Edward Gore:

Edward is walking home from the library, it’s a cool night, the moon a half circle in the sky, and the only thing on his mind is what he’d been studying, and if he has anything edible or not.
It happens before he knows what’s going on. A hand over his eyes and he’s head is wrenched back, throat bared. He can’t see anything, starts to yell, to try to wriggle away and—

Pain. Everything is pain, cutting through his scream in a wide, neat line. The cry dies in a strangled, wet gurgle.

Faintly Ed can feel the cool air inside his neck, knows thats not what he should be feeling. And then he starts choking, blood flowing inside his throat, cutting off his air, sliding down toward his lungs—

And then he’s falling. To his knees, and backward from there, crumpling. The hands are gone, he can see again, but it doesn’t help any. There’s no one there. Just him and the bloody spray and the moon.
Fuck. No, no I— I was supposed to be a surgeon, I was supposed to- I can’t—
The only sounds are pained gurgles and wheezes. The wind whistles between buildings and it almost sounds mocking to his ears.
‘How dare you have thought you could ever be anything? We all know what you are and it’s not fit to be more than a sideshow attraction.’
I’m going to die, he thinks, and tears start to start to fall, mixing with blood on the pavement.

Edward Gore: 25-ish, he/him (transman).
He's a medical student who got attacked & almost killed on the way home from the library. (Hence the scars.)

He's eventually kicked out of medical school due to his lack of attendance and therefore failing courses. Edward then turns to graverobbing, bodysnatching and resurrectionistism to both stay connected to his prior studies and to survive.
He has to move from university housing to a cheap place in Spittle Field, which can be seen marked on the map to the right.

The people at the hospital treating him after the attack didn't believe that he didn't do it to himself. His vocal cords are almost cut entirely through, and it takes months and months to relearn how to speak. Even after that, it's painful to talk, and he has to stop often, along with speaking quieter, softer, and less emotive.

He meets Vincenz Neumann, a medical student and aspiring anatomist when he sells him a freshly stolen body.
The two quickly hit it off and enter into a queer, obsessive and adoring relationship, leaving blood smears and a trail of bodies in their wake.

Click here if you'd like to see a full, zoomable map of Edinburgh at the time.