Post by tomcollins on Jan 1, 2012 5:35:59 GMT
Alastor Cuthbert Moody
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celeb look alike: Robert Redford
character's full name:[/color][/b] Alastor Cuthbert Moody
nicknames:[/color][/b] Al, Mad-Eye, Hardcore Moody (among the Auror trainees he terrorizes)
age:[/color][/b] 50 | 15th April 1925
job:[/color][/b] Auror, guest lecturer at Hogwarts and the Auror Academy
house:[/color][/b] Slytherin
code word:[/color][/b] [removed by Admin]
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[/color][/b] Alastor is about 5’9” and weighs around 180 pounds. He is well-muscled, though he is more wiry than large and bulky. He has long arms and legs, broad shoulders and a stocky torso. His one remaining eye is a dark brown, and magical one is a vivid electric blue, and tends to spin around in its socket in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a wall eye when he isn’t actively controlling it. Though his gaze is steady, and he likes to meet people’s eyes while talking to them, more than one conversational partner has been struck with a sense of vertigo as the magical suddenly went whizzing rapidly around in all directions while the remaining one stayed rock-steady and intently focused on the target of Alastor’s attention. Many lines and wrinkles have formed over time around the corners of his eyes, though whether they are lines of laughter, lines of sorrow, or lines of anger caused by his near perpetual frown is hotly debated among the younger Auror graduates and apprentices.in-depth appearance:
His hair was once red, though time has begun to grey it, and Alastor has never attempted to hide that fact. His hair is medium in length, and he lets it fall as it will, uninterested in the details of his appreance, bar his weekly removal of his fringe so that it doesn’t obscure his sight at a critical moment. His skin is tanned and weatherbeaten from time spent outdoors, and covered in scars from his many battles. His right leg is missing from the mid-thigh down, and a worn and weathered oaken stump with the leg carved into a cloven hoof serves in its place. Above the replacement, his flesh is covered in scars and small holes where flesh is still missing. Many of the scars are still not fully healed, twinging and occasionally beginning to bleed again when in the presence of concentrated dark magic. They also become swollen and inflamed if it is going to rain.
He has several stud piercings in his right ear, and wears a number of bracelets on both wrists. All of these are made out of silver in a sly nod to his Slytherin heritage. Moody likes to wear a heavy cloak over the top of his signature leather jackets and vests, which have hidden pockets in which he keeps a pair of knuckle-dusters, two spare wands, and a switch-blade. Much of his clothing is in darker and more subdued versions of Highland colours; olive and thistle greens, stormy greys, clouded blues and mountainous browns and greys. On rare occasions, usually Auror graduations or when he is going off to anything that he would consider a war (up to and including hob-nobbing with bureaucrats), Alastor retrieves the clan tartan from his wardrobe and wears it atop a tailored tweed suit. He wears a silver pendant around his neck in the shape of a ram’s head, and has a tattoo on his left shoulder in the shape of a black and white thistle, complete with a postscript in Scots Gaelic.
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[/color][/b] Alastor Moody is a stubborn man, as many of his countrymen are known to be. He is open minded and does not quickly make decisions, but there are mountains that can be convinced to relent more easily than can Alastor Moody. Slow to anger and slow to laugh, he is slower yet to trust, but he is deeply and fiercely loyal once his trust has been earnt. He does not have many friends, but would gladly die for the few friends that he has. Alastor has never been in a long-term relationship for a very important reason; he can only unconditionally love those who he absolutely trusts. Minerva McGonagall is the only woman he would ever consider loving, but he values their friendship too highly, and the idea of romance too little to ever attempt to woo her.in-depth personality:
Moody is a man who knows the value of patience, but has no patience with the foolish, whom he not only does not suffer gladly, but does not suffer at all. For this reason, he is not known for his gentle words, nor for his skills at diplomacy, but many off his colleagues and acquaintances value the surety that he will always speak his mind honestly, and will refuse to sugar-coat the truth. This means he gives good advice, but has a rough-and-ready, slap-in-the-fact kind of attitude to comfort that has zero tolerance to self-pity.
He tends to be quiet in social situations, as his manners and conversational skills are both quite rough and ready, better suited to the streets of Glasgow than to polite company. Various instructors and courses at the Ministry have attempted to change this, but Alastor refuses to change himself, instead relying on his reputation to scare off anyone who might be offended by his manners or conversation. However, behind his gruff exterior hides a surprisingly wry sense of humour; when amongst his friends he can be both highly sarcastic and surprisingly witty.
