Élise de la Serre

**Élise de la Serre** (1768-28 July 1794) was a French noblewoman of the House of Serre. She was the daughter of the influential noble Francois de la Serre, and lived a privileged life in Versailles Palace and Paris, France. She was involved with the French Revolution, during which she died.

## Biography

### Early Life

Élise de la Serre was born in 1768 in Versailles Palace, Kingdom of France to the wealthy nobleman Francois de la Serre and Julie de la Serre. Her family possessed much influence over government matters due to her parents' connections with the Templar Order, of which her father was Grand Master. She had an adventurous nature and preferred to be with family servants than be idle at a ball. In 1776, she met Arno Dorian, the son of nobleman Charles Dorian, while he was waiting for his father to return from a trip on a bench in Versailles Palace. The two of them ran around and explored the palace, and she dared Arno to steal an apple from the dish of King Louis XVI of France, and Arno avoided the French guard that was to catch him for thieving. However, their fun ended when Arno entered the hall and found his father dead, killed by the Templar Shay Cormac. Élise's father Francois patted Arno on the shoulder and took him in as an adopted son, and Élise and Arno developed a close friendship. In 1778, after the death of her mother, she spent many years studying in Paris. She also secretly trained for the Templar Order, disguising her training as fencing classes and other extracurricular sports.

### Templar Coup

In 1789, Élise was celebrated in a large nighttime gathering at the mansion of Francois de la Serre, as she was to be inducted into the Templar Order. Guests such as Marie Levesque, Chretien Lafreniere, Louis-Michel le Peletier, Charles Gabriel Sivert, and Le Roi des Thunes attended the ball, but they were secretly planning to overthrow Francois in a coup and seize control of the order for Francois-Thomas Germain, a silversmith in the employ of the King. Élise met with Arno that night briefly, but when a man came knocking on her door, Arno escaped through a window and she talked with the man.

Later that night, however, she heard that her father had been killed in the garden. Arno was there to deliver a warning letter to him from Lafreniere, but he was too late to stop Sivert and Le Roi des Thunes from assassinating him. Arno knelt over the body in shock, and the guards arrested him, claiming that he was a murderer. He was thrown in the Bastille, and Élise was heartbroken over her father, believing that Arno killed him because his father, Charles Dorian, was an Assassin. On 14 July 1789, Arno escaped the Bastille after a mob stormed the prison and killed many of the guards, and he reached Elise's home, where he needed to talk with her. Élise refused to believe that Arno had nothing to do with her father's death, and was angered at him. She showed him the letter that Arno tried to deliver to her father, a warning from Lafreniere. Arno had only found out that he was an Assassin when Pierre Bellec told him in the Bastille, and was surprised when Élise told him that she was a Templar. She asked him to leave as he tried to convince her of his innocence, and he left her house.

### Search for Revenge

However, Élise hungered for revenge against the killers of her father. Together with Arno, she decided to hunt down the killers after meeting him again in 1791. Arno brought her to Honore Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau, the Mentor of the Assassin Order in Paris, and the Assassin Council agreed to consider helping her in her revenge (although Pierre Bellec and Herve Quemar objected). While they considered it, Arno and Élise exited the tunnels and talked about Francois-Thomas Germain. When Arno mentioned that his shop was on the Rue Saint-Antoine, Élise began to run there, so Arno had to chase her. They entered his workshop in the Hotel de Ville, with Élise surprised that he was still alive; he was expelled from the order due to heresy involving Jacques de Molay when she was young and supposedly died in 1791. They found his workshop and his secret room after killing three guards alerted to their presence, but they were forced to leave when five snipers opened fire on them through open windows in nearby buildings. Arno killed all three of them and Élise met him at Mirabeau's estate.

### Mirabeau's Death

When they met there, Élise was hovering over the body of Mirabeau in his bed, having found him dead. Arno told her that they needed to tell the Assassin Council immediately, but Élise told him that the council would suspect her first and last. Arno found the Templar badge of office pin that killed Élise's father, an Aconite-poisoned chalice, and an appointment book that named Quemar as a planned visitor. He later headed to the hideout to speak with Quemar, who told him that he had until the next morning to find the murderer; Arno staked his life on defending Élise's innocence. When he headed to an apothecary who dealt in poison with Élise, the man started to run, so Arno pursued him. Arno and Élise found him in a garden, where Arno threw him against a tree. The man said that he gave a hooded man the dose without asking questions, but told him that he would give a second dose to the man at Sainte-Chappelle. Élise let Arno follow the trail to the top of the chapel, where he killed Pierre Bellec in a duel, having found out that he poisoned Mirabeau.

### Marie Levesque

On 30 October 1792, Élise assisted Arno in tracking down Marie Levesque, a merchant whose family was affiliated with the Templars since the Third Crusade of 1190. Élise found out her location and Arno killed Marie, and the two escaped in a balloon. Arno had to catch up to Élise's balloon as it drifted away, and they both stood in it, and the two lamented on how life would never be the same as it was before the revolution.

### Robespierre

Now on the verge of finding Germain, Élise accompanied Arno in attacking the Hotel de Villiers, where Maximilien Robespierre was guarded by Paris Commune guards. Élise followed Arno after he infiltrated the palace and she shot Robespierre in the jaw with a pistol when he refused to say where Germain was. Robespierre wrote "Temple" on a piece of paper, and the two set off to find Germain as Robespierre was about to be captured by guards. He was executed a day later.

## Death

Élise and Arno set off for the Temple, where they encountered Germain. Germain fought with Arno at first, damaging his sword, that wielded by Jacques de Molay and another Templar defending the Temple in 1307. When Élise duelled him, the sword exploded, its energy wounding Germain and killing Élise. Arno mourned over her body and killed Germain, avenging her and her father and ending the Templar plot.