Nicolai Constantus (IE 2190-2248), one of histories least known archeological visionaries of our time.
Born 01-05-2190 to a poor family of colonial miners on Rim on the (a frontier world at the time) within the Kudus Theocracy.
Little is known about his childhood and adolescence, but from what can be determined, Nicolai had worked as a prospector for a number of years taking the role his mother would play while she was ill with some mutant strain of cancer. After his mother had passed on, Nicolai lost interest in fruitless mining and applied and was accepted into the Imperial Archeological academy in 2208.
His academy records bore little resemblance to the man who would become one of the most famous in Kudus history. His grades were high, but his instructors continually remarked how little interested he seemed in his studies. We may only speculate now, but it is believed that he lacked interest in book work and reveled in field work. These beliefs are based on the LACK of negative records in his academic files during field studies.
While in the academy, Nicolai interned with the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service - Exploratory branch. His travels would take him and a small crew of four to distant stars outside of the Kudus boarders and deep into the unknown void of space beyond. His scout service records had only glowing remarks in his favor, and so upon graduation, Nicolai enlisted with the Scout Service full-time.
It was not until 2210 that Nicolai had been given his own assignment and exploratory mission to find clues to the theories of an ancient civilization that predated all Imperial records. A limited number of artifacts and technological wonders found throughout the Rim subsector that indicated a prehistorical influence of an interstellar alien race. However, no biological evidence had been found to corroborate the theory.
The first exploration contract assignment was to last for four years and involve twelve scientists of varying backgrounds. Their work had lead them to believe that the ancients, as they were often referred, were indeed an interstellar race of sentient humanoid aliens. The further past the frontier of the Rim sector and the closer that the explorers traveled towards the galactic core, the more abundant the ancient relics would become. With each new discovery more questions were raised than were answered.
Perhaps the one achievement which had made Nicolai most famous (or infamous depending on your point of view) and under his own admittance, his greatest embarrassment, was the theory that these ancients had transplanted Viridian life to Viridia. His radical theory went so far as to state that it was possible that Viridians were a part of a much larger experiment by the ancients which after their demise continued uncontrolled. Little did he know how true his radical and sacrilegious views were.
It was thirty years before Nicolai would discover the evidence he needed to reaffirm his theories. On the medium sized, lush green planet of Hilia, Nicolai would make the discovery of his life time and his crowning achievement of his career and indeed his life.
It was here on Hilia where the best records of Nicolai Constantus recount his thoughts, impressions, and radically advanced theories straight from his own journals. Amongst the steaming hot equatorial jungles and tucked under the rapid growing canopy of vegetation, Nicolai had discovered the ruins of Tikal. An ancient and foreboding necropolis loomed before him as he stepped through the dense thickets of vines and carnivorous plants into the narrow lanes of a once great and prosperous ancient city. Tikal was home to a primitive form of Viridian ancestry. One of the paintings that Nicolai would discover had two figures within it. One is believed to represent one of the ancients, the other figure is unmistakably a Viridian female.
Nicolai had found the missing link to his theory of ancient propagating Viridian life throughout the region of space. The first hard evidence would be found later that while digging in an ancient temple, he would find a burial chamber, which contained eight mummified corpses of Viridian humans. Armed with this evidence, his most shameful of thoughts would bring him once again into favor with the Imperial Houses as well as the Emperor himself. Unfortunately for Nicolai, he himself would not live long enough to reap the benefits of his discoveries. While returning to the Kudus compound for a fourth time his grav skiff had crashed, due to an engine malfunction, only a kilometer from Tikal. His staff who was to remain at Tikal recovered his body. His neck was broken and his death was as tragic as his last thirty years of life. He remained an outcast in the scientific community; his peers viewed him in this way because they didn’t or refused to understand his unconventional and revolutionary views and beliefs in science and history.
Nicolai Constantus was posthumously honored by the Kudus Theocracy and by the Emperor himself at his wake at the capital. His body lies interred in an ornate sarcophagus at the Royal Museum of Natural and Imperial History on Capital. As an additional honor to Nicolai and his valiant scientific efforts, the writings of Nicolai Constantus are now studied officially at the university level in both Archeology and Viridian History.
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