The neverending battle he has fought has left him bitter and somewhat cynical, though he would describe himself as a realist. Optimistic is the last word that would be used to describe him, but this means that his ‘good idea’ is far more appreciated by other Aurors, as it is given out very rarely, if ever. He does not offer sympathy or advice unless he believes that his opinion is needed, and his brand of both is harsh, more of a verbal slap around the head than anything else. The exception is when speaking to those who he believes he has wronged, when a softer, gentler and humbler Alastor Moody can be glimpsed beneath sincere apology and all-consuming guilt. Those who are most likely to see this side are the families of the men he lost along with his leg, anyone who has been hurt by Fenrir Greyback, and all the victims of Dark Magic (including werewolves and vampires) who continue to fight back against it.
Self-contained and always on his guard, there are nonetheless a few sensitive subjects can provoke him to confrontation, his blood status and the reputation of his house being among them. This is particularly likely when one of his former housemates is the one talking. When angry, his is a cold rage, utterly implacable and without mercy. There are less than a handful of people who can talk Alastor Moody out of his cold fury, and every one of them would confess to having on occasion thinking that he might attack even them should they interfere. Moody never forgets an insult or a slight, and takes all mockery and criticism to heart, no matter how well-meant. ‘No-one provokes me with impunity’ is the saying associated with the Scottish symbol of the thistle, and Alastor has taken it to heart and embodies it like no other.
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[/color][/b]likes:
The taste of a proper Scots whisky (drinking the bad stuff would be heresy).
Playing the piano, especially old Celtic folk-songs as well as Classical pieces by Chopin, Debussy and Mahler.
Using his eye to make others uncomfortable (a secret pleasure that he would never admit to).
The taste, texture, smell and overall appearance of his beloved haggis, which he has hand-made on occassion.
The poetry of Robert Burns, the greatest Scots poet ever to live, whose words taste honey-sweet.
Haggis and Robert Burns combine in his love of the Burns Supper, which he attends yearly in Edinburgh (any Dark Wizard foolish enough to cause him to be called away on the 25th of January is in for one hell of a bad night).
The rain; something about the sound of falling raindrops and the smell of rain-damp earth soothes something in his soul. [/blockquote][/blockquote]
[/color][/b]dislikes:
Dark Wizards, Death Eaters and Dark creatures; anyone who embraces the darkness is an affront to everything that Alastor believes (however, werewolves and vampires who try to control their condition attract his sympathy, understanding and support, especially if they are victims of Fenrir Greyback).
The self-entitled, useless, shiftless, gutless, pretentious culture of worthlessness embraced by most of the Pureblood families who never have to work a day in their lives.
Self-righteous Gryffindors who look at the rise and fall of Dark Wizards, and the overthrow of tyranny and imagine that reckless, heedless, thoughtless suicidal bravery brought it about. Clearly, Moody thinks to himself, most of them know nothing of true courage or sacrifice.
Recklessness and risky behaviour in Auror recruits. Half the reason that his unofficial nickname in the Academy is 'the Bastard' is because he does his best to crush their dreams of heroic victories and clean missions. Moody will not see another Auror crushed by the same weakness that afflicted him.
Dogs. Something about them repels him; the smell, the look, the brainless loyalty. Alastor doesn't know why, but canines just bug him.
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boggart:[/color][/b] Moody's Boggart is a complicated one. At first glance, it appears simply to be the disapproving figures of his closest friends; Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall. However, closer inspection reveals the characteristic features of Inferii in both of their faces, and the marks of the grave strong around them. To Alastor, this represents his fear not only of letting down the expectations of his friends and confidantes, but doing so in such a terrible way that it results in their death.
patronus:[/color][/b] Alastor Moody's patronus is a mountain goat, something that was of no surprise to anyone who knew him. The memory he uses is one of the most iconic images of his childhood; the day Albus Dumbledore arrived at his father’s farm and told him he was a wizard. The idea of becoming a powerful wizard and freeing himself of the back-breaking and soul-crushing labour piled on his by the high expectations of his father sounded like paradise to young Alastor, and it sent his soul soaring into the heavens with joy.
mirror of erised:[/color][/b] Alastor Moody’s greatest desire is to see the war end with Fenrir Greyback dead, the Death Eater’s locked away for life and he and all his closest friends and allies whole and hale.
