Sometime in the 19th century, an intrepid explorer named Sophia Shalgrave (who was also widely rumoured to be a mad scientist) journeyed across the world in search of dragons and other creatures long thought to be mythical. The Compendium Dracorum (a natural history in three volumes) was the result of her first journey. No known complete copies remain, but some of the text and most of the original illustrations were preserved by one of her descendants.