WMG / Assassin's Creed: Unity

Connor will return as a playable character.

Just as Assassin's Creed: Revelations let you play as both Ezio and Altair, Unity will follow both Connor and a new protagonist (native to France, since all AC games have had a protagonist with a heritage suitable for the setting) simultaneously. Connor might be visiting France, since he was completely disenchanted with the US at the end of III, or we might switch between France and the Americas.

• As per Initiates, Connor was active in America at the Davenport Homestead till 1804, when he received Eseosa's Adewale's son who fought in the Haitian Revolution. He might have supported them briefly but it's unlikely. I think the best we can hope for are some cameos and Continuity Nod.
• Jossed. Bellec does cite him as one of his heroes though.

The Title Unity refers to an Assassin Templar Alliance during the Revolution

Because the term Unity otherwise doesn't apply to the French Revolution since the French were already united geographically but differed on which kind of government to install and take over. So the Assassins and Templars in France set aside their differences and worked on common ground.

• Expanding on this, perhaps the unity is the result of both groups having civil wars. The Unity faction we end up rooting for is a mix of sane Templars and Assassins who support neither the old order or the insanity of the Reign of Terror. Their greatest enemies end up being fanatical Assassins, and the conflict opens up a power vacuum into which steps Napoleon.
• Semi-confirmed, Arno ends up allying with a Templar named Elise. But the Templars are still the main bad guys.

Okay the Assassins and Templars we will see are...

Assassins - Rousseau, Robespierre, Danton(most definitely)...Templars - Talleyrand(but of course), Marat, Saint Just, Napoleon and the Marquis de Sade.

• Robespierre, the man largely blamed for the Reign of Terror (albeit he may have been scapegoated by those who were also responsible) but who unquestionably supported it... An assassin? Using terror to "maintain peace" sounds more like a Templar modus operandi.
• Robespierre initially was very fair and tolerant, a signatory of the Declaration of Rights of Man, the first diplomat in the Western World to abolish slavery in an act of law(Before America and England) and generally considered an embodiment of revolutionary principles. His extremes against the aristocrats who he guillotined are largely an overreaction, though not inaccurate and definitely did happen. He was more Assassin than Templar certainly. And if the series were fair, they would try and restore his Hidden Depths. Marat and Saint Just were more ruthless.
  • Jossed. It turns out Robespierre is a Templar after all. Danton and Marquis de Sade are Assassin allies.

Theories on the modern plotline.

Personally, I think there will be more of R-L, the assassins' newest resident hacker and Abstergo insider.

• Or, it'll tie in to Watch_Dogs.
  • Both. R-L will either hear of some insanity going on in Chicago, or Aiden will hear about a hacker who wants to help out with his cause from Montreal. One of R-L's missions could involve bailing out a hacker the Assassin's want to recruit, who will turn out to be Aiden. However, I still want more info on the R-L nearly becoming Juno's host.
• I'm thinking that while AC and Watch_Dogs are in the same universe, they won't have too much crossover.
  • They aren't in the same universe, the devs confirmed as much.
• Jossed. There is no modern day plotline.
  • Well there is, but it's exclusively told through cutscenes.

The game will have a Downer Ending involving Napoleon.

He's a confirmed Templar and holder of a Piece of Eden in the mythos, and his rise to unchallenged power is one of the most tragic ironies of history. Perhaps during the game, our hero will be forced to allow a man like Napoleon to live because the Reign of Terror is so out of control.

• Not sure if Napoleon's rising is a great tragic irony compared to say the Russian Revolution. Napoleon was a product of the Revolution itself. His rise through the military ranks and creation of his famous army was the result of the changes in the class and ranking system instituted by the Revolution itself and he created the Napoleonic Code. His conquest and his example, and his army, spread the ideals of the Revolution across Europe. He was regarded as a hero by many liberals of the time and was by no means some simple bad guy on the scale of Stalin or Mao.
• As per publicity, the game will end on Thermidor with the DLC Dead Kings taking place after the events of the game.
• Turns out its not a Downer Ending at all. Arno has becoming a willing Napoleon lackey and stooge and the Revolution was obviously a false one so, no problem, Dictator Napoleon to the rescue. Say goodbye to human rights achievements such as abolition, no-fault divorce and other(few) pro-women rights and hello to censorship.

