her adoptive brother Sigurd Styrbjornsson, Týr's reincarnation; and Svala, the rebirth of Freyja.

Sages

Main article: Sage

A Maya statue of a Sage's head in underground Tulum

The most prevalent Isu incarnations are those of the Isu Aita, known as Sages. These Sages reappeared many times throughout history, bore a physical resemblance to Aita, and were recognizable by their anisocoria and heterochromia.

Incarnated Asgardian Isu

Phenomenon

"All that power! All that potential, locked away. A god trapped in a prison of bones! The pain was necessary to free him!"

―The Maegester Fulke on Sigurd's nature as a Reborn Isu, 875 CE

Odin, seven of his most trusted Isu followers, and Loki, had their DNA, memories, and consciousnesses integrated into the human gene pool by using the Yggdrasil supercomputer paired with a catalyst stolen from the Capitoline Triad in hope of escaping the doom of their civilization and be reborn in human bodies millennia later. More specially, they injected their blood into human fetuses, prompting their DNA to remain dormant in future human bloodlines as a recessive trait. Eventually, a trigger would take place under specific circumstances that would give the Isu's DNA a dominant trait, manipulating their physical characteristics to match the ones from the respective Isu and slowly forcing the resurgence of their past memories and consciousnesses. Most notably, unlike Aita's many forms, the Reborn Isu were planned to only happen once. Another factor which complicated this plan was that, as with Sages, there was a risk the human could choose to not act on their Isu memories.

Characteristics

Predecessor's Impulses

In stark contrast to Sages who were only plagued by memories of their previous incarnation Aita, the Reborn Asgardians had aspects of their lives often partially or fully repeat themselves in the lives of their human incarnations. Like Odin, Eivor had a strong aversion to wolves, ^{[citation needed]} had the raven Sýnin as her familiar echoing Huginn and Muninn, and when connected to Yggdrasil, regularly lost an eye fighting alongside the einherjar in the simulation of Valhalla. In similar fashion, Sigurd mediated disputes and delivered judgements as jarl and had his right arm severed at the elbow, echoing how the Norse god of justice Týr lost his right arm to the wolf Fenrir in Norse mythology.

Halfdan Ragnarsson, the reincarnation of Thor, had a strong affinity for using his hammer "Orthstirr" in battle, regularly threw it, and was extremely paranoid about being poisoned, unknowingly copying Thor's use of Mjölnir and foreshadowing the thunder god's demise in Ragnarök from Jörmungandr's venom. Even Rig Reidarasson was haunted with strong impulses to kill the Hidden One Basim Ibn Ishaq, though he did not know his target's name and described him as a "man with the mark in the House of Shadows", unknowingly following Heimdall's initially fated role to kill Loki even as he was slain in turn during the Great Catastrophe.

Convenience of the incarnations

In the particular case of the Reborn Asgardians, the specific time period and the bloodline where they would be born were specially planned to happen at the same year span and region of the globe. As such, with the exception of Loki, all the Reborn Isu grew up between the end of the 8th century and beginning of the 9th century in bloodlines native to Northern Europe.

For unclear reasons, however, Heimdall's reincarnation Rig was born near Scandinavia but approximately twenty years before the other Reborn Isu, even though Heimdall had done his blood transfusion at the same time as his counterparts. When Rig tried to kill Loki's reincarnation Basim Ibn Ishaq in Constantinople, he returned to his crew stating that "[He] had become before [his] time", adding that he "was born too early and [was] alone, without [his] father [or] friends" after concluding that Basim had not been born yet.

In addition to this, the fact that Loki injected himself with the serum after the other Æsir left the chamber made his reincarnation be born in the Abbasid Caliphate's capital city of Samarra, Abbasid Caliphate far from the place of birth of the other Reborn Isu. By 872 CE, Basim was aware of and had accepted his past life as Loki.

Physical features and similarities

"Show me your neck!"

―Basim Ibn Ishaq to Eivor Varinsdottir, 877 CE

These incarnations could be identified by a mass of dark veins on their necks.

History

Isu Era

Desperate to save the life of her husband Aita, who had been left in a catatonic state after being used as subject test to the fifth method of salvation, Juno embarked on a quest to acquire the "Mead", a serum designed by the Capitoline Triad and kept under the guard of Jupiter and Minerva that would activate the latest solution to limit the Great Catastrophe's effects on the Isu. This particular innovation, if used correctly, could reincarnate some members of the Isu as humans in the distant future, but Jupiter and Minerva deemed it dangerous to use, believing it would damage the human genome in the process and eventually influence human history in an uncontrollable way. Desperate for the Mead, Juno investigated their research sites and found the Mímisbrunnr, which was meant to receive the Mead when ready. ^{[citation needed]} Soon after, she began to inquire and plot out multiple ways to take it in order to save her beloved, actions that eventually exiled her from the city guarding the Temple. When Odin visited Jötunheimr to meet Aletheia, she discovered that he also sought the seventh method and so decided to wait until she and her lover Loki dealt with him before deciding to collaborate with Odin to steal the serum.

