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| “ | The Creed of the Assassin Brotherhood teaches us that nothing is forbidden to us. Once, I thought that meant we were free to do as we would. To pursue our ideals, no matter the cost. I understand now. Not a grant of permission. The Creed is a warning. | „ |
| ~ Arno Dorian. |
| “ | Yes, killing everyone who disagrees with you is a brilliant way to start your rise from the ashes. | „ |
| ~ Arno criticizing Pierre's ideals. |
Arno Victor Dorian is a major character in the Assassin's Creed video game franchise, serving as the main protagonist of its 2014 video game Assassin's Creed Unity and a cameo character in Assassin's Creed Rogue.
He is a French-Austrian Master Assassin during the French Revolution and and a orphan who blamed himself for the death of his adoptive father, Arno sought redemption by joining the in 1789 and working to expose the true instigators of the Revolution, whilst also avenging him in the process.
He is voiced by Dan Jeannotte.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Born to an Austrian mother and French Assassin Charles Dorian, Arno was raised in a noble household in Versailles. Due to his upbringing, he was well educated, having access to tutors and various books.
However, in 1776, when Arno was eight, his father was murdered by Shay Cormac. He was subsequently adopted by François de la Serre, the Grand Master of the French Templars, out of respect for his enemy. He raised Arno alongside his own daughter, Élise. Wishing not to corrupt the memory of Arno's biological father and bring his pupil to the Templar Order, François kept his Templar involvement a secret from the young boy.
Assassin's Creed: Unity[]
Thirteen years later, Arno found himself in no end of trouble, having lost his father's watch in a card game and stole it back. When his angry pursuers chased him back to the de la Serre mansion, François attempted to mediate the situation, assigning Arno to assist his butler, Olivier, with whatever chores he would assign, which was cleaning the horses for François' carriage ride to meet Élise. But as soon as François set off, his servant, Perrault, tried catching up to him, revealing to have a letter of great importance, which Arno volunteered to deliver. Unfortunately, the same men who accosted him before he could reach François. Though he bested his attackers, he was forced to flee when guards found him. Returning to the mansion, Arno decided to slip the letter under the door to François' office.
Arno later infiltrated a palace party held in Élise's honour, due to not being invited, and managed to steal a romantic moment with her, before being forced to sneak out when the guards came knocking. Unfortunately, Arno came upon two men mortally wounding François. One of the attackers, Charles Gabriel Sivert, called out to the guard, who immediately assumed Arno was responsible for François' murder and he was subsequently imprisoned in the Bastille.
Imprisonment[]
After his first night in prison, Arno discovered that one of his fellow cellmates, Pierre Bellec, stole his watch and briefly dueled him for it, before drawing attention to mysterious drawings in the cell corner. Bellec then dragged him to the corner, realizing he possessed Eagle Vision. Once Arno introduced himself, Bellec revealed that his father was an Assassin, before returning the watch. Bellec spent two months training Arno in combat.
One day, the Bastille came under attack from a civil uprising, compelling Arno and Bellec to escape. Before parting ways, Bellec gave Arno a medallion, saying it would lead him to the Assassins, and took a leap of faith. Arno did likewise when a group of guards cornered him.
Arno later tracked down Élise, who assumed he was responsible for her father's death. Arno pleaded that he was innocent and tried to tell her about her father being a Templar, only to learn that she already known and she too was part of the Order. She then showed him the letter he was supposed to deliver. The anonymous sender, "L", was trying to warn François that someone within the Templar Order was planning on betraying him. A distraught Élise then sent Arno away.
Joining the Assassins[]
Wracked with guilt and blaming himself, Arno sought out the Assassins, discovering their headquarters underneath the Sainte-Chapelle. He was then inducted into the Brotherhood and vowed to hunt down François' murderers to redeem himself for his failure. Arno met with the Assassin Council to discuss his lead on the Templar Grand Master, however he was directed to the ceremony chamber. Arno attempted to update the council but they silenced him and cast judgment on him, the council did not approve of what they believed was a personal vendetta for revenge and his affiliation with Élise. The French Council declared that Arno was banished from the Brotherhood and was no longer welcome, he was fortunate that they would not punish him further.
Arno left the Sanctuary and Paris to live at the De Le Serre villa in Versailles where he gained a reputation for being the village drunk.
