Doctor Rowan Roux

Biography of Younger Years

Rowan Roux was born in a small unnamed farming village near the southeastern border of Casaréi. Her parents, were simple farmers but wanted the best for their daughter and worked hard to save up enough money to educate her. Roux would receive a good education in her youth, the best that her family could afford, and the best available in their community. She was one of the few young children who could read and write with confidence and accuracy in the village.

Roux was a rambunctious child who often disappeared off on her own adventures. Rushing through the long rows of crops and even sneaking into the neighbour's wine vineyards. Which often got her in trouble, but her parents didn't mind and often encouraged her adventurous nature.
Which Roux would oblige happily, constantly getting into trouble with neighbours and sometimes even getting lost in nearby fields and forests. Though her adventurous streak never affected her ability to learn and continue her education, which her parents were happy for.
When Roux was ten, her family decided to pack up their belongings and leave Casaréi behind.

A small Casaréi near Roux's childhood home

The last few years had been difficult due to unfavourable weather and rotten crops from a passing plague of nuisance crickets.
Surprisingly the family decided to move to Whaeler’s Wharf, the unofficial capital of the Jungles of Mijhail, located on the southern coast where the jungle is thinnest and the city has direct access to the sea for trade. Roux, who was often ostracized for her rebellious side was excited about the change and looking forward to a more exciting locale. She would not be disappointed.
The family would decide not to continue farming, however, and instead would decide to run a general supplies shop and jungle trade business. One of many in Whaeler’s Wharf but the family would decide to focus on helping to supply historians, adventurers, and the like for their trips into the jungle. As well as conduct the occasional trade broking deals with the residents of the denser areas of the jungles. In time her parents would become experienced travellers of the jungle and accompany several trade troupes throughout the southern regions of Mijhail.

One of the docks at Whaeler's Wharf

Once the family officially arrived in Whaeler's Wharf, the still young Roux would begin to hear many tales about the excitement and lure of the jungle. And she ached to visit it almost as soon as she arrived in the town.
But despite her parent’s more free-wheeling nature, would not allow her to travel to the jungle for any reason due to the dangers that lurked inside. As such Roux would stay close to her new home for the better part of three years, learning its many docks and fishing spots, meeting and befriending its colourful cast of characters, and getting a better education as the family was able to enroll her in a much larger and better-equipped school.

When Roux was just about to turn fourteen she would take her first journey into the jungle proper, accompanying her father and a few other adventurers on a small trade excursion. Her father was tasked with helping to broker a deal with an indigenous tribe of a small jungle community a few days' travel north. The deal went well luckily, and the trip was uneventful. But the teenage Roux was captivated by what she saw and was stunned by the beauty and diversity of the jungle. She instantly fell in love with the jungle and she would stay in love with it throughout her life to this day.
However, her time in Whaeler's Whary and the jungle was short-lived for the time being, as her mother and father told her that they had managed to save enough money to have her enrolled in a well-respected and influential academy in Sumner, the capital of Heldrin. Thousands of kilometres away from the jungle she had so recently fallen in love with.

Begrudgingly, she left her newfound home for Heldrin, alone, only accompanied by a chaperone who travelled with her for her safety. Once she arrived in Sumner Roux would spend the next four years studying history, the arts, language, and more.
But she did not return home once her time at this academy was finished, instead, she stayed in Sumner after an offer came to enroll at the most prestigious academic college in the city. The Royal Willheim Erneis College. Here she would study for an additional four years and would graduate in the top echelon of her class, exiting the college with an official doctorate in Archaeology with a minor in Elven Studies.

A very small section of Sumner

The latter became the second love of her life, which grew nearly as large as her love for the jungle.
Now, in her mid-twenties, the newly minted Doctor Rowan Roux would return to the Jungles of Mijhail and start her real life’s work.
She has spent the majority of her life since her return delving into the most unknown reaches of the jungle. Dr. Roux knows more about the jungles and their secrets than most of any other alive today. Now in her early fifties, she has shown no signs of slowing down and seemingly refuses to stop until her mission is complete. Find the Lost Village of Esfynor.

