User blog:SupremeAssassin/Height of Assassin's Creed Protagonists

So, it's come to my attention that Ubisoft has had an ongoing trend of making most AC protagonists who were male, at least 6'0 (183cm) tall, so without further ado, I'm going to repost a 2-year-old post I made back when there was speculation on the height of Bayek when Origins came out. I hope the information I will be sharing will be interesting to some of you who are curious about the heights of AC characters. Thus far. I'll even update with the heights of Alexios and Kassandra.

Alright, where do I even begin? Every Assassin protagonist we've had outside of Unity and Syndicate were significantly above the average height of their time periods.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0902090552.htm

According to the research shown in this article, the average height of European men in the Middle Ages was 5ft 8in. Altair was four inches above this average height at 6ft 0in. (As per the information in the manual for Assassin's Creed, which is official information as it comes directly from Ubisoft - it describes Altair's stature as being 6ft 0in).

Now, this average was going steady well into the 15th and 16th centuries but declined in the 17th and 18th centuries from 5ft 8in to 5ft 5in. The 17th and 18th centuries are the time periods of Black Flag and AC3, and to an extent Unity also).

Edward stood five inches above the average height in his time period, which was the early 1700s, specifically 1715 and onward. This is evident because Matt Ryan, who was the voice actor and motion capture for Edward Kenway is exactly 5ft 10in. This was also how tall Edward was, at 5ft 10in. Edward's son and grandson, stood a whopping seven inches above the average height at once again, at exactly 6ft 0in. We know this much because George Washington was historically 6ft 0in despite popular belief which posits Washington's stature at a towering 6ft 2in.

I have evidence for this, George Washington enclosed his measurements to his tailor, he mentions being "six feet high" in his letter. You can read the letter here, https://founders.archives.gov/docume.../02-08-02-0073

Now that we know this, it is self-evident that Connor was also 6ft 0in because he stood at exactly the same height as Washington in cutscenes where both Washington and Connor stood together. I will also backtrack a bit by mentioning that Edward Teach (Thatch) aka Blackbeard was allegedly 6ft 5in (a full foot taller than his contemporaries). This information should be taken with a grain of salt however, it is doubtful he was this tall.

History tends to lend that Blackbeard was a tall man, but there's no official information to verify these claims. Especially given that the average height which had been precisely about 5ft 8.25in in the Middle Ages had decreased to 5ft 5.75in afterwards during the 17th and 18th centuries. These are figures based on the measurements of thousands of skeletons.

Anyway, even though I said I wasn't gonna do Unity, I'll do it just because it occurs during the late 18th century. So, we already know that the average height was 5ft 5.75in exactly during this period (Humans would not recover from this loss until the 20th century according to research), all we need to do is figure out the height of one historical figure to base Aron's height on. Thankfully, we already have historical accounts of one such person, Napoleon Bonaparte. Now contrary to popular belief, Napoleon was not a short man for his time period, he as in fact above average height.

According to this article, http://www.todayifoundout.com/index....ort-is-a-myth/

The average height of a Frenchman during the French Revolution was 5ft 5in (This fits the caste of the overall average of Europeans being 5ft 5.75in). Napoleon Bonaparte was around 5ft 7in historically, but for simplicity sakes, I will just say he is 5ft 7in. The reason for this is because the French units differed from the English units. So by French terms, Napoleon was barely average but in modern-day units, Napoleon would be described as 5ft 7in. So he was above average height, by two inches. Arno Dorian is around Napoleon's height but if you pay special attention, is actually taller than Napoleon by quite a bit. This places Arno at an estimate of 5ft 9in. Given that Napoleon himself was technically shy of 5ft 7in, (In real terms being most likely 5ft 6.75in) then Arno was just shy of 5ft 9in himself.)

