Magnus Marchelli

"Someone once said that my goal of writing a bestiary was folly. They were correct, don't get me wrong, but I've been doing it anyway. I imagine some people are even waiting for me to complete it, but how could I possibly do that without knowing I've seen every creature across the Eight Lands? Frankly, I think it's rather ridiculous. Anyway, so I'm releasing it next year. I think we'll call it.... 'Marchelli's Magnificent Menagerie'. No? Too tacky? Blast."

— Magnus Marchelli

The Written

Born into the world roughly around the same time that a swarm of beavers terrorized what was once the town of Indleward, Magnus Marchelli held the desire to see every creature in the world from early into his childhood. Since finding out that his birth corresponded with that particular event, he was promised that he was not, in fact, the cause of the beavers actions.
Many events transpired over his lifetime, from his birth, to attending his first school, then attending his second school, and then attending his third, fourth, fifth, and thirteenth schools. According to all of his teachers, he was quite preoccupied with, as he tells it, "just about literally anything else because I hate desks, I hate inside, and I hate this godforsaken waste of good wood that you call a chair".

The Waiting

In the thousand or so years since his inception, his attempts at finding every rumoured creature have failed numerous times, often ending in rather expensive medical bills or a distinct lack of notes due to needing to sacrifice them in return for his life, as well as the occasional befriending of a squirrel.
Despite the setbacks, the hardship, and the lack of money, he swears up and down that he would never do anything else for the rest of his life. A life which, by all accounts, should not have lasted as long as it has, simply due to his being a human and not one of the longer lived species of the Eight Lands.
Should one ask what he does, he will regale you with stories of his adventures, promise his bestiary will release to your favourite stores in the coming year, and quite likely not be seen again by you. Unless you're his neighbour Alan, in which case you apparently owe him five knuckles for "something to do with an unpaid sandwich".

by Theiket (via Midjourney)