Baptiste

"François Mackandal was my mentor. And an Assassin. But he failed. She betrayed us and he died. I won't make that mistake before I carry out his life's destiny."

- Baptiste about his Mentor, 1766.

Baptiste (1725 – 1766) was the Saint-Dominguan voodoo leader of a cult of former slaves in the Louisiana Bayou.

Initially, Baptiste had been an Assassin, trained alongside Agaté by their Mentor François Mackandal. However, when Mackandal was killed in 1758 and Agaté subsequently journeyed to Louisiana for personal reasons, Baptiste felt betrayed and gathered followers to form his own Maroon secret society.

Later, Baptiste made a deal with the Templars of New Orleans to force Agaté out of hiding, in return for a position among the Order. He and his followers subsequently moved to the Louisiana Bayou in 1766, where they made plans to usurp the local smuggling ring and poison the nobles of New Orleans.

In 2012, his genetic memories were used as an Animi Avatar by the entertainment branch of the Templar company Abstergo Industries, as part of their geosimulation workspace on the portable version of the Animus console, under the title of the Zealot.

Early life
"Today A— took my hand but he dropped it when B— came near and laughed [...] I do not like B— or trust him. He is rude."

- Jeanne, on her relationship with Baptiste.

Baptiste was born in 1725 on a slave plantation in Saint-Domingue, where he met Agaté, Jeanne and an Assassin named François Mackandal. The latter took the three of them under his wing and taught them how to read and write; Baptiste and Agaté also learned how to craft poisons and wield weapons. Unlike Agaté, Baptiste disliked Jeanne, causing tension between the three.

In 1738, Baptiste and Agaté officially joined the Assassin Brotherhood and escaped the plantation with Mackandal, though Jeanne refused and stayed behind. For many years the two men fought alongside their Mentor, until a failed attempt to poison the colonists of Saint-Domingue resulted in the capture and execution of Mackandal in 1758. Still in love with Jeanne, Agaté journeyed to Louisiana to find her, leaving Baptiste behind.

Baptiste, feeling betrayed, quit the Brotherhood and formed his own group of followers. He still followed the teachings of Mackandal, but also developed the principles and core values to suit his own agenda.

Alliance with de Ferrer
"By your hand, Agaté betrays me one final time. The locket you wear - I know it well. The first time Agaté betrayed me, it was for the woman, the thief... She wore one just like it."

- Baptiste's final words to Aveline, 1766.

By 1766, Baptiste began using his deceased Mentor's name as an alias to gather even more recruits for his cult. Traveling to New Orleans, Baptiste secured a deal with a local Templar called Rafael Joaquín de Ferrer to locate Agaté and force him out of hiding, so that he could be delivered to de Ferrer. In return, Baptiste would be inducted into the Templar Order. Additionally, Baptiste sought to continue his Mentor's work by poisoning the nobles of New Orleans, thus avenging the slaves.

Having established a base deep in the bayou, Baptiste ordered his followers to set up encampments throughout the swamp, hoping to locate Agaté's hideout and flush him out. Continuing the recruitment of slaves, Baptiste frequently sent messages to his faithful acolytes to find more men for the cause. Consequently, many denizens from San Danje, a settlement within the bayou that functioned as a safe haven for escaped slaves, came to join the cult.

Over the next few months, Baptiste's influence in the swamp grew and eventually began to encroach on the territory of a smuggling ring led by Élise Lafleur and Roussillon, whom he subsequently tried to force out. However, the smugglers ignored the ultimatum set by some of Baptiste's envoys, causing a fight to break out. Aveline de Grandpré, Agaté's disciple, then arrived, rescuing the smugglers from the group of followers.

The Assassin, with the aid of her smuggler ally Élise, would attempt to track down Baptiste on the orders of her Mentor by eliminating some of his encampments, hoping to find more information there. Through these efforts, she discovered evidence of a "sacred ceremony" that Baptiste aimed to hold on the Eve of Saint John. Aveline then consulted the bayou's houngan to determine the ceremony's exact location.

On the Eve of Saint John, Baptiste met with de Ferrer to discuss their plans for New Orleans, unaware they were being eavesdropped upon by Aveline and Élise. Once their conversation finished, de Ferrer departed, while Baptiste officially commenced the ceremony and joined in with the festivities. As he celebrated, Aveline neared him by blending in with his followers before attempting to eliminate Baptiste with a poison dart. However, her approach had not gone unnoticed, causing Baptiste to dodge her dart and hit her with one of his own.

To Baptiste's surprise, the poison failed to kill Aveline, as she had ingested an antidote beforehand in preparation to face him, allowing her to recover. The voodoo leader subsequently sent his men after her, but the Assassin easily took them out. Following this, Baptiste came down to face Aveline herself with his machete, but was defeated in battle, thus ending his plans for Agaté and the city of New Orleans.

In his final moments, Baptiste, recognizing Aveline's locket, revealed to the Assassin that Agaté and her mother Jeanne had known each other. This would subsequently cause Aveline to lose trust in her Mentor, as he had kept this information hidden from her.

Trivia

 * Both Baptiste and Agaté considered the avenging of slaves by killing white colonists a life goal of theirs, even as Assassins, despite the fact that doing so would be tantamount to breaking the Creed's first tenet.
 * Baptiste claimed that Aveline's blowpipe had once belonged to him, directly contrasting the story told to her by Agaté, who had instead said the blowpipe had previously been Mackandal's.
 * While this account may be contentious due to Baptiste's imitation of Mackandal, it could also be true due to Agaté's secrecy when dealing with Aveline.
 * Baptiste's skull-like face paint references, one of the spirits of Haitian voodoo.