Nilofar, B.A. (Hons), M.A., Ph.D, eldest daughter of Hamouyoun Pasha of Ishtakr, Ambassador of the Empire of Harad to Gondor, is somewhat at loose ends after her grandmother dies, so her father decides that she will accompany him to the strange lands of Gondor - after all, when she spent 6 months in Umbar finalising and defending her thesis she seemed quite happy, and did not complicate the lives of the rest of the family then.

To her, Gondor seems an interesting place, and an opportunity to look into whether the Gondorians have retained any of the knowledge of the Numenorean plans on the management of urban drainage: long lost in Umbar and Harad, and Nilofar’s thesis supervisor, Professor Silvereth of the University of Umbar, Department of Civil and Marine Engineering, would surely be interested, for Professor Silvereth has been studying the old Umbarian drainage works for more than fifty years.

Born in TA 3000, after being educated privately at home, Nilofar took a correspondence course in general studies with a double major in theoretical mathematics and early Numenorean history from the University of Umbar’s correspondence college, receiving her B.A. (Hons) in T.A. 15. She continued with an M.A. in biological sciences, writing her research thesis on the relationship between differing rates of feed-to-weight conversions in meat and wool in fat-tailed sheep with differing fodder sources.  

After the civil war, she obtained a PhD in Civil Engineering  under Professor Silvereth of the University of Umbar and succesfully defended her thesis on efficiency in design in wastewater management for irrigation in mixed cropping and terrain in FA 8 while in residence in Umbar as a Visiting Scholar.