Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

An Assassin on a mission to find the Chalice and destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands.

Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad is the protagonist of Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles, a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Gameloft and published by Ubisoft. Set in 1190, one year before the events of Assassin's Creed, the game follows Altaïr's search for an artifact called the Chalice, which brings him into conflict with the Templar Order. He travels to Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus, Tyre, and Aleppo. The game is rendered in 3D from a third-person perspective and combines hack-and-slash combat with stealth assassinations and parkour. Altaïr can use weak and strong attacks, blocks, combos, and later bombs, throwing knives, and a crossbow. The game features three difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, and Hard.

Quick Facts

Role: Assassin
Affiliation: Assassin Brotherhood

Lore & Background

In 1190, during the Third Crusade, Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad arrives in Aleppo, which is under siege by Templars searching for someone on the orders of their Grand Master, Lord Basilisk. After a dying Assassin gives him a sword, Altaïr fights off the attackers. Al Mualim, the Mentor of the Assassin Brotherhood, tasks Altaïr with finding the Chalice, an artifact said to have the power to unite all factions and end the Crusade in victory for the side that possesses it.

Altaïr must destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands. He obtains three keys to enter the Temple of the Sand: the first from a circus dancer named Fajera in Damascus, the second by assassinating Roland Napule in Tyre, and the third by confronting Lord Basilisk in Jerusalem. After retrieving a map from a Templar leader known as 'the Master,' Altaïr enters the Temple but finds an empty chest. Basilisk reveals the Chalice is a woman.

Altaïr pursues him to Tyre, defeats him again, and learns the Chalice has been taken to Jerusalem. After foiling a Templar plot to poison Acre's water supply, Altaïr rescues the Chalice, whom he identifies as Adha, a girl he had feelings for in the past. Adha reveals that Harash, the second-in-command of the Assassins, has been paid off by the Templars. Altaïr thwarts an attack on the Assassin fortress in Aleppo and assassinates Harash, but the Templars recapture Adha.

In Tyre, Altaïr battles Basilisk one final time and kills him aboard his ship, but the Templars escape with Adha on a separate ship. Altaïr vows to find her.

Reader's Guide

Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad is the player character in Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles. The game is an action-adventure title with hack-and-slash combat, stealth assassinations, and parkour. Players can use weak and strong attacks, blocks, and combos. Later in the game, bombs, throwing knives, and a crossbow become available.

The game has three difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Altaïr's mission is to find the Chalice, an artifact that can unite all factions and end the Crusade. He must obtain three keys to enter the Temple of the Sand. The first key is in Damascus, obtained from Fajera.

The second is in Tyre, taken from Roland Napule after assassinating him. The third is in Jerusalem, retrieved from Lord Basilisk after infiltrating a party. After obtaining a map from a Templar leader, Altaïr enters the Temple but finds it empty. He learns the Chalice is a woman named Adha.

He must then foil a Templar plot in Acre, rescue Adha in Jerusalem, thwart an attack on Aleppo, and finally kill Basilisk in Tyre. The game is not open world, unlike Assassin's Creed.

Legacy and Reception

The game received mixed reviews. IGN rated it 7/10, GameSpot 6/10, Nintendo Power 7.5/10, X-Play 2/5, and Game Informer 6.5/10. Official Nintendo Magazine gave it 69%. Slide to Play's review of the iOS version gave it a 2/4. On Metacritic, the Nintendo DS version has an aggregate score of 58, indicating 'mixed or average' reviews. The game was followed by Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines and Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, both released in November 2009. The iOS and Android versions were removed from the App Store and Play Store in 2013.