Robespierre is an assassin

It will be revaled that the Assassins will be behind the Reign of Terror perhaps to clense French society. After the fall of the king the assassins split into two sects—one sect wanting to usher in a full age of reason and purge the past while the other sect wanting to moderatly reform and even forgive some of the collaborators of the Templars. But when the Templar puppet king tries to flee to Austria to start the war radicalizes the revolution and the second half will be the radical faction taking over and starting the terror. The protagionist will be saved from the guillotine by the Templars, led by Napoleon and a truce will be made to fight against the radical faction. After 9 thermidor, the deposing of the directory is Napoleon turning against the assassins and establishing himself as emperor.

• Jossed. Robespierre is a Templar.

An Assassin ally will be executed by the guillotine

Whoever the PC is, they won't be able to do anything about their friend, even as they Face Death with Dignity. If that person was really liked, it'll be one hell of a Tear Jerker. The next section involves the PC having an Anger Montage / Heroic BSoD.

• Nope. There's very little guillotining.

Robespierre won't be a Templar or an Assassin, but rather an enemy of Those Who Came Before.

His efforts to rename the months, to create a new religious viewpoint, his efforts to topple the current ruling class, as well as ending slavery are all his efforts to drive human civilization as far away from First Civilization ways as possible. He either is a First Civilization survivor, a reincarnation like Aita, or an Aita who went 'wrong,' or someone who discovered information on TWCB, maybe through a Piece of Eden, and was horrified by them. He'd rather see humanity steer itself into a grave than go back to the slavery of the First Civilization, which is why the Assassins stopped him. The modern day plot is finding out what Robespierre was working on, because it's the best bet for taking out Juno.

• Regardless of that, he's a Templar in the game, cue the Historical Villain Upgrade train.

We're moving from eagles to Corvids.

With Black Flag the central bird was the Jackdaw because it fit Edward's character, contrary to the eagle imagery the series has gone with before. The prominence "The Eagle and the Jackdaw" even further emphasizes a shift. With all the executions going on what is Unity going to be without crows eating the victims of Madame Guillotine?

• Nope, new guy Arno Dorian has a first name that means "The Eagle's Strength" in old German. That said SYNDICATE, the sequel does have the Assassins front a street gang called Rooks which is a Corvid.

There will be at least one mission taking place at the Palace of Versailles.

Though Versailles isn't part of Paris proper, it would make a good backdrop for the free-running gameplay of Assassin's Creed. I'm sure the assassin protagonist will find his/her way there for at least one mission.

• Confirmed. Versailles is in the game.

There are actually four Assassin protagonists in the game.

With the latest trailers' focus on co-op gameplay, the possibility of there being multiple protagonists is definitely there (with one primary protagonist you play as in single-player mode). Maybe each assassin will have his or her own special abilities.

• Jossed. Co-op works more like Watch_Dogs where only your character is Arno and everybody else is different.

The four Assassins are all Expies of previous PCs

One of them would be the serious one like Altair, the ladies man as in Ezio, the quiet brute as in Connor and the drunken vagabond like Edward.

• Jossed. See the WMG above.

Marie Antoinette will be involved

It's only fitting since she's a figure of the Revolution. And of course, someone at Abstergo Entertainment will be saying 'Aww, she didn't say Let them eat cake.'

• She's there for a One-Scene Wonder.

Connor will appear

He will be involved via his ship Aquila in the Quasi War where the American government essentially refused to recognize the young French Revolutionary government and essentially placed it under embargo. This caused the government to hire several privateers to seize American merchant ships by force, an action which the Americans could do little about since it did not have a navy as yet. Indeed this event led them to create their own navy. Connor, an ex-Privateer and Revolutionary will obviously be caught in the middle.

• Oh so Jossed!

There will also be appearance/mention/reference to Eseosa and Adewale

Eseosa, Adewale's grandson with Bastienne, as revealed in Initiates, fought in the Haitian Revolution which erupted at near about the same time as the The French Revolution. Toussaint L'Ouverture was an Assassin who was eventually executed in France but is revered in Haiti as Our Founder. The situation in Haiti was of obvious concern to the Revolutionaries. Robespierre outright abolished slavery by constitution, the very first man to do so politically in the Western World, several years before abolitionism took effect in England and much before it happened in America.

• Jossed. UNITY doesn't mention such things as politics or INITIATES because it will spoil its counter-revolutionary right-wing story.