So there you have it, these are the definitive heights of the Assassin's Creed protagonists that we've had so far. Now, Jacob and Evie were also the same height, and are described in-game in a wanted poster as being between 5ft 6 to 5ft 7in. Keep in mind also that average height would not recover until the 20th century. Nevertheless, both Jacob and Evie were likely approximately 5ft 7in themselves. (I'm rounding up, they were most likely 5ft 6.5in)

Now, to Bayek's height, up until Unity and Syndicate, we've had a leading trend of male Assassin protagonists being significantly above the average height for their time periods.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze: 6ft 0in (exceeded average by four inches)

Altair Ibn La'aHad: 6ft 0in (exceeded average by four inches)

Edward Kenway: 5ft 10in (exceeded average by five inches)

Rathonhaketon: 6ft 0in (exceeded average by seven inches)

Arno Dorian: 5ft 9in (5ft 8.75in - rounded up) (exceeded average by three inches)

Jacob and Evie Frye: 5ft 7in (estimated 5ft 6.5in - rounded up) (exceeded average by two inches)

Alexios of Sparta: 5ft 11in 5/8s (Estimated)

Kassandra of Sparta: 5ft 11in 1/8s (Estimated)

Bayek of Siwa is a tricky case to decipher but we will have to turn our attention to scholarly research.

https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-...ent-egyptians/

Now according to this source, the average height of an Egyptian male in Ancient Egypt was 5ft 6in. With nothing else to base my findings on, this confirms Bayek to be of average height, but a chance of exceeding the average as his wife Aya also exceeded hers, as Egyptian women were 5ft 2in and Aya is almost as tall as Bayek, being two inches shorter (in cutscenes, gameplay is something else). We can estimate that Bayek is 5ft 8in and Aya is 5ft 6in.

How about the heights of both Alexios and Kassandra? Both characters inherited their height from their grandfather, Leonidas of Sparta. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly how tall they both are, but perhaps we can use some historical characters to figure it out. Another angle we may use is merely researching the average height of the Ancient Greeks and fortunately for us, this research has been done already.

Average height of Ancient Greeks

According to the research of John Lawrence Angel, who researched Ancient Greece in the 1940s, he examined skeletal remains of Ancient Greeks and verified that the heights of males averaged at 162.2cm for males with extremes ranging from 145cm to 175cm. We can assume that based on the proportionality of characters such as Sokrates, Perikles, and so forth. These men would have stood, in-game, at a height of 175cm.

Consider this image taken as a still from gameplay on YouTube: Alexios and Sokrates on Stage

When zooming in, you can clearly see a noticeable contrast between the heights of Alexios and Sokrates with the latter man looking at the nose of the former man. If we are to assume that Sokrates is 175cm or 5ft 9in then this places Alexios at a steady 180cm or 5ft 11in. This makes Alexios just under 6ft tall. Although his character's proportionality makes him look identical to other 6ftooters of the series such as Ezio, Altair and Connor. We might hesitate to say that Alexios is perhaps 183cm which makes Sokrates 178cm. Let's take this close up of Alexios and Sokrates as well to better visualize their height difference linked below. In this image, you can plainly see that Sokrates is looking at the tip of Alexios's nose which is generally what you would expect of a 5cm or 2-inch difference in stature. Making the assumption that Sokrates is 5'9 means that Alexios is 5'11, and if 5'10, then Alexios must be 6'0. We could then make the tentative argument that Alexios is between 5'11 and 6'0, and therefore a reasonable 182cm.

Alexios and Sokrates

Now let us compare Alexios to Kassandra. In this image, shown of Alexios as the protagonist meeting Kassandra for the first time since they were separated:  Alexios and Kassandra it is clearly shown that Kassandra is a bit shorter than her half-brother. The difference is not significant but let us say the difference is half an inch. If Alexios is 5'11 then Kassandra is 5'10.5, but if Alexios is at the most 6'0 then Kassandra is 5'11.5, but since we established that Alexios must be a reasonable estimate of 182cm or 5'11 5/8s, then Kassandra must be 5'11 1/8s.

And there we have it, the definitive heights of AC characters, well, some were estimated.