Game Theory: EXPOSING the Real Gangs of Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Game Theory explores the seedy criminal underworld of Victorian England in the context of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, shifting from their typical cute theories about video game franchises.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is set in London with assassins and Templars pitted against rival gangs competing to control the city, featuring historical events and figures.

While AC games weave real historical context into their stories, this episode addresses real events in the game that haven't been covered on a show specifically about real events in games.

The episode aims to determine which real historical gangs the game's fictional Rooks and Blighters gangs are based on, using evidence from trailers and press releases.

• The Industrial Revolution created thousands of poor and blue-collar factory workers in London • People were questioning the ruling class, social system, and religion following Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species • 1868 saw major political reform giving more rights to the poor working class

Players fight for the working-class revolution while Templars pay off the Blighters gang to stop the player characters Jacob and Evie.

The Blighters gang didn't exist in real life, requiring investigation to determine which actual London gangs from the 1860s they represent.

No shortage of English gangs existed in the 1860s, including the High Rips, Green Gate Gang, and gangs competing for control of London's West End.

The Mohawks were the most famous London gang, named after Native American Indian tribes and inspired the bored rich kids depicted in A Clockwork Orange.

• Killed and disfigured people, believing they were imitating American Indians • Most famous incident: shoved an old woman into a barrel after cutting off her nose, then rolled her down one of London's biggest hills

Unlike most London gangs, Mohawks were aristocrats and a gentleman's gang—they didn't steal anything, just maimed people for fun with no financial motive.

The Blighters in the game live in slums, wear working-class clothes, and are paid by Templars for survival money, making them incompatible with the wealthy, violence-for-entertainment Mohawks.

• Started in Liverpool and viewed violence as the only escape from poverty • Areas they came from had up to 60% unemployment and a 50% chance of dying before age five

High Rips almost exclusively used belts and knives they called bleeders as weapons, contrasting with the game's depiction of Blighters using guns.

• Jack the Ripper had ties to the High Rip gang, either as a member or associate, but his storyline doesn't begin until the 1880s • If the game's Jack the Ripper DLC exists, defeating the High Rips in 1868 would destroy the gang before Jack's story even begins

Most High Rips victims worked on boats or in harbors, but the game's Blighters aren't centered around any docks, making it a poor fit.

• Used a loophole in London shopping laws—women couldn't vote, own property, get divorces, or open bank accounts, but could shop alone • Male shopkeepers left women completely alone in stores, allowing the 40 Elephants to clean out shops of merchandise

Members were chosen for beauty or brawn, with smaller women doing delicate shoplifting and larger women ensuring deals didn't go wrong, gaining property rights women otherwise couldn't obtain.

The 40 Elephants partnered with the Elephant and Castle Mob to move stolen goods and keep the peace, creating one of the first equal opportunity gang experiences with both men and women.

The game shows a mix of male and female gang enemies, matching the collaborative model between the all-female 40 Elephants and their male partners in the Elephant and Castle Mob.

• Bloody Nora in the game appears to reference Alice Diamond, the Diamond Queen who led her own London region • Carried various weapons to assault police, dressed like a man, and used male allies from Elephant and Castle strategically

• Known for daring escapes and evading law by making fast exits or jumping into getaway carriages • Bloody Nora displays these same traits: strong woman in men's clothes, surrounded by male henchmen, hijacking a carriage alone to escape

The 40 Elephants gang historically centralized power around Southwark and Westminster boroughs of London, both controlled by female mini bosses in the game, with City of London run by Bloody Nora.

Alice Diamond didn't historically join the 40 Elephants until 30 years later, but the game pays homage to her through Bloody Nora, placing her leadership in the correct 1868 timeframe.

Maxwell Roth operates by gaining loyalty of gangs around the city rather than destroying them, matching the game's neighborhood-by-neighborhood loyalty system perfectly.

• Billy Kimber was the late 19th and early 20th century head of London crime, featured in the show Peaky Blinders • His strategy involved annexing rival gangs into his kingdom rather than taking them down

• Known for being charismatic and dressing well • Famous for intense behavior like biting live rats in half • Became a legend uniting small independent gangs under his leadership

Billy Kimber oversaw both the Elephant and Castle gang and by proxy Alice Diamond's operations, ruling the same gangs as Maxwell Roth appears to control in Syndicate.

Almost all gangs in Victorian London were doing what they needed to do to survive, not operating from inherent evil or villainy.

The Blighters in Syndicate are only fighting the player because they're being paid by Templars, making it probably the most legitimate way those people could have made money.

In real history, the lines between good and bad guys aren't clear-cut, making in-game kills feel less heroic when considering that enemies might not be better or worse off than the player.

Players should think about the power they hold as an assassin and remember the people they're trying to kill might be victims of circumstance rather than true criminals.