Agaté

"Our moment is now. With the kidnapper dead, and safety restored, my mission will be complete. I will find peace."

―Agaté to Aveline about Antonio de Ulloa, a kidnapper of African slaves.

Agaté (c. 1722 – 1777) was the Mentor of the Assassin Brotherhood in Louisiana, operating from his hideout in the Louisiana Bayou.

Enslaved from a young age, Agaté came into contact with revolutionary disruptor François Mackandal, who taught him the ways of the Assassins. Following the death of his Mentor in 1758, Agaté traveled to Louisiana, a marked man, and hid in the bayou.

Agaté subsequently established the local Assassin guild, recruiting Aveline de Grandpré and Gérald Blanc, whom he trained to be his agents in New Orleans. After the Templars' presence in the bayou notably increased in 1766, Agaté went further into hiding, constructing a hidout deep within the swamp.

Although Agaté cared for his students, he was quite secretive in his dealings with them. Due to Aveline's natural impulsiveness and disinclination to follow orders, Agaté clashed with her frequently and eventually began to doubt her loyalty to the cause. Over the years, their mutual distrust of one another caused the two to grow apart.

When Aveline returned to Agaté in 1777 to tell him that Louisiana's head Templar had been her own stepmother all along, Agaté attacked Aveline, believing her to have betrayed the Assassins. His student managed to prove victorious, however, causing Agaté, who was overwhelmed with humiliation, to leap from the top of his treehouse, to his death.

Biography

Early life

Born on the western coast of Africa around 1722, Agaté was captured by slave traders at the age of seven. Transported to the Americas, he eventually ended up on the island of Saint-Domingue. There, he met Jeanne, another African slave that had been captured around the same time, and gradually fell in love with her.

In 1732, Agaté, along with Jeanne and another slave named Baptiste, were taken under the wing of an Assassin called François Mackandal, who taught them to read and write. Mackandal also began training Agaté and Baptiste to craft poisons and wield weapons.

In 1738, Agaté and Baptiste joined the Assassin Brotherhood and escaped the plantation at Saint-Domingue with Mackandal, though they left Jeanne behind. However, he managed to stay in touch with her, although she refused his offers to join the Assassin Order.

Eventually, Agaté chose to cut all ties to Jeanne for the benefit of the Brotherhood. He fought alongside Baptiste and Mackandal for many years, until a failed attempt to poison the white colonists of Saint-Domingue resulted in the subsequent execution of Mackandal. Agaté escaped to Louisiana and went into hiding in the bayou. He attempted to search the city of New Orleans for Jeanne, but soon found out that she had already escaped slavery and left Louisiana.

Mentor of the Louisiana Brotherhood

Agaté: "What is an Assassin without discipline? You will regret your insubordination."

Aveline: "I'll take that chance."

—Agaté and Aveline during an argument.

After Agaté discovered that Jeanne had given birth to a daughter named Aveline de Grandpré, who had remained in the city, he decided to watch over her. When Aveline was twelve years old, she took it upon herself to rescue a slave, but was captured. Agaté intervened and saved her, helping Aveline to free the slave. Following this, he recruited her into the Assassin Order and became her mentor.

Constructing a hideout in the bayou to avoid the Templars, Agaté worked closely with Aveline, who acted as his agent in Louisiana. However, in 1766, Baptiste arrived, pretending to be François Mackandal. Aveline assassinated him for defecting to the Templar Order, but also discovered that Agaté knew her mother Jeanne. This information put a strain on their relationship, as Aveline lost trust in Agaté for keeping this secret from her.

In 1768, during the Louisiana Rebellion, Agaté ordered Aveline to kill the Templar governor Antonio de Ulloa. Aveline ambushed the governor and confronted him, but decided to spare his life, disobeying Agaté's orders. This act continued to damage their relationship, as Agaté's trust in his student was lost. Afterwards, Aveline traveled to Chichen Itza to seek out the Templars, once again disobeying the explicit wishes of Agaté. In the years that followed, Aveline and her mentor began to grow apart.

Following Aveline's return from Chichen Itza, she presented Agaté with a First Civilization artifact known as the Prophecy Disk. Agaté responded angrily that she should not have unearthed the artifact and told her to remove it from his sight. As she put the object away, Aveline warned him that Spanish soldiers under the command of a Templar called Vázquez were attempting to seize control of the bayou. Agaté replied that he was well aware of their presence, and under his instruction, Aveline followed the soldiers to each of the voodoo signs Agaté had set up within the bayou, poisoning enough soldiers at each checkpoint so that the rest believed they had fallen under voodoo curse and fled.

Confrontation with Aveline

"You would fit me a coward's slow, pointless death? As you did Ulloa? I will not live with the dishonor. I--"

―Agaté to Aveline, right before falling to his death.

After uncovering the identity of the "Company Man" during her mission in New York, Aveline returned to the bayou to consult her mentor, only to find that he was under the belief that she had been turned to the Templar cause. She attempted to convince Agaté of her loyalty, but he refused to listen.

After defeating his pawns whilst under the influence of his hallucinogenic poison, Aveline confronted him directly at the highest point of his homestead. However, Aveline chose to spare his life, but Agaté could not live with the dishonor and dove to his death, thus committing suicide in front of his student.

Personality and characteristics

"Who-- Who are you? You look like a faithful student I had once, long ago. She no longer exists."

―Agaté to Aveline after one of her long absences.

Agaté's experiences as a slave, suffering much violent abuse, left him emotionally scarred and paranoid. For most of his life, Agaté had trouble mentally processing his broken relationship with Jeanne, often being reminded of her during his interaction with Aveline.

Nonetheless, Agaté appeared to be a very experienced and invaluable mentor to Aveline, reminding her that her impulsiveness would lead to trouble. At times, he was harsh with her in his words, but only did such to help mold her into the Assassin that she later became. However, he also showed doubt in her loyalty to the Assassins, and on one occasion admitted to having a dream that she had turned her back on the Order.

Despite all of his concerns, he seemed to genuinely care for his student and viewed Aveline as his own child, revealing that if he had pursued her mother, Jeanne, she could have very well been his daughter.

Agaté appeared to be a skilled freerunner and climber; on an occasion when he requested his student to meet him in the heart of New Orleans, Aveline found him perched atop a church roof.

Agaté also possessed knowledge of voodoo, making use of it on one occasion during the events within the bayou. When confronted by Aveline, he used a certain hallucinogen that hindered her ability to see and made lifeless practice dolls appear to be hostile and human, as well as creating the illusion that he could vanish and reappear a distance away.

Trivia

• Agate is a gemstone renowned for its bright hues and fine grain. But there is a Greek name Agathe, derived from the word agathos meaning "good".

Gallery

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  Concept art of Agaté
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  Concept art of Agaté's hut

References

• Assassin's Creed III: Liberation