The historical storyline of the first Assassin's Creed takes place during which major conflict?

The historical storyline of the first Assassin's Creed takes place during the Third Crusade.

The game is set in 1191, during the conflict commonly called the Third Crusade. Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad travels among cities in the Holy Land, including Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus, while pursuing targets connected to the Templar order. The narrative uses real political and military figures alongside fictional characters and artifacts.

The Third Crusade followed the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187 and involved major European rulers such as Richard I of England. Assassin's Creed does not attempt to reproduce the entire campaign as a conventional military simulation; instead, it uses the period as a setting for stealth missions, political intrigue, and historical fiction.

The First Crusade occurred roughly a century earlier. The Hundred Years' War belongs mainly to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the Peloponnesian War took place in ancient Greece.