The backbone of Assassin's Creed: Unity features a social map that covers nearly all aspects of life in the heavily wounded Paris of the Revolution era. Both in the main plot, as in the optional side quests that enrich it, we can see how several bigger or smaller details make a difference, adding more spice to the characters they concern, as well as the overall spirit of the game. In the story of the game, there are several people involved, both historical and fictional - as is the case anyway in all installments of the Assassin's Creed saga. There are several real-life people that appear in the co-op missions as well, but as the nature of these quests is very specific and not directly connected to the main plot and its development, in this article I will explore only those that are featured in Arno's story and a select few from the in-game side missions that are interconnected and are quite representative of that era and their field of activity.
In terms of the main plot and how he affects it, Count Mirabeau is the most important historical figure who plays a crucial part in the story, being the head of the Parisian Brotherhood. At the start of the game, before Arno even knows about his Assassin heritage or the existence of Templars, Mirabeau is seen discussing with Monsieur De La Serre about a truce between the two fractions, an agreement that is essentially the cause of the events that followed.
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, as was his full name, was, in real life, a prominent and influential politician during the early years of the French Revolution. A gifted orator, coming from a noble family, he became the leader of the National Assembly in 1789. He was also a member of the Jacobin Club and was supporting the new kind of constitutional monarchy that was already established in Great Britain. After his death, he was announced a national hero, and was buried at the Pantheon following a grand ceremony. However it was later discovered that he had been working for the king, something that cost him his posthumous reputation, and subsequently his remains were removed from the Pantheon. To this day, it is still debatable whether his role had been a honest one and if he indeed had good intentions for the people of France, or he was just an amoral traitor.
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| Mirabeau by Philippe-Auguste Jeanron |
Louis-Michel Le Peletier was a politician whose vote was critical for the fate of King Louis XVI in both reality and the game. In Unity, he is portrayed as a rather collected nobleman who does not hesitate to cast his vote in the council, knowing that it will be enough to lead the king to the guillotine. He is a Templar under the orders of Germain, and he appears to have a rather open social life, seeing how he visits his favorite hangout in spite of the crowds raging in the streets outside.
Historically, Le Peletier's vote was not the only one that ruled the result of the trial, but it was among those that did. Starting off as rather conservative in his views, he later moved to the opposite wing and due to a series of radical decisions concerning the death penalty, he became quite popular and became President of the Constituent Assembly. He was murdered in a restaurant in the Palais Royal, an incident pretty similar to how it is shown in the game, by Philippe Nicolas Marie de Pâris who subsequently managed to leave the place without getting arrested; something that however happened later in Normandy, where the murderer had meanwhile fled, and according to the reports he committed suicide on the spot.
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| Le Peletier by Jean-François Garneray |
Maximilien Robespierre is another major antagonist in the game's story, although he makes very few appearances; but given that we catch a glimpse of him as early as in the Versailles intro - he is one of the high society attendees of Elise's initiation ceremony - it is already hinted that he plays his part from the shadows before shifting to the spotlight with the start of the Reign of Terror later. The game covers both the highest peak of his political status and the decline of his reputation, revealing him to be the closest associate of the Grand Master Templar.
The real Robespierre is still considered one of the most controversial figures of French history, being seen first as a hero and savior of the people, and later as France's worst nightmare after establishing a state of literal terrorism where whoever expressed even the slightest doubt about him, would get eliminated. Just like it is depicted in Unity, when it all started to turn against him, he fled to escape the rage of the people but was arrested soon after and was executed together with several other associates and supporters. According to reports, he had a wound on his head when he was discovered hiding, a detail that in the game is explained by Elise shooting him in the face to force him reveal Germain's whereabouts.
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| Robespierre by unknown painter |
A real-life figure which plays a small but crucial role in Arno's story is a young Napoleon Bonaparte, years before he became Emperor of France. In the game, Arno meets him by chance after infiltrating the historical Touileries in search of royal letters that could be endangering the Brotherhood. Napoleon is in the same place, making his own investigation, and his aid in that part and later proves to be quite valuable. At the conclusion of the game, we see him again with Arno, years later, in the Catacombs where Germain met his demise. He also appears in Dead Kings, in a quite dubious role.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a major historical personality who affected the development of France greatly and left an inedible mark. Initially an officer of the Royal Army, he supported the Revolution promoting its cause outside the limits of France, and went on to win several battles in subsequent wars around Europe, his glorious career ending dramatically with a humiliating defeat in Waterloo. Although he aided the evolution of Europe's sociopolitical state with his military activity, as an Emperor he made several missteps, like abolishing free press, replacing governments that were legally elected or reintroducing hereditary monarchy, among others, actions that tarnished his good reputation in the military field in which he was, undoubtedly, gifted.
