Baghdad as archive — the Round City holding the accumulated knowledge of the Abbasid world, the House of Wisdom representing the belief that civilization advances through the preservation and transmission of knowledge. The city remembers because it was built to remember, because the caliphate understood that what you keep is what you are.

Mirage is the most explicitly historical AC game in some time — the recreation of ninth-century Baghdad is the game's most ambitious visual achievement, and this session is deep enough into it to feel the accumulation. The city remembers what the Order is doing to it. The city remembers what the Hidden Ones are trying to prevent.