Jean François Champollion
Sobriquet: Jean
Appearance: Champollion is a man of discreet appearance. Charming, but not in the flamboyant way most Toreador are. He has dark brown hair, brown eyes and side-whiskers inherited from the century of his death. He wears dark costumes and a gray-white necktie.
His stare is somewhat vacant, as he always is thinking about something else, giving his interlocutor the appearance of being tired of the discussion. But when it comes to linguistics, Egypt or any other lost civilization, his eyes burn with interest.
Behavior: Jean François is a loner, liking to do his research alone, or at least with company who has the same interests. Unless it comes to Egypt, he is pretty unconcerned by art discussion, but his anger when he discovered the Egyptian department of the Louvre with Greek architectural features is still remembered with a smile within the Clan.
His conversation is polite, and sometimes boring as the only information he can give is archeological ones. And as he seems as interested about his interlocutor's subjects as his interlocutor is of is own, he is somewhat (politely) avoided in Soirées. He can be a great friend, if a distant one.
History: Jean François is born the December, 23 at Figeac, France, and already someone known as Jacquou, the local healer and magician sees in him A light for the centuries to come.
Jean François shows soon an easiness with linguistics that surprises every teacher he come across. When he is 9 years-old, the Stone of Rosette is discovered, and in the middle of Egyptian frenzy, Jean François swears he will one day read the strange and mysterious hieroglyphs.
He works hard, learn linguage upon dialect, like the syrak, the ethiopian, the aramean, even learning persan and eastern linguages with the hope of finding some clue to help him.
In 1652, a Jesuit, Athanase Kircher, wrote a ridiculous translation of the hieroglyphs, but from the fantasy sprung some ideas here and there (because of his knowledge of classical Greek authors). Other persons, like the Swedish Akerblad and the English Young tried to find the key, without success. In 1809, Champollion told his brother that he dreamed in Coptic, talked to himself in Coptic. His greatest difficulties will come from the lack of documents (his facsimilé of the Stone of Rosette is a copy of very poor quality). He will find some documents in the works within the edition Description de l'Egypte that will be edited from 1809 to 1822, as well as a copy of the so-called Book of the Dead, in truth Book to Exit to the Light. In 1822, he will decipher the word 'Cleopatra' on a lithograph of an obelisk.
But the most important day is September, the 14th, 1822: After deciphering Ramses and Tothmosis, he runs to his brother's place, whispering Je tiens l'affaire! (I hold the key!) before passing out. Thirteen days after, the Letter to Mr Dacier is written, explaining the basics of his traduction. His enemies will be numbers, against this pretentious young man who didn't even went to Egypt, and who believes he had discovered things that his betters were still trying to imagine. His health suffered from this lack of consideration, but one person believed him.
His name was Alexis, and as was Champollion among the mortals, he was isolated from his kindred. Alexis had come to Egypt, and came back with drawings, and information. He contacted Champollion, promising him support should he continue his work.
And Champollion succeeded. Alexis had brought back different texts from Egypt, and one of them was a poem written by a man for the woman he loved. Alexis knew he had something that would move François Villon. The reading of the poem in a soirée where Champollion was the only mortal among the Kindred, was a real success!
Champollion, then, became a subject of discussion among the Toreador: Some thought, like the mortal Winckelmann, that the Egyptian works were primitive and monotonic. Champollion worked hard to change this vision among the mortals, while Alexis made the same among the Kindred. In 1824, Champollion is consulted about the collection Durand, of 2149 Egyptian antiquities. Champollion will succeed in convincing the authorities to buy the collection. He will be consulted more in the following years, with variable successes.
In the year 1826, he will be officially recognized: The February 23, he will succeed in convincing the authorities to buy another collection: The collection Salt. The may 15, Champollion becomes the first Conservateur of the newly created Egyptian department of the Louvre Museum: The Toreador recognized as a whole the artistic potential of the Egyptian artwork. And Alexis' prestige increased accordingly.
After a trek in Egypt, where his translation is once more confirmed as he read without difficulties any hieroglyph he sees, he come back to France, exhausted by his work and his enemies in the Louvre. Even the Vitae he drunk without even knowing it could not maintain his health. He was dying, slowly...
Alexis visited him the night of the march 4, 1832. Champollion was dying, and complaining he didn't have the time to complete his project, to study Egypt, etc. Alexis was moved by the young man's plea, who didn't really have the time to live, and who had worked so dilligently for the Toreador, without even knowing it.
Alexis went ot the Louvre, and asked for Villon the right to Embrace the agonizing man, saying he would be able to take care of the Egyptian part of the Louvre, and that he would be a good addition to the Clan. Lazlo was against the Embrace of a future Poseur, and Alexis hadn't the time for a battle of words. He asked it as a Prestation, and to Lazlo's dismay, Villon accepted.
Alexis came back one hour before the sunrise, giving the choice to Champollion. Surprised, but not having the choice, he accepted, and was Embraced. Officially, Champollion was dead.
