Ingrid Aevardottir
A famed Kjörnic zoologist, Ingrid Aevardottir is known far and wide as a world-leading expert on animals, be they docile or monstrous. Copies of her landmark book, the Corpus Animalium can be found on the shelves of academics, farmers and monster hunters, with many people waiting on tenterhooks for the next update to the tomb, to see which wild and wonderful creatures Ingrid has recently encountered.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
On the rare occasions that Ingrid Aevardottir is actually at the Royal College of Social, Scientific, Historical and Philosophical Studies she cuts a very different figure to the other academics that can be found in the institution. As a Halfling, she is below four feet in height, and her small size is amplified by her very slight, but athletic figure. She has a rather weather-beaten complexion, testament to the many hours that she spends out in the wilds on research expeditions, and her body and face is covered in numerous scars, small and large, that she has gained during her work. A particularly large set of four claw-mark scars stretches across the left side of her jaw and neck, a relic of a touch and go encounter with a Manticore, and she is missing the little and ring finger from her right hand, a reminder of a narrow escape from a Chimera. Ingrid wears her hair long, and the bushy brown ringlets often hang over much of her face, and often have small fragments of twigs and leaves lodged within. Her large green eyes can occasionally be seen flashing through the curls, always on the lookout for her next interesting specimen.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Born into a lower middle class family in Sydlig Province in the Kingdom of Kjörnsholm, Ingrid Aevardottir’s parents were minor land owners from the Gesith, trading and merchant class, who focused in the area of trading dairy products from cows, sheep and goats, most of which was produced on their modest farm at the foot of the Sydlig Uplands. During her formative years, Ingrid could often be found helping to look after the herds, and this is where she began to become interested in working with animals, not only from an agricultural, but also from a scholarly point of view. From a young age Ingrid was observed to be very good with the various animals that were kept on her family’s land, and that she was able to build up an affinity with even the most hot tempered of beasts, and bring them to a state of calm. This natural affinity was spotted by her parents early on, who supported her gift by arranging for and paying for tuition from several of the various healers who focused on working with animals, which all farmers had to call on at one time or another.
However, Ingrid quickly realised that the information these different healers were giving her was often contradictory, and frequently didn’t appear to make much sense or seemed downright ineffective. Ingrid’s frustration was peaked after a particularly bad winter, where half of her parents dairy cow herd was struck by disease and either died or had to be put down, with the only attempted intervention from the healer Ingrid was shadowing being the burning of rosemary in the cattle shed, to no avail. When the sickness finally passed, Ingrid decided that she would begin, what would turn out to be the beginning of her life’s work, and study the animals on her parent’s farm intensively to try and get a better understanding of what worked and what did not with regards to their comfort, nutrition and health. For five years, Ingrid took meticulous notes on the characteristics, habits, physiology and anatomy of the animals that her parents kept, and soon her observations began to pay dividends as she was able to more and more effectively cure ailments that appeared in the herds and flocks.
Ingrid’s big break came when she was brought in to cure an outbreak of swamp hoof in the Jarl of Sydlig Provinces prize sheep herd, and she was successfully able to save 90% of the animals from a disease that normally had a mortality rate of at least 70%. Her success sparked a nationwide demand from anyone involved in large scale agriculture for a written copy of her method, so that it could be used across the Kingdom of Kjörnsholm. This led Ingrid to pool all of her savings into having her collection of notebooks collated and printed in to the very first volume of the Corpus Animalium, which in its original iteration was meant to be a handbook to the care and medical treatment of farm animals only. The first release of her book sold out within weeks, with one of the copies being bought by a faculty member of the Royal College of Social, Scientific, Historical and Philosophical Studies, based in Vaháyer in the Sultanate of Fashaddon, Gazi Batur. Taking his copy back to the Sultanate, Batur shared it with colleagues in the Faculty of Zoology, who, astounded by the quality of the information within and the observations that had been made, decided to invite Ingrid Aevardottir to the Sultanate so they could see her skills for themselves.