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Expeditions in the Jungles of Mijhail

While Dr. Roux has had many exciting expeditions in the Jungles of Mijhail, two, in particular, come to mind as her most important to date.

Expedition to the Mijhail-Thysduin Border

While Dr. Roux had already been on several expeditions at this point in her career, this expedition would lead to her first major find in relation to the Elves of Thysduin and the Lost Village of Esfynor.
At this point, Dr. Roux had already been studying the Esfynor Cypher for a number of years and had not been able to make any progress. Her goal for this expedition was to pick up on any clues that may have been left near the borders of the Jungles of Mijhail and the Ruined Plateau of Thysduin.
She along with several other junior researchers took a boat along the Murky River, before landing at the crossroads that lead north to the Thysduin border. The border while technically not restricted can pose a threat to any that goes there, so access to Thysduin is guarded and monitored by a small barracks comprised of representatives of the Jungles of Mijhail and the neighbouring Republic of Ithosia.

The pathway that leads towards The Ruined Plateau of Thysduin at the borders of the Jungles of Mijhail

The crew arrived at their destination, the small patch of land where the jungle begins to thin and the dusty red rock of modern-day Thysduin begins. Several weeks past with no findings, but on the day before they were meant to pack up Dr. Roux stumbled upon something that would help her partially crack the code for the Esfynor Cypher.
Underneath a thick layer of vine about two kilometres from their basecamp, in the direction of the jungle, Dr. Roux found a short few lines of engravings carved into the top of several large flat stones. These engravings looked elven in language but were accompanied by other more runic symbols that she did not recognize at first.

A few hours later, during a break, she took a glance at her copy of the Esfynor Cypher, the original being locked away in a research lab in Whaeler’s Wharf. And she realized that some of the coded language in the journal matched the odd runic carvings on the rocks. Dr. Roux knows the elven language as well as anybody can these days and realized the stone was the real cipher. A hidden dictionary translating the elven language in the coded runes and back. Sadly, the stones were incomplete and damaged from time so only a part of the code was able to be deciphered from it.
Regardless it was a huge find, and the soon-to-be semi-translated Esfynor Cypher, created a new boom in expeditions to find the Lost Village of Esfynor.

The Discovery of the Elven Rooted Overlook

Five years after the expedition to the Mijhail-Thysduin borders, Dr. Roux would lead another expedition of importance. Still focusing on the elves' relation to the Jungles of Mijhail she would delve into the northeastern jungle.

Where she would seek clues in relation to the Lost Village of Esfynor, or additional artifacts that could potentially translate more of the Esfynor Cypher. The latter which Dr. Roux believes holds the secrets of the location of the village.
Instead, Dr. Roux would find the first known evidence of a permanent elven structure found in the Jungles of Mijhail.
The discovery would be the Elven Rooted Overlook, a small vine structure embedded into the side of a large jungle tree. Providing a platform that was theorized to look over the top of the jungle canopy, though it has now become overgrown.

The Elven Rooted Outlook

Over the last fifteen years since the outlooks discovery, it has been visited several times by various expeditions, including several repeat visits by Dr. Roux. All in the hopes that somehow a new clue will be discovered that will lead them to another elven artifact or structure, or even the discovery of the Lost Village of Esfynor itself.

Summary

A researcher, historian, and archaeologist of well-renown in the Jungles of Mijhail. She is the top expert in her field and specializes in the Elves of Thysduin and their footprint in the Jungles of Mijhail.
She has been searching for the Lost Village of Esfynor for twenty-five years but has yet to discover its location. Though she has had several large breakthroughs including the discovery of the Elven Rooted Outlook, and the partial deciphering of the Esynor Cypher. The latter of which has reignited a race to find Esfynor for both historians and adventurers alike.

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An portrait of Dr. Roux at fifty years-old

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Age

52

Gender

Female

Eyes

Silver

Hair

Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Dark

Height

5'7"

Weight

160lbs

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Current Whereabouts

Dr. Roux is currently on a long-term expedition in the northern Jungles of Mijhail. Continuing her search for the Lost Village of Esfynor. Her base camp sits a few kilometres from the northeastern bend of the Murky River.

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