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- List of Assassin's Creed characters (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View AfD | edits since nomination)
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Delete / WP:TNT, without prejudice to recreation of a substantially narrower list or to properly sourced spin-offs.
This has developed into an indiscriminate character database rather than an encyclopedic stand-alone list. The article is currently over 400,000 bytes and has carried a {{Very long}} warning since 2013, when it already contained approximately 45,000 words of readable prose. The present scope includes hundreds of characters ranging from major protagonists to one-mission NPCs, multiplayer characters, minor relatives, assassination targets and historical figures making comparatively incidental appearances, often accompanied primarily by in-universe biography and plot summary.
There is no meaningful or consistently applied selection criterion. For example, individual entries are provided for characters such as Angelina Ceresa and Margherita dei Campi from Brotherhood, alongside dozens of other characters whose inclusion appears to be based principally on the fact that they can be named and described from a game or tie-in work. This is contrary to WP:INDISCRIMINATE and the guidance at WP:SALAT that inclusion criteria should reflect encyclopedic relevance rather than mere verifiable existence. For a list capable of encompassing hundreds of entries, WP:SALAT expressly contemplates using notability or another restrictive criterion to keep the list manageable. Much of the article also consists of character-by-character retelling of fictional events rather than real-world discussion, raising WP:PLOT / WP:NOTPLOT concerns.
This is not a recent maintenance problem. The talk page contains discussions dating back more than a decade calling for removal of excessive plot, culling of trivial characters, separation of historical characters, and restructuring of the list. Editors were already calling the page excessively long in 2014–15; a historical-character split was proposed again in 2022 by me; and the current "List quality" discussion has expressly raised WP:TNT and game-by-game character articles. Despite that history, the page remains over 400 kB and continues to expand as new installments are released. Ordinary incremental cleanup has plainly not produced a sustainable scope.
I do not contend that the broader subject of Assassin's Creed characters is incapable of encyclopedic coverage. There is reliable secondary coverage of major characters and of the franchise's use of characters collectively. The problem is the present article and its unlimited scope. If this title is recreated, I suggest a strict inclusion threshold based on substantial independent secondary coverage and/or clear significance to the series rather than completeness.
Reasonable alternatives would include:
- a substantially rewritten List of Assassin's Creed characters restricted to independently discussed major protagonists, antagonists and recurring characters;
- where independent sourcing supports them, separate Characters of Assassin's Creed [installment] articles along the model used for much of the Final Fantasy series, allowing conception/development and reception of each cast to be discussed rather than creating hundreds of miniature biographies; or
- a separately curated Historical figures in Assassin's Creed / List of historical figures in Assassin's Creed article, because the franchise's adaptation of real historical people has itself received substantial secondary and academic discussion.
The current version, however, should not be retained merely as a holding place for material that may eventually be reorganized. WP:TNT is appropriate where rebuilding a useful article is substantially easier than repairing an indiscriminate existing one. It is also likely that List of Assassin's Creed characters may instead be a directory for any other derivative "characters of" pages or more focused list. Haleth (talk) 00:55, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
