diff --git a/poetry.toml b/poetry.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab1033b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/poetry.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[virtualenvs]
+in-project = true
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9c0f88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+[tool.poetry]
+name = "elfish-tools"
+version = "0.0.1"
+description = "Tools for handling fish data from the 1993 game EL-Fish."
+authors = ["Josh Washburne <josh@jodh.us>"]
+readme = "README.md"
+packages = [{include = "elfish", from = "src"}]
+
+[tool.poetry.dependencies]
+python = ">=3.10"
+
+[tool.poetry.group.dev.dependencies]
+pylint = ">=3.0.3"
+black = ">=24.1.1"
+mypy = ">=1.8.0"
+
+[build-system]
+requires = ["poetry-core"]
+build-backend = "poetry.core.masonry.api"
diff --git a/src/elfish/__init__.py b/src/elfish/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/src/elfish/exceptions.py b/src/elfish/exceptions.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..260a476
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/elfish/exceptions.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+"""Custom exceptions for fish parsing."""
+
+class AuthorError(ValueError):
+    """
+    The author must be no more than 15 characters in length and may only
+    contain a subset of special characters.
+    """
+
+
+class InvalidFSHFileError(ValueError):
+    """The FSH file provided is not valid and cannot be parsed safely."""
+
+
+class InvalidROEFileError(ValueError):
+    """The ROE file provided is not valid and cannot be parsed safely."""
diff --git a/src/elfish/roe.py b/src/elfish/roe.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed5d053
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/elfish/roe.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+"""Tools for parsing a ROE file."""
+
+from os import SEEK_CUR, SEEK_SET
+from os.path import basename, splitext
+from struct import unpack
+
+from .exceptions import InvalidROEFileError
+from .utils import nibble_flip
+
+
+class Roe:
+    """The DNA of an electronic fish with an embedded icon."""
+    def __init__(self, name: str = "", author: str | None = None) -> None:
+        self.name: str = name
+        self.author: str | None = author
+        self.is_mutant: bool = False
+        self.unknowns: dict[str, bytes] = {}
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_file(cls, filename: str) -> "Roe":
+        """Factory for importing roe from a .ROE file."""
+
+        # Unlike .FSH files, the name comes from the filename itself. Since
+        # DOS was limited to the 8.3 naming convention, a fish's name has a
+        # forced limit of only eight characters.
+        name = splitext(basename(filename))[0][0:8]
+        roe = cls(name)
+
+        with open(filename, "rb") as rfile:
+            # First byte of file determines mutant status. Non-zero = mutant.
+            # Second byte is padding.
+            roe.is_mutant = unpack("?x", rfile.read(2))[0]
+
+            # Next two bytes are unknown.
+            roe.unknowns["00000002"] = unpack("2s", rfile.read(2))[0]
+
+            # Next sixteen bytes is a nibble-flipped encoding of the original
+            # author with a zero null termination byte.
+            author = ""
+            flipped_author = unpack("16s", rfile.read(16))[0]
+            for letter in flipped_author:
+                code = nibble_flip(letter)
+                if code == 0:
+                    break
+                author += chr(code)
+            roe.author = author.upper()
+
+        return roe
diff --git a/src/elfish/utils.py b/src/elfish/utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d17bb00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/elfish/utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+"""Miscellaneous functions commonly used by all classes."""
+
+def nibble_flip(num: int) -> int:
+    """Swaps the high and low nibbles in a byte. (Ex: 0x1a -> 0xa1)"""
+    return (num >> 4) | (num << 4) & 0xFF