Assassin’s Creed Mirage introduces us to the intriguing character of Basim Ibn Ishaq. Born around 844 in Samarra, Abbasid Caliphate, Basim is the son of Ishaq, the architect responsible for the construction of the Great Mosque of Samarra. After his father was exiled and died impoverished due to someone else taking credit for his work, Basim was inspired to fight injustice and wished to join the Hidden Ones. However, he was frequently tormented by nightmares of a monstrous djinn, which were in fact a representation of his repressed memories as Loki.

Basim made a living as a thief in Anbar, where he became acquainted with the Master Assassin Roshan. In an effort to impress her, he stole a Memory Seal from the caliph’s Winter Palace, but during his theft, he was forced to kill the caliph Al-Mutawakkil in self-defense. This act led him to become a fugitive and he was subsequently rescued by Roshan, who brought him to the Hidden Ones’ base at Alamut to induct him into the brotherhood. After completing his training, Basim was sent to Baghdad alongside several of his fellow Hidden Ones in order to investigate the presence of the Order of the Ancients. As he dismantled the Order’s presence in the city by identifying and assassinating its various members, Basim rose through the Hidden Ones’ ranks, eventually becoming a Master Assassin himself.

During this time, Basim began to question his own nature and was eventually encouraged by the Order leader Qabiha to investigate an Isu temple underneath Alamut to find answers to his questions. His former mentor Roshan tried to stop him, being aware of Basim’s true nature, but he defeated her and entered the temple, which he discovered to be a former prison for Loki. Following a brief internal struggle, Basim ultimately regained and embraced his memories as Loki. Recalling that Loki’s lover Aletheia had her consciousness trapped in the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus and that Odin had both imprisoned their son Fenrir and banished his siblings Jörmungandr and Hel, Basim began looking for a way to reunite his family and take revenge on Odin, who had also used Yggdrasil to be reborn.