Tessa Varzi
- "Tessa has a disturbing love for venom. She is so precise in her work that she can paralyze a man, put him to sleep, cause him to go mad, fake his death, or, of course, kill him in various horrible ways."
- ―Francesco Vecellio, regarding Tessa Varzi.[src]
Tessa Varzi (died 1503) was a member of the Assassin Order during the Italian Renaissance. She was a part of a team that included Francesco Vecellio and Cipriano Enu, with whom she completed various missions throughout Italy.
Biography
Apprenticeship
Between 1501 and 1503, Tessa trained under Ezio Auditore in Rome. She grew to be an expert pickpocket, and even met the later head of her Assassin team, Francesco Vecellio, by defeating him in a pickpocketing challenge.
A proud and confident woman, Tessa practically invited herself into Francesco's team of Assassins soon after he had been selected to lead one. She completed many missions with her teammates, and as a master of poisons, she was often summoned for those that required victims to be paralyzed, put to sleep, or killed silently.
On one occasion that Francesco assisted her in manufacturing her poisons, he witnessed Tessa purchasing minerals and medicine, and gathering mushrooms, nuts and wildflowers, all of which she processed herself. The resulting toxins were spread upon blades, or placed in vials for later use.
Life as an Assassin
- "Ezio has given us several tasks which will require Tessa's specialties. They will be perilous, some of them placing us right in the heart of Borgia power."
- ―Francesco, on calling upon Tessa's skill with poisons.[src]
Tessa played a key role in three of her team's missions, wherein poisons of varying effect were required.
The first involved freeing a group of prisoners that Cesare Borgia planned to shoot at with his crossbow, purely for his own amusement. The Assassins decided to replace the prisoners with the guards who were serving Cesare, thus Tessa was tasked with making a poisonous powder to be used to paralyze the guards. After the powder was successfully administered, and the guards' tongues cut, they were sent into the courtyard in the prisoners' place, and subsequently killed by their own master.
The second was the protection of the Duchess of Urbino, Elisabetta Gonzaga. Elisabetta sought to attend a Borgia Jubilee, and ignored the Assassins' warning that there would be a danger to her life, since her family openly opposed the Borgia. She nevertheless entered Rome, and Francesco's team was forced them to intercept the Borgia's ambush. Tessa pricked the Duchess with a poison blade in the midst of the attack, causing her to fall unconscious, and allow them to safely bring her out of the city in a cart.
The third was the assassination of Doge Agostino Barbarigo, who was targeted after he betrayed the Assassins by serving the Borgia, and by succumbing to greed, extortion, and the selling of justice. Tessa sent him four threatening letters that she had powdered with poison, after which he fell ill and died.
Death
- "The floor beneath us collapses, taking several Assassins with it! They shriek as they disappear into the blaze below! A woman's scream! Tessa? Tessa!"
- ―Francesco, realizing Tessa's fate.[src]
Tessa's final missions involved the suppression of the French Templar Charles de la Motte and his troops. At their first encounter, Tessa and her teammates travelled to Barletta and infiltrated a competition between the men of Cesare and Charles. There, they coated the supplies of the French troops with poison, causing them to underperform.
Some time after this, Charles and his mercenaries entered Rome at Cesare's request, and began terrorizing the people to purposefully draw out the Assassins. Tessa personally approached the foreign troops dressed as a civilian, handing several soldiers flowers that she had coated in poison.
After she and her team were discovered, the combined forces of the two Templars proved too much for them, and they were forced to take refuge inside an inn. Their enemies promptly set the building ablaze, and as the Assassins attempted to escape to the roof, Tessa and several of her teammates fell through the weakened floorboards and met their deaths in the flames.
Source
Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy - Chapter 3 - Francesco Vecellio