Gareth Morley
From Wild Southwest Wiki
Gareth Morley (c2030 - 2083) was a surveyor, researcher and cartographer whose maps of the Radlands and Warlord Realms are regarded as the most detailed and accurate ever produced.
Morley was born in Walpole during the Winter (around 2030). Prior to the Great War his father had been a mining engineer and his mother had worked in a supermarket - both died before his 12th birthday. Gareth was taken in by the town orphanage and spent his formative years working with other orphans on a collective town farm before taking part in a number of exploratory expeditions in the early 2050s. It was here he discovered a talent for surveying and mapmaking, producing detailed maps of the Frankland River Valley and surrounding areas. It was during one of these expeditions (in 2052) that he was accidentally shot in his left thigh - the injury was to cause him problems for the rest of his life.
By 2057 he was in charge of Walpole's mapping and surveying department, and was officially appointed to the position of Chief Town Surveyor - a post he held until 2066. During this time he established a small surveying and cartography school (later the Walpole Cartographic School) and directly instructed dozens of students. He also oversaw the production of detailed maps covering the south coast from Mandalay Beach to Parryville, carrying out much of the surveying work himself despite pain and difficulty from his injured leg.
In early 2066 he resigned his position and set out for Borden, hoping to gain access to the map resources of the Borden Library. He arrived in Porongurup in late May, just as the Satellite Plague reached the town. He contracted the plague but was lucky enough to recover, and spent the next four years in the town while the social disruption caused by the pestilence subsided. During this time he worked in the town school - teaching mathematics and geometry, and also carried out surveying work for local farms.
He eventually reached Borden in 2070, and after providing credentials (letters of recommendation and examples of his mapping work) was granted access to the stacks. He spent the next five years studying pre-war maps of the Southwest, comparing them to his own surveys and devising several new surveying techniques based on pre-war methods. It was also during this time that he began to become interested in the great pre-war cities of the coastal strip - interviewing Scavs passing through town for cartographic information and occasionally buying maps from them at great expense.
Combining these with oral information and pre-war maps held by the Library allowed Morley to produce a series of Radland maps in 2074. These were the cause of much controversy among Scavs. All agreed they were highly accurate (in many cases correctly depicting areas Scavs were yet to explore), but many felt they revealed too many valuable salvage and camping sites that had previously been known only to small groups. An unofficial moratorium on providing information to Morley came into effect, and he found it increasingly difficult to obtain new data. He was however earning a very healthy income from sales of his maps to the same Scavs who refused to talk to him.
His work on the Radlands maps stalled, Morley began collecting information for a detailed atlas of the Southwest, a project he called his mappa mundi. This series of maps would cover the entire southwest at a scale of one centimetre to the kilometre and consist of the most accurate maps produced since the Great War.
In an attempt to overcome the Scav embargo Morley relocated to Boyup Brook in 2076. Here he began offering substantial rewards for information on areas poorly covered by his 2074 maps. This (combined with the higher number of Scavs passing through the Western Settlements) was enough to break the embargo and information started to flood in. Some Scavs attempted to sabotage his project by providing disinformation, however Morley was generally able to detect such deception by comparison with pre-war maps he'd copied while in Borden, and by conversations with other more friendly informants. It was during this period that he (only half jokingly) claimed to have identified the supermarket his mother had worked in prior to the war.
The second series of Morley's Radlands maps was released in 2078, and sold out almost immediately. He used the money to begin work on the first section of his mappa mundi, covering the Warlord Realms. He still gathered information on the Radlands however, releasing a third series of maps in 2081.
In the winter of 2081 - after suffering increasing respiratory problems - Morley was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer and given only a few months to live. Refusing to accept the prognosis he continued work on his Warlord Realms maps, and began drafting maps of D'Entrecasteaux and the Western Settlements.
Morley was finally forced to abandon work in late December 2082, after sending the Warlord Realms maps for printing. He passed away on the morning of January 5th 2083, not long after receiving first run copies of the new maps.
In accordance with his will Morley was buried in the Boyup Brook cemetery. His amassed wealth was split between the Borden Library, and the town of Walpole - on condition that it was used to encourage cartographic work. The Morley Grant is still handed out each year to the best student at the Walpole Cartographic school.
The 2081 Radlands series are still regarded as the finest maps of the Radlands ever produced - few Scavs will set out without a set of "Morleys" to navigate with. The mappa mundi maps of the Warlord Realms are similarly regarded and are extensively used by both the DDC and the Warlords themselves.
It is considered ironic that Morley (a lifelong non smoker who never visited the Radlands) died of cancer - the chief cause of death among Scavs. Some have gone so far as to claim that he was deliberately poisoned with radioactive materials by Scavs angry at his publishing of their secrets, but this is a fringe belief at best.