Odin managed to successfully steal the Mead from the city of Útgarðar, but not without deceiving Minerva and battling with Jupiter himself. Juno told him to come to the experimental well in order to make the serum work. After Odin sacrificed his left eye in payment in order to use it as catalyst, the machine ^{[citation needed]} Mímir accepted this sacrifice and the serum was finally synthesized, much to Juno's delight. With both the Isu taking samples of the fluid, she cautioned him to use the serum moments before his death in order for it to work, as only the memories happening prior to the consumption of the concussion would be preserved within the new body. With the Mead now in hand, she was able to successfully insert her late husband's essence into a human bloodline, tweaking the functions of the solution to reincarnate his beloved indefinitely for the following millennia.

The Æsir using the "Mead" through the Yggdrasil device

Odin eventually finished the construction of the abandoned ^{[citation needed]} project in Scandinavia, near their territory, naming it Yggdrasil. During the midst of the Great Catastrophe, a group of Asgardian Isu comprising of Odin, Freyja, Týr, Thor, Sif, Heimdall, Iðunn, and Freyr managed to successfully upload their essences into the supercomputer before heading off to face their end in battle, gambling that Yggdrasil would successfully save them through a reincarnation in human bodies in the upcoming ages. Unbeknownst to them, Loki also snuck into the room and uploaded his essence as part of his two-step plan to first take revenge on Odin in the future for imprisoning his son Fenrir, and also to reunite with his lover Aletheia, who had her consciousness preserved in the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus.

Viking Age

During the Viking Age, the incarnations of the Æsir finally appeared. The first was Rig Reidarasson, a Viking of the 8th and 9th centuries who was the reincarnation of Heimdall. During his life, Rig was plagued by the memories of Heimdall, believing them to be visions of the gods. His life, adventures and struggles to seize the hallucinations were immortalized in the Rigsogur, a saga written by the monk Brissy the Elder.

In the 9th century, Thor and Sif were reincarnated respectively in the Vikings Halfdan Ragnarsson and his friend Faravid, though they were unaware of this link. In 865 CE, when King Ælla of Northumbria executed Halfdan's father Ragnar Lothbrok by throwing him into a pit of snakes, Halfdan and Faravid conquered his kingdom and executed Ælla in return in 867 CE.

In the mid-9th century in Rygjafylke, Norway, the Raven Clan who resided in the small settlement of Fornburg counted three Æsir incarnations among their members: the volva Svala for Freyja, the prince Sigurd Styrbojnsson for Týr and his foster sister Eivor Varinsdottir for Odin. In 870 CE, during a raid on one of Kjotve the Cruel's territories, Eivor captured his slave Gull, the reincarnation of Iðunn. Together, they eventually went up the Feiknstafir mountains to the Temple of Heimdall, where they found an Apple of Eden that had been locked away. When Gull touched the artifact, she recovered Iðunn's memories, and armed with the knowledge necessary to control it, used the artifact to restrain Eivor. As the Temple began to collapse from the damage sustained in Eivor's fight with Kjotve's men who also sought the treasure, Gull was left to her destiny on a precarious ledge with the Apple while Eivor decided to help her clan who was being attacked by Kjotve's Wolf Clan.

The same year in Constantinople, Sigurd met the Hidden One Basim Ibn Ishaq, a reincarnation of Loki who had become fully aware of his nature, and his acolyte Hytham. Recognizing the mark on Sigurd's neck, Basim pondered the possibility of him being Odin reborn and, as such, followed the Viking on a trip to his hometown to investigate further. In 872 CE, Basim became acquainted with Eivor on his arrival, granting her a Hidden Blade that had belonged to the late Hidden One Ammon. Together, the three Æsir incarnations fought Kjotve the Cruel, assaulting his fortress and killing him. This act permitted Harald Fairhair, Freyr's reborn self, to unite Norway under his crown. As Harald became the lord of Fornburg, Sigurd, Eivor, and Basim went to England in order to found a new colony while Svala returned to the Yggdrasil Chamber, guided by Freyja's memories, to enter a simulation of Valhalla.

Establishing the colony of Ravensthorpe in Mercia in 873 CE, Sigurd became the jarl of the village, working with Eivor to establish an alliance with the Sons of Ragnar. After that, Sigurd attributed to his sister the task of continuing to gain friends throughout England in order to expand the settlement while he and Basim adventured through the new lands. During this time, Basim tried to reveal to Sigurd his true nature, but when this failed, he decided to prompt the man to search for the Saga Stone, a door fragment from Yggdrasil's room with engraved Isu script that he hoped would spark Sigurd's memory. Some time after, Eivor assisted her brother with his search in Oxenefordscire, with the three Æsir incarnations allying themselves with Fulke, an Order of the Ancients member who possessed the artifact and studied both it and the Reborn Isu. Together, they fought Lady Eadwyn, who had previously imprisoned the scholar, reclaiming the Stone from her. After they recovered the relic, Basim let Fulke betray the group and take Sigurd as an hostage, suspecting that her research with a live subject would awaken his true nature.