You won't kill Robespierre, but you will give him his infamous jaw injury

Robespierre was very publicly (and loudly) executed by guillotine, so there's not much room there for the typical assassination that is so well known to the series. However, the day before his death, Robespierre attempted to evade capture with his followers and holed himself up at the Hotel de Ville. Eventually order broke down and the forces of the convention invaded the Hotel, finding Robespierre with a shattered jaw caused by a gunshot wound. There's even some dispute as to whether the wound was self inflicted or he was shot by another person, leaving a nice gap for Unity to fill in for story purposes. It's very likely that Arno will be the one to do it in this universe, or at the very least be there to witness it happen.

• Rob Zombie's cartoon about the Revolution does feature Robespierre with the wound on the day of his execution, implying that we will see this event.
• The new trailer has Arno and Elise confronting him on what certainly seems to be 9 Thermidor, they even knock a pistol off his hand(the only recorded instance of Robespierre wielding a gun).
• Confirmed. Elise did it.

Arno is actually a woman in disguise

Because wouldn't that be the most ironic thing ever, considering the recent controversy?

• Jossed. The recent trailer shows him with his hood down. He's definitely a dude, in fact nearly an Ezio clone. The real female character is Elise.

In regards to the above: Arno isn't a woman, but the AC creators are trolling us again, like with Haytham

Ubisoft is (hopefully) smarter than to let this kind of controversy ruin game sales. Perhaps they foresaw this. Perhaps Arno is a Decoy Protagonist and the real assassin is a female.

• Jossed. Pity though.

Those Who Came Before.

Marianne, the French Goddess of Liberty, will appear and be revealed as one of TWCB.

• Jossed.

Elise is...

The information about Elise being a noblewoman, an original character implies that her surname is significant. So who is she? How about Elise Kenway, Haytham or Jenny's daughter...it would be a neat way to tie it to Kenway saga of the 18th century

• Considering Arno is confirmed not to be an ancestor of Desmond, it's only likely Elise is the ancestor on the Matriarchal side which involves Altair.
• Jossed. She is Elise de la Serre and completely separate.

Arno's alliance with Elise will cause friction between him and the other Assassins

At one point he may even have to fight another Assassin for her sake.

• Their Odd Friendship was introduced to the audience by having him desperately race to rescue her from the National Razor, and then going Back To Back Bad Asses against the crowd and revolutionary soldiers. If he's willing to defy the mob he was helping in earlier trailers, he's just as liable to stand against Axeman and the others for her.

• Confirmed. Arno has to choose between Elise and the Assassins and he chooses her and gets chucked out of the Brotherhood.

Robespierre will be the Big Bad, or at least a major enemy.

• And he will be betrayed by Fouchet, before Napoleon takes over.
• Robespierre will be the Big Good, the Mentor of the Assassins in the first section but he slowly starts Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and becomes a Tragic Villain.
  • At least this would restore his hidden depths.
• It turns out that Robespierre is a Templar and the trailers show Arno and Elise ganging up on him with him whining, "I won't talk" which implies that he's a Puppet for another Big Bad.

Elise's father made Arno an orphan.

...And then adopted him either to raise him as a Templar, ala Haytham Kenway, or out of guilt for his action. Alternatively...

• Jossed. As per the Game Informer article, the Grandmaster had nothing to do with that.

The Templar Grandmaster was a Friendly Enemy of Arno's parents.

...And this adopted the boy because it was the right thing to do. Considering he was killed by some of his own men later, it might be that he was a little too nice in the opinion of his fellow Templars. Arno's rejoining of the Templars arguably shows that he was raised with a healthy respect for this parent's group, and his bond with Elise implies a certain amount of affection for the family regardless of their affiliations.

• More or less confirmed. The Game Informer article said that the Templar Grandmaster had a Worthy Opponent thing with Arno's Dad and took Arno in for that reason, he also refused to indoctrinate Arno into the Templar schemes, merely keeping him in the dark until much later.

Instead of going full Templar or Assassin, Elise will Choose A Third Option.

Because either leaving the Templars for Arno and reverting to Templar type are bot predictable enough the audience will see it coming a mile away. Instead, Elise shall find some kind of middle ground to maintain the "Unity" she has with Arno in the face of the later Revolution. Perhaps she rises in to Templar ranks but maintains an alliance with certain Assassins, or maybe she's on the opposite side of Napoleon when he takes over the Templars and she leads her own faction against them with Arno's help.

• Jossed. She still sees herself as a Templar but loyal to her father.