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| Napoleon by Antoine-Jean Gros |
Notably Charles Gabriel Sivert, one of the killers of Monsieur de la Serre, was also a real-life person, an officer serving the Royal Navy and then the Military. He had a rather impressive career, won several honorary awards, and later became a brigadier before retiring from the army. He died in Versailles in 1791, fitting the time frame of Unity, which is probably why he was selected to participate in the story as a low-rank Templar.
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| The Marquis de Sade by H. Biberstein |
The historical figure was indeed a silversmith who, according to reports, might have also had eyes of different colors. Although he probably led a very conventional and simple life, he suddenly disappeared mysteriously and was never seen again. Germain also seems to nod to the Count of St Germain, a famous adventurer of those times, whose real name was never officially revealed and who had traveled extensively around Europe claiming different identities, family backgrounds, talents and even metaphysical powers. Several scholars and writers have reported meeting him, mainly in royal courts; these accounts seem to be about the same person, but most of them describe him as impostor.
More real-life historical figures appear as cameos or in the game's side quests as mission givers. In the second sequence, when Arno is transported to the Bastille, we have the chance to see several real-life people as prisoners there. Apart from the Marquis de Sade, who makes an unforgettable entrance, we also see three more men who, historically, were among the sole seven prisoners that were being held in the Bastille when the Revolution started and the crowd burst in to liberate them.
First we see Hubert de Solages, an aristocrat who had been sent to prison for sexual misconduct, by request of his own family. In the scene where he appears, we see him playing the violin in his cell. Later on, the violin keeps being heard nearly throughout all the first prison sequences.
As the guards drag Arno in the corridor past the other cells, we can see a priest staring ominously and chanting prophecies. He is Jacques Francois Xavier de Whyte, a nobleman from Ireland who served in the French Army and was imprisoned in the Bastille for insanity.
Guards can be seen dragging another man, mumbling scattered words about Damiens, the servant who had attempted to murder King Louis XV several years before. This man is August Tavernier, who was an accomplice in this attempt and later lost his mind and was sent to prison.
A few more historical figures appear in side quests as mission givers.
In the set of the Paris Stories, Arno has the chance to meet the poet Andres Chenier, known for his emotive, lyrical verses. Chenier was initially a supporter of the Revolution, but later distanced himself from the extreme turn it took, expressing publicly his disagreement, as well as through his works. Eventually he was arrested and executed. In the main story's memory "The Supreme Being", if you take your time to explore Robespierre's tent, you will find a letter written by Chenier's brother, directed to the politician.
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| Arno with Andres Chenier |
In another side quest of the Paris Stories, Arno meets Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, the famous playwright known for his plays featuring Figaro, the iconic Barber of Seville. As a playwright, he often had problems with critics who did not agree with his caustic satire of the aristocracy, a theme that is explored briefly in his quest. Although he was originally very popular thanks to his plays, his subsequent wealth and high social status distanced him from the people and eventually his popularity declined dramatically.
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| Beaumarchais is having a drink in the sun |
The sculptor and wax artist Madame Tussaud also makes an appearance in a few side missions, the first one being the most sensational, as she sends Arno to bring back to her the severed heads belonging to famous convicts that were stolen from her, so that she can make their wax counterparts. The real Marie Tussaud was arrested during the Reign of Terror and came very close to execution, but she was eventually released, tasked to create death masks of the famous victims of the Revolution.
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| Madame Tussaud can be seen keeping notes at her desk |
Nicolas de Condorcet appears in another Paris Story, a bit difficult to ignore thanks to his outstanding dressing style - a very accurate depiction since the real Condorcet was a philosopher, economist and mathematician with very advanced views. He supported equal rights, a welfare state, free markets and public education, ideas that alluded to the Age of Enlightenment and which, unfortunately, were frowned upon, resulting in him getting arrested and eventually dying in prison.