In 874 CE, Eivor and Basim travelled to Cent, the place where Fulke had been reportedly seen by last. They ended up being tricked by the Ancient, who fled with Sigurd. The Hidden One and the Viking then found her sanctuary in Canterbury, discovering that Fulke had cut off Sigurd's arm and that she had took him to the fortress of Portcestre, in Suthsexe. In the year after, the two incarnations and their allies besieged the castle, with Eivor saving her brother and finally killing Fulke. Nevertheless, the torture that he had endured greatly altered his mind after being exposed to Týr's memories, as he saw himself as a god, becoming arrogant.

During one of her adventures, in early 876 CE, Eivor allied with Halfdan and Faravid to fight the rebelling King Ricsige and his Pict allies. After Halfdan became the new king of Northumbria, an argument arose between Faravid and the new king, the latter accusing his friend to poison him. This greatly affected Halfdan, who rapidly became depressed, though Eivor helped him to recover his morals.

During her journey in England, Eivor experienced several hallucinations of Odin, manifestations of his memories trying to emerge in her mind that sometimes spoke directly to her, constantly trying to direct her to the location of Yggdrasil's chamber. After Svala accepted Freyja's past as her own, the seer Valka moved to Ravensthorpe, to help Eivor understand the meaning of the visions by creating potions that permitted her to witness altered memories of Odin's time in Asgard, Jötunheimr, Svartálfaheimr, and Niflheimr.

In 877 CE, Sigurd and Eivor returned to Norway, entering the Yggdrasil vault by pronouncing the words carved on the Saga Stone. Inside, they encountered the supercomputer and used it to enter the simulation of Valhalla, encountering Svala as Freyja, who had been there for four years. Despite initially enjoying the simulation, Eivor realized that everything was a simulation and managed to convince her brother to leave, while Svala stayed. However, Odin's consciousness tried to force Eivor to stay in the simulation, with her fighting it in her mind and ejecting herself from the machine, repressing her Isu side.

Basim, who had tailed them to the site, had understood that Eivor was indeed the host of Odin's mind instead of Sigurd. He took Sigurd hostage but quickly released him as Eivor went to attack him. During the fight, Basim blamed the imprisonment of his son on a clueless Eivor, who in turn believed he had lost his mind. As the Hidden One was beat by Eivor, he decided to kill Sigurd instead in order to tease her, but she arrived in time to save her sibling. Eivor then proceeded to distract him in a last confrontation while Sigurd powered up Yggdrasil to trap Basim and sending his consciousness to the Grey. After this, Sigurd conceded his role of Ravensthorpe's jarl to his sister.

In January next year, Eivor led the assault that resulted on the Battle of Cippenham. Although the Vikings won the fight, conquering England in its totality, the confront resulted on several casualties on their side, including Soma, Hjorr Halfsson, and Hunwald. After giving the warriors their last rites, Eivor had a discussion about possible afterlives with Guthrum, venting to him that she would now seize her time among her friends and family rather than wish and strive for Valhalla after having witnessed its emptiness while in Yggdrasil's chamber.

Reborn Isu

• 
  Rig Reidarasson
  Reincarnation of Heimdall
  (c. 770s – c. 860s CE)
• 
  Svala
  Reincarnation of Freyja
  (died 873 CE)
• 
  Halfdan Ragnarsson
  Reincarnation of Thor
  (c. 790 – 877 CE)
• 
  Faravid
  Reincarnation of Sif
• 
  Basim Ibn Ishaq
  Reincarnation of Loki
  (born c. 844 CE)
• 
  Sigurd Styrbjornsson
  Reincarnation of Týr
  (born 842 CE)
• 
  Eivor Varinsdottir
  Reincarnation of Odin
  (born 847 CE)
• 
  Gull
  Reincarnation of Idun
• 
  Harald Fairhair
  Reincarnation of Freyr
  (c. 850 – c. 930 CE)

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Song of Glory (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
  • The Legend of Beowulf
  • The Way of the Berserker
  • River Raids
  • Mastery Challenge
  • Wrath of the Druids
  • The Siege of Paris
  • Dawn of Ragnarök
  • The Forgotten Saga
  • Shared History
  • The Last Chapter
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Geirmund's Saga
• Assassin's Creed: Rebellion – The Ravens' Wound
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla webcomic
• Little Miss Eivor
• Discovery Tour: Viking Age
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Sword of the White Horse
• Assassin's Creed: Escape Room Puzzle Book
• Assassin's Creed Roleplaying Game
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage