I've always wanted to have an Assassin’s Creed set in Scotland, I feel it would have a great connection to both the Templar vs Assassin story but also the Isu lore potential would be massive. 

From the day I first watched Highlander with Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery. I've always been obsessed with Scotland. They have a rich history and a blood one too; that would lend itself well to the Assassin story. 

With characters like William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, James Douglas (the Black Douglas) Edward I and more, Ubisoft could really create a story rooted in a strong historical setting. 

I believe a Scottish Assassin’s Creed game has been a fan favourite location and setting for so long, more so than the Vikings or even Japan.

After some research and some long hours, I've put together a pitch for just that. An Assassin’s Creed game set in Scotland. Set during the time of The First War of Scottish Independence. Set During the years 1290-1307.

Modern Day Protagonist:

Aila Fraser

“You don’t have to be born to it. You just have to choose” Alastair Fraser, the night before the accident to Aila.

Background:

• Age: 29

• Place of Birth: Inveraray, Scotland

• Family: Raised by her grandmother, Mòrag Fraser. Both parents are deceased under suspicious circumstances.

• Lineage: Distant descendent of Edward Kenway & Desmond Miles, via an unknown Scottish branch of the Kenway line.

Her story in the Modern Day: 

She was raised in the quiet town of Inveraray (Argyll) after a tragic car crash claimed the lives of her parents. She worked as a local historian, fascinated by Celtic ruins, folklore and the untold stories of her country’s history. 

Aila had always wondered how she survived; the car accident when she was just six years old that took both her parents' lives. But no one had the answers. All that remains is her father’s pendant. Cold metal, never aging and never removed from around her neck. 

While out in the field conducting some research on an undiscovered Pictish site, her pendant started pulsing. The ground beneath her feet begins to glow with some sort of strange energy. She stumbles back, a little shaken. A few days later, her flat was ransacked. Her research had been wiped. She began to feel like she was being followed. 

She calls Shaun a family friend, in a panic. He doesn't hesitate and they meet at his house. Once she looked at him, from the look in his eyes. Aila realises something. He knew, all along.

Shaun Hastings was sarcastic, brilliant and overly protective. He was a family friend that worked with her parents. He seemed to always be around. Aila felt his guiding influence but was never pushy. She never thought to question it. 

Shaun finally tells her the truth. 

Her father, a Templar. Who defected when he found out her mother was an Assassin & pregnant. They tried to leave the war behind them, to raise her free from it all. The pendant her father stole was the final piece to Claidheamh Soluis, a dormant Piece of Eden. 

The crash wasn't random, it was an execution. Only she survived. Shaun explained that he believed it was because of the pendant. And its hidden power. He was assigned to watch over here and protect her from the Templars. But he stayed for as long as he did because he started to care about Aila. 

Now she doesn't know who to trust. Not Shaun, the Assassins, not the Templars.

But she did need answers.

She discovers encrypted messages, hidden within the pendant. They were left by her father and they revealed her ancestry. Aila is descended from an Assassin called Taran MacLeod. He once wielded Claidheamh Soluis. The pendant is more than just a trinket from her father. It's one of four ancient fragments to Claidheamh Soluis and it only responds to her.

She's a walking legacy of both orders. Assassin and Templar blood flows through her. She was never meant to be a soldier, she was meant to be the solution.

The choice to fight - but on her own terms:

After surviving the attack from Templars, and unlocking eagle vision, she learns the truth about her lineage. Aila finally steps into the Animus with the help of Shaun & Rebecca. With their help, Aila tries to navigate what’s locked deep in her DNA. 

She relives the memories of her ancestor, Taran MacLeod; a highlander Assassin during the First War of Independence. Each session reveals clues, fragments of Taran’s life and his last mission, along with the places he hid the pieces of Claidheamh Soluis before the war consumed him.

BUT.. 

As she uncovers more, she begins to see the bigger picture. 

The Assassins want the weapon to remain hidden forever.

The Templars want to reclaim and repurpose the weapon. 

Both sides believe they know what's right. But neither have seen its destruction and devastation. 

Aila chooses to fight, but not for either order, not for ideology.

She fights to end the war her parents died in, and to keep others from repeating the same mistakes.

Aila will decide what becomes of Claidheamh Soluis. Because it isn't their story anymore. 