Robespierre will be driven insane by the Apple of Eden

Robespierre will at first be either an ally of the Assassins, or a completely unrelated idealist who the Assassins deem suitable to lead France out of tyranny. In real life he had extremely positive ideals in his youth, even opposing capital punishment wholeheartedly. But after being given the Apple's revelations he starts to see manipulations of Those Who Came Before around every corner and becomes obsessed trying to eliminate every last trace of their influence from the society, down to the names of old gods in weekdays. And the Assassins and Templars of course have to go, as well. Possibly there will even be an alliance of convenience between the two factions due to the sheer menace that Robespierre will pose to both orders.

• It will also serve as a thematic irony. Robespierre was famously called "The Incorruptible", it's a nice irony that the one person who the Apple did not corrupt who instead sought to eradicate its influence and break away completely, ended up going another extreme.

• Jossed. Good idea though.

Arno Dorian will...

...die. At some point, he and Elise will have sex, at which point we play as her and then Arno ends up sacrificing himself for her and gets his head chopped off at the Guillotine...there has to be one A Tale of Two Cities shout-out right?

• Jossed. He appears in the post-game set DLC Dead Kings which means he survives the events of the game for sure.

Unity will explain why Assassin and Templar aren't well known in Desmond's era

Compare their 'prestigious orders' status that people look on with some respect to modern day 'Assassins? Templars? LOL.' attitude. How both side stoop to new low in Unity amidst the chaos of French Revolution might be the case.

• Meanwhile Assassins VS Templars conflict will explode into public in AC's modern era with very negative consequence.

Charlotte Corday will be a...

...a rogue Assassin and a Boss Fight for Arno. You simply cannot have an Assassin's Creed set during la revolution without l'ange de l'assassinat.

• Jossed. She does appear, but is the guilty party in a murder mystery.

Trailers Always Lie will be enforced...

In the trailers we see Arno rushing to save Elise form the Guillotine. In the game, Robespierre will send you to guillotine and the chopping block and Elise will come to your rescue. What better way to dismiss misogyny allegations for Ubisoft, who naturally will have their cake and eat it too...Elise will come and save you but she'll get killed by guards while you escape.

• For one thing that trailer is historically inaccurate, obviously for promotional reasons. People sent to the guillotine, men and women had their hairs cut short because the execution wanted clear access to the neck, and make killing as quick and sudden as possible. There's no way, Elise would have been allowed to keep her long red hair on the tumbrel, leave alone wearing a hood.

• Jossed. Elise is never sent to the guillotine, she does however die and Ubisoft is Not Helping Your Case with regards to misogyny allegations.

There will be an in-universe justification for everyone having English accents.

Maybe someone will just handwave it as a bug in the Animus.

• Jossed.

The person who killed Elise's father...

Will turn out to be none other than Arno's Missing Mom, causing a rift between Arno and Elise that will end the potential alliance between Assassins and Templars.

• Is Arno's Mom missing? I thought she was dead. In any case, it's more than likely that the persons behind the deaths of Arno's parents was the same one who killed Elise's father. Which would probably be the true Big Bad of the story.
• Jossed. Its the Big Bad who killed Elise's father. Likewise Arno's Dad was killed by Shay Cormac.

Connor as a Mentor

Connor might make a small cameo at the end of the game, or even play a small role in alliance with Arno, seeing how both at one point attempted an Assassin-Templar Alliance. He might end up playing a role similar to that of Solid Snake to Arno's Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

• Jossed.

The Marquis de Lafayette might return

He was present during the revolution so he may have a role in helping Arno.

• In history, Lafayette was chased out of France by Robespierre and Jacobins who regarded him as a potential dictator. So it'll be interested how the Assassins and Templars approach him.
• Jossed. He is mentioned though in one conversation.

The Piece of Eden will be the French Blue Diamond

As per history, the famous French Blue diamond, from which the even more famous Hope Diamond is believed to be cut, went missing during the French Revolution. It was owned by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It entered the possession of the Royal Family when the French Traveller Tavernier visited India and acquired the diamond from the Kollur Mine in the Kingdom of Golconda. He later gifted the diamond to King Louis XIV, the Sun King. In Assassin's Creed: Brahman, the goddess Durga comes from the Koh-I-Noor diamond (which was also created from the same Kollur Mine as the French Blue). Durga says, "We are one of many but essential to the Unity of all".

• Jossed.

Notre Dame de Paris will be the location of a Vault...

The cathedral was built on top of a Jupiter Temple in real life, just like Santa Maria Ara Coeli in Brotherhood was built atop a Juno Temple...

