Updated: 08 January 1999

INSPIRATIONS

                    To understand Egypt fully, you must look at multiple sources, and add this unmistakable feeling of the World of Darkness. Looking one source only will only give you a biased feeling about what was and what wasn't Egypt. By reading Christian Jacq's book, one thing Egypt was a land who would have been horrified by the cruelty of our today's ''Rights of the Human Being''. No, physical punishement, including physical mutilations (like cutting the nose) existed in Ancient Egypt. In the other hand, the cruel and vain people described in the Judeo-Christian traditions (or the beautiful but EXTREMELY biased animated movie ''The Prince of Egypt, or its obious inspiration, ''The Ten Commandments'') have nothing to do with the people who created one of the greatest civilization of the known history, following the concept of Maat, meaning ''Balance/Justice/Truth''.

If you must remember but ONE thing about Egypt remember that in their tombs, the Egyptians wrote that they had protected the weak against the powerful, protected the widows and the orphans, etc.. It must seem trivial for us, but at that time, there was no shame in believing in the right of the most powerful: The Hittite or Assyrian civilization were not so kind. Even the Greek civilization, which is comonly believed to be the most enlightened, removed the rights the Egyptian women had since more than 2500 years to make them like their greek counterparts: creatures considered immature and not the least equal of the men. Egyptians believed in a Justice that would make Jesus appear like a cruel inquisitor. (Who wrote ''I didn't come to bring you the peace, but the sword''?)

Books:

                    You will find in your local bookstores more than enough sources to know more about Egypt. Prefer the archeologists' sources to understand the truth, and only add the esoteric ones (including the Bible) to add a ''magickal'' flavour to this civilization.

Jean François Champollion:

                    Well, there is no need to present the one who first discovered the key to understand the Egyptians hieroglyphs. You will find his history in the ''mortal part'' of the history of the Kindred of the same name in the Chronicle: Paris, la nuit.... J.F. Champollion is there.

• Grammaire Egyptienne (Egyptian Grammatical Rules): To learn to read egyptians hieroglyphic and hieratic writting.
  
  

Christiane Desroches Noblecourt:

                    This woman is one of the greatest woman of the 20th century. Archeologist working for the Louvre Museum, she contributed, by working tirelessly among the greatest politicians of this century, and leading the U.N.E.S.C.O. to support the salvation of the magnifiscient temples of Abou Simbel (and other ancient egyptian monuments, threatened by the Great Dam of Assouan, and the artificial Nasser lake), as well as of the mummy of Ramses II (threatened by decay since its discovery: It must be noted that few living presidents and kings were received in France with so much attention than Ramses the Great!). Her books are of a great historical interests.


• ''La Grande Nubiade'' (The Great Nubiad): This is almost an autobiography. This book tells us everything about the salvation of the Abou Simbel temples in the middle of the Suez crisis!).
• ''Ramses II: La Véritable Histoire'' (Ramses the 2nd: The Historical Truth): Tell us everything about the history of Ramses the Great (including the accepted theory about the Moses' exodus), as well as the coming of his mummy to Paris to be cured from a deadly parasite.
• ''La Femme au Temps des Pharaons'' (Women of the Pharaonic Years): This book gives us information about the women in the Land of Pharaos, both divine, royal and normal ones. This book is a general confirmation of the theories described in Les Egyptiennes of Christian Jacq.
  
  

Christian Jacq:

                    This author wrote the greatests books about Egypt I ever read. While I believe his own conceptions of egyptian history are somewhat idealistics, most the things I learnt in his books were confirmed. Of course, this is a french author, and while he is famous and considered as a reference, I don't know if you will find his works in your local bookstore (unless in France)...


• The ''Justice du Vizir'' (Justice of the Vizier) trilogy: In the first book, C. Jacq makes precise description of day to day life of the Egyptians.
• The Ramses pentalogy: Follow the life of the Rameses the Great, of his ties with both Horus and Set, and how this red-haired man acted both like a hero and a perfect diplomat.
• ''Les Egyptiennes'' (more or less ''The Ancient Egyptian Women''): You will learn both the known history of famous women of Egypt, including Nefertiti and Hatshepsout, as well as other, less famous, with description of how the women were considered in Ancient Egypt.
  
  

Sigmund Freud:

                    I've read only one book of Freud, and I was fascinated by the link he did between the Akhenaton Heresy and the judeo-christian God. My brother read the two following:

• Totem and Tabu: I didn't read this, but to understand the next one, you'd better read this.
• The Man Moses and the Monotheistic Religion: You'll find here a theory of the birth of the Jewish people, as well as the possible creation of the Judaism (and thus, the Christianism and the Muslim) religions (Note that the first time I've read it, the editor had called it ''Psychanalysis of the Jewish People'', the original name is ''Der Mann Moses und die Monotheistiche Religion Drei Abhandlungen'').
  