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| Nicolas de Condorcet stands out with his stylish outfit |
Maybe the most famous chemist of all times, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, makes an appearance along with his wife in the questline "The Chemical Revolution". The founder of modern chemistry worked also for the reformation of society, but his involvement in the infamous tax collection system of the time turned him into a person of interest during the Reign of Terror, resulting in his arrest and subsequent execution. In the game's missions, Arno is tasked with getting back a chemical formula for the smoke bombs which Lavoisier had invented on behalf of the Assassins, but it got stolen. Fearing that the exposure of the formula would endanger the secrecy of the Brotherhood but also worried about public safety, the scientist and his wife ask Arno to find it as soon as possible.
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| Lavoisier is shown to never leaving his studies |
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| Arno escorting Mademoiselle Lenormand in an ominous stroll around Paris |
A notable historical figure from a different field, Eugène-François Vidocq, appears as a link character in the overarching plot tying together all the Murder Mysteries in Paris. To initiate the quests, Arno must go to the starting location which is a standard prison - not the notorious Bastille, but rather a small settlement which serves as a temporary lockup for minor criminals. Once there, our hero meets Charles Cochon de Lapparent, who was a real-life politician and Minister of Police. He seems rather bored and not disposed to deal with the several murder mysteries around Paris, preferring to spend time sleeping at his desk.
When you first come across Lapparent, he has just arrested a young thief, that is Vidocq. In spite of the rather tough situation he is in, the boy seems rather keen on helping out with solving the mysteries, and suggests that Lapparent directs Arno to their locations, so that he can possibly find the culprits.
The real-life Eugène-François Vidocq was originally an outlaw; but thanks to his wits and intuition, he later on became an investigator, often collaborating with the official police and largely contributing to the handling of criminal activity, thanks to his experience and the acquaintances he had made in his life as a criminal himself. He is generally recognized as the world's first modern detective.
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| Vidocq by Marie Gabrielle Coignet |
One of the murder mysteries that Arno has to solve is a historical event, the murder of the radical politician Jean-Paul Marat. When Arno arrives at the scene of the crime, he finds Marat's dead body in the bathtub, posed just like in the famous painting of Jacques-Louis David.
In the same place, the painter Jacques-Louis David himself is already there - another historical figure who however is serving only as a witness whom you can interrogate - immortalizing the scene in his painting which became so emblematic later.
This murder mystery is one of the longest, as you are required to visit several different places and interrogate a long list of suspects. If however you are familiar with the historical facts, you won't have much to do. Just go to the Prison and locate Charlotte Corday, the real-life culrprit.
Apart from the historical figures that appear in the game, some of the fictional characters are equally interesting and sensational, as they considerably affect the plot's surrounding atmosphere with their theatrical, even extravagant appearance, and their attitude as antagonists.
An important part of the story takes place in the district of Le Marais, that used to be a dense and suffocating network of dilapidated slums where the Underground ruled. Its center was Le Cour Des Miracles (The Court of Miracles), where you could find everything else except miracles: crime, prostitution, extreme poverty and illnesses were the standard there, and who better to oversee this mess than the notorious Roi des Thunes. A character of high literary status, looking like a villain from a novel written by Alexandre Dumas or Victor Hugo, the "King of Beggars", as his name translates, is in charge of what goes on and about in Le Cour Des Miracles, well-known for his relentlessness but nonetheless respected by both his friends and enemies.
Another such character, looking like he escaped from the pages of a novel by Hugo or Dumas, is Aloys La Touche, the lieutenant of the Roi des Thunes. Once a hard-working and responsible tax assessor, at some point he discovered that a large amount of money was missing from the King's treasury, which he immediately reported to his superior. Having obviously discovered something dirty that was supposed to remain secret, he eventually lost his job after being unjustly accused of fraud. Being unable to support himself then, and disgusted by the corruption of the system, he found a new playground in the Underworld of Paris where he realized that he could be as cruel as the people who were responsible for the ruin that had become his life. Soon he was transformed into a living nightmare, feared by all the poor people of Paris who were forced to live under his surveillance.
Frédéric Rouille is another brilliant antagonist, albeit he only appears a few times in the game, one being in the mission that concludes with his assassination. Having joined the army at a very young age, he eventually became a Captain and was one of the most ardent supporters of the extremities that followed the Revolution. Passionate and devoted to his cause but also crazed and bloodthirsty, he played a most dramatic role during the September Massacres - an historical event that took place during 2 and 6 September of 1792 and it involved storming important establishments and headquarters and massacring indiscriminately whomever happened to be there. Rouille is depicted as a tall, hot-headed man with pale skin and red hair, who could have been handsome otherwise but never fails to showcase his violent nature.