• Furthermore in Robespierre's final days, he used the Notre Dame as the centre of the Cult of the Supreme Being, a ritual where he was presented as the high priest of a new order, obviously he decided to harness the vault for the good of mankind.
• Jossed

There are two Templar-Assassin alliances: Arno-Elise, and the Committee on Public Safety.

Robespierre is an Assassin who's gone extreme, and Saint-Just is a Templar looking to install a new order. The group pushes the Revolution onwards from both sides, killing the moderate forces in each other's groups, making Arno a twice made orphan and setting Elise into an Enemy Civil War. Now they didn't start the Revolution; like its American counterpart, it erupted out of control. They simply want to establish their own control over it. Arno and Elise will experience a Wham Episode when they combine their knowledge to realize the conspiracy and end up starting their own Unity.

• Partly Jossed, partly confirmed. Robespierre is a Templar, Pierre Bellec however is a Jacobin partisan and Robespierre was the Leader of the Jacobins so there can be some unity there. As for Saint-Just, not sure if he's in the game.

• There is only Templar-Assassin alliance, Arno and Elise, its not part of the plot at all.

Arno and/or Elise will kill each other

Either they can't come to an agreement on something and have to fight it out or one of them gets controlled by a Piece of Eden and needs to be mercy killed. Either way, it'll be one hell of a tearjerker for the audience.

• Well Arno will definitely survive since the post-game DLC Dead Kings has been announced. It takes place in 1794, around the end of Thermidor. He might however, kill Elise and decide to indulge in spelunking catacombs of dead kings to brood however...
• Jossed. Germain kills Elise in the end before Arno quickly avenges her.

Robespierre will have a Corrupt the Cutie arc

Robespierre was initially an anti-war, anti-death penalty politician who called for greater rights of people. He eventually became more radicalized during the Revolution. The reason for this is that Arno Dorian and other Assassins see Robespierre has having great potential and approach him and introduce them to their ways, even becoming The Mentor to him. Robespierre is initially reluctant but slowly goes along with it and eventually Arno Dorian will have to confront the guy who he himself had brought into the Assassins only to take it to the next level. This will also climax at 9, Thermidor when he goes against Robespierre, a la Altair-Al Mualim only this time, Arno has to confront his own responsibility.

• Jossed. He's a Templar and unlikely to have a personal connection to Arno.

The Game's Final Boss will be...

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just who serves as The Dragon to Robespierre.

Historically, Robespierre was very much a non-action guy, but the young, Bishōnen, Saint-Just was a guy with serious energy, who went to the war-fronts, served as a Drill Sergeant Nasty to "the generals and the officers", quite a few of them he had executed by firing squads of rank-and-file men (among whom Saint-Just was popular). During 9 Thermidor, Saint-Just was physically pushed off, and there was a whole lot of confusion which happened, many of which coming from records written by the people who deposed Robespierre. Its easy to imagine a badass fight between Arno and/or Elise with Saint-Just and with his defeat, the way to Robespierre.

Now whether Saint-Just and Robespierre are Assassins/Templars is the question. They could easily be some extreme of either end. But Saint-Just seems like an Assassin to me.

• Jossed, sadly enough. Would have been awesome.

The Songs used in the Trailers are Plot Spoilers...

"Everybody Wants To Rule the World" correctly describes the general clusterfuck of the Revolution and is pretty self-explanatory. "The Golden Age" describes the promise of the French Revolution and the period before the Revolution which got betrayed. "Pistols at Dawn" describes the inevitable conflict between friends on opposite side...Robespierre vs. Danton ["We could've have it all/A world of our own/I never thought we could be/Pistols at Dawn"] Arno and Elise:

"Surely we must be more than love on the run

Dancing in darkness at the sound of a drum

Can't help to wonder what you thought I would do

Lay down and play dead boy you know that ain't true

This is me reaching and you wanting to run

Stand down or show down baby let's get this done"

• Confirmed. Arno and Pierre Bellec mostly.

The Big Bad of the Game is...

The new Templar Grand-Master, George-Jacques Danton. In real-life Danton had a shady career. In the beginning he was friends with Comte de Mirabeau who later turned out to be a traitor with no real loyalty to the reforms people wanted, later he was also involved in shady financial speculating and lined his pockets during the Revolution. He was also a populist, man of the people, who famously instigated mob violence including the September Massacres. It's also rumoured that he was involved in some dealings with Louis XVI during the armoire de fer incident. In the end it will be revealed that he was the mastermind behind the murder of Elise's father which drives her to send him to the guillotine by denouncing him to Robespierre, the Mentor of the Assassins who worked briefly with Danton for supporting the Revolution. It's also a classic Templar irony, in the real world, Danton is cherished as a hero of the Revolution while Robespierre remains hated to this very day.