  

Pour mieux comprendre l'Egypte antique (To understand better ancient Egypt):

                    By Jean-Michel Thibaux. This ''dictionnary'' is necessary, as it give the signification, in alphabetical order, or the concepts the Ancient Egyptiens held as important.

Histoire de l'Egypte Ancienne (A History of Ancient Egypt):

                    By Nicolas Grimal. This book relates the history of Egypt from its prehistorical birth to its death. A must! This book have been translated into english by Ian Shaw (Blackwell Press 1992).

Les Dossiers Historia (The ''Historia'' Files):

                    This book gives the viewpoints of various archeologists, including C. Jacq and C. Desroches Noblecourt, about Egypt and its mysteries.


• ''L'Egypte Ancienne: Mystères et Découvertes'' (Ancient Egypt: mysteries and discoveries): About the so-called secrets of Egypt, as well as true mysteries revealed.
• ''L'Egypte Ancienne: Les Secrets du Haut-Nil'' (Ancient Egypt: The Secrets of the High Nile): The history of a little known civilization which had much in common with Egypt, and occuping the highest part of the Nile, known commonly as the Nubians.
  
  

L'Egypte et ses Mystères (Egypt and its Mysteries):

                    In the Dossiers Secrets de l'Histoire (Secret Files of History) edition. While I wonder if the authors are not too idealistic about Egypt, it has an ''esoteric'' hedge I liked a lot. The texts about Moses and Akhenaton were really enlightening.

Les Voyages d'Alix: L'Egypte (I) (The treks of Alix: Egypt (I)):

                    Jacques Martin is the creator of Alix, a Bande Dessinée (i.e.: European comics) hero of antiquity. With Rafael Moralès, he made accurate, colorized and beautiful sketchs of a lot of the Egypt, including, temples, clothes, and day-to-day life, with maps, texts and phtography of the sites today.

I can't wait for the second volume! (And thanks to Linda to have offered it to me!)

L'Egypte Ancienne au Louvre (Ancient Egypt at the Louvre):

                    By Guillemette Andreu, Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya and Christiane Ziegler. Initiated by the Project Grand Louvre (and its first realization: The Glass Pyramid), the transformation of the Museum was (almost) finished in 1998 whe the Egyptian Department, closed since years, opened once more, with its treasuries exposed in an highly researched Egyptian-like environement (instead of the Greek-like decorum that had so enraged J.F. Champollion).

This book, offered to me by Yannick and Aurélie, who have the chance to work in the greatest museum in the world (Ok... A little pro-french propagand does not hurt... too much: After all, Anglo-Saxon people still believe the Wright Brothers created the first aeroplane, that Thomas Edison created the first Cinématographe, and, not so far in the past, that an U.S. researcher discvered first the A.I.D.S. virus when it took much efforts from Luc Montagné to be recognized for his laboratory's discovery...). This book gives high quality photos of the archeological pieces of the museum. While I have the chance to enter at will in the Louvre, others don't have the chance, or like me, want to look at a particular piece near his/her computer... This book helps a lot to conceive the not-so-great (in size only) egyptian artwork.

Deir El-Medineh:

                    By the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (French Institute of Oriental Archeology). This book cannot be found in libraries, as it have been written in 18 550 examplars for one of the I.F.A.O.'s supporter in the financial milieu. Deir El-Medineh is a small town in the middle of great archeological sites like Louxor, Thebes, Abydos, Karnak and the King's and Queen's dales of tombs. Poems, tomb's descriptions are interesting to learn more about Egypt.

La Mythologie Egyptienne (The Egyptian Mythology):

                    By Aude Gros de Beler. Great book with large pages dedicated to most Egyptian gods and godesses, with great illustrations, and in the end, basic information about Egypt, like some Hieroglyphs, today's map of Egypt (!!!) and a chronology.

NOT THE ''Bible'':

                    There is NO NEED to read the bible to learn more about Egypt. I've done it, and Exodus has nothing interesting, except, perhaps, to have some inspiration about Moses' supposed Exodus. The only chronological information is the construction of ''Ramses'', which can be ''Pi-Ramses'', the city built by Ramses the Great in the Delta... Other references were made as if the writer had seen (or was given informtions about) the Delta in the 6th or 5th century BC, that is 6 or 7 centuries AFTER the supposed date of the exodus.

Role-Playing Games Books:

                    Of course, you will find interesting informations in this kind of works. The problem is that it must be understood that the facts described there are biased, because interpreted by RPG authors for their own games, from Archeologists own viewpoints. And if Archeologists, who are taught not to bias their observations with their own cultural background (like the Bible) and sometimes fail to give a non-biased viewpoint, the RPG authors have not this protection (I'm in the second category, of course!)...

Clanbook: Childer of Set

                    By me (Raoul ''Violence'' Borges). The companion of this HTML creation. It is the basis of the Uræus Chronicle This will give you precise information about the powers of the Bloodlines of Ancient Egypt of the World of Darkness.

World of Darkness: Mummy, 1st & 2nd Edition

                    By Stephan Wieck (1st Edition) and Graeme Davis and James Estes (2nd Edition). This pro-Horus book gives a lot of information about the Mummies of the World of Darkness. I prefer the 2nd Edition, because it's more complete and accurate (in both historical view, rules and even the White Wolf unmistakable bias for the creatures described in their books).

While I contradict this book (because of non-biased historical informations about Set), it is a must.

Clanbook: Setites

                    By Richard Watts. Well well well... Where we learn the Mummies are evil, and that the Setite are unjustly persecuted. This Clanbook is intersting, even if we would have liked more historical information (this is one of WW's book where there is more illustrations than actual text!). R. Watts tries to make up for the Conan Syndrom, and almost succeed...

World of Darkness Books:

                    By White Wolf Game Studio. Disseminated within the texts, you will find information about Ancient Egypt. Among them, the Children of Inquisition, where we learn about Kemintiri (where did they found this name, anyway?), the third book of the Giovanni Chronicles, where the players are ''invited'' by setites in their Court of Fire, lost in the middle of Egypt's desert, The Hunter Hunted, where you will find information about the strange sect known as the Children of Osiris, etc. etc..

The problem is the reccurence of what I call the ''Conan Syndrom''. Conan's author created the followers of Set, with serpentine powers, and thus influenced most R.P.G.s, including TSR's AD&D and and White Wolf's Setites. The problem is that the serpent ISN'T the symbol of Set (it was, in truth, one of the symbols of pharao's royalty: the Uræus cobra, also known as Wadjet... Symbol of Northern Egypt, Land of... OSIRIS) and that Set was only considered as evil after the Hyksos invasion (1500 BC), and most of it because of the propanganda of the priests of Osiris in the millenary before the birth of the Christ!

GURPS Egypt

                    By Thomas M. Kane (with additionnal material from Spike Y Jones, S. John Ross and Daniel U. Thibault). Half the things written here are true, and the other half are near enough of truth (or, to be more correct, near enough of the truths I've read) to make this book a must, if only because the author made a fantastic work. You can trust this book but for one thing: Lower Egypt was land of Osiris, and not of Set, as it was written by the author...

Movies:

                    Well well well... If the RPG authors views of Egypt are biased, I don't find a word strong enough to caracterize the movie directors. Unless exception, the only interests of the following movies are the movie scenery. The oppulent riches, the lazy women and the corrupted pharaos are more attuned to a byzantine story than to an Egyptian one.

Les Dix Commandements (The Ten Commandments?):

                    This movie with Yul Brunner as an evil Ramses, a lustful Nefertari against a poor Moses incarned by Charlton ''NRA Sniper'' Heston, who wants nothing more than saving his slave people (note that he would kill half of them because they wouldn't follow him further in the desert...).

Well... Cool actors and actresses, cool FX... (I must say something good about it, mustn't I?)

Prince of Egypt:

                    I didn't see this animated movie. Well, by the little I saw, it seems to be a copy of the Charlton Heston movie, with Computer Generated FX, and the voices of a bunch of U.S. Actors and Actresses. The FX seems cool. The style is a caricature of Egyptian's style (I almost died laughing when I saw the ridiculous giant head of Seti the 1st!).

Well. I'm sure you'll find something to do with this. I'd rather see once more Record of Lodoss War, or even Video Girl Aï.

Others:

                    Well... Now, it's your choice (I'm rather ashamed to have added this section, but if you find another source that can't be put in the categories above, tell me!

Egypt:

                    Well... It seems obvious...

Okay, I stop my delirium...

Louvre:

                    Hey! The Louvre is cool, and EVERY Toreador must go at least once in his unlife to Paris!

More seriously, if you come to France, a trip to the Louvre is a must (one day won't be enough to visit everything, but at least, you will visit the Egyptian Department, and a bit of the other old civilizations. Remember that Paris is at less than 2 hours from London, via the Eurostar.

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