Michel Desjardins

Michel Desjardin​s, (pronounced mee-SHEL/day-jar-DE and most commonly called by his last name) was a magician of French descent and the former Chief Lector of the House of Life. He preceded Amos Kane.

Background
Little is known about Desjardins' early life, but he was born about 200 years ago, a young age by magicians' standards. His great uncle is Jean-François Champollion, the man who deciphered the Rosetta Stone. Because Jean-François was the first man outside of the House of Life to unleash magic, Desjardins was invited to join the House and receive training. Although Desjardins is proud of his family, he is also sensitive about being a newcomer to the House of Life. He lives in a house on Rue des Pyramides (Pyramids Road) with a large magical library; it is somewhat odd that his door is red, the color of Set. It is said that he has the same intense eyes as Moses

The Red Pyramid
Desjardins, along with Zia Rashid, was assigned to watch Julius Kane for any signs that he may attempt to release a god. When Julius uses the Rosetta Stone to release Osiris (as well as four other gods), the Stone is destroyed, infuriating Desjardins as he is a descendant of the man who deciphered it. However, the Stone was later repaired by magic.

After Zia retrieves the Kane siblings and brings them to the First Nome, Desjardins immediately wishes to have them executed in the fear that they are hosting gods. Chief Lector Iskandar refuses and decides instead to test them as magicians. The next evening, Iskandar dies and Desjardins becomes the new Chief Lector, ordering the execution of Carter and Sadie Kane. They escape, but Desjardins, Zia, Mel, and an unnamed magician take on the mission of killing the siblings. Meanwhile, Sadie and Carter begin to suspect that Desjardins is the host of Set, but later abandon this theory. Their uncle, Amos Kane, is later revealed to be the unwilling host for Set. Desjardins attacks the Kane siblings at Las Cruces, unleashing Sekhmet upon them, but due to their cleverness and the aid of Amos and Zia, they survive. Desjardins later joins the House on the assault on Set, but is ultimately unable to harm the god and he is only defeated once Sadie uses his secret name. When Desjardins accuses Sadie and Carter of being drunk on the power provided by the gods they are hosting, they prove him wrong by willingly asking the gods to leave them, much to Desjardins' shock. Although still reluctant to give up his belief that the way of the gods will doom them, Desjardins lets the siblings go unharmed - for now.

The Throne of Fire
Desjardins is initially portrayed as an enemy to the Kanes. He sides with Vlad the Inhaler, even though Carter continuously informs him that Vlad is trying to unleash Apophis and all his chaos on the world, which Desjardins later finds accurate. In the battle against Vlad in the Duat, near where Apophis is chained, Desjardins sides with the Kanes and casts an execration spell to banish Apophis for a little longer, though he knows it won't be for long. He does this so they have more time to train people in the path of the gods which he realizes they are right about. However, in order to banish Apophis, he uses up all of his life force and combusts after making peace with Carter and Sadie.

Personality
Desjardins is angry, arrogant, and narrow-minded. He strongly believes in the way of the House of Life and refuses to even consider the Kane siblings' predicament, instead viewing them only as a threat. However, in The Throne of Fire, Desjardins, while being secretly corrupted by Vlad Menshikov, suspects Menshikov's disloyalty but does not act until he has evidence. He also shows hesitation in attacking the Kanes until they steal the Book of Ra and considers that maybe that they are right. He is said to have been shaken up by Set's actions and doesn't seem entirely sure of himself anymore. This shows he doesn't act rashly. And when his end comes, he sides with the Kanes to banish Apophis, sacrificing himself to buy them time.

Appearance
Little description of Desjardins is given, but he is noted to wear cream-colored robes and sport a forked beard that went from black to white as he became weaker. In "The Red Pyramid", after breaking into Desjardins' home to look for the Book of Thoth, Carter and Doughboy come across a portrait of Desjardins' great-uncle, and the former notes that both Desjardins and his great-uncle possessed the same, intense black eyes.

Powers and Abilities
Like many House-trained magicians, Desjardins is a powerful magician; the fact that he was able to achieve the position of Chief Lector implies that his power is truly exceptional. He has the ability to summon Sekhmet once in his life because he is the Chief Lector (every Chief Lector can), but squanders it while attempting to hunt down the Kane siblings.

He is an elementalist. When he hunts down the Kanes, he shows that he specializes in earth, as he controls boulders and makes an earthquake. When Zia summons the pillar of fire, Desjardins first attacks it with water, which evaporates then with boulders. He can also use air as in the battle against Menshikov, he summons a whirlwind around himself.

Even after curses sapping his strength for months he was able to hold his own against Vlad the Inhaler and even when defeated he was able to recover quickly and fight him again despite the opposition now being possessed by Apophis. The greatest ability he showed in this confrontation was the power to produce a shield which turned any attack that hit it in to a divine word such as heat for a fire attack.

Relationships
Julius Kane: Michel's main rival was Julius. The first time Julius broke the regulations against summoning gods, Desjardins started hating him. He couldn't understand how Julius got the nerve to break the rules. This made him bitter. And the fact that Julius destroyed the Rosetta Stone, did nothing more but expand Desjardins' anger. His family had links with the Rosetta Stone, and Michel felt embarrassed.

Amos Kane: Desjardins seemed to have a complicated relationship with Amos. He didn't like him as Amos was the brother of Julius Kane. On the other hand, he felt like Amos' friend. This was one of the reasons he didn't attack Amos when the magician was healing from Set's taking over. Also, after execrating Apophis, Desjardins' last act was to give the Chief Lector cape to the Kane siblings, to give to Amos and to teach that the gods are invaluable in the fight against Apophis. Desjardins died a hero.

Carter and Sadie Kane: As godlings, Desjardins hates and fears them as they have gods within them and it is forbidden. At first he reluctantly lets them live after the gods are released as they have no proof of the possesion, actually stopping Zia Rashid from killing them, but after it becomes obvious that they have Horus and Isis, Desjardins takes his chance when former Chief Lector Iskandar dies to hunt them down. Desjardins goes to extreme lengths, even summoning Sekhmet which makes him hypocritical due to his hatred of the gods. However, the Kanes evade every attempt and defeat Sekhmet. Even when what they revealed about Set's plans prove to be true, Desjardins refuses to listen to reason and is angred that when they do defeat Set (using the Book of Overcoming Set which they stole from Desjardins), they don't banish him and instead make a deal with him and accuses them of letting their gods control them. Even after they release the gods he still refuses to listen to them about following the Path of the Gods, but backs down from attacking as he feels enough destruction has been wrought for one day, but warns them about following the Path. Desjardins continues to chase them, even teaming up with Vlad to stop them, but once he sees the truth about Apophis, Desjardins realizes Carter and Sadie are right and sides with his former enemies, sacrificing himself to banish Apophis with an execration spell to buy them more time to train people in the Path of the Gods.

Trivia

 * Desjardins translated into French, his native tongue, means "of the gardens."


 * You pronounce his first name, Michel, like the name Michelle.


 * His family name might be Michel, because French people sometimes put their family name in front of their own name, but this is very uncommon in modern times but possible considering his age.


 * After falling off the Red Pyramid, Michel's robes are singed, revealing pink undergarments.
 * In the Red Pyramid, Sadie mistook him for dead, until she saw him later when Set was defeated.