Using the opportunistic timing of the Sultan’s favourite race horse becoming ill, Batur and his colleagues invited Ingrid to Fashaddon, so that she could ply her trade on the animal in exchange for a handsome payment. Intrigued by the opportunity to travel outside the borders of Kjörnsholm, Ingrid accepted the job and spent nearly two months making the long and often treacherous journey to the south of Turoza to work on the animal. On arrival, Ingrid was able to successfully treat the animal, even with the distraction of a large group of academics from the Royal College who had come to see her work. On completion of the treatment, Ingrid was approached by Batur, offering her a paid position as an Associate Lecturer of the Royal College, in exchange for expanding her excellent academic practice and potential to studying and categorising any living creature that she can across during her travels.
Since then, Ingrid Aevardottir has travelled the length and breadth of Turoza numerous times, seeking out truly astonishing, and often dangerous creatures to research, and publish about. Every year, scholars, adventurers and anyone one else interested in the fauna of Ulskandar wait for the publication of the next profiles to be inserted into the Corpus Animalium, a work that grows fatter with every passing year.
Education
The vast majority of Ingrid’s knowledge of animal husbandry and care came from the practical experience of working with animals from an early age, rather than through a dedicated course of education. She was provided with a training, paid for by her parents, from healers who specialised in the treatment of animals, but the often conflicting nature of what they attempted to teach her meant that most of Ingrid’s trade was refined on the job. She was provided with enough education to give her a reasonable competence in literacy, which has enabled her to pen the famous Corpus Animalium herself. As for her research skills and technique, Ingrid is naturally adept at making the most cogent observations of her subjects and recording them in a clear and concise manner, rather than having been taught to work in this way.
Employment
Originally, Ingrid Aevardottir was employed as a healer of animals, a trade that saw her travel extensively around Sydlig Province in the Kingdom of Kjörnsholm, tending to the herds and flocks of the larger landowners for a fee. Since her initial work on the Corpus Animalium has been recognised as having enormous potential, far beyond the agricultural context that she initially started working in, Ingrid has been working as an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Social, Scientific, Historical and Philosophical Studies in the Sultanate of Fashaddon, a post that she has been given indefinitely due to her prodigious output of research, and her willingness to go out into the field and study creatures that other academics wouldn’t go near with a Korinthian Legion at their backs.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Ingrid is notable for being the go to authority on the fauna of Turoza, and Ulskandar more widely. Her office in the Royal College of Social, Scientific, Historical and Philosophical Studies in Vaháyer is full of preserved specimens of creatures that have been found washed up on the shores of the continent, or brought back from distant lands of Turoza and beyond. The first port of call for anyone wanting to look up an exotic creature, or wanting to know the best way to cure ailments in farmyard animals is her seminal work, the Corpus Animalium.
Social
Social Aptitude
On the whole, Ingrid Aevardottir always appears to be more comfortable in the company of animals than in the company of other humanoids, even other Halflings. This is particularly noticeable through the fact that she will often not pay attention to what people are saying to her, or will lose interest in a conversation, often being distracted by the flight of a passing bird or other animal. Ingrid is one of the few people who is able to fluently speak Bestial, which she has taken up in such proficiency that she is thought to be able to communicate with non-sapient animals using it.
Wealth & Financial state
Ingrid comes from a middle wealth, Gesith (merchant) family from the Kingdom of Kjörnsholm, who did not have a huge amount of expendable income, but enough to provide Ingrid with a basic education in animal husbandry and medicine, which was bolstered by the experience she gained working on farms around her native Sydlig Province where she plied her trade as an apprentice. On completing her training, Ingrid earned a passable living wage tending to the herds and flocks of farmers for a modest fee, augmented by the first sales of the Corpus Animalium, which she did initially have to pay for the production and printing of herself. Since being taken in as faculty of the Royal College of Social, Scientific, Historical and Philosophical Studies, Ingrid earns a decent wage as an Associate Lecturer in the Zoology Faculty, and the Royal College pays for her expenses relating to her travel, expeditions and book publications. As a result, Ingrid has been able to invest a large portion of her income into a model farm she has constructed in Sydlig Province, which provides her with additional steady income.
Species
Year of Birth
486 S.E.
67 Years old
Children
Gender
Female
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
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