IT’S HERS.

Historical Protagonist: 

Taran MacLeod

“They took my father’s life, then his legacy. I’ll take much more from them”

Taran to William Wallace, at his initiation ceremony. 

Background:

• Age: 26

• Place of birth: Isle of Skye 

• Family: Father and brother murdered by the English. Mother died not long after Taran was born. 

• Lineage: Son of a respected Scottish Assassin. He's descended from an ancient line of Highland resistance fighters.  

Origin Story:

Taran grew up on the Isle of Skye, the younger of two sons in a proud Highland family with a secret; his father was a Master Assassin. Guarding the Scottish border from the growing Templar forces in England.

He always knew about the Brotherhood, the Hidden Ones, the Creed and why strangers came in the night, with whispers of freedom. But Taran’s father refused to train him. 

“You lead with your temper, Taran. Your brother leads with his mind. I need heirs not martyrs” These words stuck with Taran. He was left behind, told to master the forge, the bow and the land. While his brother trained in stealth, philosophy and the Creed. Taran hid his resentment behind grit and hid grit behind his pride.

One evening, Taran was sent into the hills for a three day hunt. A common practice but it made Taran feel like an exile. When he returned everything changed. 

The house was burning. The air stank of blood and smoke. His father and brother lay dead in the ashes, stripped of their robes, their bodies desecrated, their weapons gone. Burned deep into the doorway was a Templar cross. 

The pendant, his father always wore, a keepsake from his mother, was missing. A dying villager nearby, called out to Taran and told him what he already knew.

“English knights. Led by a highborn commander. They came in the dark. They didn't ask questions. They knew what and who they were looking for. Your father stood his ground. They butchered them both, and took something from around your father’s neck”

The pendant, the last remaining connection to his mother, was now gone. 

They took his family, they took the legacy he would never be able to earn. 

Taran did not grieve, instead he decided to hunt. 

Taran followed the English for days, his eyes burning from the lack of sleep, his limbs becoming heavy. He was close. Taran had seen the pendant glimmer in the moonlight around the commander’s neck. It belonged to Taran and he needed to get it back. He stalked their camp from the ridges, hiding as the heavens opened, watching and planning. But he wasn't alone. Someone else had been tracking the English and Taran. 

At first, he thought it was nerves. But then Taran started noticing things. Horses became spooked, guards disappearing from patrol. Traps Taran had set up becoming disarmed or moved. And once, by a frozen stream, footprints beside his own. Deliberately left. 

Taran grew reckless, frustrated and paranoid. When the convoy made camp underneath an old bridge, that's when Taran decided to strike. 

His ambush was fast, brutal but messy. He missed the killing blow. His blade glanced off his targets armour, they cried out and he was seen. Steel and boots came charging through the snow. He ran, wounded. And the commander escaped again with the pendant. As the world spun and blood stained the white snow beneath him. The last thing Taran saw was a shadow moving through the soldiers like a wraith. 

Steel sang and men screamed, and Taran’s world went black. 

Taran awoke beside a fire, aching and the smell of smoke, and damp filled his lungs. His cloak was gone and replaced with another one. This one was heavier and lined with a tartan pattern he didn't recognise. 

A man sat across from him, sharpening a cured blade by the fire. The man was older and broad-shouldered. His voice broke the silence, it was low and familiar but firm. 

“You’re lucky you’re not dead. That was a fool’s move”

Taran looked at the man, and tried to get the measure of him “You? You were watching me”

The man did not dent it, he stood slowly and approached Taran “I thought I was watching a ghost. Until I saw what you was really made of”

The stranger tossed something at Taran, a cloth wrapped bundle. Inside a hidden blade, like the one he had seen his father use with his brother. “Who are you?” the man stepped fully into the light of the fire. 

“William Wallace. Your father trained with me. We were brothers” silence. Taran blinked and the weight of the name hit harder than any blade could. 

“He never told you about me, that's fine we kept many secrets” Wallace sat beside Taran and continued “I arrived too late to save him. I thought the line was broken, all the MacLeods dead. But then I heard of a mad man hunting English through the glens, setting traps like a hunter but fighting like a wounded wolf”

As he stood up, Taran watched, still rooted to the spot “I followed you, watched” Wallace moved towards the cliff edge. Taran noticed an old carved stone, next to Wallace. Just visible through the moss was a faded insignia, like the one on his father’s robes.

