Ubisoft has revealed that the series will feature a series first (besides an achievement for killing horses) its first transgender character. To show their open minded stance, upon the declaration of this character's inclusion, Ubisoft altered the game to open with the following statement:
"Inspired by historical events and characters, this work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a multicultural team of various beliefs, sexual orientations and gender identities."
Speaking with Eurogamer, Ubisoft discussed the process behind including Ned Wynert as a supporting character and quest giver in Assassin's Creed Syndicate. "Inclusiveness is something that's super important for us as a team," said Assassin's Creed Syndicate creative director Marc-Alexis Côté. "We've made a good push towards diversity and how we approach different subjects in the game."
You might be wondering how a transgender character could be inspired by a historical game set in 1868, but there is a history to go along with it. In 1870 Thomas Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park went on trial for 'conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offence.' It had been discovered that Boulton and Park both dressed as women while they performed on stage and in everyday life.
Wynert's role as a transgender is founded on the series having a history of feeling inclusive to everyone. The change in the opening statement was bred from the need for the game to feel even more inclusive, said Côté.
"It felt like when we first wrote that for AC1 it was something that was very inclusive. But I've had the chance to work with more than 12 different writers on Syndicate. At one point, one approached me and said that we were not embracing diversity fully enough.
"I had reviewed all our crowd dialogue, I was happy with our two protagonists, but they were talking about the statement at the beginning of the game – that it was exclusive of some people. So I asked for them to propose a new statement," Côté explained.
