The Supreme Being

The Supreme Being was a virtual representation of one of Arno Dorian's genetic memories, relived by a Helix initiate through the Helix Navigator.

Description
Arno and Élise drove back to Paris, seeking to find Germain through Maximilien de Robespierre at the Festival of the Supreme Being.

Dialogue
Arno and Élise met near the Champ de Mars, where festivites were under way and people carried fowers. Arno and Élise reached the Champ de Mars. Arno noticed Robespierre's tent. Robespierre left the tent to begin his speech. Arno entered Robespierre's tent. Arno found a letter. He then found a newspaper. Arno found Robespierre's diary. Arno found a mysterious letter. Arno, however, did not find these useful. Arno found a set of lists. Arno met with Élise. Élise showed Arno a shipment of wine. Élise left. While Robespierre practiced his speech, Arno killed the guards headed for Élise. Arno met with Élise again. Robespierre continued his speech. Arno found a critic of Robespierre. Arno planted a list on the critic. Arno found another critic. Arno planted a list on the critic. Arno found another critic. Arno planted a list on the critic. While influenced by the ergot, Robespierre continued his speech.
 * Élise: Things have changed a great deal since you left Paris?
 * Arno: A great deal to be set right.
 * Élise: And we're no closer to finding Germain.
 * Arno: That's not entirely true. I have a name.
 * Élise: Who?
 * Arno: Robespierre.
 * Arno: What's all this?
 * Élise: Robespierre. He's declared today a "Festival of the Supreme Being." A paean to the virtue of the Nation and the citizen's duty toward it.
 * Arno: Why does that sound familiar?
 * Élise: As far as Templar doctrine goes, it's a loose interpretation.
 * Arno: We'll never get close to him in the middle of all this. We'd best retire and wait for a better opportunity.
 * Élise: Still thinking like an Assassin. This time, I have the plan.
 * Arno: Oh? And what would that be?
 * Élise: Think like a Templar.
 * Citizens: Amazing.... Thought we were supposed to be rationalists now.... What's he thinking? Vive Robespierre! Oh my, that's lovely. Bravo! (Long live the Liberty!) If "Supreme Being" ain't code for "Robespierre," I'll eat my hat. What is he thinking? Ridiculous pomp and circumstance.
 * Arno: What now?
 * Élise: Robespierre is unassailable. He's got half the Guard out in force. We'll never get within ten yards of him.
 * Arno: Just what I said.
 * Élise: But he's not as popular as he was. The purges, this Supreme Being cult... If we can discredit him, he's finished.
 * Arno: A massive public spectacle is the perfect venue.
 * Élise: Exactly. Paint him as a lunatic, and his power will evaporate like snow in April. But we'll need some convincing evidence.
 * Arno: I have an idea where to start.
 * Arno: You coming?
 * Élise: Meet me after. I have my own arrangements to make.
 * Robespierre: The eternally happy day which the French peopel consecrates to the Supreme Being has finally arrived. Never has the world he created offered him a sight so worthy of his eyes. He has seen tyranny, crime, and deception reign on earth. At this moment, he sees an entire nation, at war with all the oppressors of the human race, suspend its heroic efforts in order to raise its thoughts and vows to the Great Being who gave it the mission to undertake these efforts and the strength to execute them. Did not his immortal hand, by engraving in the hearts of men the code of justice and equality, write there the death sentence of tyrants? Did not his voice, at the very beginning of time, decree the republic, making liberty, good faith, and justice the order of the day for all centuries and for all peoples? He did not create kings to devour the human species. Neither did he create priests to harness us like brute beasts to the carriages of kings, and to give the world the example of baseness, pride, perfidy, avarice, debauchery, and falsehood to the world. But he created the universe to celebrate his power; he created men to help and to love one another, and to attain happiness through the path of virtue. The Author of Nature linked all mortals together in an immense chain of love and happiness. Perish the tyrants who have dared to break it! Frenchmen, Republicans, it is up to you to cleanse the earth they have sullied and to restore the justice they have banished from it. Liberty and virtue issued together from the breast of the Supreme Being. One cannot reside among men without the other. Generous people, do you want to triumph over all your enemies? Practice justice and render to the Supreme Being the only form of worship worthy of him. People, let us surrender ourselves today, under his auspices, to the just ecstasy of pure joy. Tomorrow, we shall again combat vices and tyrants; we shall give the world an example of republican virtues: and that shall honor the Supreme Being more.
 * Arno: Let's see... incriminating evidence, incriminating evidence....
 * Letter: Monsieur, As you have been the savior of the Republic, I beg you now to be my brother's savior as well. Even now he languishes in prison, arrested by patriots more zealous in their heroism than careful in their methods. No warrant for André's arrest was ever issued, and yet he remains imprisoned in "under suspicion." I pray you do not recall my brother's writings in the Journal de Paris, coming as they did from an intemporate poet's heart. Rather I beg you, if my own humble skills have been even the smallest of aid to our glorious Revolution, spare my brother. In his writings I see burgeoning of France's greatest poet, a light that will shine for all time. Yours in patriotism, Marie-Joseph Chénier
 * Arno: Publiciste de la Révolution française... The day after Marat died.
