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Description

Name: Birdie Pontmercy
Born: March 18, 1871; Paris, France
Died: July 19, 1937; Paris, France (age 66)
Allegiance: Assassins

Bio: The granddaughter of Arnette Euphrasie, Birdie was born and raised as a member of the French Brotherhood of Assassins. A middle class lady with a love of tasteful fashion, Birdie was right at home in France’s romantic Belle Époque era that began after the Franco-Prussian War, which her father had fought in. It was an opulent time that celebrated the end of war and welcomed a new age of artistic and social flourishing. Vincent van Gogh was creating the paintings that would make him famous after his death. Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the famous Statue of Liberty as a gift to the United States, where it was shipped to in 1885. The statue’s builder, Gustave Eiffel, also constructed France's tallest structure, the Eiffel Tower, in 1887 as a grand entryway to that year's World Fair. The famous cabaret known as the Moulin Rouge, which Birdie took employment at, also made its debut in Paris in 1889. It was a grand golden age that raised Birdie with a chipper and classy attitude and a smile which she shared with everyone.

But every golden age has its dark underbellies. For the Belle Époque, it was a political unrest that plagued all of Paris’s social classes. The Assassins’ mortal enemies, the power hungry Templars, had seen their chance to sneak back into the French government after influencing the expansion of the German Empire to destroy the reign of Napoleon III. They worked from the shadows, influencing government and policy as they pleased in ways that often suppressed the people's desires and freedoms. In response, the anarchist movement began to rise up from France's lower classes, a movement which Assassins like Birdie took to influencing in hopes of safeguarding freedom. The anarchists took on the philosophy of “propaganda of the deed”, which summed up to rising up and using actions to draw support as opposed to rhetoric and policy. This culminated in many attacks on the government in the late 1880s and early 1890s, such as when Auguste Vaillant tossed a nail bomb into the Chamber of Deputies in 1893, wounding 20 officials.

Assassins have their limits though, especially Birdie, a staunch follower of the Creed and its tenets. When anarchist Émile Henry detonated a bomb in the Café Terminus in February 1894, killing one innocent and severely injuring 20 more, Birdie hunted him down and delivered him to the guillotine for his crimes. Still she continued to fight against the Templars, specifically their agent Marie François Sadi Carnot, who became president after the Templars worked to discredit his predecessor, Jules Grévy, who had to resign in 1887. Birdie assassinated Carnot while he was delivering a speech at a public banquet in Lyon. Her associate, anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio, took the blame for her and was executed shortly thereafter.

Not long after, the country was plagued by the Dreyfus Affair, in which a French officer named Alfred Dreyfus was accused of treason, with claims saying he was working as a spy for the German Empire. Templars such as Hubert-Joseph Henry, organized this both as a cover-up for their own plans and as support for the corruptive antisemitism that plagued many government and military officials. Birdie and her allies worked to clear Dreyfus’s name and unravel the Templars’ plans. Birdie herself sliced the throat of Henry in his prison cell in 1898. Dreyfus’s name was eventually cleared in 1906, and his rank was restored.

Birdie herself had begun a family around this time. She met a dashing Assassin named Adrien Alexandre, whom she married and had a son, Arnaud, in 1895. Arnaud, like his mother, was raised as a proud Assassin, proving himself worthy of wearing his father's military robes as he reached adulthood. When World War I broke out in 1914, Arnaud was sent out to fight with the French Army, a journey that would both destroy and rejuvenate his spirit. He came home after the war ended in 1918, and his daughter Alouette was born five years later in 1923. Birdie continued the Assassin business with her family until she passed away in her sleep in 1937.

She is the great-great grandmother of Ava Arlie.

Description

Name: Birdie Pontmercy
Born: March 18, 1871; Paris, France
Died: July 19, 1937; Paris, France (age 66)
Allegiance: Assassins

Bio: The granddaughter of Arnette Euphrasie, Birdie was born and raised as a member of the French Brotherhood of Assassins. A middle class lady with a love of tasteful fashion, Birdie was right at home in France’s romantic Belle Époque era that began after the Franco-Prussian War, which her father had fought in. It was an opulent time that celebrated the end of war and welcomed a new age of artistic and social flourishing. Vincent van Gogh was creating the paintings that would make him famous after his death. Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the famous Statue of Liberty as a gift to the United States, where it was shipped to in 1885. The statue’s builder, Gustave Eiffel, also constructed France's tallest structure, the Eiffel Tower, in 1887 as a grand entryway to that year's World Fair. The famous cabaret known as the Moulin Rouge, which Birdie took employment at, also made its debut in Paris in 1889. It was a grand golden age that raised Birdie with a chipper and classy attitude and a smile which she shared with everyone.

But every golden age has its dark underbellies. For the Belle Époque, it was a political unrest that plagued all of Paris’s social classes. The Assassins’ mortal enemies, the power hungry Templars, had seen their chance to sneak back into the French government after influencing the expansion of the German Empire to destroy the reign of Napoleon III. They worked from the shadows, influencing government and policy as they pleased in ways that often suppressed the people's desires and freedoms. In response, the anarchist movement began to rise up from France's lower classes, a movement which Assassins like Birdie took to influencing in hopes of safeguarding freedom. The anarchists took on the philosophy of “propaganda of the deed”, which summed up to rising up and using actions to draw support as opposed to rhetoric and policy. This culminated in many attacks on the government in the late 1880s and early 1890s, such as when Auguste Vaillant tossed a nail bomb into the Chamber of Deputies in 1893, wounding 20 officials.

Assassins have their limits though, especially Birdie, a staunch follower of the Creed and its tenets. When anarchist Émile Henry detonated a bomb in the Café Terminus in February 1894, killing one innocent and severely injuring 20 more, Birdie hunted him down and delivered him to the guillotine for his crimes. Still she continued to fight against the Templars, specifically their agent Marie François Sadi Carnot, who became president after the Templars worked to discredit his predecessor, Jules Grévy, who had to resign in 1887. Birdie assassinated Carnot while he was delivering a speech at a public banquet in Lyon. Her associate, anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio, took the blame for her and was executed shortly thereafter.

Not long after, the country was plagued by the Dreyfus Affair, in which a French officer named Alfred Dreyfus was accused of treason, with claims saying he was working as a spy for the German Empire. Templars such as Hubert-Joseph Henry, organized this both as a cover-up for their own plans and as support for the corruptive antisemitism that plagued many government and military officials. Birdie and her allies worked to clear Dreyfus’s name and unravel the Templars’ plans. Birdie herself sliced the throat of Henry in his prison cell in 1898. Dreyfus’s name was eventually cleared in 1906, and his rank was restored.

Birdie herself had begun a family around this time. She met a dashing Assassin named Adrien Alexandre, whom she married and had a son, Arnaud, in 1895. Arnaud, like his mother, was raised as a proud Assassin, proving himself worthy of wearing his father's military robes as he reached adulthood. When World War I broke out in 1914, Arnaud was sent out to fight with the French Army, a journey that would both destroy and rejuvenate his spirit. He came home after the war ended in 1918, and his daughter Alouette was born five years later in 1923. Birdie continued the Assassin business with her family until she passed away in her sleep in 1937.

She is the great-great grandmother of Ava Arlie.