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in norse mythology  valhalla  /vã¦lëˆhã¦lé™  vé‘ëlëˆhé‘ëlé™/ [1] from old norse valhã¶ll  hall of the slain  [2] is a majestic  
enormous hall located in asgard  ruled over by the god odin  chosen by odin  half of those who die in combat travel to valhalla upon death  led by valkyries  while the other half go to the goddess freyja's field fã³lkvangr  
in valhalla  the dead warriors join the masses of those who have died in combat  known as the einherjar  and various legendary germanic heroes and kings  
as they prepare to aid odin during the events of ragnarã¶k  before the hall stands the golden tree glasir  and the hall's ceiling is thatched with golden shields  various creatures live around valhalla  
such as the stag eikã¾yrnir and the goat heiã°rãºn  both described as standing atop valhalla and consuming the foliage of the tree lã¦raã°r 
the modern english noun valhalla derives from old norse valhã¶ll  
a compound noun composed of two elements  the masculine noun valr 'the slain' and the feminine noun hã¶ll 'hall'  valr has cognates in other germanic languages such as old english wã¦l 'the slain  slaughter  carnage'  
old saxon wal-däd 'murder'  old high german 'battlefield  blood bath'  all of these forms descend from the proto-germanic masculine noun *walaz  
among related old norse concepts  valr also appears as the first element of the nouns valkyrja 'chooser of the slain  valkyrie' and valfreyja  one of the goddess freyja's several names [3]
assassin's creed valhalla is an upcoming action role-playing video game developed by ubisoft montreal and published by ubisoft  it is the twelfth major installment and the twenty-second release in the assassin's creed series  
and a successor to the 2018 game assassin's creed odyssey  set in 873 ad  the game recounts an alternative history to the viking invasion of britain  
the player controls eivor  a viking raider who becomes embroiled in the conflict between the brotherhood of britain and the templar order [b]
gameplay
see also  assassin's creed ⧠gameplay
assassin's creed valhalla is an open world action-adventure game  structured around several main story quests and numerous optional side missions  
the player takes on the role of eivor  /ëˆeéªvé”ër/  [2] a viking raider as they lead their fellow vikings against the anglo-saxon kingdoms  
the player will have the choice of playing eivor as either male  voiced by magnus bruun [da]  or female  voiced by cecilie stenspil [3] and is able to customise eivor's hair  warpaint  clothing  armor  and tattoos [4] 
the variety of weapons available to the player has been expanded to include weapons such as flails and greatswords  
combat has been changed to allow dual wielding of almost any weapon  including shields [5] and every piece of gear that the player collects is unique [1] the eagle vision mechanic of previous titles will return in the form of  odin sight  [6] 
the player's companion animal will be a raven named synin[7][8]  old norse for  insight  [9][c] and can can be used to scout the nearby areas  
much like previous avian companions had done in origins and odyssey  identifying foes and aspects of the game world from afar before eivor engages in combat [10] 
there will be more focus on the stealth aspects for both traversing the game world and in combat  the  social stealth  concept from earlier assassin's creed games will return  
eivor can hide from enemies not only in stationary environmental objects  but can pull down their hood and slip into certain crowds to use them as cover  
eivor can feign death  use their raven to distract guards  and can access a hidden blade for near instantaneous assassinations  
the game's key boss characters all will have a route through approach  tactics  and weapon selection to be assassinated through a single attack  but still can be defeated through numerous other routes [11]

valhalla will have a similar structure of main story missions and a number of optional side missions  while the main storyline in past assassin's creed games typically moved linearly through the main sections of the game world  valhalla has the player often returning back to the main settlement and back to areas previously visited as information about the new areas of england are learned by the vikings through reconnaise or from contacts  not all missions require violent ends  with some that can be resolved through diplomatic means [12] the game will rely less on a traditional leveling system and instead focus more on the selection of skills through skill trees selected by the player as eivor advances through the game  the difficulty posed by enemies will be rated based on the player's collection of skills [5] the development team aimed to introduce a wider range of enemy archetypes to valhalla than in previous assassin's creed titles as they wanted the player to be continually surprised by the game even after playing for tens of hours [5] enemy archetypes will have their own special abilities that they can use against the player [5] player choices through conversation or gameplay options will affect the characters and their political alliances with other non-player characters [5]

