Asse was the son of a blacksmith and one of the members of the Rats. He had a laughable beard and liked to wear a studded black leather jacket. Before becoming a Rat he saved Mistle from a group of manhunters, murderers and rapists. His father had been killed by Nilfgaardians. The entire gang, with the exception of Ciri, was killed at the hands of Leo Bonhart in Jealousy.
“
Mistle was the only one to survive. She was pulled out of the ditch where she had been thrown naked, covered in bruises, filth, mud and congealed blood, by Asse, the son of the village blacksmith, who had been hunting the Nilfgaardians for three days, insane with the desire for revenge for what the marauders had done to his father, mother and sisters, which he'd had to watch, hidden in a hemp field.
”
— pg(s). 327, Time of Contempt (UK edition)