Frédéric Rouille is a minor antagonist in the video game Assassin’s Creed Unity.
Rouille was a French military captain and a high-ranking member of the Templar Order during the French Revolution. A ruthless torturer and fanatic revolutionary, Rouille aligned himself with François-Thomas Germain’s extremist Templar faction. He played a pivotal role in the storming of the Tuileries Palace and the infamous September Massacres.
Biography[]
Background[]
Born to a poor cobbler in Paris, Rouille grew up in the slums and was likely illiterate. He enlisted in the Régiment des Gardes Françaises in 1789, but due to his low status, he was barred from promotion within the aristocratic hierarchy of the French military. The onset of the Revolution emboldened his political radicalism.
Rouille was present during Honoré Mirabeau’s speech following the Tennis Court Oath, where he attempted to meet the revolutionary orator. After being brushed off, he was approached by François-Thomas Germain, the leader of a radical Templar faction, who offered him a place in the Order. Rouille accepted, lured in by promises of power and revenge against the nobility.
Like many of his comrades in the Gardes Françaises, Rouille defected to the National Guard, where he quickly climbed to the rank of Captain. On March 31, 1791, Rouille participated in a clandestine Templar meeting at the Hôtel de Beauvais. Prior to the meeting, he tortured a prisoner in a separate room for information, before throwing the man out of a window.
During the meeting, Rouille informed Germain that King Louis XVI had been plotting in secret, and urged immediate assassination. Germain, however, preferred the symbolic power of a public execution. They also discussed Élise de la Serre, whose moderate influence over the Templars concerned Rouille. Germain dismissed the issue, assuring him she would be handled.
Assassin’s Creed Unity[]
Storming of the Tuileries[]
On August 10, 1792, Rouille and Antoine Joseph Santerre led a massive insurrection against the monarchy. Alongside thousands of revolutionary extremists, Rouille stormed the Tuileries Palace with orders to locate King Louis XVI and retrieve incriminating letters exchanged with Mirabeau — letters that could expose Assassin sympathizers and secure a decisive Templar advantage.
Though the royal family had already fled to the National Assembly, Rouille ransacked the palace, unaware that Arno Dorian had destroyed the letters moments earlier. Following this failure, Napoleon Bonaparte attempted to have Rouille reassigned to a distant garrison, but the Templar influence in Paris allowed him to remain.
September Massacres and Death[]
On September 2, 1792, Rouille led his forces to the Grand Châtelet prison, where he initiated a brutal slaughter of prisoners and guards. He personally captured the prison warden and taunted him with the decapitated head of his own brother, mounted on Rouille’s pike.
His bloodthirsty rampage was brought to a swift end when Arno Dorian assassinated him atop the prison. By reliving Rouille’s memories, Arno uncovered the existence of Marie Lévesque, another Templar operative who was hoarding grain to starve the population of Paris into submission.
Personality[]
A sadist by nature and revolutionary by circumstance, Rouille combined his deep hatred of the aristocracy with the Templars’ hunger for control. Though a low-born soldier, he sought violent retribution on those he saw as exploiters — nobles, clergy, and political moderates alike. His loyalty to Germain's faction was rooted in shared ideals of destruction and rebirth through terror.
Rouille was known for his brutality in interrogation, and he believed fear was the fastest route to obedience. He viewed the Revolution not as a chance for peace, but as a crucible to burn away weakness and forge a new order — one ruled by the strong.