A nation leader was any paramount leader of a polis in the classical period of Greece, whether in the capacity of its head of state or through de facto authority. At the onset of the Peloponnesian War, the King Archidamos of Sparta and the Athenian strategos Perikles were exemplars of these two respective iterations. The term is specific to this historical setting and is a feature of Assassin Layla Hassan's Animus sessions reliving the genetic memories of the Spartan misthios Kassandra the Eagle Bearer.[1]
Nation leaders during the Peloponnesian War supported either the Delian League or the Peloponnesian League and represented their faction's influence within a region although they were also subject to manipulation by the Cult of Kosmos, who sought to rule the Greek world, and control the Peloponnesian War to their liking. In order to do this, they either blackmailed the leader, as in the case of Arkadia's archon, Lagos,[2][3] or simply placed one of their own in said position.[4][5] Sometimes the leader was an ally of the Cult, supporting them, as in the case of the leader of Messara, the father of Melanthos, in the 420s BCE.[6]
While most of the leaders were men, Phoenix of Naxos Island was a woman.[7] Her friend,[8] the pirate Xenia and her crew had occupied Koressia, though Pirate Islands were nominally under the rule of the Delian League or the Peloponnesian League. Xenia's power was such that the title for the leader in the islands was 'Exiled Captain of the Pirate Islands'.[1]
The misthios Kassandra, in addition to killing the members of the Cult of Kosmos who were installed as nation leaders, was also hired to eliminate corrupt leaders at least twice.[9][10]
Layla Hassan's Animus sessions reliving Kassandra's memories were supplemented with biographies of various regional leaders Kassandra encountered through her journeys.[1]
After his parents' ostracism, Perikles triumphantly returned to Athens, rose to power, and rebuilt the city from the ashes of the Persian invasion, proving the strength of democracy in the process. Athens owed much of what it became to this man.
Life under Iobates's rule was uniquely oppressive. The people lived in constant fear, as he openly and regularly contracted mercenaries as private aides, relying on them more than his nation’s army.
In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (2018), set in Greece at the time of the Peloponnesian War, Nation Leaders are non-player characters who, as their name implies, represent the highest authority figure in each region of the game's world. Each region—and thus each Nation Leader—is always aligned with either Athens or Sparta, and every region save the starting location of Kephallonia has a Nation Leader.
The primary gameplay function of the Nation Leaders pertain to each region's Nation Power, a gauge which, when depleted, enables the player to engage in the region's battleground to flip the region to the opposing faction. Weakening Nation Power involves several activities, among them the killing of Nation Leaders. Nation Leaders by default remain at their heavily guarded bases called Leader Houses, but they wander outside these premises when the Nation Power is weak.
With some exceptions, all the Nation Leaders are randomly generated in model, name, and biography. A new Nation Leader periodically spawns after their predecessor has died. These exceptions include Perikles, the Nation Leader of the Attika region; Archidamos the Peaceful, the King of Lakonia; Phoenix, the mother of the protagonist and Nation Leader of Naxos Island; and several Cultists of Kosmos who are assassination targets like Kleon. Perikles, Kleon, and Archidamos, playing major roles in the story, are invulnerable, but the former die during the events of the story. After Perikles, Kleon, and Skylax are dead and Myrinne has been recruited, their respective regions' Nation Leaders begin randomly generating like the others.
Perikles, Kleon, Pausanias, and Archidamos are the only four historically-attested Nation Leaders in the game. The randomly generated Nation Leaders of other nations never correspond to their historical rulers even where the Nation Leader of Makedonia bears the title "King of Makedonia", and they can be killed any number of times.