Morrison Westernraugh
Morrison Westernraugh was a prolific American inventor, entrepreneur, zoologist, and paleontologist. Though a lesser-known figure nowadays, he was quite a prominent figure in the 1800s and 1900s known for funding technological innovations, exotic ventures, paleontological expeditions, and big game hunts. He was also a devout Mormon and a conspiracy theorist whose ventures actually led him to discover Pellucidar , where he ultimately led him and his crew to their end.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Born in the United States to a wealthy family, Morrison Westernraugh had the finest education and upbringing money could buy. In his youth, he had a great love for the works of Jules Verne, with the stories about giant manmade machines and delving into the hollow earth to find lost dinosaurs instilling an interest in paleontology. His father had done business both Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, assisting them in their paleontological efforts before and after his birth. He had also funded and helped develop the Tesla coil with Nikola Tesla, something that would instill a love of engineering in young Morrison. His father was an investor for both John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, funding their oil and steel ventures. A lot of his family's fortune was also funded by the mining of gold in Lakota lands.
He graduated at twenty years old from Princeton University with degrees in law and business before attending other schools to obtain engineering and history degrees. With a stipend from his father, Westernraugh funded and helped develop some of the experiments Nikolai Tesla innovated as well as provided funds for Wilbur and Orville Wright to experiment with aviation in exchange for being able to look over some of their plans and patents. After his father died, he inherited his family's wealth and began to rub shoulders with Henry Ford, helping develop his Model T series of cars for manufacturing. Westernraugh would often work together with Rockefeller and Carnegie like his father did. His eye for people and being a visionary made him a very successful businessman in the early days. Adventures abroad would put him under the tutelage of Carl Hagenback, who often took him on safaris into the wilds of Africa, quickly becoming a business partner for him and P. T. Barnum for their zoos and circuses. Through them, he developed an interest in zoology, with the tales of living dinosaurs hiding in Africa reigniting his love for paleontology. Many plots of land throughout the Americas and in Africa were bought to capitalize on the resources there, often at the expense of the indigenous population.
Though having learned a lot about history, business, and engineering from the various figures he had collaborated with, it would ultimately be World War I that elevated him to new heights. He helped develop some of the first tanks for the British and French armies. Though hailed as a great innovation for the Allies Powers, it was merely a stepping stone and a point of business for him that he did take some pride in. During these times, he began reading the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and quickly fell in love with the stories of exploration and mysterious creatures, as they reminded him of his younger days. His investment in such fiction and his Mormon faith led him down a path of esoteric beliefs, such as the planet being hollow and more. The desire to explore the earth and go farther than any man before him led to the development of an oil-powered tank capable of penetrating the crust, supporting life, being resistant to the elements, and being capable of self-dense. Such a thing had never been developed before and seemed impossible to his staff. Yet, he managed to persevere after sinking immense amounts of time and money into it. He had created the first and only Mole Machine for subterranean travel, functioning like a submarine.
He had created his own private museum filled with fossils, artifacts, and exotic animals obtained from overseas. Westernraugh was one of the leading historians in the United States. After a few safaris to China, Africa, and Australia, he ultimately set his sights on South America. With a crew of hunters, scientists, survivalists, and researchers, he charted a ship to Brazil to explore the Amazon Rainforest . The apple of his eye was Mount Roraima, which had piqued his interest after reading the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Westernraugh held the radical belief that the plateau was actually the stump of a giant tree, and he would prove it by boring into it and collecting wood samples.
What he ended up finding was even greater than he could have imagined, as the Mole Machine punctured the roof of a giant cavern that held dinosaurs, prehistoric beasts, the remnants of an ancient civilization, fossilized corpses of Elder Things , and two giant kaiju. The discovery of Pellucidar was revolutionary, and he wished to be the first to colonize and claim it for himself. Samples and fossils were to be brought back to the surface along with the kaiju, who would be living specimens. He viewed Pellucidar as an antediluvian world of wonder, even at the expense of his own crew. Many perished from animal attacks in their attempt to mine and strip the land for resources. His desire for success eventually led him to target nonessential members of the crew and stage accidents to have them killed. When he was discovered, a mutiny transpired, and he was tied up. Westernraugh escaped in the dead of night with the damaged Mole Machine in order to fall the mighty kaiju. He ultimately perished in the turf war between them both.
His death went unknown for decades, with the popular belief being that he had retired somewhere out in the world. It would not be until 2020 when Majestic found the remains of himself, his crew, and his Mole Machine in Pellucidar, and they would be taken to the Institute of Cryptozoological Research and Scientific Advancements in Australia .
Social
Religious Views
Westernraugh was a Mormon from birth but was also seen as a radical for his belief in Young Earth creationism, which put him at odds with scientists and fellow churchgoers. He theorized the presence of fossils was because of the great flood from the Book of Genesis that wiped away the creatures from the old world. This led him down a rabbit hole of many unorthodox beliefs such as the hollow earth theory.
World Views
He was a prominent believer in manifest destiny and that the success of the white man was ordained by God. Westernraugh was also a defender of slavery and colonization, believing that Native Americans and Africans were simply not strong enough to be independent, autonomous cultures and lost the fight to the white man. They merely allowed themselves to be slaves because they lacked the strength to properly rebel. Because of this, he believed that Union in the American Civil War was cheating and robbed slaves of the opportunity to make their own culture and history. Despite these beliefs, Westernraugh had a great respect for the Aztec Empire and commended them for putting up a fight against the Spanish Empire.Hobbies & Pets
Westernraugh took great delight in the collection of rare antiquities and exotic pets for his private museum and zoo. His private museum held many treasures that were either seized by the government or returned to their homelands, such as a pair of twin didgeridoos, okapi hides, a preserved coelacanth fossil above his living room doorway, a Smilodon skull, the pelt of a Barbary lion, a taxidermied quagga, a pair of Megaloceros antlers mounted above the fireplace, a set of elephant tusks, shrunken heads , a collage of African masks, Egyptian mummies, a Lakota war bonnet, a full set of Tyrannosaurus teeth, the egg of an elephant bird, and a hunk of Kaijumite . It is unknown how he procured the mineral as its existence outside of Monster Island and Pellucidar is rare, but it is assumed it was procured through illegitimate trading means.
He was the only person to have a pet thylacine and enjoyed its presence, often walking it on a leash. The man considered the marsupialto be the best animal Australia had to offer. Westernraugh also possessed an Emu farm and a ranch that housed American bison and Przewalski's horses. Tapirs were also kept in a private pool on his property.
Wealth & Financial state
Westernraugh possessed no heir and never married, and his death led to the end of his enterprise. No one else had the charisma or business sense to lead his business effectively, and much of his property and assets were bought by rival and allied groups to strengthen their own reserves.
Current Status
Deceased
Life
1880
1925
Circumstances of Death
Killed by kaiju
Birthplace
United States, Earth
Place of Death
Pellucidar, South America, Earth
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Black
Hair
Black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
White
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