zorthania

[zorthania]

First of all, loveee your bytham fics! Wondering what your opinions on the merge between loki and basim are. Do you think Basim is evil? You write him so soft, but it never toes the line of ooc!

First of all anon thank you for the ask! <3 I'm glad you like my lil fics I'm trying my best :)

Second of all you brought up a particular subject I love to rant/ramble about so buckle up lmao.

More under the cut. WARNING SPOILER ALERT for: AC Odyssey, AC Valhalla, AC Mirage, AC: The Golden City.

All images have alt-text :)

My opinions about the merge are varied and long, so I'll start off by answering your question first.

Do I think Basim is evil? No. Absolutely not.

This is because I really don't think it's ever as simple as someone being 'good' or 'evil'. You could say I'm getting too pedantic about it, but from the very first game in the Assassin's Creed the idea that nothing is ever just black or white has been stressed upon constantly. 

For this reason I believe Basim is a fantastic character to focus on in this series. He is the poster child of 'morally grey'.

So yeah, I've seen Basim (or Loki) being called a villain but I don't think that's true. I think he's an antihero.

But before I get to that, let's talk about the merge. I've seen the merge being described as something unfortunate, something that ripped away Basim's own personality and changed him into something he wasn't. I genuinely believe that that is not true.

Basim is who he has always been.

The thing to remember is that Loki has always been a part of him. He manifested himself as Nehal in Basim's early childhood, because young Basim was getting traumatised by nightly terrors. What he thought were visions of Djinn was, in his words, “a crippling memory from a past life”. The Djinn was Loki's nightmare, and poor little boy Basim was reliving it every single night. 

Enter Nehal.

From little asides in the game, from their own conversations, it is clear Basim and Nehal had a very close bond. She banters with him, teases him, scolds him, fights with him. In the House of Wisdom, Basim tells us he used to sneak in there as a child with his best friend, and they spent many nights reading together (this is one of my favourite things about his childhood <3). Nehal has a distinct personality of her own, with her own interests, her own perspectives, her own opinions that she offers to Basim constantly. None of it is ever forced on him, he rejects her opinions and her advice many times over the course of the game. And while she (often vocally) disagrees, she respects his choices.

Then the events of Mirage happen. Basim discovers the 'truth' about Nehal, that she's not real, that she's just a part of him. Just waiting for him to accept her.

I want to take a step to the side and bring up Eivor's potential-merge moment from AC Valhalla. Because the difference between that moment and Basim’s is astounding. Throughout the game, Odin is there as an intermittent voice in the back of her head, posing questions on her moralities and her choices specifically when she kills someone with power, whose death would have major consequences. He isn't there to give her companionship or even friendship, his appearances to her look like a political advisor offering his opinions in statecraft to a leader. (Fwiw, I have not yet taken his advice once in my Valhalla gameplay lmao).

Odin: You have earned your place here, Eivor. Seize it! Eivor: Stand aside! My people need me! Odin: I have given you everything you wanted. Everything you needed! Eivor: You gave me nothing! It was all me! Odin: Yet I cleared your path. I guided your axe! Eivor: You were a fly, buzzing in my ear! Odin: How dare you deny me! Everything you believe in stirs before you! Yet you question all! You question the very gods!

And later:

Eivor: Your corpse hall is nothing but a dream! Odin: Nothing but a dream? A dream is as real as anything in this world! Do dreams not inspire? Do dreams not make us fearful? Do they not push men to their greatest glories! Eivor: Then I am done with dreaming! Odin: Stand and face me, you feeble-armed thrall!Leave me now and you are nothing! With me you have wisdom! Glory! Power! What more do you need! Eivor: Everything else.

Compare it to Nehal and Basim’s:

Basim: It is done. Nehal: No, Basim. It is only the beginning. For us. For what lies ahead. A deeper understanding of the world we left behind. And our place in it. Basim: All my life I wrestled with who I was. Who I was meant to be. And there you were. All this time. The side of me I resisted. A reflection of who we once were. Nehal: Of who we shall be once more. There is so much that awaits us. A new world. Let me show you. Basim (shakily): I will never see you again, will I? Nehal: (shakes head) Basim: Will I be… alone? Nehal: You are never alone.

So there it is. Odin tries to make Eivor choose him. He tries to bend her will, tries to trap her, to tempt her and goad her into accepting him. 

Loki/Nehal does none of those things to Basim. Instead, he/she offers Basim companionship. A complete understanding of his self. Purpose and surety in his life. Something that Basim has been lacking, has been desperate to find his entire life.

Basim is scared, sure. Who wouldn't be? But he asks if he will ever be alone. And Nehal tells him, never. He will never be alone.

Because, and now we come to Loki, he won't be.

