Bernard Ruddock

"I’m cured of all that. And you know who finally cured me? Why, the fragrant Élise. She hated both of your Orders, you know that? Two ticks fighting for control of the cat, was what she called you. Futile and deluded, she called you, and she was right. She told me I’d be better off without you, and she was right. Templars? Assassins? I piss on you all for a bunch of worthless old women squabbling over ancient dogma."

―Ruddock on the conflict between the Assassins and Templars.

Bernard Ruddock
Biographical information
Died	12 September 1794 Saint-Cyr, French Republic
Political information
Affiliations	Assassins Carroll family

Ruddock (unknown – 1794) was a former member of the British Brotherhood of Assassins. Excommunicated due to his gambling and drinking habits, he worked as a contract killer in order to pay off his debts, while attempting to find a way back into the Brotherhood.

Biography

Assassination attempt

In 1775, Ruddock accepted a task of eliminating Julie de la Serre, a noted member of the Parisian Rite of the Templar Order and wife of Grand Master François de la Serre. Ruddock believed that assassinating her would see him reinstated into the ranks of the Assassin Order. Paired with another killer, Ruddock attacked Julie while she and her daughter were coming back from shopping, after their carriage and coachman went missing. The two men cornered the Templar and Élise in a back street, but Julie managed to drive Ruddock away and kill his accomplice in the process.

Following the attack, François de la Serre summoned his advisors, who accused the Assassins and called for retaliation. However, Julie had her doubts about the Brotherhood's involvement, and lied about the fact that the surviving assailant used a Hidden Blade. Her suspicions were brought on by Ruddock's attitude during the attack, as well as the bag he abandoned during his escape, which was of British make. Suspecting involvement of the Carroll family, Julie asked her friend and confidant, the member of the British Rite, Frederick Weatherall, to investigate the suspected British Assassin and his contacts.

Due to Ruddock's failed assassination attempt, Élise learned of her status among the Templars two years prior to when it was originally planned. Over the years, she concluded those who had hired Ruddock were the advisors of her father, whose ideals were opposed by Julie. However, in reality Ruddock did accept the contract on behalf of the British Templar family, the Carrolls. The assassination plot was meant to serve their own goal of eliminating the person advising moderation and gradual change from the monarchy in France, and unknowingly to them, would have also aided an extremist faction forming within the Parisian Rite, led by François-Thomas Germain.

Meeting Élise

In April 1788, Ruddock was eventually visited by Élise, who tracked him down in order to deliver a warning. The Carrolls intended to double-cross him during a visit to the tavern he was staying at, and kill him to eliminate the loose ends. However, Élise was unaware of the prior arrangement between Ruddock and the Carrolls, thinking they were after him due to her investigation.

Élise spoke with Ruddock until the Carrolls arrived, initiating a stand-off. She managed to escape with only minor injuries, after killing May Carroll in a surprise attack. Élise pushed Ruddock out of a window onto the tavern's roof, as May's mother attempted to shoot Élise. However, her pocket pistol backfired and grievously wounded her face in the process. Élise and Ruddock escaped and parted ways, only to meet again in January of the next year, when Weatherall found back his trace in Normandy.

After Ruddock used again one of his known alias in a village near Rouen, Élise traveled there, and arrived just as Ruddock was about to be lynched by an angry mob, having being caught while trying to swindle an elderly woman out of her money. The young Templar saved him from being hanged, by cutting the rope with her sword as the former Assassin was beginning to suffocate and keeping the crowd in respect by threatning to denounce them to the authorities. Some miles away, as Élise threatened him with her sword, Ruddock, a shadow of his former Assassin self, told her that a man hired him in the Café Procope back in Paris but that he didn't knew who he was. Frustrated to have learned nothing but unable to kill him in cold blood, Élise decided to let him live and gave Ruddock six months to find the identity of the man who hired him to kill her mother or she would hunt him down.

In July 1789, Ruddock unexpectedly respected their agreement and came to the De la Serre Estate just after the Storming of the Bastille, entering the looted house as Élise and an assassin sent by the Carrolls were holding each other at gunpoint, his timely arrival giving her the advantage on a distracted Harvey. Since his near death experience, Ruddock had stopped to drink and had regained his composure and some of his Assassin looks. He told Elise, who was in truth not expecting to ever see him again, that the man who hired him to kill her mother was working for the King of Beggars, also informing the bemused woman that the shady crimelord was in fact a Templar. Still concealing that the Carrolls were the sponsors of the assassination, Ruddock told Élise that the King of Beggar was probably working for rogue elements within her own Order, directing her suspicions on the reformist faction. Before leaving and after he told her that he was still planning to reclaim his place among the Assassin, Élise also told him that he should be glad to not be part of the Assassins anymore, as he is freed of the millenary feud and the dogmas of both their Orders, Assassins and Templars.

Final betrayal

Following Élise's death at the hands of Germain and receiving a letter unveiling her last wishes, as instructed Ruddock travelled to Paris in order to meet her lover, the Assassin Arno Dorian, to whom the letter was ultimately destined. As a price for his efforts, he was to receive Haytham Kenway's correspondence with his half-sister Jennifer Scott, which was obtained by Élise during her time in London and which she believed would help him to curry favor with the Assassins and possibly reclaim his position within them. To prevent Ruddock from taking the letters without completing his task, she had described the location where her possessions were kept in a way that only Arno could decipher, mentioning the "Palace of Misery". Understanding that she was refering to the Maison Royale de Saint-Louis, the school were she was so unhappy as a child, Arno thanked Ruddock and gave him his word to meet him later in order to give him the correspondence. However, as Arno traveled to the school to take possession of Élise's trunk, which was left into the care of her trusted friends, Ruddock discreetly followed him.

Once there, Ruddock displayed his greedy and selfish personality, taking Hélène, Élise's trusted handmaiden, hostage, in what appeared as an attempt to extort the letters from her husband Jacques, Frederick Weatherall and Arno. However, Frederick claimed that Ruddock was acting on the orders of the Carrolls, and lied about freeing Hélène, as she was present alongside Élise at the Carroll residence, and along with Weatherall, would be killed out spite for the death of May Carroll years ago.

Ruddock did not deny the accusation, claiming that Élise had opened his eyes and that he no longer cared about the letters or being taken back into the Brotherhood. He also confirmed Weatherall's suspicions about the Carrolls being the ones behind the assassination attempt on Julie decades earlier. With his allegiance exposed, Ruddock pretended to settle for just the letters. Once Jacques had given them to him, Ruddock attempted to shoot Arno and then deal with the rest, but he was swiftly killed by Weatherall, who had thrown Élise's short sword into his face.

Trivia

• Ruddock was described as having an overpowering body odor, which he tried to mask with strong perfume.
• Despite betraying her last wishes and trying to collect the bounty on her friends' heads, Ruddock stated that he too had loved Élise, in his own way.

Reference

• Assassin's Creed: Unity novel