After the death of Élise and Grand Master François in the Temple, Arno lived in Versailles, out of sight of the Assassins. There, he was met by the former Assassin Ruddock, an acquaintance of Élise. Ruddock gave Arno a letter that Élise had written in the event of her death explaining a number of her actions and directing him to find her chest of keepsakes, she only asked that Arno allow Ruddock to keep a pack of letters that she had been given by Jennifer Scott on her trip to London, which would allow Ruddock to gain favour with the Assassin Council and rejoin the Creed.
Arno agreed to honor her wishes and took Ruddock's address and told him he would be in touch once he had obtained the letters and Élise's chest, Arno also agreed that he would endorse any efforts he made to win favor with the Assassins. Arno traveled to the Maison Royale where he met Élise's teacher Mr Weatherall and was given the chest as promised, but the visit soon turned sour.
Ruddock had followed Arno and betrayed him, attempting to finish a ordered kill by the English Templars, he was killed by Mr Weatherall before he could shoot Arno. Arno stayed with Élise's friends in the years after her death, having been invited to stay by her former maid out of respect to her mistress. Arno rejoined the Brotherhood sometime afterwards.
Years after the confrontation with Germain, Arno entered the temple once more, accompanied by Napoleon Bonaparte. There, they discovered Germain's corpse which had long since decayed. They then buried his skeletal corpse in the Parisian catacombs.
Dead Kings[]
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Eagle Vision: Due to his Precursor ancestry Arno possessed the rare ability of Eagle Vision, a form of supernatural senses inherited by beings who are descendants of Isu people. The French Assassin Arno Dorian possessed three variations of Eagle Vision during the French Revolution. The first was Eagle Pulse, a momentary vision that soon faded away. The second was more akin to Ezio Auditore's Eagle Sense, a longer lasting effect. The third version was Communal Sense, allowing Arno's fellow Assassins to see what he saw, within a limited range.[16]Arno could only view the memories of his victims, rather than being able to converse with them directly. He also had the ability to read the paths that guards would take, much like Eagle Sense, but only could fully utilize this skill once he read the paths on a map. Lastly, this skill appears to have been connected with his auditory system, allowing him to hear conversations from far away with perfect clarity once he achieved a high enough vantage point and focused in on the locations. He appeared to be able to maintain great focus while using it, as even while climbing, shooting, or killing, the pulse would sustain. Even when heavily consuming alcohol, he could still use Eagle Pulse, though it caused him pain when used.[17]
Abilities[]
- Peak-Human Condition: Due to extensive training, diet regimes and meditative techniques, Arno possesses Olympic levels of strength, speed, endurance & agility.
- Superior Strength: He was several times that of even the strongest soldiers of the French Army. His punches could easily kill a person and knock a grown man to the ground. In terms of brute strength, he seems to be stronger than other Assassins as he is an able to lift to full-grown men up.
- Superior Mobility: His reflexes, agility, and speed are also more potent, being able to easily counter and defeat hordes of opponents. He was able to kill many of them before they could even see him coming to them, as he moves with such great speed and agility.
- Superior Stamina: He can even fight an entire army without showing any signs of fatigue.
- Superior Durability: He also has a great deal of durability as he was able to land on his feet, after falling from several stories, without any signs of struggle or lack of comfort.
- Superior Metabolism: His metabolism is also likely superior.
- Master Acrobat: Like any Master Assassin, he is a remarkable free-runner, parkour master & mountaineering expert. These abilities combined with his seemingly superhuman strength & speed, made his acrobatic prowess far more profound than all the other Assassins, before and after him.
- Gifted Intellect/Expert Tactician/Master Detective: Raised as a French Nobleman, Arno was well educated, being well spoken, quick witted, and having a competent knowledge of the sciences and mathematics of his time. Even prior to his training by the brotherhood, Arno was a cunning young man, able to effectively plan a way to infiltrate the palace of Versailles rather easily, and once he was inside he was able to out maneuver both the French military guards within the palace as well as Victor and Hugo, who had pursued Arno into the assembly as well. After being trained by Pierre Bellec, Arno was able to cunningly infiltrate the Notre Dame cathedral to assassinate Charles Gabriel Sivert, even with a immense riot surrounding the building and with thick security within it. He was later able to infiltrate the north Paris sewers to assassinate Roi Des Thune, even when the Templar himself had moved to a high vantage point to attempt to catch Arno unaware. Arno excelled at planning in the moment, thinking on his feet to take advantage of opportunities to pursue his targets more easily, similarly to Altair and Ezio's methods, But seemed to come up lacking when needing to plan ahead for the long term, such as being unable to see through both the truth of Chrétien Lafrenière's intentions, or recognize François-Thomas Germain's true nature, mistakes of which cost both lives and the respect of his fellow Assassins. One of Arno's most respectable skills, however, was his gift for deduction. Arno proved himself a brilliant detective when pursuing multiple homicide cases throughout Paris, discovering the true culprits when the local law enforcement could not, even extremely complicated cases that took great time and effort.