The appearance of Jean François at the Kindred Cour was as shock: half the people he had met at night in the museum were in truth Kindred, and he had never suspected anything! In the other side, the Artistes were angry at Alexis and his Neonate: Jean François wasn't an Artist, and so didn't have the right of Toreador immortality. The Neonate was soon disgusted of the life among the Harpies who remained polite but treated him as a Ghoul, and isolated himself to discover more about Egypt... And Egyptian Magic, as it seemed to interest Alexis more than anything else.
In 1836, he finished his new Egyptian Grammar, and edited is as a posthumous edition. The same year, Egypt gave to France the Obelisks of Louqsor, and Champollion made the french authorities refuse the two: One was more than enough, and removing them from the temple of Amenhotep III and Ramses II would be sacrilegious in a historical viewpoint.
Working with Alexis over archaeologic pieces, they discovered the proof of a Cainite presence in Egypt, thousands years before the Christ. This Cainite didn't appear to be of the known Setite Bloodline. Known as Sechat, she was told to be wife of Thot (the master of egyptian magic, the Hekau). And she handled some kind of Thaumaturgy!
Reading all the notes he had gathered, he discovered one of the pyramids he had visited had been a Haven for the said Sechat, and that her first name had been Meryt-Neith! The notes were beginnings of instruction about how to use Senef Hekau, but the notes were highly incomplete, and so, Jean François and Alexis prepared for another trek in Egypt.
Then she appeared. Wearing black velvet robes and a hood that hid her features, clothed in shadows, she was awing. Alexis seemed to recognize her, and visibly could say nothing. Jean François, in a naive way only the Neonate can have, asked her her name. She was Meryt-Neith, she said. And the pyramidal tomb Alexis had visited was hers. Alexis answered his Auspex had told him Meryt-Neith had been killed. She answered Nefertiti was young indeed when she had tried. Alexis was horrified. She eased their minds, explaining she had no plan about retaliation. Her only concern was the strange corruption that seemed to permeate Paris.
Jean François heard the whole story, about how Nebneferptah had been seemingly destroyed in the Third Century, and how she suspected him to have survived as a thing of corruption. She had no proof, but enough presumptions to raise her interests. She had a lot of work to do, and she gave Alexis the mission of uniting Kindred skilled in occult to investigate such events. Strangely, and through Alexis was Villon's lieutenant, he accepted.
Thus Alexis and Champollion studied the occult past of Paris. The 1871 Commune was a total surprise for them. The Masques were surprised too, but still succeeding in taking back Paris. In 1872, a strange monster attacked the Louvre, threatening the Masquerade and Kindred's unlives. Alexis talked with Villon, and when he came back, he explained he was authorized to create a sect of occult Kindred who would study occult phenomena, and disable those who could breach the Masquerade. they were called the Veilleurs.
Meryt-Neith, then, appeared once more in the new Chantry, offering her help in affairs of magic, in exchange of information. Thus the three Kindred worked to give the Veilleurs a magical edge: The Hekau Thaumaturgy. the War of Traditions gave the Veilleur the occasion to show their potential: Discovering the Order of Hermes and the Clan Tremere had been manipulated by the Technocracy, the Veilleurs came back with a diplomatic decision between the Camarilla of Paris and the Tradition Mages of the same city. The Tremere were temporarily exiled, and the Veilleurs received a new companion: Criaâr, Childe of the Tremere Regent Gustacio, who had been called back to Vienna (and never seen since!).
The Veilleurs then created a new Hekau Path, the Path of Veille, which became central to the sect. Jean François then went back to his studies, isolating himself from the most active (er... action-oriented?) Veilleurs, only coming out from the Veilleur Chantry to go to the Louvre.
The Project Grand Louvre, which transformed the palace into its today luxurious museum, was led by him, at least, in the artistic and architectural features. And it will be achieved in 1998... But the Toreador are already pleased...
Recent Events:
Notes: His knowledge about linguistics, archeology, history and occult makes him one of the most eminent savant of the Parisian Kindred.
He has ties with the Celestial Chorus Mages, the Egyptian Kindred (including the Courtisan Setites of Paris), and even great friendship with the Silent Strider Lupines (!). Even Children of Osiris gravitate around him, wondering if they should introduce him into their sect. But Typhonist Setites secretly hate him because he uncovered most of the ancient Egypt secrets. If the other Setites believe it made them a great deal of publicity, and so made their Clan apparently more acceptable, and his tale about Set and his apparent greatness at the side of Osiris, the Typhonist don't like at all to be told that Set had been corrupted by something else...
His Veille Familiar is the Hawk.
Actual Aim: Enoch! He researches a lot about Enoch, and his personal research led him to consider about a possible analogy between the First and Second City and with Atlantis and Mu. He wonders about a possible contact with the Giovanni to learn the famed Necromancy Discipline, to learn more.
His research attracted the attention of the True Hand: Athanasios already contacted his Sect, who now wonder at the true aim of the Veilleurs.
Rumours: Jean François is researching the Antediluvian's secret tombs (Er... Not exactly).
Jean François is doing a lot of work to compensate with his lack of physical beauty, and of artistic creativity. (False: Passion is what motivate Jean François).
Credit to the Author: https://augias.org/pbn/champoli.htm