Let's talk about Loki. Is he evil? And you know what anon, I have to give you a resounding no for that too.

Loki is, let's face it, a bit of a pathetic asshat. He gripes, he connives, he grumbles and makes annoying faces behind Odin's back. But he's not evil. He just, idk, really loves his gf and his kids man.

From one of my many conversations with @project-zorthania on discord:

Odin (who is also an asshat lbr) condescends to Loki. None of the Aesirs treat Loki with any trust or respect. Now I'm not saying Loki was completely innocent. I'm not sure how much of the original Norse mythology is supposed to be canonical in this series, and by all accounts Loki is a hell of a troublemaker. But at the core of it all is the fact that the Aesir have never trusted him because he's half-Jotunn. He's always been the outsider.

Loki's wife Sigyn is mentioned once (and not by name) in this series, so the central point of his motivations is his mythologically canonical girlfriend, Angrboda. Aka Aletheia.

(Side note I adore Aletheia. Every time I saw her in Odyssey I lit up like a light bulb. She's so badass. Dikastes of Atlantis who was instrumental in getting Juno banished for human experiments, a human-sympathising Isu who was also a hacker. And now she's also a mother of three. Hot damn.)

Loki is already unhappy with the Aesir. The one truly joyful facet of his life is his lover and their children. He loves his kids, wants to keep them safe and spend more time with them. He tries to sneak his son into Asgard to keep him close. Odin discovers the son and imprisons him.

The interesting thing about Asgard (and Elysium/the Underworld/Atlantis in Odyssey) is that we don't truly know what they looked like. All these mythical places are seen through the lens of the protagonists, our player characters. Sure, there's some Isu-ness in the architecture, the dialogues, the 'devices'. But on the whole, Atlantis still has ancient Greek architecture, the people still wear chitons and sandals because that is what Kassandra expects to see. Similarly, Asgard is just a more grand, magical version of what a Norse city would look like.

I am stressing all this because we know that that's not actually the case. The Isu were an advanced civilisation, sure, but they weren't actually gods. The Nornir were confirmed to be compilers of a great calculating software. Yggdrasil was a simulation chamber. Thor's hammer was probably an advanced weapon with, idk, sci-fi electric laser stuff going on. 

Loki's son was probably not a giant wolf.

I would like you to picture a young boy being snuck into a new strange place by his father. Imagine him being locked up instead. Imagine a teenage boy breaking his chains and trying to run. Imagine Odin beating that boy bloody and chaining him again, all because a probability machine told him that the boy would be the cause of his (eventual, inevitable) death.

That is what happened to Fenrir. Is it so hard to imagine Loki's rage? How he lost what little respect and faith he had in the Aesir?

Here’s some notes found in Urdr’s Well in Asgard, clearly written by Loki to Fenrir. The first is from my own gameplay taken a week ago, the second is from Zorthania’s stream from last year:

Here's a snippet of conversation between Loki and Angrboda (from one of the Animus Anomalies):

Lastly, here is a picture of a Literal Baby 🥺:

I could go on about this for hours, man. There’s so many more notes and hints and conversations that paint a picture of a flawed (Isu) man just trying to look out for his family.

When Loki merges with Basim, he is driven by two things: vengeance, and the need to bring his family back together. He needs to accomplish these goals no matter who or what stands in his way. But he’s more than just Loki now. He is Basim, and Basim has more than just these goals. If there’s a greater cause that’s not in the way of his own personal ones, then he’ll gladly and enthusiastically work for it.

And that brings me back to my final point. Basim is not a hero, he is not a villain. He is an antihero. This is from the Wikipedia article for antihero:

Post-merge, Basim continues to do his work as a Hidden One. He does so well, in fact, that despite whatever qualms Rayhan must have had about him (making Hytham spy on him even lol), Basim is made the bureau leader for Constantinople. Sure, his personal agenda is very much active. But at the same time, he fights the Order of the Ancients on behalf of the Hidden Ones. He ensures their strong presence in Constantinople by the end of TGC. He recognises that Kjotve is a major problem because he’s a high-ranking member of the Order. 

During Valhalla, you see him ensure that Hytham’s place in Ravensthorpe is secure, that their shared mission of re-establishing the Hidden Ones in England is successful. You see hints and implications of Basim finding more resources and information that could be important for the Hidden Ones and forwarding them to Hytham. He’s still a Hidden One. He’ll always be one.

From the ending of AC Valhalla:

William Miles: So what next? Where will Basim go? Basim: As far as I can, William. William Miles: I feared as much. Basim: Do not. I cherish the Creed that guides us. I always have.