• Jossed. Robespierre is a Templar and certainly shown to strut around as a Big Bad in the publicity, surrounded by guardsmen and the like (which the real guy never did...but hey this is a game). As for Danton, one game mission is titled "Danton's Sacrifice" and the objectives involve Arno going to meet him in Prison, so Danton is either Assassin or Assassin-aligned, given that he was friends with Mirabeau and Mirabeau is the leader of the Assassins.

The Targets will be...

The revolution as a whole has widely documented deaths, mostly by guillotine. So actual "assassinations" seem to be hard to pull off. Charles Sivert died normally off old age yet in the demos he is stated to die peacefully. This will probably be the approach taken by the developers, find instances of normal deaths and make it elaborate and fictional. So some of the assassinations are:

• Comte de Mirabeau: Maybe he conspired against Elise's father and is a Templar, who tried to stem the rise of the bourgeosie and after his death was found to have colluded with the Royal Family in the armoire de fer documents. He died peacefully but they can easily make it an assassination. And in real-life he was rumored to have been poisoned.
  • Jossed on that end. He's actually the Assassin Grand Master here, though he was still poisoned.

• Emperor Leopold II, of Austria: This will be similar to the missions in the earlier games where the characters go to a new locale. He died suddenly in 1792. He was the brother of Marie Antoinette and was planning to invade France and restore the Ancien Regime. Besides, Arno is part Austrian, an ancestry that necessarily ought to come into play somehow. What better way than having him speak Austrian German while infiltrating the Schonbrunn Palace and killing the Emperor. And yes, it was rumored in life that he was poisoned. He's an old school Enlightened Monarch Templar who does not like the rise of the Revolutionary Templars who seek to install the middle-class in power over the aristocrats.

• Jossed.
  • Jacques Roux: A radical left-winger who the Jacobins considered a nuisance. He tried to kill himself with a knife several times before finally achieving it. At this point the faction decides to start targetting Assassins as well, so you get to kill one of your own.
• Confirmed. He's in the Co-Op Missions.
  • Jacques Pierre Brissot: Not an assassination but Brissot was the Girondin leader who agitated for war, and plunged France into chaos. He tried to escape to Chartres but was finally caught and brought back to Paris for his trial.
• Jossed. You do collect his head for Madame Tussaud though.
  • Charlotte Corday: An Assassin turned Girondin, you will race against time to try and stop her from killing Marat but you are too late and this will start a tough and nasty boss fight.
    • Jossed. She is there in the Murder Mysteries though but not there otherwise.

  • The final boss and target is Maximilien Robespierre, Le Bas, Couthon, Saint-Just, who briefly escaped custody and went to the Hotel de Ville, a situation with much chaos that has never been resolved.
    • Jossed

Unity is an Abstergo video game.

They found the narrative of a man who only really joined the Assassins to solve a murder and loves a Templar would be excellent propaganda. It might also explain things such as the English accents and certain characters being different from how they were historically. Abstergo changed them to make a better story.

• Jossed. Unity is the Assassins hacking the Abstergo game and telling ordinary Initiates to sequence code for them.

The reason Elise isn't accompanying Arno in Dead Kings...

• She's dead. Pretty simple. Maybe Arno killed her, since after all, she is a Templar and he is an Assassin. Or she was successfully guillotined during the Great Terror, or killed by the Big Bad, making her Arno's The Lost Lenore.
  • Tragically confirmed. Germain kills Elise in the final mission.
• She and Arno are enemies again. It's possible they worked very well together, stopped the Terror and all, but Elise may have become the New Templar Grand Master, or supported the new one (a certain Corsican is supposed to attain the Apple, after all) and this lead to a falling out with Arno. Simple heart break could easily explain his brooding, and it would keep open numerous possibilities for the sequel.
  • Jossed, see the first bulletpoint.
• Alternatively, she is in the DLC, perhaps she was the one who told Arno to investigate Saint Denis and will appear in the end or in the middle.

