Updated: 13 January 1999
CHAPTER 1: History & Mythos
Francois Villon was conscious of the Magickal nature of Paris even before taking the power there. Alexis, his lieutenant, said to him that there were more in the capital than what could be seen first. How to explain the weakness of the Lupine here? Why more and more wraiths came back to haunt the living? The Mages kept quiet but they never were reluctant to defend, how matter the price, the control of their Nodes. Nodes so numerous in Paris that the city could have been, if not for the Kindred, the capital of Magick. The origin of this influence, of this Aura of Decay and Corruption, as it was named after by Alexis, was unknown. And what was unknown was dangerous. An altercation with Villon made Alexis leave the Grand Cour and even the vampiric society as a whole after the 1789 Revolution.
He went to Egypt with Napoleon, fellow Kindred and a hundred mortal artists and scientists. Fighting the Setite, he succeeded to came back with copies of the walls of a tomb in Abydos.
He reconstituted exactly this tomb below the Louvre, as a present to Villon, who never had seen such antiquity.
Avoiding definitively the parisian Cour, Alexis tried in secret to decipher some hieroglyghs with the young Jean Francois Champollion.
After he had deciphered common ones, it was decided the work of this young genious would be edited (and it had the success we know). Alexis asked him if he wanted the Embrace but Champollion didn't. So he remained a Ghoul for years, until he visited the Egypt and its wonders. Then, victim of a desease so powerful that even Ghouldom didn't prevent his degeneration, Champollion asked for the Embrace.
After his Embrace, and after years of examination, they discovered the hidden meaning behind some hieroglyphs. Crypted, it was simply prayers to Thot and Sechat. Uncrypted, Alexis and Champollion had the surprise of their unlife. They came out after years, to give the conclusion of their investigations to Villon. It was the proof of non-Setite Cainite presence in Ancient Egypt thousand years before the Christ. But, more important, they discovered occult information about vampiric Thaumaturgy and Rituals four thousand years before the ''creation'' of the Tremere Clan!
In the same time, the manifestations of the Aura had become more and more bold, and more and more frequent. As wraiths appeared even in the Louvre, and even Villon and Alexis were attacked by a strange corruption creature, the Masquerade was really in danger. Alexis asked Villon the permission to create a vampiric organisation whose aim was to study those paranormal phenomena. Villon, who had just created the Masques in the beginning of the century, and they had shown their power after the 1871 Commune (The Masques is another organisation, the ''Masquerade'' Police of Villon, whose specialisation is ''Cleaning the proofs, dead, alive or unliving...'', and whose Master is the dark and violent Ivan). Villon thought that another counter-power to the Masques would be a good thing. The Veilleurs were created, and resources were given to them to study, or even "cure" paranormal violation of the Masquerade.
It was in the War of Traditions that the Veilleurs showed their utility. They discovered part of the Technocracy's intrigue, and were ambassadors and messengers to the Mages as, in the same moment, the Masques were fighting them in the streets. Note than even today, it's the Veilleurs who keep an eye to the Mages...
As peace was concluded, The Elders looked the Veilleurs with a new perspective, and Alexis was invited to take his old place in the Grand Cour. But he refused and resumed his studies in shadowed libraries. Some didn't like Alexis'reaction. And Villon was one of them. Keep your friend near, and your enemies nearer, says the tradition. Someone who avoided his kindred and worked in secret with other Clan's Cainites... Lazlo, and most of all, Ivan were the official voices of the "discontented". And Alexis had just finished to show to the Prince the final version of the Veilleur's Sorcery, discovered in the walls of the egyptian tomb. The Veilleurs threatened the power of Villon: The Right of Police possessed by the Masque thus were not given to the Veilleurs, whose official power apply only when blatant supernatural threaten the masquerade or Kindred security.
Since then, the Veilleurs are in a strange position, as they must keep far from the Cour's intrigues. Their goal is study and research about supernatural. Villon is certain about the Veilleurs loyalty because of the Vinculum shared between the members and Alexis (Villon add some of his blood in each ritual: Each Veilleur has a Vinculum with him, too).
The Veilleurs are, then, as lawful to each other and to Villon as any Sabbat pack. As only Alexis know the exact ritual to destroy a Bloodbond...
Note that only the Veilleurs know that they share a Vinculum. For other Kindred, all Veilleur are officialy Bloodbonded to Villon.
Where the Masques clean up the mess, the Veilleurs became the eyes and ears of Villon, investigating in the supernatural, and sometimes in the Kindred affairs, for the Prince of Paris (the Masques are all Toreador: Sometimes, Villon needs to have a complete set of powers in a coterie...). If they don't have real power over the Paris' Kindred, they are those called to resolve enigmas and destroy threatening supernatural manifestations. With their loyalty for Villon, they are a sizeable addition to the Masques, helping Villon to keep his power in Paris, and in France.
Goals, Aims and Missions
The official goal is to investigate paranormal phenomena occuring in Villon's Domain (France, of course...), find reasons and scientific or occult explanations, and if necessary, neutralize them.
They don't have, as the Masques, the rights of Police in Paris. They simply have no power (unless personal power of the Veilleur) over the other Kindred. But as Villon hear them, they make dangerous witnesses and even potential dangerous ennemies. So few talk freely around one of them (their mastery of Veille is another reason).
The Mages are their exclusive field of work. In Paris, since the War of Traditions which opposed Vampires and Mages, no Kindred has the right to contact a Mage. It's not saying that no one has a contact (of any type) with a Mage. Only that Villon keep for himself the right to punish the insolent (he wrote some Edicts about it, and no sane Kindred would try the patience of François Villon).
Only the Veilleurs have the permanent authorization to keep contact with Mages (they must make a debrieffing, of course), as they are the Kindred's ambassadors in Paris for the Nine Traditions.
The Garous are more difficult to spy, but even the witchhunters, Arcanum members, are followed, studied and and their fate decided by the Veilleurs and Villon. The Arcanum have sometimes contact with them to exchange informations... But the Veilleurs give them only what they know about... other supernatural creatures.
But the Veilleurs are sure that the Aura around Paris is something darker than imagination, and they work with stubborn energy to discover its source. rumors of a Methuselah is considered possible, the other theories are accepted, like a Wyrm Caern...
Nevertheless, this creature is powerful beyond imagination, and is visibly a threat to the Masquerade and even directly to the security of the Kindred of Paris.
They have compiled a lot of informations in a library where one can learn about Garous' Wyrm, Mages' Ascension or even the netherworld of the Wraiths. Only Veilleurs (and Villon) have access to this library (called by some the Librairy of Shadow Secrets, or even Library of Shadows...), and few beyond this little sect know about its existence. Information is ubdated by the files written by Veilleurs after their missions.
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