Dr. Simon Thorrold
Doctore Simon Thorrold is a Professor Emeritus of Oceanografie and the Rector of Vardeyale Universite's “Programme d'Oceanografic Studies - West Coast Campus” satellite campus in Port Verlin. One of Aarda's foremost experts on the natal (re)settlement practices of aquatic marine life as well as the numerous mundane and magical uses of fish otoliths, Thorrold currently oversees the operations of the Universite's premier outpost along the Azure Coast, helping facilitate the research of a rotating cast of Vardeyale academicians at work in the region. Although slowed somewhat by age, Dr. Thorrold remains a fisherman's son at heart with more than a century's worth of experience weathering storms of all sorts.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
A famed oceanographer fully at home on the waves, Thorrold cuts a formidable figure. He retains a boxer's physique weighed down only slightly by the paunch of old age. His thick grey beard and collection of knit sweaters from various maritime regions are a defining trait.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Originally from a small windswept fishing village on the Coromandel Peninsula in the eastern Azure Sea, the teenage Thorrold journeyed halfway across Aarda to petition for admission to Vardeyale Universite and its famed Programme d'Oceanografic Studies. While his quick wits secured him a place within the graduate programme, it was a work ethic honed by years of hauling lines across the decks of his family's ships in the near-dawn gloom that soon had Simon pegged for success. After securing his doctorate, Simon spent three decades leading various research projects across the globe for the Woods Hole Oceanografic Institute before being recruited to join the Vardeyale faculty. Four years after his eventual promotion to the Rogier R.D. Revelle Chair of Maritime Studies, Dr. Thorrold unexpectedly announced his intention to return to the Azure Coast. His current position as the Rector of the Departement's external campus in Port Verlin has freed Simon Thorrold from the bitter departemental intrigues that define Vardeyale's upper echelons and provided him with a great deal of resources, time, and power to conduct his newest study - a hydrographic mapping of the waters around the Coromandel Peninsula.
Education
Dissertatome: "Meso-scale patterns in the distribution of larval fishes across the central Grand Barrier Reef lagoon and relationships with environmental variability in the greater Azure Sea system."
Abstract: Events occurring during the larval phase of marine fishes have important ramifications for the demographic structure of marine fish populations. Differential larval survival may drive recruitment variability and ultimately determine stock biomass. While considerable scientific attention has been devoted to larval fishes in temperate regions, studies of fish larvae in tropical environments have been rare and of uneven quality. This dissertation aimed to present detailed descriptions of the distribution patterns of small fishes, along with concurrent measurements of environmental variability, in the central Grand Barrier Reef lagoon, Eastern Azure Sea.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Three-time champion of the Vardeyale Universite Inter-Departemental Boxing Tournement.
Intellectual Characteristics
Has a fondness for writing semi-biographical fiction, particularly short stories and novellas lauding the hardy nature of sailors and the wild beauty of the sea. His prose writing, while terse and seemingly simplistic, often contains a number of sub-themes and asides that become apparent only after successive readings.
Age
93, appears ~70 (lifespan extended by magio-alchemical elixirs awarded to highly distinguished members of the Vardeyale faculty)
Children
Gender
Male
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