Yule Steinheart

Yule Steinheart was an historian and dragonologist who lived in the Fourth Age. He was widely regarded as an expert on the subject, and his work formed the basis for Scalgdorf's On Dragonology published a few centuries later. Yule also released a multi-volume book by the same title. While Scalgdorf's books were more popular, he himself openly praised Yule as the true expert; and as a result, was still being re-published during the Age of the New Day.

Early Life

Yule was born in the city of Arindell in A.Y. 4380 to parents Ada and Quarett Steinheart. His mother was a highly respected and sought after computational anayysts and his father a wealthy financier. Yule lead a charmed life, a youth of considerable intelligence he attended the finest schools and completed compulsory education at the age of 16. He had long used his family money to focus on his greatest passion, collecting and trading stamps, and was well-known at the time as "a colorful philatelic player". He attended university in Arindell and made excellent marks, but took only a very generalized major, and in fact did not complete his degree. He used his time to make connections, and by the age of twenty had exceeded his father's wealth through the cunning buying, selling, and trading of rare stamps.

Librarian

Yule took his first job at the age of twenty, as a librarian in the acquisitions department of the Library of Arindell. He very certainly did not need the money, being both gifted with a large trust fund, and a sizable personal fortune, his superiors reported that he actually did the job quite well and with considerable passion. His role was taken for one quite simple purpose: to acquire stamps. Due to the magical nature of the library, books were constantly being received from all over the known worlds, many sent by post. Working in the Acquisitions department, Yule had access to an incredible array of stamps. Though few of these had any serious value aside from their novelty, Yule was quite avid to collect, catalogue, and preserve new specimens.

Dragonologist

Yule had been working at the library for just nine months when his life changed forever. His daily duties were primarily focused around opened and cataloging new acquisitions. He had never before shown much interest in any, simply collecting the stamps and completing the rest of the task with efficiency. However, a large batch of parcels had arrived from Kladeth, shipped out of the city of Warsong. Since Yule had never collected stamps from here, and the collection had quite a varied set, he was excited. He would later report that something just "caught his eye" in the collection of folio books he was organizing, and admitted that since it was his first encounter with this specific variety of books, it "Was lucky it was something interesting, else I wouldn't be remembered at all".

The collection was the body of research from the Parseltongue Institute, which had been shipped to Arindell to be preserved. Yule had never had any interest in dragons, but the way the folios collected and collated information spoke to him, and he immediately became obsessed with the subject. He devoured everything he could on dragonology, and quickly discovered two facts: the first, that there was no seminal work on the subject; and the second, that what was known was based entirely on passive observation. Since dragons were thinking, talking, reasoning beings, he saw no reason why this information could not be confirmed through questioning.

The strange reality, however, is that while dragons were seen in the skies above Arindell almost every hour of the day, their interactions with humans were quite rare. Nearly four centuries earlier, a dragon named Ferrimeso, of the Phoenix Tavern Flight, had collaborated with Herbet Patric Galactis on the Accepted Histories. There was also Draco, who created the Order of Slayer Dragons, and helped establish the truce that allowed Arindell to be. Other than that, records of dragon/human interactions were few and far between.

Relationship with Ikelani

However, Yule had heard a rumor of one that could be found: "Olde Ike". He was thought to belong to High Mountain Flight, and was a notorious drinker. Though he very much did not enjoy being made a spectacle, he did have a favorite tavern he liked to frequent in human-form, and it was well-known you could meet him, if you didn't mind taking your life into your hands.

Yule had in fact never developed a taste for alcohol, nor was he of legal drinking age, when he first entered the bar. He recounts that his first interaction with Ikelani was being made fun of for ordered a soda water with lemon. Yule, however, was not rebuffed. Having read much of Lacroix Brennt's work by this time