Meet Mark — Dr. Galvani's Assistant ( Around 30) Former student of the Academy of Natural Philosophy and city-hospital surgeon. Now Galvani’s assistant, helping search for a cure for the Rat Plague.
On Low Chaos, the plague is defeated even if Piero and Sokolov are killed. I wanted to create a scientist OC and explore the story through the eyes of the researchers working behind the scenes.
Mark was born in Morley, the eldest son of a wealthy physician who had earned a noble title and a city mansion through his achievements. He received an excellent education, including courses at the Addermire Institute in Karnaca.
His life changed when his mother and younger brother died from a poorly understood disease. Devastated, his father began making serious professional mistakes. His reputation and income collapsed, Mark’s engagement was broken off, and his father turned to alcohol and medicinal drugs. At the same time, he pushed all his ambitions onto his son.
After a bitter argument, during which his father claimed Mark would achieve nothing without his influence, Mark took his savings and left for Gristol to enroll in the Academy of Natural Philosophy. His father remained in Morley, sinking further into alcoholism.
In Dunwall, Mark supported himself by working night shifts as a hospital surgeon, but he still couldn’t afford his tuition and was eventually expelled. When the Rat Plague struck and the city was quarantined, Dr. Galvani took the diligent student under his wing.
Mark is irritable, sharp-tongued, and perpetually dissatisfied. He believes most people are wasting their time and refusing to think properly. His personality combines prolonged youthful idealism, a touch of nihilism, and the pride inherited from his father.
Despite his abrasiveness, Mark knows when to stay quiet and do what is necessary. He respects Galvani’s kindness and contribution to science, but constantly rolls his eyes at the doctor’s enthusiastic praise of Sokolov.
Mark has never met the Royal Physician, yet he has little respect for him. If Sokolov is such a genius, why hasn’t he developed a cure after an entire year? Why not improve the duration of an elixir that already works for about twenty-four hours? Mark is also deeply skeptical of prestigious figures and grand reputations, knowing how much rot can hide behind impressive titles.
Researching the Rat Plague
Mark and Galvani discover that the plague is spread primarily by fleas rather than directly by rats. They develop disinfection protocols for clothing and buildings used by the sanitary squads.
Galvani believes the rats were brought to Dunwall by a hostile foreign power, which may explain his support from the Lord Regent. Mark focuses on another theory: if rats carry the disease without falling ill, perhaps their blood contains a natural defense. His vaccine would not save those already infected, but it might protect the healthy. The theory will prove only partly correct, and the two doctors are forced to work with very little reliable information.
Anatomy, Surgery, and Prosthetics
As a student, Mark helped design prosthetics for Harold Blight’s “Handcrafted Limbs” shop behind the Hound Pits Pub.
He is genuinely fascinated by anatomy and surgery, especially repairing injuries and anatomical damage. Dunwall provides no shortage of patients, from City Watch guards to factory workers.
Severe swelling makes surgery especially difficult: patients often arrive too late, leaving surgeons unable to locate bone fragments or damaged organs beneath the tissue. As a result, they must make wide incisions and work almost blindly.
Later, Mark will use Aedan’s stories about Dark Vision—which resembles echolocation in Dishonored 2—alongside early silvergraphy plates to develop a rudimentary X-ray machine.
Working for the Overseers
I also want Mark to work for the Overseers, unwillingly, for a time.
After a Whaler kills himself with poison during an interrogation, the Overseers need an antidote. Their own specialist may have fallen victim to the plague, while Galvani is too prominent and works directly for the Lord Regent. Mark, with no influential connections, becomes the ideal low-profile specialist—and an easy person to pressure into secrecy.
I’m still deciding how Mark will interact with heretical artifacts.
Galvani keeps a rune in his house, but may regard it merely as a souvenir from Pandyssia rather than something worth studying. Mark, however, would be fascinated by the possibility that magic-bearers are more resilient and resistant to disease.
After speaking with Aidan and trying to apply the principles of Dark Vision to medicine, he would want to investigate the connection between magic and physical resilience. But Daud has vanished, and his former followers are no longer available for study. Mark is left with fragments of testimony, questionable observations, and whatever artifacts he can obtain.
P. S — There’s a sketch here of him as a medical examiner in modern clothes—I originally created him for a modern detective story, but he turned out to be a great fit for Dishonored too!
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