Winchester

Winchester (: Wincestre) is a city and the county town of Hampshire, England. The city served as the capital of Wessex during the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.
==History==
===Roman period===
Winchester was settled by the Roman Empire in 70 CE as , named after a local Gaulish tribe named the . The settlement quickly became a hub for industry, education, and culture. Their pagan religion eventually transformed to .Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Viking Expansion notes: "Dull Lesson"
In 306 CE, during the reign of Emperor Constantine I, Christian worshippers came under frequent attack from warriors. The Hidden One Beatha was dispatched from the Venta Belgarum bureau to locate Constantine and deliver a message to secure protection for the worshippers.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – A Brief History of the Hidden Ones
Around 383, the Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus left for Gaul with most of his troops in a bit to usurp Gratian, ending formal Roman presence in north and west Britannia. As local populations began to grow hostile towards the Hidden Ones, Marcellus ordered the evacuation of the bureau in Venta Belgarum, requesting relocation to Londinium and Camulodunum.
===Medieval period===
The outskirts of Venta Belgarum were eventually settled by the Saxons, who farmed outside its crumbling walls. They named the land Venta Caester, which in time corrupted into Wincestre.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Viking Expansion notes: "Deathly Dull Manuscript" Wincestre became the capital of the Kingdom of Wessex, which, by the 9th century, had came to dominate much of Southern England.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
By the 870s, the Order of the Ancients maintained a strong presence in the city. The Ancient Ealhferth became Bishop of Wincestre, using the alleged words of God to influence the populace,Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Impaling the Seax while his fellow Order member Selwyn attained the position of reeve, maintaining law and order in the city,Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Choking the Gallows and Hilda established a criminal network comprised mostly of Wincestre's orphaned children.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Plucking the Quill King Alfred himself served as the Grand Maegester of the Order, though he loathed the organization for its heretic beliefs and, with the help of his reeve Goodwin, devised a plan to destroy it from within.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Poor Fellow-Soldier
Circa 875, Maegester Fulke uncovered Alfred's "collaboration" with the "Poor-Fellow Soldier of Christ", a mysterious informant seeking the downfall of the Order, and tasked Ealhferth, Selwyn and Hilda to ensure the king was "burned to ash" for his betrayal. The Order subsequently began attacking Alfred's attempts to reform religion and education, and the king decided to enlist the aid of the Raven Clan shieldmaiden Eivor Varinsdottir, being unable to personally deal with the Order without exposing his identity as the Poor-Fellow Soldier.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Reeve of Wincestre
In 877, Eivor traveled to Wincestre after her Hidden One friend Hytham received a letter signed by the Poor-Fellow Soldier,Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – More Intel and met Alfred at The Old Minster, where the king handed her another letter from the Poor-Fellow Soldier detailing the Order's plans in Wincestre. Eivor subsequently rescued Goodwin, who had been imprisoned at the Wincestre Garrison by Selwyn's men, and assassinated the Order member while he oversaw a public execution at the town square.
Eivor also tracked down and eliminated Hilda, and later discovered that Ealhferth had faked his death to murder Alfred while he delivered a speech at Witan Hall. The shieldmaiden killed Ealhferth during his assassination attempt, saving Alfred's life and ending the Order's influence in Wincestre, though she was soon banished from the city after rejecting Alfred's offer to convert to Christianity.
The following year, after having eliminated all Order members in England and discovered Alfred's identity as both the Poor-Fellow Soldier and the Grand Maegester of the Order, Eivor was given the key to Alfred's secret study at The Old Minster. There, she found documents detailing his plans to establish a new order, one that would seek the betterment of humanity. At some point during her time in Wincestre, Eivor also found and explored the abandoned Venta Belgarum bureau, retrieving a page from The Magas Codex and the seax Suttungr's Claw.
Circa 889, Eivor met with Alfred one final time in the courtyard of The Old Minster, where the king extended an invitation for her to join his Order. However, Eivor turned down the offer, explaining that she was planning to leave England for good, and Alfred wished her well on her journeys before the two parted ways.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Last Chapter – Fare Thee Well, Aelfred Rex
==Notable landmarks==
*Bishop's Residence
**Temple of Mithras
*Jewelry Workshop
*Market Warehouse
*Saint Peter's Church
*Shieldmaker's Yard
*The Old Minster
*The Nun's Minster
*Venta Belgarum bureau
*Wincestre Garrison
*Wincestre Seminary
*Witan Hall
==Behind the scenes==
Wincester is a city in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. In the game, Wincester is listed as a region seperate from the surrounding Hamtunscire, similarly to how Lunden and Jorvik are treated as their own individual regions.
==Gallery==
ACV The Reeve of Wincestre 2.png|Eivor synchronizing a viewpoint in Wincestre
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed: Valhalla 
**The Last Chapter
*Discovery Tour: Viking Age
*Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Hidden Codex
*The World of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Journey to the North – Logs and Files of a Hidden One 
==References==
de:Winchester
fr:Winchester
ru:Винчестер
zh:温彻斯特
Category:Capital cities
Category:Cities in England
Category:Cities in Ancient Rome