What is tough with a fierce embrace, a calling that ends in estate? – Mr. Bigglebottom
Beauchamp Bartholomew Bigglebottom, affectionally referred to as Mr. Bigglebottom, is our distinguished founder, a Dwarf born in the year 1165 CE with great talent and a predisposition for magic. He was prompted to form a school when he recognized the lack of advanced training for would-be sorcerers.
Bigglebottom had a troubled youth. The only child of two commoners, Archibald Alastair Bigglebottom and Claudette Cassandra Bigglebottom, he grew up in a small agrarian village where farm work consumed most of his time. During a mild drought, his family farm suffered minor financial inconvenience. The only logical option for Archibald and Claudette was to sell Beauchamp to the King’s Army front lines for the exceptionally large sum of one small copper coin, about the cost of a loaf of bread. Meanwhile the family’s third chariot lay in their garage untouched.
Bigglebottom understood his family’s hard financial decision and left his moonflower harvester behind him as he took up the leather slingshot provided to the young soldiers of King Dietrich the Dastardly’s Army. Given Dietrich’s trickle-down policy for food rations, Bigglebottom often found himself the benefactor of numerous opportunities to forage for food. After delirious hours with a slingshot, a cauldron, and some weird concoctions of arcane flora and fauna, Bigglebottom serendipitously concocted magical potions, helping him survive the fighting.
Bigglebottom’s natural aptitude for magic allowed him to rise quickly through the ranks. Entering the Third Great Resource War as the youngest general in the Army’s history, Bigglebottom trained the Youth Battalion, comprised of the Army’s youngest and most promising soldiers, at Fort Bigglebottom. He fought valiantly until the war ended in 1192 CE. Bigglebottom, victorious, then used his hefty sum of accumulated resources–three random chariots and the bountiful harvests of moonflowers he seized during the war–to found Bigglebottom Academy of Magic in the Fort’s ruins. He continued to nurture young minds for the rest of his known life, serving as the Academy’s president until his disappearance in 1230 CE.