Professor Askew
From MYSTlore
Professor Askew is a former DRC Liaison and member of The Great Tree.
[edit] DRC Liaison
In the second DRC Liaison election, Professor Askew received 29% of the public vote, making him sixth in the rankings.
After the resignation of CAGrayWolf from the liaison position on January 12, 2007, the remaining Liaisons appointed Professor Askew as an interim liaison to fill the position. This was a controversial choice, as the rules from the second election stated that in the event of a liaison resigning, an election to fill the position would be held.
After the resignation and dissolution of the liaisons, Professor Askew become one of the founding members of the D'ni Network.
[edit] Backstory
Professor Daniel Askew was the director of Research & Development at Verity Corp in New York City from around 1987 until 2003. In the autumn of 2002 he came upon an abandoned copy of the Book of Ti'ana in Central Park. After reading the novel he quickly consumed the remaining novels of the series as well as the computer games developed by Cyan Worlds and Presto Studios. In the summer of 2003, while performing research for Verity Corp, he stumbled upon an obscure photograph of a seemingly dormant volcano in the New Mexico desert. Feeling a strange need to see this volcano with his own eyes, he arranged for an open-ended leave of absence from Verity to find out what this "calling" was all about.
Upon arrival in New Mexico, he quickly made his way to Eddy County and hitched a ride with a Native American man who agreed to bring him closer to his destination. Dropped off at a gas station not too far from the volcano, Askew met Stanley Murray and Jeff Zandi for the first time. The two men were talking when Askew noticed another photo of the volcano on a wall calendar. Askew asked the station owner, Murray, where the photo came from. Murray explained that a customer of his took the photo and made the calendar herself. Zandi excused himself at this point to engage an Asian man in conversation at the pumps. Unbeknownst to Askew, at that very moment, his sister Sally was on the telephone with a gentleman in the employ of the D'ni Restoration Council (DRC) who was sitting in a truck at that very same gas station.
Askew spent the night at a nearby motel and drank bottles of root beer from an ancient vending machine. He was looking over a topographical map of the area surrounding the volcano. He was sitting on a rusted, iron patio chair by a drained swimming pool when the Native American man who had driven him to the gas station earlier walked up to him. He wasn't alone, a man by the name of Tempo was with him. They asked him about why he had come and slowly the subject turned to D'ni. In Askew's eyes, D'ni was a fictional city deep under the ground and was the home to a lost race of people personified in the Myst books and video games. At the same time, something was drawing him to this place in New Mexico and something inside Askew was telling him that somehow it was all connected. The three men talked well into the night and finally his two visitors took their leave, wishing Askew luck on his journey.
The next day Askew made his way to the old volcano. When he finally came upon it, his heart skipped a beat, and he knew he was where he was supposed to be. After climbing over some barbed wire fencing, Askew once again ran into Zandi. This time the portly fellow was relaxing under the awning of an Airstream camper. They spoke awhile. Zandi was rather vague but set Askew on a course that would change his life forever. And he would learn that he was not alone in his pursuit, far from it. With the help of other explorers, Askew would learn of the great restoration of D'ni. He would learn of the reality of linking books. And he would find Brian Fioca and The Great Tree.