While Arno is investigating the Beauvais hotel, Rouille is spotted inquiring a captured man together with La Touche; after the captive gives him all the information he needs, he simply throws the man out of the window, killing him. Later in the mission where Arno infiltrates the Grand Chatelet to find and assassinate him, he can be seen at the start parading around holding a stick with a severed head attached to it, yelling at his men to find him a warden. Then as Arno is approaching the terrace where he is, he has already captured a warden and can be heard taunting him by singing the "Marseillaise" on top of his lungs. Semiologically, his surname is not random, since "rouille" means rust, which is the color of his hair; and because the color red is usually associated with the revolutionary spirit, in this case the rust, therefore the corrupted red color, describes Rouille's twisted perception of how freedom and independence should work.
Another important antagonist is Chrétien Lafreniere, whom we first see attending the soirée for Elise's initiation ceremony. Coming from a family of spice importers, he became a priest and later a Templar. In spite of his somewhat conservative approach, he was quite open-minded, and would even empathize with Monsieur de la Serre's wish for a potential truce with the Assassin Brotherhood; at least he was not entirely opposed to such a perspective. He carries a dubious role throughout the part of the story where he is present, as for several sequences we do not know that it was him who wanted to warn Monsieur de la Serre about the planned attack against him. In the long run, Arno could have found an unexpected ally in Lafreniere, had Germain not tricked him into killing the priest.
Lafreniere is seen always with his imposing cape on, with his biblical figure half-hidden below his hood. This alludes to both his clerical status and him being a Templar. It also gives him an air of mystery, further highlighting his more obscure role and the distance he was gradually taking from Germain's extreme activities. Priests used to be very privileged before the Revolution, but then they became targets of the Patriots due to their strong connection with monarchy and the upper social classes. Many of them were forced to denounce their oath and their religious beliefs, while others were arrested and executed.
The note that Lafreniere writes as a warning for Monsieur de la Serre is signed only with his last name's initial, L. He does this of course so as to not raise Germain's suspicions, but apparently it was supposed to serve as a plot device, if the game had been more developed and had more scenes added to it. There is another character whose last name starts with an L, and that is Marie Lévesque, the aristocrat whom Germain places in charge of the goods that arrive at the docks. Her task is to make sure the supplies are either defect or not enough, so as to enrage the people and create more social turbulence. It is very likely that Marie was planned to appear in the game earlier than when she actually does, so that neither us nor Arno or Elise could be sure about the identity of the mysterious L. Before all started falling into place, it could have been either Lévesque or Lafreniere or even La Touche who had written the note, thus adding an intriguing mystery, tightly connected to the main plot.
The assassination mission to kill Marie Lévesque is maybe the most sensational of the game, since it takes place in the vast and luxurious Luxembourg Palace and its gardens. On an evening when there is a grand party taking place, Arno must infiltrate the palace grounds and assassinate Marie Lévesque, something that is not at all easy, as there are numerous enemies around and additionally she has her own personal guards. There are a few things that you can take advantage of so as to make Arno's work a bit easier, one of them being to free two groups of prisoners who are being held in the yard outside, so that they create a diversion by fighting with and hopefully killing some of the guards. The most challenging part though is another strategy, which involves clearing the way for a man who is outside bringing fireworks for the party, so that he can enter the gardens and start an impressive show with the fireworks. The noise and lights in the sky will attract Marie's attention and she will leave the safety of the ballroom to exit to the corridor so as to watch the fireworks from a window, quite often without her guards. This makes killing her a lot easier and far more direct, in a strategy that could very well be considered a unique kill, although it is not labelled as so.
As a character, Marie Lévesque could have been even more essential to the story's development, given her crucial role as a Templar following Germain's orders and her cold, heartless demeanor. Her background is equally interesting, as she was born into a wealthy family that already belonged to the Templar Order. When the family fortune was lost, Marie married a rich man who, however, was not a nobleman. As an exchange for him being recognized as a member of nobility, he accepted to change his last name to that of Marie's. Subsequently, Marie succeeded in remaking her family's fortune and thanks to her abilities she became one of Germain's most valuable associates. Interestingly, her name alludes to Marie Laveau, a famous Creole Voodoo priestess and herbalist who operated in Louisiana through the 19th century. This connection may not be random at all, since Marie Lévesque is somehow hinted to be using not so legit means to achieve her goals and make things and people work towards her benefit.
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