Those records have been reprinted here :
To: Dean Colum Thompson
From: Professor Edwin Orthollo
I have no doubt word has reached you of
the work of one Auren Vrood . While I must admit that many in our
department had doubts about the young man's aptitude for this field
of study, given the circumstances surrounding his sudden change in
academic intrest, he has proven to be of a most remarkable mind.
While he has shown significant aptitude
in the theoretical, it is within the practical that Vrood's genius
truly lies. I suspect this has much to do with his original training
in the field of engineering. The boy views the natural sciences with
the same analytical and incisive approach one might take while
disassembling one of those infernal machines. What's more, this view
drives him to apply the same systematic approach to his research
efforts.
Vrood has taken the basic concepts of
life and systematically codified it in a manner most groundbreaking.
I have enclosed his current thesis for your complete review, but in
summary Vrood, through months of systematic research and
documentation how the passing of traits from parent to offspring is
far more complex and sublime than ever realized.
In the end, the monumental
possibilities presented by this research make it well worth
overlooking Vrood's misappropriation of the various mice, reptiles
and birds he procured from lab stores, as well as his conduction of
research within his personal dormitory without proper authorization.
After all, the expansion of knowledge and understanding, not
bureaucracy, is this institution's primary goal.
2 years later.
From: Dean of Natural Science Brandis
Fargin
To: Junior Professor Auren Vrood
I do not exaggerate when I say that
recent review of your academic work has caused a shocked tremor to
ripple through this prestigious institution. While I still believe
you are gifted with a most capable mind, I fear it is your very
intellect that has led you to this crossroads. Intelligence must be
moderated by ethics and morality.
Your work borders on an affront to
everything this institution holds dear. You have meddled with the
very fabric of life itself, and your twisted creations should have
revealed the folly of your attempts to play at the divine.
In particular, your work with the
reanimation bodies of lab cadavers is atrocious. While you may claim
that your work represents the cusp of a revolution in our
understanding of life, I can see only a twisted mockery of science
that should never be.
You have mixed and matched body parts
of lab animals to create parodies of life. I ask you: in what
circumstance does a rat need the wings of a pigeon?
You have gone even further, melding
flesh in a way most unwholesome. The rabbit is renowned for its
quickness, yet you have felt the need to “improve” its natural
ability with implanted alchemical serums, turning one of the most
innocent creatures into a nightmare of flesh and claws.
Your radical research methods and
disregard for our approval process have left us no choice in the
matter. It is clear that only active intervention will stay your
hand, as you clearly lack the ethical integrity to rein in your
imagination. By decision and order of the Lepidstadt University
Natural Science Board, you are to cease and desist in all current
research experiments on live specimens. In addition, until such time
as this board deems, you are forbidden from engaging in new
non-theoretical research. Any requests for laboratory equipment or
specimens will be denied.
Despite
this censure Vrood continued to retain his position for some time. It
is clear that the university leadership was uncertain of how to
handle him. His research papers continued to advance intellectual
thought, despite their radical bent, but his physical experiments
were unanimously viewed as unethical and disturbing.
Vrood's
answer came unexpectedly in the form of a visiting lecture tour from
The Quarterfaux Archives Professor Adivion Adrissant.
It
seems Adrissant was quite fascinated by the work of Vrood and the
impact it had on his own fields of study. Adrissant, always known for
being possessed of a for more open mind then many of his
contemporaries, began to push for the removal of his academic censure
and that Lepidstadt University extend a full professorship to Vrood.
The
board would remove the censure but kept Vrood at Junior Professor.
Vrood was allowed to carry on his research for the next 8 months
under moderate prohibitions. When he was called before the ranking
professors at Lepidstadt, their response was not one of adulation
that Vrood expected but of horror. The university immediately
disavowed the work and expelled Vrood from its ranks.
In
one final letter Vrood vents his disgust with Ustalav's most vaunted
learning institution.
“Too long have I allowed myself to
stagnate within the closed-minded and archaic institutions of
so-called higher learning. You pride yourselves on ideals of free
thinking, of exploration, of expanding the scope of human knowledge.
You preach the merits of innovation, of invention, of discovery.
Yet the only thinking you allow is that
which is based on old and familiar principles, endorsed books already
mildewed and rotting. The only exploration is that done within the
confines of a library. The only expansion you seek is that of your
own coffers, the only innovation that of creative regurgitation, the
only invention that of redefining what you already know and which
satisfies your egocentric intellectualism.
You crush free thought because it
threatens you. You repress true innovation because it invalidates yo.
You fear discovery because it reveals you to be worthless relics of
the past.
Throughout my career you have done
everything in your power to silence me and to stop my work from
bringing about a true revolution of scientific process and
innovation. I am o the very cusp of a breakthrough, but without the
ability to test via experiment, all is theory and empty air.
Try as you might, you cannot stop
intellectual progress. Whether willingly or kicking and screaming, I
will drag this world into a glorious new age.”
You
can almost hear the maniacal laughter after such a statement. So far
though nothing has been heard from Vrood since.
Khu
Ba Heteph
seek
and you shall findM.