conquest battles  a feature introduced to the series in odyssey  will return  they will be known as  assaults  and will see the player lead viking armies to attack fortifications [5] raids are smaller battles where the player leads a raiding party to attack a target and secure resources for their settlement [5] the player will be able to build a raiding party by recruiting non-player characters to assist with these [13][10] the player will be able to create a viking mercenary  or jomsviking  that can be recruited by other players to act as a non-playable character within those games  the player will gain additional in-game rewards for successful missions that their jomsviking takes part in [13]

the game will see the return of settlements  which have been absent from the series since assassin's creed iv  black flag  however  where these settlements offered the player passive gameplay bonuses  settlements in valhalla will take on a renewed importance  game director ashraf ismail described this as being  [because] a lot of what you're doing in the game world is  at the end of the day  going to feed into the settlement so that it can grow  it can flourish   quests will start and finish in the settlement and the player will be able to direct construction of certain types of buildings  which in turn provide benefits for gameplay  to build these structures  the player will need to lead the vikings on raids to collect resources [14] in addition  the player can forge diplomatic weddings to form relationships between clans in the community [15] as with odyssey  the player as eivor will be able to explore romance options for eivor  including same-sex relations [11]

though the use of naval transport has returned  naval combat has been dialled back  eivor's longship will act more as a means of travel when performing raids and for escaping after land combat  rather than being used in combat with other naval vessels [10][16] in addition to these  the players can engage in side quests incorporating hunting  fishing  brawls with other vikings  drinking contests  and flyting challenges  which ubisoft described as  viking rap battle[s]  [17]
the game is scheduled to be released in late 2020 for microsoft windows  playstation 4  xbox one and stadia  it will also be ubisoft's launch title for the ninth generation of gaming consoles  the playstation 5 and xbox series x 
the second element  hã¶ll  is a common old norse noun  it is cognate to modern english hall and has the same meaning  both developed from proto-germanic *xallå or *hallå  meaning 'covered place  hall'  
itself from the proto-indo-european root *kol-  as philologists such as calvert watkins have noted  the same indo-european root produced old norse hel  a proper noun employed for both the name of another afterlife location and a supernatural female entity who oversees it  as well as the modern english noun hell [3] in swedish folklore  some mountains that were traditionally regarded as abodes of the dead were also called valhall  it is therefore possible that the hã¶ll element derives from hallr   rock   and originally referred to an underworld  not a hall [4]
valhalla is attested in the poetic edda  compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources  in the prose edda  written in the 13th century by snorri sturluson   
in heimskringla  also written in the 13th century by snorri sturluson  and in stanzas of an anonymous 10th century poem commemorating the death of eric bloodaxe known as eirã­ksmã¡l as compiled in fagrskinna  
valhalla has inspired various works of art  publication titles  and elements of popular culture  and has become a term synonymous with a martial  or otherwise  hall of the chosen dead 
in 873 ad  war and overcrowding in norway prompts eivor to lead their clan of vikings to settle new lands in anglo-saxon england as part of the viking expansion across europe  
the clan  and other vikings that form the great heathen army  comes into conflict with the kingdoms of wessex  northumbria  east anglia  and mercia over the next several years 
eivor's clan will face forces led by the leaders of these kingdoms  including alfred the great  the king of wessex 
it is during this time that eivor meets the hidden ones and joins their fight against the order of the ancients 
 explorable cities include winchester  london  and york parts of norway will also be included 
as with previous games in the series  valhalla features a narrative set in the modern day  this story will follow layla hassan  a character featured in origins and odyssey  
valhalla will also contain story elements related to the isu  who  as part of the lore of the assassin's creed series  are an advanced civilisation that pre-date humanity 
assassin's creed valhalla had been in development for more than two and a half years by its announcement in april 2020  the main development was led by the assassin's creed origins team at ubisoft montreal and supported by fourteen other ubisoft studios worldwide [22] while the tail-end of the game's development fell during the covid-19 pandemic  the bulk of the ubisoft staff assigned to game were able to work from home with support of ubisoft's information technology departments  assuring the game was ready for release in 2020 [12]

ashraf ismail serves as the creative director  having previously led work on assassin's creed origins and assassin's creed iv  black flag [22] the game's narrative director is darby mcdevitt  who was the lead writer for assassin's creed  revelations and black flag and co-writer of assassin's creed unity [23] usgamer's mike williams described the large scope and effort behind assassin's creed valhalla as the equivalent of the series'  grand unifying theory  to combine all the past design and development work into a single vision without necessarily reinventing any of the previously developed concepts [23] mcdevitt explained that valhalla's story was written as a recap of all the prior assassin's creed games  connecting them in non-trivial fashions  but not intended to be the final game in the series [18] he also stated that his experimental structure to the narrative was  quite unique for any game  he had seen as well as for the assassin's creed series itself [18]

