Hazwaj Karnaphan
Hazwaj Karnaphan (85-129 AWR) was an explorer and thaumatologist from Elpaloz, one of the Eleven Cities surrounding the Sea of Jars. He is noted for his explorations of The Empty Quarter to the north of the sea which, although incomplete at the time of his dramatic death, led the way for some important theories about that inscrutably inhospitable part of the world.
Biographical details
Karnaphan was born in 85 AWR in Elpaloz, the son of a Copper-ranking operative of the city's Commercial Guilds and her husband. His mother was born in Chogyos and sought to have her two children educated there, so Karnaphan spent the years 94-99 AWR in the southern city, where he demonstrated a flair for languages and evinced developed a deep regard for the local chapter of the Brotherhood of Rooks as they operated there. Returning to Elpaloz shortly before his fifteenth birthday he engaged in preliminary negotiations to join the local chapter but eventually opted against pursuing the matter, supposedly because they disapproved of his hobby of watercolour painting. To pursue this hobby Karnaphan began travelling the farmlands to the north and east of the city and produced several impressive paintings of sunsets over the southern reaches of the Empty Quarter. Extending his trips further into the Quarter, Karnaphan became increasingly preoccupied with the preternatural aridity and unwelcoming nature of the region and sought to account for it. When research with the Brotherhood of Rooks did not assuage his curiosity he expended a significant proportion of the family fortune (both of his parents having died; his sister, having become extensively involved with the Bruised Ones during her time in Chogyos, had married well while there) on a series of three lengthy expeditions into the Quarter. Having developed something of an affinity for logistics, Karnaphan pioneered the use of flying depots and multiple teams to penetrate further into the Quarter than most people believed possible, searching for explanations. On the third trip, in 111 AWR, he found something. While negotiating a sharp escarpment a hundred miles or more inland, he noticed the top of the obstacle was cut in regular 90-degree steps; the ridge was not a natural breakage of ground at all but the ruins of a large staircase. Further investigations revealed that the party was in fact in the middle of a large collection of broken architectural remnants which Karnaphan identified as an unknown city. After some preliminary collecting of artefacts, Karnaphan returned to Elpaloz to resupply and inform like minds of his discovery, mapping thoroughly on the way to ensure he could find his way back to the site. Karnaphan would spend the remaining eighteen years of his life travelling to and from the site, conducting as much research as he could on each trip before supplies ran out or assistants and bearers grew mutinous in the famously awful conditions of the Quarter. Upon returning to Elpaloz to write up his research from the tenth such trip he noticed a dark spot growing over his left eyebrow which eventually pained him to the extent that he sought the aid of the Brotherhood of Rooks. As it became increasingly apparent that they could do nothing for him, he permitted them to study the course of what came to be the first properly-documented and studied case of Wizard Rot. Karnaphan never returned to his home, instead taking up residence in the Brotherhood's infirmary where he dictated his will before slipping into a pained delirium and dying.Thaumatological significance
Karnaphan is generally credited with having discovered the extinct civilisation generally known as the Shroud Kings. His discovery of the lost city led him to extensive exploration and research of the site. Over time he mapped out the ruins in considerable detail, codifying a temple-city several hectares in extent and collecting over a hundred artefacts from the site. By studying inscriptions there he was able to decipher some of the language evidently spoken in the city - a tongue noted by subsequent researchers as difficult to pick up and uncomfortable to speak - and determine some of their religion. The city, he claimed, was named Vyx Hechaalk'Rephayan and ruled by a priest-king named Zahakkas 'Hraelnestaa, who demanded and received the worship of his subjects as a living god (or, as the inscriptions put it, one who had transcended issues of life and death). The discovery of this site has led to subsequent thaumatologists conducting their own research in the area, some revisiting and exploring Karnaphan's original discovery and others finding temple-complexes of their own. All told Karnaphan is the trailblazer of an important field of thaumatological research - but also the first properly-documented victim of a vile magical illness which has served to bring the entire profession into a degree of disrepute. Karnaphan seldom published much of his research, claiming to be working on a grand book that would serve as an authoritative discussion of the Shroud Kings. His notes remain in the safekeeping of the Elpalozian chapter of the Brotherhood of Rooks -as, according to rumour, do several tissue samples taken from his body. The Rooks are particularly choosy about who they allow to study his work, claiming that great caution should be exercised before any further study of the Shroud Kings be attempted lest more cases of Wizard Rot eventuate. They have gone to considerable lengths to trace the artefacts Karnaphan brought home from the Empty Quarter, claiming - with a certain amount of statistical justification - that mere possession of these items may be unhealthy.
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