Layla Hassan is the modern-day playable protagonist in Assassin's Creed Origins.
Layla is a former Abstergo Industries employee who uses a modified Animus to explore the memories of Bayek and Aya. Her work reveals information that conflicts with Abstergo's official interests and brings her into contact with the modern Assassin organization. The modern-day sections frame the historical story and establish Layla as an important continuing character.
Origins changed the series' modern-day structure by giving Layla a more direct role than the mostly anonymous player character used in some earlier entries. She is not simply observing a historical simulation for entertainment; her discoveries affect the wider conflict between the Assassins and Templars, represented in the present day by their successor organizations.
Desmond Miles remains central to the earlier games, but his story concludes before Origins begins. William Miles, Desmond's father, also appears elsewhere in the modern-day narrative, while Rebecca Crane is an Assassin technician. None of them is the protagonist of Origins' modern-day storyline.