Asser (memory)

Asser was a virtual representation of one of Eivor Varinsdottir's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan in 2020 through the Portable Animus HR-8.5.

Description

A man searches for a sign from God.

Dialogue

Eivor entered a small church and saw a man looking over many scrolls.

• Asser: Your meaning is unclear, God of Gods. Please, there must be some other purpose for my life!
• Priest: You have not left the church in days. The stench offends even God's nose.
• Asser: I have been looking at his scripture for hours. God is giving me a sign. If only I could see it... see his light.
• Priest: A sign? God in Heaven. Give him a sign. Set him on his true path. Far away from me.
• Asser: Yes! Illuminate me, O Lord. Illuminate me!

Eivor speaking to Asser on his concerns

Eivor approached Asser.

• Eivor: What troubles you?
• Asser: God will speak to me, I know it. He will show me my true path. Send me a sign, O Lord. Illuminate my true path. For you are the shepherd and I am the lamb who follows your lamp.
• Eivor: God's light will show him his true path? Maybe I can illuminate the lecterns somehow to cease his prattling.

Eivor read the papers on the three lecterns nearby.

Pious Text:
If you make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life, He will provide for you what you desire most.

Priest's Writings:
My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with their lying tongues.

Calming Psalm:
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your rightful judgements...

Eivor blocking the windows with the shelfs

Eivor then went outside the church and blocked a window.

• Asser: Lord, your light falters! Please do not forsake me. Is the tenebrous pall of darkness my fate?

Eivor then unblocked the last window.

• Asser: My path is clear. I must throw off the shackles of brotherhood. I will dedicate my life to glorifying God, through another. My account must be one of the utmost grace, exhaustive, immortalizing the great acts of the prodigal Aelfred. Thank you, Lord, I will write a blessed manuscript praising Aelfred and his great works.

The man ran out of the church.

• Eivor: So, I have set him on a path to glorify Aelfred? That pompous Saxon? I hope his writing reeks as much as he does.

Eivor speaking to Asser in his study

Sometime later, Eivor found Asser within the Witan Hall in his study and spoke to him.

• Eivor: Asser, is it? How is your writing faring?
• Asser: Who are you? An admirer? Can it be true, that so soon upon my path, God has sent me adulation? I have only just begun to walk in Aelfred's footsteps. But please read my scribbles. Enlighten yourself about our great king.

Asser gave Eivor an annotated manuscript.

Annotated Manuscript:
In the 849th year of our Lord's incarnation, Aelfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, burst forth from the loins of his mother (too much?) at the royal vill of Wantage, in Berkshire. Wantage receives its name from Berroc Wood, because of the box trees (will people find this interesting?) His mother was named Osburh, an extremely devout woman, noble in mind, noble also by birth. (Needs a better start? on a dark and stormy night, a woman screamed?).

• Eivor: Thank you, I am sure it will be... informative.

Outcome

Through some meddling, Eivor convinced Asser to write a biography on Alfred.

Behind the scenes

Asser's note questioning how to better start Alfred's biography references to the infamous opening line of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford, which reads:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

References

• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla