Flameng

Flameng was a former university lecturer and mineralogist driven into apparent madness after encountering the Montsouris ghost and losing his family. A brief recovery allowed him to recount his work and grief to Lumian, but he took his own life the following morning. (Chapters 1661–1662)

Biography

Cordu, Trier, and the Approaching Apocalypse

Flameng had studied Trier's underground rock strata and helped establish a Museum of Mineralogy and Pathology in the catacombs. After meeting the Montsouris ghost, he watched his wife, children, and parents die under its curse, then withdrew to the Auberge du Coq Doré in terror and mental collapse. (Chapter 1661)

Lumian Lee interrupted one of Flameng's episodes and drank with him after his sanity returned. Freed for the moment from the feeling of being watched, Flameng spoke vividly about his students and mineral research, but the restored clarity also left him facing his losses without the shelter of delirium; by morning, he had shaved, written a note, and hanged himself from the window frame. (Chapters 1661–1662)

Lumian later placed Flameng's ashes in the same catacomb chamber as his family, though at a distance that reflected Flameng's guilt. Among his belongings, Lumian found the Earth Blood specimen whose presence had repelled the Montsouris ghost and unintentionally prolonged the curse's delay. (Chapters 1698–1700)

Appearance and personality

Flameng initially appeared bearded, agitated, and mentally unstable; before death he shaved to reveal a gentle, gaunt face. In lucid conversation he was educated, nostalgic, and animated by mineralogy, but profound grief and self-blame remained beneath that recovered sociability. (Chapters 1661–1662)

Pathways and abilities

Flameng was an ordinary human with no pathway, Sequence, boon, or personal supernatural ability. His prolonged survival of the Montsouris curse came from the Earth Blood specimen's repellent quality, which operated without his understanding rather than as a power he wielded. (Chapters 1699–1700)

Relationships

Flameng's wife Sandrine, his child Bastian, and his other close relatives were killed after his encounter with the ghost, making family loss the center of his decline. Lumian recognized a reflection of his own grief in Flameng, attempted to help him, and later honored his burial wish. (Chapters 1661–1662 and 1698)

Items

Flameng left a dark suitcase containing clothes, mineralogy books, research papers, labeled specimen bags, and the Earth Blood rock. The specimen had no active power of its own but inspired fear and repulsion in the Montsouris ghost, making it an accidental protection and a clue to Fourth Epoch Trier. (Chapters 1699–1700)