ismail cited michael crichton's 1976 novel eaters of the dead—itself a retelling of the epic poem beowulf—as playing a major role in influencing valhalla's setting [5] mcdevitt said that the development team recognized there would be similarities to the god of war games  but felt those games  skew very heavily towards the mythology   whereas ubisoft wanted valhalla to be a more  historically grounded  experience [24] elements of norse mythology will appear in the story  according to game director ashraf ismail  this will be based on how eivor and the vikings may take uncommon events to be signs of their gods' involvement rather than the more overt role that mythology played in origins and odyssey  this was particularly in light that much of the game takes place in england where christianity dominated  so that the narrative and gameplay shows how eivor would incorporate such foreign elements into their belief system [5][14][18] on the ability to select eivor's gender  thierry noã«l  an advisor to the game  stated that while there was still historical debate to how much degree females participated as warriors within the vikings  ubisoft believed that women featured prominently in both norse mythology and society  and so sought to reflect the viking idea that  women and men are equally formidable in battle  [4]

in researching the time period  ismail and mcdevitt said that the development team found that most historical records of the viking expansion into britain were written decades  if not centuries  after the event  they were often written from an english perspective and so portrayed vikings as bloodthirsty invaders [2] however  the development team felt that this overlooked the vikings' success in settling in england and the contributions they made to agricultural practices and their influence on the english language  the development team thus sought to portray the viking age more accurately  emphasising elements such as the settlement  this was represented in the trailer and promotional materials by juxtaposing alfred the great's narration warning of the threat posed by the vikings with scenes showing the viking community  this research  in turn  led the team to make the settlement a focal point of the game and gave valhalla more of a role-playing flavor  according to lead producer julien laferriã¨re  he compared the settlement's relevance to the importance of skyhold in dragon age  inquisition or the ssv normandy in mass effect  laferriã¨re added that the team came to use the settlement not only to show the more cultured side of the vikings  but as a means to show the player the results of choices they made in the game  including the  harsh choices [one had] to face  from missions [10]

in a tweet that was later deleted  ubisoft's head of communications for the middle east malek teffaha discussed the subject of the game world where he stated that valhalla will not be the largest or biggest game in the series [25] teffaha also stated that valhalla would address one of the main criticisms of odyssey  namely that the game suffered from a bloated world populated by repetitive locations  in their review of odyssey  ign noted that the main story campaign—not including downloadable content—lasted for roughly forty hours  but that completing every side quest and location could extend that to over one hundred hours [26] in a later interview with kotaku  ismail described that much of the game's world was  handcrafted  and that they had put effort to developing content that was worthwhile for the player to explore and find that content  keeping it about  uniqueness  and  about respecting our players’ time and giving them mysteries and puzzles to sort of resolve  [12]

music for the game was composed by jesper kyd and sarah schachner  both whom have worked on past assassin's creed games  einar selvik  who had written original songs for the history channel show vikings  will work with kyd and schachner for new songs for valhalla [27][28]
valhalla is planned for release in late 2020 for windows  playstation 4  xbox one and on stadia  it will also be the first assassin's creed title for the next-generation of consoles  the playstation 5 and xbox series x  ismail said that valhalla represents ubisoft's  flagship  game for these next-generation systems  and has been developed to take advantage of faster loading times both new consoles offer [14] xbox versions of the game will support microsoft's  smart delivery  program  which allows the player to purchase only one copy of the game that will work on both the xbox one and the xbox series x [29]

ubisoft's 2019 title tom clancy's the division 2 included an easter egg in the form of a poster that appeared to tease the next assassin's creed game as named valhalla  the poster included an image of a viking dressed in similar fashion to an assassin of the series' previous titles and held what appeared to be an apple of eden  one of the isu artifacts featured in assassin's creed series  the easter egg led jason schreier of kotaku to report that there was a new assassin's creed title in development  planned for release in 2020 but named at the time assassin's creed kingdom [30] however  on the game's official announcement in april 2020  mcdevitt said that the easter egg in the division 2 was coincidence as the swedish studio behind the game  massive entertainment  wanted to incorporate some swedish iconography into the division 2 and had no intention of referencing or teasing valhalla [31] it was also reported that the game would be called assassin's creed ragnarã¶k [32]