Tara Sauranis

Tara Sauranis is a Celestial Elven naturalist from the Aurlûnor Velande. She resides in the province of Nir. She is the head curator of the Lhûmar Imperial Museum of Natural History, and a senior paleontologist in the Rathnir Paleontological Society.

OOC, she is played by granabam. She is used mainly for worldbuilding and science-related character arcs, as opposed to Mao Meili, who is the primary political/governmental character.

Early Life and Education
Born in the town of Linye in northern Nir in 887 ACA, Sauranis was very close to nature at a young age. She would skip her typical schooling to instead wander the woods and fields, drawing flowers and leaves and collecting all kinds of bones, shells, and stones she would find. Despite this, she did very well on her exams, preferring to do most of her learning on her own.

Graduating as the valedictorian of her small-town school, she was awarded a chance to enroll in a prestigious university at the imperial capital of Lhûmar. It was here that she quickly got into research, spending much of her free time in laboratories and libraries. She would frequently skip out on parties and festivals to do lab work, much to her friends' dismay. One rumor is that she spent a week straight in the paleontological lab removing fossils from a plaster jacket, sleeping in a burlap sack with a sauropod femur as a pillow.

She received two B.A's in Geology and Zoology at 42, and at the age of 45 she was awarded a PhD in Biological Sciences- a non-specific degree, but one suited for her wide range of study.

Career
Having graduated from university, she still remained with the school for years, tutoring students and eventually getting a job teaching. She has also published and/or contributed to several research papers covering various fields. Some of her research topics have included archaeology, botany, ecology, mineralogy, paleontology, volcanology, zoology, and more.

In 936 ACA, with the Velereth's blessing, she established the Lhûmar Imperial Museum of Natural History, where she is the lead curator. From here she plans on conducting and organizing more research, as well as showing her finds to the public and teaching the people of the Velande and Rathnir as a whole. She has received much praise from the government for her scientific contributions- namely her work in paleontology, and zoology/ecology in the Ha Anga Bayou National Park.

In December of 942 ACA, Tara was invited to Macmar Island by Gen II Corporation's CEO Johnathan P. Rex as a scientific consultant, to write a testimonial approving of Gen II's resort on the island for numerous investors. after accepting the invitation on short notice (reportedly leaving behind a new species of Venetodon with a few grad students) and visiting the island for the weekend, she "decided not to endorse [the] park".

Trivia

 * Her name is pronounced similarly to the phrase "Pterosaur anus", hence her nickname "pterodactyl-butt". She hates being called this, but her friends insist. It is ironic as well, considering her work in paleontology.
 * She is rumored to have become an alcoholic after the loss of the Fislankemys holotype in a bandit raid. She still insists that she is "functioning", however.
 * One of her most famous discoveries was actually a redescription of the famous "turtle" of Fornost; it was not in fact a turtle but a species of Peioraid she had christened as Megalonectes gebelistanicus.
 * Her favorite food is pork dumplings.
 * She became friends with Chancellor Mao Meili when the two were in college, and still maintain a friendship despite the latter's high status.
 * She is rumored to have communist sympathies after a joint expedition with USSE scientists to a paleontological site in Serrona.
 * She has a pet Weaseldragon, named Juanchu. He is trained to light candles, pipes, and hearths.