Dr. Hezekiah Aloysius Victor Ophidious Campbell

Well-known St. Louis research scientist and educator, Dr. Campbell is the son of professionals in New London. At a young age, he rapidly demonstrated aptitude and interest in both Biology and Botany. On finishing public school, he easily acquired scholarship to the reconstituted Trinity College at Cambridge, founded to support study and research into the Æster. It was here that Cambell developed his adventurous reputation. As an undergraduate, while participating both in rugby and theatre, he received his now little-known nickname, Havoc, as a testament to his performance on field, and an innate capacity to foul up almost any theatric production in spectacular ways. It was also here that he started his exhaustive research into modern mycology Dr. Campbell arrived in St. Louis to take up the Botany Chair at the new university, which enables him to both teach and take advantage of frequent expeditions into the Nyx north of St. Louis. He has gained notoriety for his papers on the mycological forests discovered here 40 years ago, and is considered the foremost authority on their ecology. Dr. Cambell has also developed something of a political reputation. He is a consummate negotiator and hard bargainer. As such, he typically establishes himself at head of the queue for grants and charters from the Crown and local governments. This reputation has not come without cost. His efforts have engendered frequent and considerable antipathy by other members of the educational community, both in St. Louis and in British North America. Unfortunately as a result, his considerable academic achievements and contributions to science have been sullied by unfounded accusations of back-room deals and blackmail in his pursuit of funding for his and research. This reputation notwithstanding, Campbell has a considerable following in St. Louis, and his genial, if eccentric behavior is considered a welcome source of entertainment at various gatherings. Amongst these behaviors, his predilection for unusual and exotic pets, is a topic of constant attention and speculation in high society.