Alexios (Greek: Αλέξιος) and Kassandra (Greek: Κασσάνδρα) are two interconnected fictional characters in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed video game franchise, first appearing as the player characters of the 2018 video game Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Alexios and Kassandra are portrayed through performance capture by Michael Antonakos and Melissanthi Mahut respectively. Leonidas Castrounis and Maria Syrgiannis respectively voice the two characters as children in flashbacks.

Within the series' alternate historical setting, both characters are siblings who were separated from their Spartan parents and each other during childhood due to a prophecy delivered by the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi. Through their mother Myrrine, the siblings are descendants of a fictional version of Leonidas I, who is himself descended from the otherworldly Isu, the so-called First Civilization, and wielded a spear that is imbued with fantastical powers. In Odyssey, the player has the choice to experience the memories of either Alexios or Kassandra as part of a simulation played by another in-game character, Layla Hassan. The chosen character becomes the elder sibling in the game's narrative, who is stranded from childhood on the island of Kephalonia following a traumatic incident at Mount Taygetos, and as an adult becomes a legendary mercenary known as the "Eagle Bearer". The younger sibling in turn becomes "Deimos", a revered enforcer of a secret society known as the Cult of Kosmos and one of the game's primary antagonists.

Odyssey's story follows the Eagle Bearer's journey across Classical Greece during the Peloponnesian War as they attempt to reunite their fractured family and hunt down the Cult of Kosmos, who are depicted as the orchestrators of the war. Within the series' lore, Kassandra is designated as the canon Eagle Bearer, appearing as such in Odyssey's novelization and later reconfirmed in Odyssey's successor, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, in which Kassandra appears as a guest character as part of a bonus questline added after the game's release.

Both characters have received a positive reception from video game journalists and series fans following their debut. Kassandra in particular has received attention as a positive example of gender equality and representation in video games, as well as critical acclaim in response to Mahut's performance and interpretation of the character.

In Odyssey, former Abstergo employee Layla Hassan discovers the broken spear of King Leonidas of Sparta, which is in fact a powerful Isu artifact. After reliving Leonidas' final moment of triumph during the Battle of Thermopylai for the game's tutorial section, she is then presented with a choice to explore the genetic memories of Leonidas' grandchildren, either Alexios or Kassandra, via her portable Animus machine in her search for the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus, another Isu artifact. Whoever is chosen by the player as Layla in Odyssey is revealed to be the legendary mercenary known as the Eagle Bearer who was active during the Peloponnesian War, and whose exploits are detailed in the purportedly lost accounts of a version of Herodotos in the Assassin's Creed universe. As a mercenary who is typically referred to by the term misthios which means "employed for hire" or "hired servant" in the ancient Greek language,^[1] the Eagle Bearer is a departure from series tradition as they have no direct ties to the Assassin Brotherhood or any related organization.^[2][3]

As Alexios or Kassandra, the player may choose how to respond to non-player characters by engaging in dialogue trees with them to learn information and progress the story, with some of the choices potentially changing or affecting the fates of the characters they interact with.^[4] Throughout the game the Eagle Bearer has access to a loyal horse named Phobos, whose appearance is customizable and can be summoned almost anytime and anywhere.^[5] The Eagle Bearer embarks on an extended journey across the Greek world on board their ship the Adrestia, where they encounter interpretations of various real world historical figures in the Assassin's Creed universe such as Perikles, Kleon, Aspasia, Sokrates, Alkibiades, Aristophanes, Hippokrates, Brasidas, and the Two Kings of Sparta.

For the game's novelization written by Gordon Doherty, Kassandra appears as the Eagle Bearer who opposes the Cult of Kosmos and eventually inherits the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus from Pythagoras.^[6] Alexios is shaped to become a weapon to be used by the Cult, henceforth known by the name Deimos. His allegiance to the Cult puts him at odds with his sister, who attempts to dismantle their influence across the Greek world in the midst of the Peloponnesian War and to reunite their family, and later dies fighting Kassandra at Mount Taygethos.

In an interview by Tom Hoggins from The Telegraph, Odyssey senior producer Marc-Alexis Côté said that the Kephallonia section early in the game is "about discovering who these characters are and find out why you should join them on this journey".^[7] Côté explained that the notion of choice is determined by the development team as one of their "core pillars" for the game, and that is extended to the player being given their choice of character. Côté noted that player feedback from the option to play as Evie Frye in Assassin's Creed Syndicate helped informed the team with insight on how to push this further for Odyssey, and claimed that the team was able to build a better game as a result as everyone is satisfied with the "good gender split on the game".^[7] The implementation of a branching dialogue system, which Côté said is supposed to transform the way player's would approach their gameplay experience through dialogue choices, was the main change in how the developmental team approached building the game. He explained that it involved a lot more preparation compared to previous projects in the series, as the writing team for Odyssey expanded from a duo to a team of fifteen staff members during development.^[7] Côté said that the game's novelization was an extension of the project, and as its narrative is meant to be linear, a canon storyline for the novel had to be drafted.^[7]

In July 2020, a report by Jason Schreier from Bloomberg about the mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations by Ubisoft claimed that Kassandra was originally meant to be the sole playable character of Odyssey, and the inclusion of Alexios as an alternative player character was insinuated to be the result of a compromise with Ubisoft management, a situation described to be "illustrative of the sexism ingrained within the company".^[8]

Although Kassandra is designated as the canon Eagle Bearer for the novelization and was featured prominently in gameplay demo footage shown at E3 2018, the vast majority of the marketing campaign and available merchandise for Odyssey exclusively featured Alexios, including the game's three pre-order statues, cover art, official trailer, header image on Uplay, and so on.^[6][15]