Gazing out over the glen “You want vengeance, I’ll give you something better” Wallace turned and with a heavy tone “We are Assassins. We work in the dark to serve the light. Nothing is true and everything is permitted” 

Taran sat up and listened but for the first time, he was really listening “These are our tenets. Break them, and you break the Brotherhood” Wallace was intensely staring at Taran, raised two fingers and pointed “Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent. Hide in plain sight. Never compromise the Brotherhood”

“Your father lived by them. He died for them. What will you do?” Taran was beaten and bruised, staring at the blade in his lap. Then back at Wallace and then fire. “Train me” he asked. 

That night, beneath the night sky. Taran MacLeod becomes an Assassin. Not through inheritance but by choice. The creed was reborn in him. And the war of Scotland has a new hero.

Pieces of Eden: Claidheamh Soluis: 

(Sword of Light)

The Claidheamh Soluis comes from Gaelic mythology, most notably within Irish and Scottish folklore. It appears various times, in historic cycles. Descriptions of it are often: 

• A sword glowing as bright as the sun. Able to blind enemies before a blow was struck.

• A weapon that must be earned through a great quest or ordeal and even sometimes hidden in a tower of glass, guarded by mythical creatures.

• A blade that could cut through anything. 

• Often symbolising truth, justice, and divine right.

Through Irish in its origin, these myths blended into Scottish oral tradition. Especially in the Highlands where Gaelic culture remained dominant. Claidheamh Soluis survived in fragments of folklore, bardic poetry and later in romanticized accounts of Highland ancestry and warrior kings. 

Why the Templars want it:

To the modern day Templar, this sword isn't just a legend. It's a corrupted memory of a real Piece of Eden. the consistency of the lore across Gaelic cultures, the mythical properties, and its association with elite bloodlines all point to a misunderstood relic.

They believe the myth of Claidheamh Soluis is based on a real Isu weapon, hidden and remembered imperfectly through generations of oral storytelling. 

Its connection to kingship and divine right align with Templar philosophy: order through control. The Gaelic idea that it can only be wielded by someone who is worthy, suggests a genetic lock, which in turn would make it the perfect tool. 

And its destructive potential could be recovered and studied by them. Leading to them harnessing its power; resulting in either battlefield dominance or even in Templar propaganda.

In game codex entry: 

“The Sword of Light, Claidheamh Soluis, was once thought to be just a bard’s tale. Passed on through time. But legends endure for a reason. Buried beneath the poetry of Highland clans and Celtic gods lies a truth. A truth that the Templars can't ignore any longer. A weapon forged by something old and something unexplainable. A myth waiting to be claimed once more”

Cridhe Soluis: (Heart of Soluis)

There are few artifacts in Scotland’s long and blooded history that appear in legend and myths as often or even as enigmatically as the Heart of Soluis. No sources that survive today can describe its shapes or what it's made from. 

There have been no confirmed sightings or at least none survive or exist today. But yet, this symbol appears across centuries in stonework, on burial clothes and in whispered tales from kings, seers and warriors alike. 

Its first mention dates all the way back to the Pictish period, where it was carved into tombs and some sanctified sites. Never in abundance but was always deliberate and sometimes hidden. The symbol has always been associated with death rites and elite burials in some cases; which would suggest reverence rather than a possession. 

Its never described as a weapon or a relic of command but rather something much older; and  appears to be something that chooses rather than is chosen. 

Its next appears somewhat 463 years later during the reign of Robert the Bruce. Though obscured by time and ecclesiastical redactions, several accounts from Dunfermline Abbey region may suggest a second heart, not like the physical one destined for the Holy Land but a symbol of light. 

While described in fragmented texts as “a cold light held by stone” it appears in carvings and funeral motifs connected to Robert’s lineage. With many dismissing it as a poetic metaphor, some argue that it reflects a deeper, more mythical truth. That Robert, like the Picts before him, were tied to something ancient and something that remains hidden. 

Why the Templars need it: 

The Heart could possibly be a Piece of Eden. Its current form and purpose remain elusive to them. It has appeared in Pict iconography, reappears 463 years later and has resurfaced in sites once believed to be dormant. It can't be a coincidence.