Napoleon is neither a Templar nor an Assassin

Napoleon throughout his life took all sorts of odd political stances, incredibly contradictory. Initially he was a Jacobin and a Robespierre supporter (briefly imprisoned after Thermidor like all Robespierrists) but after his release, he embraced the new social order. He was a racist, who brought slavery back in French colonies, unsuccessfully tried to retake Haiti and had Toussaint L'Ouverture captured, brought to Paris where he died in Prison. But on the other hand, he also put forth several reforms for Jewish emancipation, brought them out of the ghettos and did more to give them rights than any other European reformer. He was a warmongerer who did much to fundamentally change Europe's social structure and he was opposed by the highly conservative Duke of Wellington, Metternich and Tsar Alexander (all of them anti-semites) all of whom wanted to ensure that the French Revolution ideals did not spread with him. Most likely, Napoleon will play assassins against the Templars and force them to support his grand plan of War for Fun and Profit and For Great Justice, and his rise will represent a dark age for the Assassins in terms of corruption and moral compromise.

• Confirmed. He's neither Assassin nor Templar.

Napoleon will be short.

Ubisoft's put itself in a corner: either they go with the classic comical 5'2" Napoleon or his actual 5'7". Whichever one, he's going to seem short compared to our clearly 6' something assassin.

• Problem solved. The new trailer goes for his normal height, just a few inches below Arno. It solves it by making him cool and smooth and getting the drop on the hero. You totally get how this pipsqueak conquered Europe.

The Execution of Louis XVI

When he was imprisoned, Louis XVI was held at the Temple Fortress, an old Templar fortress that was later torn down. Upon his death, someone came from the crowd and shouted, "Jacques de Molay, tu es avengee". This was long regarded as rumour, this game we'll see it for real.

• Confirmed.

Elise will pull a Heel–Face Turn and become playable

Because how better can we rectify the controversy?

• Jossed. Ubisoft don't care.

On the Modern Day section

While Ubisoft has been saying YOU are the main character, they said that same thing in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. However, the main character this time around could be someone who's closely associated with the previous PC, whether they're family or friends.

• Jossed. Turns out its really You who is the main character.

Arno's descendant happens to be John Dorian

His own wacky imagination is just a corrupted version of Eagle Vision. Then there's all the times he goes "EAAAAGLLLEEE!"

The French Assassins want to take the order back to its pre-Altair days

Basically, there are a lot of reforms Altair made to the Order after he became Mentor. In his Codex, Altair talks about moving the Order away from certain practices, such as pompous ceremony and almost suicidal hidden-bladings. This is why the order is far more casual and varied in its methods in Ezio's game. In Unity, however, the French Assassins conduct fancy ceremonies in special chambers, and Arno can only take out his target with his hidden blade. Part of Arno's character will be questioning these practices, and there will be a point where you can go all out and take out your targets however you choose.

• On the other hand, given that the game features Vidocq and the birth of modern forensics, using a hidden blade for assassinations has a practical function, in that it's a modus operandi only a very few would be aware of (and those ones, the Templars, have no desire to out the Assassins), kills instantly and prevents the weapon from being left behind in the crime scene and ensures that it can't be identified with any other blade available on the market or the house. In Ezio's era, where the police and investigation methods were not yet sophisticated, it was easier to use different kinds of weapons.
• As for the mostly ceremonial aspects of the Assassins - the fact is all the known Assassins we have seen so far - Mirabeau, Dumas, Arno himself - save for Bellec - are nobleman and aristocrats. To them the Assassins mystique and tradition has greater appeal and value appealing to their intellectual side (the Renaissance Assassins were also big on tradition and also mostly noble), so they would be more focused on the rituals as opposed to someone like Achilles, Connor, Edward and James Kidd from earlier games who are working-class and common people. Bellec being a Jacobin partisan and rough and tumble will perhaps try and push them towards the people creating a class-war within the Brotherhood itself.
  • Confirmed in terms of Bellec being critical of the Assassins and wanting to be radical.

Arno is an ancestor of Subject 16/Clay Kazmareck

It's already been said Arno isn't an ancestor of Desmond, so why not be one for another of the other 16 subjects before Desmond? Some evidence is in the Cast trailer, where some of Clay's blood drawings appear on the walls in prison.

• Jossed. His descendant is a random Canadian dude whose DNA became Abstergo property.

The sequel will deal with the napoleonic wars

Arno will discover that the coalition is Templar led. He will then convince Napoleon to go to war to prevent Templar control of Europe. Possible targets could be Horatio Nelson, Michel Ney, among others.