- Pedagogy: Arno proved himself a competent teacher, mentoring the young woman Marianne in combat to help her battle extremists, and looked after the young thief Léon while in Saint Denis, mentoring the child for a time and developing somewhat of a fatherly-brotherly bond, despite their rocky introduction to one another. Arno also presumably trained assassin apprentices of his own after gaining the rank of Master Assassin following the game's events.
- Master Spy/Master Assassin: Even before joining the Assassins Arno was surprisingly well adept at blending into his surroundings as well as sneaking around heavily guarded places. He was able to effectively infiltrate the palace of Versailles despite its heavy security. He could casually blend into dense crowds and mimic their activities, or cover around corners and low walls to hide from sight. He was also capable of picking locks. After joining the Brotherhood, He additionally became trained in espionage, thievery, eavesdropping and tracking, and later even learned how to perfectly disguise himself as one the extremists or as a military officer, being so effective he could do so without suspicion being brought upon him. Arno was possibly one of the most stealth and espionage capable Assassins seen in the series, as he possessed skills not seen in the series before or since.
- Bomb crafting: Arno was able to create and use excellent bombs as a part of his arsenal and skillset.
- Expert Martial Artist: Having received the expected training of an assassin, Arno became a formidable opponent, although he was not shown to be as skilled in unarmed combat as many other protagonists in the series, instead preferring to rely on his mastery over weaponry rather than hand-to-hand combat prowess. He did however effectively blend martial arts techniques into his fighting style, such as mixing kicks and punches with swordplay counters and parries as well as leg sweeps to knock down his opponents. Nearing the end of the game, his ability rose to such a degree that he was even able to eventually defeat his own Mentor, Pierre Bellec, in combat after a fierce battle between them.
- Master Swordsman: Arno was a gifted swordsman prior to joining the Brotherhood, having been given some instruction by Elise De la Serre during his youth. His skill greatly grew after being trained by the Master Assassin Pierre Bellec personally during his time in the Bastille and after joining the Brotherhood. Arno became a highly skilled swordsman, being able to engage multiple skilled extremist swordsman and French army soldiers and overpower them. Arno also engaged in competition with other elite swordsmen across Paris, further refining his skill in the art to such a degree that he was able to defeat his own mentor, Bellec, and later Germain, the Templar Grandmaster, who had himself been trained by the same master swordsman who had trained Elise, Frederick Weatherall.
- Pole-Arm Mastery: Arno was also exceptionally skilled in using pole-arms in combat, as he could be optionally equipped with one.
- Blunt Weapon Expertise: He was also very competent with blunt weapons, being optionally able to use one in the game effectively, even a pick-axe.
- Expert Marksman: He has proven to be an expert at using the Pistols, the Phantom blades, and the Berserker Blades as well as firing the Guillotine Gun.
- Gadgetry: He has access to a vast set of tools, weapons & equipment at his disposal, the main weapons being his Hidden Blades. He usually carried: a sword, medicine, a Hidden Blade Phantom blade with sleep and berserk darts and poison blades, a pistol, smoke bombs, flashbangs, firecrackers, cherry bombs, poison bombs, and stun bombs, money pouches, mask to be in disguise, and a set of lock picks
Formerly[]
- The Head of Saint-Denis: Once he managed to acquire the head of Saint Denis, he was able to release an psychic energy blasts which caused his victims to have illusions of their worst fears. Since Arno was the one holding the lantern, he was immune to its effects.
Trivia[]
- His backstory is somewhat similar to Ezio Auditore da Firenze:
- Both are of noble descent.
- Both were troublemakers in their youth.
- Both lost their families to Templars.
- Both became master assassins.
- Both of their descendants became assassins (Desmond Miles and Callum Lynch).