Assassin's Creed Hex is mostly shrouded in mystery at this point, but longtime Ubisoft leakers have recently made some interesting claims about its setting. Insiders have claimed that Assassin's Creed Hex will take place in 17th century Germany, in Würzburg, a city known for its bloody witch-hunting history.
Ubisoft has previously described Assassin's Creed Hex as a “dark” entry in the series set during “a pivotal moment in history.” Fans quickly traced that moment to the Holy Roman Empire and the witch trials, but Ubisoft insiders Rogue and xJonathan have narrowed it down to the Wurzburg Witch Trials. It ranks as one of the worst witch trials in history.
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The Würzburg witch trials killed nearly 1,000 people
How the witch trials in Würzburg came about
Throughout the reign of the Holy Roman Empire, legislative and judicial power was shared between lords (kings, princes, dukes, etc.) and the Catholic Church. This subject is far too complex and lengthy to adequately describe here, but suffice it to say that during the 17th century, tensions between the Church and various European states increased greatly due to the Reformation, a period when millions of Europeans left Catholicism for the newer sects of Lutheranism and Protestantism. This religious conflict, combined with disagreements over imperial and papal power, created a breeding ground for social strife, crusades, and rampant discrimination, to put it mildly.
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The Counter-Reformation movement, spearheaded by local leaders as well as the Vatican, was undeniably a galvanizing force for the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries. Witch trials had taken place before, but on a much smaller scale, which is generally attributed to Catholics who had relatively more power in earlier centuries. At that time Assassin's Creed Hex Catholicism is reportedly losing its grip on Europe, so it's no surprise that its representatives took drastic measures to reassert control.
One such representative was the Catholic prince-bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, who presided over Wurzburg during the early 17th century. Mespelbrunn initiated witch trials from 1612-1618 and killed an estimated 350 people in the run-up to the Thirty Years' War. He was succeeded by his nephew Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg, who in 1625, potentially spurred on by a particularly bad frost blamed on witchcraft, started the Wurzburg Trials which are reportedly the subject of AC Hex.
With the Mespelbrunn witch trials still in vivid memory and with Wurzburg close to the German Protestant border, Ehrenberg was able to quickly gather support for his cause. The new prince-bishop's mission was, by all accounts, to create a more holy, unified Catholic nation, a cause that precluded doubt and, apparently, basic human decency.
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The Wurzberg trials were exceptionally bloody and indiscriminate
It is estimated that around 900 German citizens were killed in Würzburg between 1625 and 1631, either by execution or while in custody on accusations of witchcraft. Those suspected of witchcraft were rounded up and tortured for information on potential co-conspirators, resulting in an ever-growing list of the accused. What distinguished the Wurzburg from other witch trials of the time, aside from the abnormally high death toll, was its relative lack of discrimination. At first, mostly young, single women from the working class were accused (as was often the case), but in the Würzburg trials many men and children as young as seven were also executed. High-ranking officials and members of the elite were also prosecuted, including Ernst von Ehrenberg, the prince-bishop's own nephew, who was executed by beheading.
How the historical context of the Wurzberg witch trials could affect Assassin's Creed Hexe
The Würzburg witch trials of 1625-1631 were unique, but still symbolic of the witch hunt as a whole. On the one hand, the investigation and execution of not only men and children, but also upper-class members of society, was highly unusual, as working-class women were the typical scapegoats of the anti-witch movement. At the same time, the Wurzburg trials were triggered by the same factors as all witch hunts: religious hysteria, desperate bids for political control, and autocratic rule.
Provided that the leaks about Assassin's Creed Hexs attitude is true, then both sides of this coin should be carefully examined. The story of Wurzburg is the story of all witch hunts (the horrific methods of the Wurzburg trials were, unfortunately, used as a blueprint for many subsequent witch trials in other parts of the world). The paranoia and injustice that characterized these events offer fertile ground for any story, but especially one from Assassin's Creed franchise, which explicitly deals with secret organizations, the underbelly of society and, often, vigilante justice. Witch could present a compelling and intimate account of those affected by the events in Würzburg and elsewhere.
The relatively widespread nature of the Wurzburg trials could serve to both reinforce and underline the brutality of Witchs story. Of course, it's bad enough when young, poor women are exclusively targeted, but when almost any demographic could be tried and executed for witchcraft without any evidence whatsoever, you'd imagine there would be a more widespread sense of social failure and insecurity. Assassin's Creed Hexs story could play into this “nobody's safe” element, using it as one of many pillars to differentiate itself from other games in Assassin's Creed cannon.