• Alternatively Napoleon will have joined the Revolutionary Templars, and the coalition is led by the old generation Templars.
• Or Napoleon would be a total wild card with no allegiance and the Assassins and Templars would finally agree to a faction wide unity to form the Coalition against him.
  • A Wild Card Magnificent Bastard Napoleon would probably keep the Assassins and Templars busy by Playing Both Sides while laughing himself silly at their pointless conflicts.
  • This is a long shot but maybe the epilogue of that game will take place in St. Helena. History says he died of Stomach cancer. Maybe in this time line, it could be a hidden blade.
  • Well that would be an anti-climax, go kill Napoleon when he's fat, alone and powerless.
  • Napoleon will actually become the new grandmaster of the assassins and will have surprisingly good intentions. He will have a ruthless front but in actuality the Apple has shown him visions of what's to come if the Templars win and he then wage war in Europe for the secret goal of preventing total Templar domination even at the cost of countless European lives.

The next game will have french accents

The reason Unity had british accents was because of a bug in the Animus which will be handwaved in game. The Animus engineers have fixed that by the beginning of the next game.

• Jossed. So much for Ubisoft's consistency to its Insane Troll Logic.

Arno will assassinate Shay

Perhaps in a very unexpected way, as Arno may have not know Shay was his father's killer and Arno may have avenged Charles completely by coincidence.

Arno will find a second love

• He'll still be hurting over Elise, though if he finds a new girlfriend to settle down with, he'll definitely name his daughter after her.
  • Well to my memory it didn't happen in Dead Kings, it's confirmed through the nature of the Animus that he did, at least, father a child, or possibly children, to become the ancestor both of the anonymous donor and of Callum Lynch.

Shaun Hastings is the reason for the British accents

Maybe he altered the Animus' translation system for his own amusement.

Assassin's Creed Victory will have French accents in London!

Because that would be funny.

• Jossed. But yeah it would be funny.

The historical "inaccuracies" are because the Templars didn't edit Arno's memories yet

The Templars have a record of altering history to make themselves and their supporters and associates look good while doing the opposite for the Assassins, the result being how the modern world popularly views these people. With that in mind, isn't it awfully convenient that several of the Assassins' allies (Danton, the Marquis de Sade), as well as their Mentor (Mirabeau), are vilified while their Templar counterparts (most notably Robespierre) are lionized?

• The problem with this theory is that Robespierre remains highly controversial to this day in the real world. Danton and Mirabeau, and even De Sade, are looked at far more favorably in France with their bad aspects either pardoned or placed in context. No such consideration is given to Robespierre. For this theory to work, it would make more sense for Danton and Mirabeau to be Templars, Robespierre be the Assassin and have his vilification in real life be the work of Templar policy, mirroring the historical debate on that highly contentious controversial figure. The metaphor of Templars reworking history makes zero sense in UNITY since what we see in the game is a highly conventional, one-dimensional, right-wing portrayal of the events with zero attention to nuances. In Black Flag, the pro-pirate stance works because they are actually being subversive of established cliches.
• That was not always the case, their popular reputations have had ups and downs throughout history, and as far as I can tell, they're all controversial characters. This can be chalked up to any number of reasons (truth coming out, Templars stepping up the propaganda, etc.). In any case, from what point of view does it make zero sense, real life or in-universe? Because if it's the latter, it makes plenty of sense for the Templars to do it. For the former, you'd have to ask the people at Ubisoft.
  • Until UNITY, AC had a deconstructive attitude to periods and historical figures. That is they were going to challenge how you looked at certain figures, periods and settings and correct misconceptions. Black Flag showed the Pirate Era far more positively than most games and actually took their side, and showed Blackbeard to be not as bad a guy. The first AC did this to the historical Asasiyun themselves. III showed the American Revolution from a darker side and so on. The point of Abstergo controlling history was to understand why the likes of Machiavelli are still looked at negatively. UNITY doesn't deconstruct anything, it shows the French revolution from a very cliched, biased and right-wing perspective and reinforces 19th Century propaganda. It doesn't try to challenge our views of figures like Robespierre, Marat and Saint-Just. UNITY is essentially "good guys of history" (Assassins) "bad guys of History (Templars).

Arno is a vampire

There are mirrors in Paris, and none of them show his reflection!

Arno is weak in whatever it is that gives people eagle vision.

I'm not sure what it is (I think it's related to First Civ DNA but I'm not 100% there) but Arno can only use Eagle Vision for a short time, at which point there's a cooldown. Logically it stands to reason that he wasn't strong enough to readily use eagle vision like every other assassin in One through Syndicate, and had to focus, putting strain on his mind, therefore he could only do it briefly, and then has to rest for a brief moment to recover from that strain.

---