Tooth & Nail

The Introduction

This is a case-study on the murder of Elor Bornham Fornafen. Elor was an apothecary, who had his practice and store in Cleaver's Row, the old butcher's quarter in Camulodun, Berrica. It was an early quiet spring morning on the 5th of Elem, when the neighbourhood was woken by an incredible ruckus coming from Elor's store.
Witnesses tell of a loud argument taking place, followed by something that sounded like a fight and what followed, was Elor's body being thrown out of the shop window. Sadly, all help came to late, life had already left his broken and battered body.
A thanatologist would later establish that Elor was already death, when he was thrown through the window, but witnesses claimed they heard him yell as he went through it. This would not be the only contradiction, clouding the investigation.

Let’s focus on the statements of the two main witnesses.

Dally, the pennyfetcher

Dally's Statement
Dally was a homeless girl, who often hung out and about Elor's store. She would sometimes help the apothecary and other neighbourhood store owners, with delivering goods to many of the elderly people living in Butcher's Row. In return she would get to keep some of the money, that people had to pay.
She arrived that morning to start her medicine delivery rounds. Surprisingly, she found both the front and back door locked, which she claimed to be unusual, since Elor was a morning person.
According to her, it was just as she was about to knock on the backdoor, when she heard Elor arguing loudly with someone else. She could not hear the exact words, but she stated, she heard Elor's voice and a higher pitched voice. A bit later she heard a glass break, followed by the sound of fighting.
Since the backdoor was a heavy reinforced wooden door, she decided to run back to the front. It was then, as she rounded the corner, that she saw Elor flying through the window.

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Let’s take a closer look at the pennyfetcher’s story.
Dally admitted that she never saw the second person leave, hence she could not offer a description. The backdoor was also found, to be locked from the inside. It is unclear how a second party would have been able to leave unnoticed.
In the room closest to the backdoor, two used wine glasses were found, one broken. This corroborates Dally's statement of hearing people argue in the store ‘s back. The broken one, might have been the one she heard break

Clide Dallermane

Clide's Retelling Of Events
Mr Dallermane runs a small grocery store, right across Elor's apothecary. While he was preparing his empty baskets for pickup, he noticed a large build man at Elor’s, who was waving excitedly with his arms, as if being in a heated argument. Mr Dallermane, no stranger to such situations himself, thought it was simply a disgruntled customer venting his grievances. He had just returned inside when, when he heard loud yelling and things being thrown about.
By the time he returned outside, he saw Elor going through the store window. As Mr. Dallermane went to check on him, he noticed that the large build man had disappeared. He confirmed the presence of the girl known as Dally.

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Mr Dallermane is the only person who could offer a description of the possible murderer. However, he never saw the large man leaving the crime scene either.
No other witnesses present were able to offer statements on their version the events, that led up to the moment of the victim being thrown through the store window.

The Murder Scene

The store itself carries even more mysteries.
First off, there is the content of the two wine glasses found in the backroom. The Crown’s alchemists were unable to establish, what was in the glasses. The residue does not match any known beverage or medicine. Neither glass contained traces of alcohol. However, the alchemists did establish that they contained two different substances.

The storefront itself was found to be almost completely trashed. Cabinets smashed, glass panes and vials lay broken on the ground. All stained with blood in one way or another. The register remain untouched and the apothecariat itself was still locked up, with no signs of theft.
The most gruesome part also forms the core of the mystery. Nails and teeth were found all over the store. The fight between the two must have been short, but violent. Going by the size and form, some belonged to the victim, others are presumed to have belonged to a very large man. Elor is believed to have put up a good fight himself. Lesions on his knuckles confirm this
It’s however the teeth that stumped investigator the most. The larger teeth, believed to belong to the larger unidentified man, exactly match those of Elor. They are just larger.
Elor had no known siblings, nor did he have any known physical defects that would cause him to grown additional, larger teeth.
Any plausible motive for the attack remains unknown and no one could offer a clear description of the attacker.
The case remains unsolved to this day.

In Art

Bofen & Barn
The incredibly popular play tells the story of a brilliant alchemist named Bofen, who concocts a brew, that brings out his most primal reflection, called Barn. While Bofen is a timid and thoughtful man, Barn is a more impulsive and extravagant personality. The two start discussing each other’s virtues. While it first starts out with each one looking down on the other, the end sees the two personalities killing each other out of jealousy.

The Bornham Fornafen-family sued the makers after the fist play. They claimed the name "Bofen" was clear a contraction of Bornham Fornafen and that the play portrayed Elor as a madman obsessed with his own repressed urges and thoughts, while he was clearly the victim of a horrible crime.
Liopold Strein, the main writer of the play, denied having been inspired by the case of Elor, but that it is a parable depicting the continued struggle we daily face with ourselves. The name Bofen was simply a random thought and “Barn” refers to the fact that that character hid his unwanted traits behind this personality.
The case was eventually settled outside of court. No further details are known, regarding a possible deal or payment.
Newer adaptations have Bofen as an apothecary as opposed to an alchemist and have seen the introduction of a physical transformation where the protagonist loses his teeth and nails as his body grows or shrinks. In the original play, it was implied that the main-character was having an internal fight, not a physical one.

"To fight tooth and nail"

The saying is believed to originate from the article that first reported on the murder of Elor Bornham Fornafen. "The Eodsfort Times", back then the most popular journal, wrote: "The victim did not go down willingly, he fought tooth and nail, and the violator surely lost his."
While initially used to describe an unusual violent fight, nowadays it is more often seen being used in the context of "not giving up quietly".