I do not think Loki and Basim are two different beings at this point. After the merge, Basim is just Basim, just an “Enhanced” version. Basim always refers to himself as himself, even when he could be talking about Loki. He speaks of Fenrir as if he was his own son. And yet he never claims the name Loki for himself. I’ve always thought that was so fascinating. It implies a true and complete merge of the two personalities, and yet, Basim was not the one consumed in that merge. Loki is accepted, but Basim continues to be the dominating identity.

Basim is who he has always been in both Valhalla and Mirage, and no, that doesn’t mean he was always evil. It means he never was just ‘the bad guy’ and that he was and continues to be a flawed, selfish, kind, helpful, dangerous, charismatic, complex man.

Thank you for the ask and sorry for the HUGE ramble lol! <3 you are so brave if you managed to read the whole thing <3

#basim ibn ishaq #💕 #Lovely analysis

[zorthania]

Fear stems from a lack of control, and this man just confessed to finding comfort in letting the world do with him as it pleases.

Do you understand just how incredible Hytham really is? Basim sure does.

#bytham #hytham #basim ibn ishaq #the golden city #this scene lives rent free in my head #my bytham

[zorthania]

i'm very behind on my bythamber writing challenge, have some judgy old men to make up for it- thanks

#bytham #hytham #basim ibn ishaq #my bytham #i think they've been hanging around makira a little too much #someone toss some nail polish basim's way and call it a day

[zorthania]

let's play a game called, "is it fanfic or canon?"

#bytham #hytham #basim ibn ishaq #the golden city #never forget that hytham canonically made basim bleed #This continues to be one of my absolute favourite scenes in the golden city 💕💕 fuck me #my bytham

[zorthania]

a belated birthday piece for @sonderlivra

happy bytham kisses sweet pea <3

(bonus shenanigans below the cut hahahah)

#basim ibn ishaq #hytham #bytham #eivor varinsdottir #my bytham

[zorthania]

I read your post that is about what if Basim names his eagle companion "little eagle" and I want this so much! 😭 I was going to reply to the post but saw that someone had dropped the name there and didn't want to accidentally make you see that so that's why I messages. I apologise if that's like a too private thing to do

Not to worry at all love <3 It was very thoughtful of you honestly, considering the game hadn’t come out yet at the time that I’d made the post! And you coming to my ask box gives me the perfect excuse to gush about things I’ve been holding in for a while now.

Spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn't played the game yet! For everyone else, please bear with my rambles.

While my desire for an Arabic variant of “little eagle” to be used has been debunked since release, I have to say that the canon name for Basim’s eagle is 20x better than anything I could've imagined for several reasons.

The most prominent is the direct correlation between Gilgamesh, the hero from the Mesopotamian mythos “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, and Basim. The very mythos that Enkidu derives from.

For those of you who don’t already know, the epic describes the relationship between Gilgamesh, the great powerful ruler of Uruk, and Enkidu, a male created by the gods to divert Gilgamesh from wreaking havoc in the world. 

Gilgamesh and Enkidu become comrades, friends, and probably lovers before Enkidu dies at the hands of fate. Prior to his death, Enkidu’s ability to humanize and soften Gilgamesh’s heart through friendship was what inevitably saved the people of Uruk from his tyranny. And, upon Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh struggles with his grief so much that he starts to deny his own mortality and goes in search of everlasting life.

Basim’s story parallels the Epic of Gilgamesh so intimately that it’s uncanny.

As a street thief, Basim inflicts his “tyranny” over the people of Baghdad by assassinating the Caliph al-Mutawwakil in 861, which in turn marks the beginning of the extreme internal instability of Baghdad for 9 years.

Once partnered with Enkidu, Basim is seen as a more well-rounded and balanced person who recovers from what he inflicted on the people of Baghdad (in no small part thanks to his training with the Hidden Ones, but I digress).

Enkidu abandons Basim once he is fully merged with Loki, fully revoking him as his master as a changed man with ambitions to seek immortality.

Now, this might be a stretch, but allow me to be utterly self-indulgent through the bytham lens.

Originally, in the novel "The Golden City", Hytham was appointed to Basim's command by their Masters to spy on him and ensure that he did not stray from the ideologies and goals of the Hidden One's (not dissimilar to how the gods created Enkidu to reign back Gilgamesh's wrath).

As a result, Basim’s fate becomes so closely interwoven with Hytham’s that they become practically inseparable throughout their years working together. Wherever Basim went, Hytham dutifully stood right by his side, despite the implied dangers of his ulterior ambitions.

Hytham complicates Basim’s mission to find the Norsemen that would eventually lead him to Norway to grasp the immortality waiting for him in the ancient Isu structures hiding in the depths of Hordafylke. Whether Basim had wanted it or not, he canonically comes to care for Hytham so much more than he ever wanted to, and in turn, Hytham becomes "closer to him than anyone still living."

Basim is humanized once more and gains another Enkidu, a young eagle no less.

