Stephen Maturin

'We are on a voyage, of the enlightened. To seek knowledge, to rise above our animal instincts, yet to embrace our primal ancient inherit wisdom...these are the causes and plights we have been allowed to persue and endure, as the species we have conceived and evolved to be. 'My mother was Catalan, my father was an Irish officer; thus I speak both languages, and many more, including Portuguese and Hindustani...but only a trifle of Arabic. (My real father's name is Patrick O'Brian, but after he passed away, a good man named Paul Bettany took care of me for awhile.)I was fostered at County Clare. I lived in Spain after my parents died, and when I was old enough, I was a student in Paris, and at Trinity in Dublin, where I received my doctorates.I have no real knowledge of things nautical, although having been a near-permanent resident on board a ship for many years; but my true interests lie in medicine, philosophy, and nature. Particularly the study of comparitive anatomy of birds (both homologous and analogous structures)--but I will dissect anything that I may.