Its presence across such distant periods throughout time, where it's always linked to strong bloodlines, conflict and death. Suggests it may not be a passive artifact, but it may not be a weapon in the traditional sense either; maybe something much more specific in its function.

 The Templars wouldn't pursue it blindly. They pursue it because they can't afford not to. If it is what they suspect it to be, a relic from The Ones Who Came Before. Then it needs to be recovered, studied and secured. That is before the Assassins find it first. 

The Story:

In the mists of Scotland’s often forgotten but bloody past, a war fought not out of freedom but for something far more powerful. 

Historian Aila Fraser thought she’d found her life’s work when she uncovered an uncharted Pictish site deep in the Highlands. Among the stone relics and burial markers, she noticed a strange symbol. One that was similar to a marking on the pendant passed down from her late parents. 

Moments later, the ground trembled beneath her feet and suddenly a surge of cold light pulsed from the earth. Days after her discovery, Aila’s flat is ransacked. All her notes, her collected data and samples she had collected over the last few years. All gone. 

Then a weird feeling starts to set in, she's being followed.

In her search for answers, Aila contacted her godfather and former mentor, Shaun Hastings. Who reveals to her a world that she never knew existed. A secret war waged for centuries between Assassins and Templars. Her parents were caught in that war and now so is she. 

Aila’s next job is to survive and try to understand what this all means for her. Shaun convinces her to enter the animus and to relive the memories of Taran MacLeod. A Highland warrior from the 13th century. After his father and brother are both brutally murdered by English soldiers at the order of Edward I, Taran seeks vengeance. 

But instead he finds purpose from an unlikely source, William Wallace. An assassin operating under the shadow of a rebellion. With Wallace’s guidance and training, Taran becomes a silent blade in Scotland’s war for independence. He strikes fear into Edward’s forces and sabotages the Templar grip in the north.

But Edward seeks more than just territory. He's heard whispers of a weapon buried beneath Scotland’s soil. A mythical artifact said to control minds and command loyalty. The Sword of Light or as legend knows it Claidheamh Soluis. 

Edward finds the sword.

But Edward underestimates Taran and the Assassins. 

Taran tracks Edward down, and finds him held up in Carlisle Castle. Edward was planning his final attack on Scotland and his plan to eradicate the Scots once and for all. 

Edward, now Templar Grand Master, with the Sword of Light by his side. Its influence is already twisting his mind. Taran fights his way through the castle and Edwards most trusted guards. 

Deep  within the stone halls of Carlisle Castle’s Keep, beneath the blood red banners of England, Taran finally faces Edward head on. Edward clad in iron and clutching the Sword of Light. The sword's otherworldly powers cause Edward to not fight like a mere man but something much worse. 

The castle walls shake with every clash of steel. Wind howling through the arrow ‘and a thunder storm gathers above. They fought their way to the Keep’s rooftop. Both men soaked through. 

Taran is driven to his knees with a crushing blow. He's beaten and broken, he closes his eyes and something or someone speaks to him. “Now” the voice screamed. In that moment Taran opens his eyes and sees Edward overreaching, believing himself to be untouchable. 

He strikes, burying his hidden blade into Edward’s chest. 

The tyrant king lets the sword slip out of his hand and clatters to the floor. Taran seized it and watched as Edward’s final breath left him. Stood over Edward, Taran knows what the sword could do in the wrong hands. 

And like that Taran vanished and with him the sword. 

Now in the present day, Aila finds herself outside Dunfermline Abbey; the final resting place of Scotland's great king Robert the Bruce. She’s made sure no one, Templar or Assassin can access the tomb again. It was there she finally saw the truth. Her pendant, her only keepsake of her parents. Was in fact the Heart of Soluis. The same heart that Robert asked James Douglas to return back to the holy land after his death. 

Her pendant was worn by kings, warriors and Pictish high priests. Her pendant was more than a keepsake. It is the key. A fragment to find the sword. It's the last piece of the mystery that will reveal where Taran hid the sword. 

Now Aila is the only one, with the help of Shaun and Rebecca. Who can find the sword before the Templars do

Fan Art

Concept by Nick Dub

Would you like to see an Assassin's Creed game set in Scotland?

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Pitching an Assassin's Creed Game: Caledonia (Scotland Part 2 - Myths and Legends)