As part of a promotional collaboration between Ubisoft and Amazon, Antonakos' voice as Alexios is featured as part of "Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Spartan Skill", a free downloadable Alexa-based content available for all Amazon Echo devices.^[16] A limited edition Assassin’s Creed-themed Amazon Echo device, designed to resemble a Spartan helmet, was also released.^[16]

Prior to the release of Odyssey on October 5, 2018, Côté observed that there appeared to be a lot of interest into being able to play a female lead character, with about three quarters of players selecting Kassandra as the player character during a gameplay preview session in September 2018, which exceeded his own expectations. Ubisoft Québec Game Director Scott Phillips revealed that two-thirds of Odyssey players chose to play Alexios by December 2018, although he noted that the choices were statistically more evenly split during the game's playtesting stage. Both Alexios and Kassandra were jointly nominated for the 2018 Gamers' Choice Awards' Fan Favorite Character of the Year, while their respective actors received nominations in the Fan Favorite Voice Actor awards.^[17] For the 30th GLAAD Media Awards in 2019, Odyssey was one of five nominees for the inaugural "Outstanding Video Game" category. GLAAD credited the positive depiction of Kassandra and Alexios as sexually fluid characters to be one of the rationales behind the nomination, though the controversy generated by the Legacy of the First Blade DLC pack was also acknowledged.^[18] Xalavier Nelson Jr from Rock, Paper, Shotgun was of the view that both are "distinct, compelling, and valid protagonists" in their own right, and that the subtle variations between both choices colours the events of their game moreso than the differences between a male and female Commander Shepard for the original Mass Effect trilogy.^[19] On the other hand, both Ali Jones from PCGamesN and Fraser Brown from Rock, Paper, Shotgun questioned the Alexios-centric marketing campaign for Odyssey and the lack of promotion for his female counterpart.^[15][6] Joe Parlock opined that the executive-mandated decision to have an interchangeable lead made it more difficult for the writers to develop either Kassandra or Alexios as their own characters in response to the Bloomberg report by Schreier.^[20]

Kassandra has received near-universal critical acclaim for her characterization as an atypical female video game protagonist.^[21][22] With Kassandra, Ubisoft earned nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Character at the 22nd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards,^[23] and Best Character at the Italian Video Game Awards.^[24] Mahut received award nominations from 15th British Academy Games Awards,^[25] and The Game Awards 2018,^[26] for her performance as Kassandra. Kassandra has also appeared on several "top character" lists with high placements. Paste Magazine named her among the best new videogame characters of 2018, and praised her down-to-earth nature, as well as her confidence and self-assuredness which is considered to be rare for video game characters.^[27] Andy Kelly from PC Gamer proclaimed her to be the second best protagonist character of the Assassin's Creed series behind Ezio Auditore da Firenze, whose mischievous charm is said to be present in Mahut's performance;^[28] and Polygon ranked Kassandra among the best video game characters of the 2010s^[29] as well as one of their "69 biggest crushes of the last decade".^[30]

Hoggins said Kassandra was for him the obvious choice as the player character. He described her as "brilliant company" who takes absolutely no nonsense from anyone, as "her tongue is much sharper than the rusty sword she begins the game with".^[31] Samuel Axon from Ars Technica said Kassandra stole the show for him, and that choosing her for his first playthrough felt like a fresh experience; he liked the notion of a female character with agency roaming ancient Greece "liberally partaking in all the violent and sensual pleasures on offer with Conan-like revelry and impunity", framing an entirely different tone and context not unlike that of Xena: Warrior Princess.^[22] Writing for PC Gamer, Fraser Brown formed the view that Kassandra is "immediately likeable" due to her "easy-going, roguish charm", and compared her "longstanding popularity" to that of Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher media franchise which end up overshadowing the Assassin's Creed series' other protagonists.^[32] Harry Shepard, also from PC Gamer, noted that her "commanding presence oozes cool, and she has a more subtle charm" compared to her male counterpart.^[33] Colin Campbell from Polygon praised Kassandra as "one of the most complete human characters" he has ever played as in a game, noting that she comes across as "smarter and funnier" then her male counterpart, and that "her facial animations are a joy to watch, while her vocal reactions generally match her movements".^[34] Campbell's credited Mahut's performance for giving the role a greater range than Alexios’ actor. Noelle Adams from Critical Hit praised Kassandra as a physically strong and tough survivor who combines likeable traits from many other female protagonists in fiction and yet has a malleable personality, in addition to being better animated then her male counterpart.^[35] Her portrayal as an example of a liberated Spartan female archetype,^[35] as well as a potential bisexual or queer protagonist has also been praised.^[36][37]

Alexios has also received a generally positive reception, though he often draws an unfavorable comparison to his female counterpart.^[27][28] Kelly considered Alexios to be well acted, but felt that Antonakos played him "far too straight", which in his opinion failed to differentiate the character from "a dozen other gruff videogame heroes".^[28] Shepard said he chose to play as Alexios as he preferred his character design as well as Antonakos' delivery of the profane word malaka, and felt he could better relate to Alexios due to their perceived visual similarities, though he accepted that his personality "is a bit flat" when compared to Kassandra's.^[33] Campbell said Alexios has a depth of character who is "as good as the gruffly vengeful Bayek", but commented that Antonakos' interpretation of the character comes across to him as a "cut-out Mediterranean macho hero, almost to the point of parody", with the "aura of a comedically self-important cartoon character".^[34] Axon said playing as Alexios felt like the same framing he has experienced in video games hundreds of times before, including every mainline Assassin's Creed game except Syndicate.^[22] Andy Kim from US Gamer reacted negatively to Phillips' sharing of player data which is skewed towards Alexios, and joked that two-thirds of the game's player base made the incorrect choice.^[38]