assassin creed unity

Plot

The "Initiate" is a player of Helix, a gaming device produced by Abstergo that allows access to many different genetic memories.

The story begins with the player playing through a memory of the sacking of the Paris Temple, and the capture of Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay, in 1307. During the sack, de Molay entrusts another Templar with a sword and a book, which the Templar hides within a French crypt shortly before being killed by an Assassin. The memory then fast forwards to de Molay's death at the stake, and his curse towards King Phillip IV and Pope Clement V.

At this point, a member of the modern day Assassin Brotherhood, codenamed: "Bishop," hijacks the memory sequence and implores the player to join them as an initiate. Bishop provides an internal Abstergo video memo, in which Abstergo describes the capture of a Sage who contains precursor DNA (which is in a triple–rather than a double–helix). Abstergo goes into detail regarding the Phoenix Project, whereby Abstergo hopes to use the Sage to compile a whole precursor genome for unclear purposes. Bishop provides access to another memory segment and directs the new initiate to locate another Sage, whose corpse they hope to recover.

The memory then segues to Versailles in 1776, as Arno Dorian, a French nobleman's son, meets Elise De La Serre, daughter of the Templar Grand Master. After his father is murdered at the palace, Arno is taken in by Grand Master De La Serre; while the Grand Master knows Arno's father was an Assassin, Arno is oblivious. The story then skips forward 13 years, to Elise's initiation into the Templar order in 1789. Arno is given a message to deliver to De La Serre, but puts it in his office in order to sneak into the party to meet with Elise. After meeting her, Arno sneaks out, and finds De La Serre murdered in a courtyard. Arno, mistaken to be De La Serre's killer, is captured by the gendarmerie and imprisoned in the Bastille. There, he finds apocalyptic writings on the wall and impresses a fellow prisoner, the Assassin Pierre Bellec, with his fighting skills. Bellec invites Arno into the Brotherhood when they escape during the Storming of the Bastille.

Arno returns home first and is turned away by Elise, who reveals that the message Arno was supposed to deliver to her father was a warning of his impending murder, and reveals herself as a Templar. Arno joins the Brotherhood and begs for the opportunity to find and eliminate the other Templars involved in De La Serre's death to redeem himself, including Le Roi des Thunes ("The King of Beggars"). He is granted his request by the Assassin Mentor Mirabeau, who was attempting to broker peace between the Orders with De La Serre. During the course of his investigation, Arno rescues François-Thomas Germain, a silversmith being held hostage by the acting-Templar Grand Master Lafreniere. Germain convinces Arno to kill Lafreniere, who was actually the one trying to warn De La Serre. Arno runs into Elise and realizes that Germain is the one who ordered De La Serre's murder. The Brotherhood Council begins to question Arno's loyalty as he acts rashly in his pursuit of De La Serre's killer.

Realizing that Germain's plot is intended to spark a mass revolt against the King of France, Arno assassinates two more central figures, an officer organizing a prisoner revolt (Captain Frederic Rouille) and another who was hoarding food (merchant Marie Levesque) to create the impression that the nobility was squandering resources as France starved. Arno also crosses paths with Napoleon Bonaparte, an artillery officer, while searching the Tuileries Palace for letters from Mirabeau to King Louis, which the Templars could use as an excuse to purge the Assassins' agents across France. Bonaparte later helped him in taking down Captain Rouille, who served under his command during the September Massacres of September 1792. During this time, Arno saves Elise and convinces her to parley with the Brotherhood, as she confesses her own faction of the Templars are being killed by a schism led by the Sage. Mirabeau agrees, hoping to gain a massive favor from the potential future Grand Master of the Templars, and is murdered by Bellec, who intends to purge the Assassin leadership for beginning to agree with Templar beliefs. Refusing to join him, Arno kills Bellec, and escapes from the food riots and the assassination of Levesque shortly thereafter with Elise in a hot air balloon, after which Arno confesses to Elise that he still loves her.

With the Revolution in full swing, Arno tracks Germain to the execution of King Louis XVI, but chooses to stay and protect Elise rather than pursue him. Elise rejects him for the decision, and Arno is exiled from the Brotherhood for ignoring orders to pursue his personal vendetta, causing him to fall into a drunken depression. Arno languishes for several months before he is found in Versailles by Elise who convinces him to return as Paris is tearing itself apart during the Reign of Terror. Arno returns to Paris and, with Elise's help, discredits the reputation of Maximilien de Robespierre, whom Germain, now Grand Master of the Templars, had placed in charge of maintaining chaos during the Revolution. After Arno and Elise find Robespierre, who had locked himself in his office in an attempt to avoid arrest, Elise shoots Robespierre in the jaw and makes him write down the location of Germain.

Arno confronts Germain at the top of the Temple, only to find he now has the Sword of Eden. The fight eventually ends in the same Templar crypt in which the game began, where Arno strikes Germain only to have the Sword blow him backwards and trap him under rubble. Elise first attempts to help Arno out of the rubble then goes ahead to take on Germain by herself, but as Arno gets the rubble off of him and runs to protect Elise the Sword explodes, killing Elise and mortally wounding Germain. Arno then kills Germain, who in his memories confirms he is the Sage and that he wanted to purge the Templar Order of all who had forgotten the teachings of de Molay.

The game closes with Arno explaining how his understanding of the Creed has changed, and promising to watch over Paris and keep Elise's memory alive. Years later, Arno, having become a Master Assassin, recovers Germain's skeleton from the Temple and places it in the Catacombs of Paris, much to the relief of Bishop, who is now confident that Abstergo will not be able to find it.