Eeb Fudd

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Eeb Fudd was an author, linguist, and amateur historian who lived during the early Second Age. Fudd is best known for his book "On The Marcon Conspiracy" about the Gudersnipe Foundation's deliberate efforts to destroy the memory of the Marconian people. He spent the last decades of his life managing an auto-parts shop on the outskirts of Agra.

Biography

Early Life

Eeb Fudd was born to parents Donald and Nacy Fudd in a middlecass suburb of Arindell. Though a poor student, Eeb demonstrated some knack for learning languages and was a prolific reader. He completed compulsory education at the age of 17 and enrolled in a university in Sun's Beacon where he studied linguistics. Returning to Arindell at the age of 23, Fudd's first job was heling with the A.Y. 2148 restoration work on the Great Library of Arindell.

Work in the Library

Fudd had always been an avid amateur historian and was interested in undiscovered or lost languages. As a linguist his own work never amounted to much, but he was a good speaker and a talented writer. He was working on a science fiction novel about a lost civilization while employed at the library, and worked on motifs related to the restoration work as part of the plot.

While working in the library, Fudd happened upon a large cache of books in a language he had never seen before. Believing the find to be important, he kept one for himself (a major violation of library policy) and tried to interest his superiors in the discovery. Nothing came of it, and he eventually sold the book to the Gudersnipe Foundation who promised to translate it for him as part of the fee. At the time this slight went unnoticed and Fudd continued to work at the Library as a catalogue archivist, identifying and logging books as they were received.

During this time, Fudd self-published a series of science fiction novels, but to no real success as a writer. He gained a few fans but never recouped his costs.

Ten years after discovering the strange book, Fudd recognized the script on a piece of jewelry, and finally identified it as Marconian. No long-form texts in the original language of the Marcon Alliance were then known to exist (just translated copies of dubious quality and authenticity), so Fudd was elated at the prospect of a major find.

Search for the Books

By this time, Fudd had risen to the rank of a junior Librarian, a very esteemed position, but one in which he was seen as ill-suited. Unlike most employees of the great Library, Fudd was not a dues-paying member of the Stormwind Antiquarian Society. He viewed them as more of a club and had never felt a part of his salary should have to be paid back to his employers. It was a small wonder he remained in the job as long as he did, without even a free junior membership in the organization.

Fudd began petitioning the Antiquarians for permission to recover the cache of Marconian texts, now buried in a storage area in the library's stacks. Due to his tumultuous relationship with the Society and the comments he had made, permission was denied. Fudd then contacted the Foundation to inquire about having the original book returned, but was told no such book existed and no record of his having contacted them before could be found.

Conspiracy Theories

Fudd began to suspect some sort of conspiracy, and started to research the Marcon Alliance and the Foundation's involvement in earnest. This eventually led, in A.Y. 2165, to the publication of his book "On The Marcon Conspiracy". Like his other works, it was self-published, but his claims managed to garner significant media attention and the book sold modestly well. Upon its release, Fudd was dismissed from his post at the Library for stealing the original Marcon book that inspired his works.

He began to take speaking engagements, sharing what he had learned about the Marcons and pushing forward his theory that knowledge of the language was being deliberately suppressed. Sales of the book were hampered when the boutique publisher went out of business unexpectedly. Fudd began to pursue mainstream publications, trading on his success in the speaking circuit and touting plans for a follow-up book. He had one good line on a publisher, but the company was bought and liquidated before a deal could be struck.

Problems in Personal Life

Around this time, Fudd began experiencing problems in his personal life. Though he had some financial success with the book and speaking tours, it was not enough to live on. Since he'd never pursued a career in linguistics, he had little practical experience in that field, and took a day job as a substitute teacher (the only position that worked around his speaking schedule).

In A.Y. 2167, 1 year after the publication of his book, Fudd was accused of sexually assaulting a minor. This led to his immediate dismissal by the school district and the cancellation of all his major speaking engagements. The charges were dropped when the original complainant could not be located, but the timing of the arrest could not have been worse. Fudd had been living hand to mouth and was now unable to pay his rent. He continued to eke out a little money from small speaking engagements to more fringe groups, and was forced to begin tending bar at night. This still did not net enough to make ends meet, and Fudd had to move from his apartment into a dilapidated tenement.

He continued to make appearances speaking to conspiracy theorists and amateur history groups, but could no longer afford to travel as these engagements seldom paid well. In one last bid for success, he sold his car and used the money to finance a tour for his book. He left Arindell with all of his belongs and less than half of the paid engagements he needed to cover the costs. Unable to find more work along the way, Fudd ran out of money in Agra and was reduced to pan-handling for a few weeks.

Climb out of Poverty

In Agra, Fudd sold off the last copies of his book for whatever he could get for them. During this time he was also forced to sell his portable computer. He retained his manuscript and all of his notes on a data storage device, but this was destroyed or lost. After a few nights sleeping in doorways, Fudd managed to land a job tending bar. He was still a good speaker and animated, and had experience. The owner of the bar, noticing the man seemed badly down on his luck, allowed Fudd to sleep in a storage room for a few nights while he scraped together enough money for a permanent place to live.

Over the next several years, Fudd slowly rebuilt his life. Since he'd lost his manuscript and all his research notes, he was never able to regain his status talking about the Marcon Conspiracy. The notion took off on its own, but Fudd never made any more money off it.

Later Life and Death

Eeb Fudd spend the rest of his life in Agra, living generally on the margins of society. He worked various low-level jobs and got some work on the side as a translator or interpreter. He never earned enough money to travel and could not return to Arindell to continue his research. In his late 50s, Fudd returned to writing and sold a few fiction short stories mostly lampooning the Gudersnipe Foundation. This did not earn him much respect, but he was never considered a serious enough threat. All the while his original ideas were gaining considerable traction in Arindell and quite a bit more work was being done on the subject.

Eventually, Fudd worked his way up to general manager of an autoparts store. He died in obscurity, completely forgotten.

Later Developments

After the Necromanic Wars in the mid Third Age, many of the Foundation's secrets came to the surface. Among them, they admitted to a campaign of character assassination against Eeb Fudd. It was an agent of the Assassin's Guild, posing as a middle-school aged girl, who initially accused Fudd of misconduct. The Foundation also bought the publishing company interested in his book, and were responsible for having many of his speaking engagements canceled. This all came out far too late to do Mr. Fudd any good; who had died over a thousand years earlier.