Meet the historian who helped bring 9th-century Baghdad to life in new Assassin's Creed game

After Ancient Egypt, Renaissance Italy, and the Viking Age, Ubisoft launched another Assassin's Creed franchise with historically accurate settings. This time, it features the stunning imagery of 9th-century Baghdad.

The problem for the Ubisoft animators is that 9th Century Baghdad no longer exists, and they had to recreate it for their latest creation, Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Raphaël Weyland is the Montreal-based historian who consulted on this project for three years.

"It was destroyed by time by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, so most of what we have today in Baghdad is from the 13th century onward. But, we wanted to have it in the 9th century, so we had to work with texts, artifacts and museums around the world," Weyland said in an interview.

Upholding the Ubisoft tradition of extensive research in their Assassin's Creed franchise, Mirage revisits this hub on the Silk Road. Weyland's research shows Baghdad was a city of culture, art and science, which is shown onscreen.

"We try to make it as authentic as possible, as immersive as possible and feel lived-in as possible," he said.

The gameplay even goes into side quests of astronomy and literature. Before studying the area, Weyland lived it.

"In another life, I was a tour guide and I toured the Middle East with groups and it's an area I know by touching it, feeling it," he said.

Assassin's Creed Mirage. (Source: Ubisoft)

He then specialized in Middle Eastern history. Nuggets of info from his thesis are buried in the game. "There's an encyclopedia in the game to help players that want to get deeper into history they can," he said.

Balancing authenticity and playability, the game has some fun facts built in. For example, a plot twist in the movie Inglorious Bastards is also relevant in Mirage. Weyland says the Ubisoft animators asked him an unusual question, and the answer made it into the game.

They asked me, 'How would people count on their fingers?' They would start like that and end up with the thumb,'" he said, as he started with his pointer fingers and extended each to his pinky finger before revealing his thumb.

Assassin's Creed Mirage. (Source: Ubisoft)

Mirage players explore the game and find surprising facts along the way. Weyland says gamers scrutinize the details onscreen: "People said, 'Oh, you put some ice there, there's no ice in the Middle East.' Yes, there is! They had ways even though it was 1,200 years ago," he said.

In Mirage, he says history provides the most interesting playground, one of the cradles of civilization.