Anders Vesalion

"Those idiots in the Physiker's Guild stick to their texts as if they were the words of the gods! They're not interested in knowledge that might challenge their comfortable notions, and the cults back them up by making research illegal and calling it necromancy!"

- Doctor Anders Vesalion

Anders Vesalion is one of the truly good people of Marienburg, deeply concerned with the poor and the sick. Sadly, the resistance of the authorities to anything that might challenge established dogma has led him to take desperate measures that may one day cost him his reputation and perhaps his life.

Vesalion grew up in a middle-class printer's family, where he showed an early talent for learning. He won a scholarship to Baron Henryk's College and, moved by the condition of the sick who came to the nearby Temple of Shallya, he pursued a medical career, naively determined to advance medical science and better everyone's lot. He won his doctorate at a remarkably early age and set himself up in practice in Guilderveld. His success and skill eventually earned him anappointment as a lecturer in medicine and anatomy at the University.

Little did he realize that ideas that seemed obvious to him would be strongly, almost violently resisted by the medical and religious establishment. When he suggested that a clean environment would aid healing, his colleagues laughed at him. When he theorised that Arab treatments using poultices, good food and rest were more effective than leeches and cauterization, they tapped their fingers on classical texts and told him he was a fool. And when he suggested research to determine if the blood circulated in the veins rather than ebbing and flowing with the tides, the cult of Morr threatened him with an "inquiry".

Not everyone was opposed to him. The High Priestess of Shallya was intrigued by his ideas and arranged for his appointment to the Chair of the Board of Public Health. From here he spends his meagre budget educating the poor in such basics as boiling canal water before drinking it and filing complaints with the Directorate about the Elves' practice of magically pushing their garbage out into the Marienburg canals, but his complaints are just as regularly ignored. His only solid support comes from the Temple of Shallya, but if Sister van de Maarel knew of Versalion's other research activities, she would be calling for his burning.

Dr Vesalion seeks the knowledge he needs to rewrite medicine in the Old World. To this end he regularly engages the services of grave-robbers to bring him specimens. While he finds it distasteful to violate graves, he rationalizes it as being for the greater good. Unwisely he sometimes accompanies his contractors, somehow believing that this makes his activities less of a crime. It has occurred to him that the grave-robbers have damning knowledge about him, but he refuses to think of the possibility of blackmail.

Anders Vesalion can often be encountered on the streets of Guilderveld and the surrounding areas, treating the needy and charging only what they can afford. He sees a few wealthy patients at his offices in Guilderveld, but only to finance his other activities. He can also be found at the University, where he is known to all the faculty and students. He occasionally puts in an appearance at St Olovald's, but Sister Hilli and he have a strong personality clash.

Source
[[Category:A]] [[Category:V]]
 * Warhammer Fantasy RPG 1st ED -- Marienburg: Sold Down the River
 * pg. 90