And it is only once Hytham sustains a debilitating injury in his battle against Kjotve and forced to abandon Basim's side, that Basim finally slips away and redoubles his efforts in search for immortality.

So yeah, plain and simple. I adore the name Enkidu for Basim’s eagle companion. It’s the gift that keeps on giving :)

#bytham #ac mirage spoilers #hytham #basim ibn ishaq #i love them your honor #artwork hidden in the post <3 #thank you for reading my rambles #zor asks #my bytham #Had to edit some of the hytham talking points just now cause I initially posted this at 4 am when I was braindead 😂💕

[zorthania]

Hey! Sorry to bother you, would it be okay to send or tag you in a Bytham post I saw? I thought you might appreciate some Bytham scenes

Hello, no bother at all :) Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you!

You're more than welcome to tag me in any bytham posts, lord knows we could always do with more bytham content huehuhue (tho i can't promise I will always get back to you in a timely manner, life gets to us all after all!)

#zor asks #the more the merrier op #i hope we can all build a little bytham community here overtime <3

[zorthania]

do I think eivor would be fazed by half of the kinky shit that happens in ravensthorpe? no

do I think eivor would be fazed seeing sweet and soft spoken hytham indulging in his knife kink? maybe

#bytham #basim ibn ishaq #hytham #eivor varinsdóttir #I'd say poor eivor #But I know she's just getting ideas for her and randvi later 😂😏 #please read the golden city guys it's excruciatingly gay #My bytham

[zorthania]

hello! the eruri wedding zine that marcie and i organized in 2021 is finally being reprinted for a limited time only! all the proceeds for this sale will go towards Medical Aid for Palestinians, so if you couldn't grab your copy before, please take your chance now, since this is probably the only time i'll be reprinting it!! 🙏💕

[zorthania]

just another day in 9th century Constantinople

#bytham #basim ibn ishaq #hytham #my bytham #these two are excruciatingly gay in “The Golden City" and I need the world to know it #this might be the least pg my drawings will ever get on here honestly... #never say never :P

[zorthania]

nothing "little" about a man who re-established a secret society throughout the entirety of England.

#hytham #weeping a little for the man #he craved community and changed history in the process #my ac valhalla

[zorthania]

fire and ice

#hytham #basim ibn ishaq #bytham #i'm just messing around with different artstyles etc the brainrot creeping into my practice is real #my bytham

[zorthania]

The One Who Smiles and his Little Eagle.

#bytham #basim ibn ishaq #hytham #my ac #by bytham

[zorthania]

Oh nooo hytham dropped all the codex pages

#bytham #basim ibn ishaq #hytham #i like to imagine that there were different phases of loki and basim's shared body experience #they're still in the 'we're separate people sharing a body' phase #and loki likes to buzz around his head like a little shit #my ac #my bytham

[zorthania]

RAFFLE PRIZE WINNERS ALERT FOR #ERURISFORSTYR

I’m reaching out to Blue and Nitsa! Congratulations to the both of you for winning prizes from the raffle :)

If you wish to claim your prizes, PLEASE reach out to me before Saturday night or I’ll have to forfeit your prizes and re-raffle them to a new winner! Thank you for understanding!

#erurisforsytr #i hope to hear from yall :')

[zorthania]

Hi I'm a bit new here so I'm not sure if this has been asked before. Are there any Eruri fics where Erwin survived instead of Armin? Ty in advance!

Hi Anon, welcome to the fandom! There's a wealth of of amazing fic and art for you to discover. You probably won't be surprised to know that authors have been writing "Erwin lives" fics since Midnight Sun was first published in 2016. There are currently 124 Eruri fics tagged Erwin lives on AO3, here's a few I can recommend...

peony-dense flesh by ackermom

In These Fallen Leaves by @masksarehot2

Mal by @elivra-fanfiction & @zorthania

Warm by @elivra-fanfiction & @zorthania

Relinquish, Reclaim by @huxandthehound

Tiny Beautiful Things by The_Wolves

What Remains by @haedraulics

The Flap of a Butterfly's Wings by @drbuttonsss

Stranger by NoMoreTears707

A Long Way From Home by @2dsheep

 Coup de Grace by @cherryamber

I also have an older rec list of Titan Erwin fics that's worth checking out too.

#Bless you Lost 💕🙏 tysm #fic rec

[zorthania]

WE’RE GOING LIVE IN 10 MINUTES!! 

Go to twitch.tv/zorthania to watch the SYRIA/TURKEY CHARITY LIVESTREAM!

DONATE HERE to help earthquake victims!

There will be numerous prizes that raffle donors have the chance of winning at donations exceeding $30!!!

Follow this twitter thread for details on the charity, the livestream schedule, the participants list, and possible prizes!! 

#eruri #erurisforsytr