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Taifun
Since: Jan, 2001

A fantasy novel... pretty sure it was low/no magic, but I might be wrong. I only read the first few chapters. The protagonist was a sort of scholar-bard, and the story started with him delivering his "thesis": a painstakingly memorized account of some ancient ruler, but with the protagonist's own intensely-researched modifications. He got into some trouble over said modifications due to their content (they painted the ruler in a less than positive light) and the source he used was burned by one of the university's higher-ups. I think this guy was also kind of an outsider... born of a refugee family from another region or something like that.