 * Newspaper: "... What should one think of the Committee of Public Safety, or rather its leaders? (For most of its members are so negligent that they can barely manage to attend Committee sessions for two hours of each twenty-four, are unaware of almost everything that is done there, and doubtless are at most guilty of accepting a task they have no desire to fulfill.) But the leaders are plain criminals for having carried out so shamefully their functions. There is one among them, whom the Mountain has just foolishly reappointed, and whom I regard as the single most dangerous enemy of the country: Barère, indicated by Sainte-Foy to the king as one of the Constitutionalists to be relied upon. Personally, I am certain that he keeps a foot in both camps until the victor is clear; it is Barère who has paralyzed every forceful measure, leaving us helpless, our throats waiting to be slit. I call upon him to contradict me in such a way as to finally show that he is not a royalist in disguise."
 * Diary: At exactly five in the morning, a general recall shall be sounded in Paris. This call shall invite every citizen, men and women alike, to immediately adorn their houses with the beloved colors of liberty, either by rehanging their flags, or by embellishing their houses with garlands of flowers and greenery.
 * Arno: A letter.
 * Letter: Monsieur Robespierre, Take care that you do not allow your personal ambitions to come before the Great Work. That which we do, we do not for our own glory, but to remake the world in de Molay's image. G.
 * Arno: ''Maybe something a bit stronger. Not quite what I'm looking for. Interesting, but not particularly helpful.'
 * Arno: , Tallien, ... these are all deputies of the National Convention. Lists of political figures written in the hand of a man fond of sending his rivals to the guillotine... yes, these should do nicely.
 * Élise: Well?
 * Arno: A list of names - fifty or so deputies of the National Convention. All writtten in Robespierre's hand and all opposed to him.
 * Élise: I imagine those good gentlemen would be quite interested to know they're on that list. But first...
 * Élise: Monsieur Robespierre has brought his own refreshments. Distract the guards. I have an idea.
 * Arno: Distract the guards. Right.
 * Robespierre: Armed in turn with the daggers of fanaticism and the poisons of atheism, they can no more tear the world from... People, fear no more their sacrilegious conspiracies! It is wisom above all that our guilty enemies want to drive from the republic. We must be generous toward the good, compassionate toward the unfortunate, and inexorable toward the wicked.
 * Guard: Away with you.
 * Élise: Powdered ergot. Causes hallucinations. This will make him look mad. Now we have to make him look dangerous.
 * Arno: The list of names.
 * Élise: It must fall into the right hands. Anonymously. If our involvement gets out, it'll tip Germain off.
 * Arno: Leave that part to me.
 * Robespierre: He has returned to nothingness, this monster which the spirit of kings has spewed forth over France. Let all the crimes and ills of the world disappear with him. Armed in turn with the daggers of fanaticism and the poisons of atheism, kings still conspire to assassinate humanity. If they can no longer disfigure the Divinity with superstition in order to implicate him in their transgressions, they endeavour to banish it from the earth, to reign alone with crime. People, fear no more their sacrilegious conspiracies, they can no more tear the world from the breast of its author, than the remorse from their own hearts. You who are wretched, hold up your woeful heads: you can again raise your eyes to the sky with impunity. Heroes of the country, your generous devotion is not a brilliant folly; the minions of tyranny may be able to assassinate you, but it is not in their power to annihilate you completely. Man, whoever you are, you can again think well of yourself. You can attach your transitory life to God himself and to immortality. Let nature thus regain all its magnificence, and wisdom all its empire, the Supreme Being is not destroyed.
 * Critic 1: Robespierre natters on about freedom and mercy while thousands go to the guillotine. If Danton were alive to see this, he would choke on his own grief.
 * Woman: But what can we do? For all his horros, the Committee stands behind him.
 * Critic 1: Only so long as he condemns strangers. When he turns his gaze upon them, we shall see how well they love him.
 * Woman: Pray, (mister), might I borrow your handkerchief?
 * Critic 1: Certainly, madame. Hmm.
 * Woman: What is it?
 * Critic 1: I think it's the solution to our problems. Pardon, madame.
 * Critic 2: "Conduct unbecoming?" Me? Who the hell does Robespierre think he is?
 * Servant: Jealous of your success, most like.
 * Critic 2: Yes, yes, that would be it, wouldn't it? Someone really ought to teach that jumped up little troll a lesson....
 * Servant: Quite so, sir.
 * Servant: What is it, sir?
 * Critic 2: A pickpocket, damn your eyes!
 * Servant: Bloody hell! What did they steal?
 * Critic 2: ''Nothing, I....
 * Critic 3: Look at that strutting popinjay. "Cult of the Supreme Being" indeed.
 * Servant: Sir! Take care, someone might hear you!
 * Critic 3: And if they do? Robespierre is popular, but he is not God, no matter what he thinks. He can't touch me.
 * Servant: Even so....
 * Critic 3: Even so nothing. A change is coming soon. All it requires is the proper spark to light the tinder.
 * Arno: This should set things in motion.
 * Servant: What's that?
 * Critic 3: Hmm?
 * Servant: In your pocket there.
 * Critic 3: I'm not sure... oh. Pardon me, I must....
 * Robespierre: ''It is wisdom, above all, that our enemies want to drive from the Republic. To wisdom alone does it belong to consolidate the prosperity of empires; it is for her to guarantee the fruits of our courage. Let us therefore associate
 * Critics: "Being a list of enemies of the Revolution....?" ...Half a hundred names here! Robespierre's gone too far this time!
 * Élise: That's set the fox in the henhouse.
 * Arno: Pity the hens. Now what?
 * Élise: We wait. It won't take long. Once Robespierre has lost the support of the people, he'll be no more use to Germain. And when Germain abandons him...
 * Arno: ...he's vulnerable. Let's go.

Outcome
Arno and Élise managed to discredit Robespierre and turn popular opinion against him. Once Germain abandoned him, it would be easy to acquire information from Robespierre.

Reference

 * Assassin's Creed: Unity