wand:[/color][/b] Cedar heartwood, rigid and unyielding, argali horn and thistle flowers, 9 inches
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[/color][/b] Muggleborn[/blockquote][/blockquote]blood status:
[/color][/b]parents:
Gordon Moody: Gordon Moody was born on the same farm where Alastor grew up, and on the same farm he died. A farmer all his life, Gordon had no ambition to be anything else, enjoying the hard and physical labour involved with maintaining a farm. As soon as he was old enough to work, he made Alastor begin to help around the farm, and as his oldest children left him, all of their workloads and responsibilities were pushed on to Alastor's shoulders until he was doing the work of 6 people. After the death of his wife, Gordon became a grim and unpleasant man. He worked hard all day before coming home and drinking himself to sleep. The death of the twins Edan and Edna snapped him out of this pattern for a few months, and he returned to being an interested and caring (though somewhat gruff) father, but soon fell back into the same habits, drinking more and more often as Alastor's younger brother Iain started to more or less run the farm for him. The drinking caught up with him in 1941 when he died of liver failure at the beginning of the summer after Alastor's fifth year. To this day, Alastor Moody neither forgives, understands nor regrets his fathers passing.
Aifric Moody (nee Blair): Aifric Blair grew up in Glasgow until her family moved to the country with the death of her father's first wife. Out in Snowdonia, he met another woman, married her, and bought a farm that was next door to the old Moody place. Aifric and Gordon were childhood sweethearts, and married in 1915. She bore him twelve children before dying of consumption in 1931, leaving him and the children alone. Alastor has few memories of her, but they are of a kind and gentle woman who loved him very dearly.
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[/color][/b]siblings:
Beitris Moody: Born on the 7th of September 1917, Alastor’s older sister was always close to him; protecting him from his older brothers and their childish cruelty. After the death of their mother, Beitris then became the closest thing to a mother that Alastor had until in 1933, aged only 17 she left for Glasgow to make it as an actress. The last that Alastor heard, she was working as a barmaid. That was in 1941. He hasn’t made contact with her since.
Dougal & Fearghas Moody: Born in 1919 and 1920 respectively, Alastor’s oldest brothers did everything together; chores, playing at soldiers, tormenting him. They joined the Reserves at ages 16 and 15, the Army at 19 and 18, and died in WWII aged 21 and 20 respectively.
Aileen Moody: Aileen Moody was born on January the 22nd. Alastor never really got along with her, but neither did they hate each other. She left home with her boyfriend in 1940, just before the death of her father. Alastor was invited to her wedding in 1949, but was recovering from the loss of his leg and was unable to make it. Their relationship never recovered.
Grizel Moody: Grizel was lazy even as a child, always shirking her chores and threatening to turn tattletale on Alastor if he didn’t do them for her. After she was married, she became the neighbourhood gossip. Her marriage lasted less than five years; if Alastor were willing to talk about it he would probably say she’d nagged her husband to death.
Gus Moody: Born in 1924. Alastor and Gus were inseperable until Gus ran away from home to join the Navy at 14. Due to having to shoulder his load of the work, Alastor never forgave him.
Edan & Edna Moody: The twins were born in 1927, and both charmed Alastor from the moment he laid eyes on them. It broke his heart when they died of fever within a few hours of each other in 1935.
Iain Moody: Alastor and Iain never got along due to Iain’s idolizing of their father and Alastor’s absence at Hogwarts during Iain’s formative years. After their father’s death, Iain ultimately inherited the farm.
Lockie Moody: Lockie was always the most creative of the family; obsessed with poetry and music and with his head always off in the clouds. He became a mildly successful poet, and he and Alastor occasionally run into each other in Edinburgh at the Burns Supper. Their relationship is cordial enough, provided they stick to the subjects they agree on; namely, music and poetry.
Peadar Moody: Born a few months before their mother’s death, Peadar grew up without a maternal influence and yet turned out timid and withdrawn. Out of pity, Iain gave him a job and he works as a hired hand at the farm to this day.
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[/color][/b] London [/blockquote][/blockquote]current residence:
[/color][/b] Alastor Moody was born to a farmer and a milk-maid, the seventh son of a seventh son in a small farm that lay in the shadow of Aonach Eagach, on the northern end of Glen Coe. His mother bore his father five more children after him, and then passed away when Moody was six, leaving his father to work and support twelve children on his own. As his older siblings grew, they drifted away from the farming lifestyle, and left the family for their own careers as soon as they could. And with each one that left, the workload left to Moody became harder to bear.in depth history:
The accidental magic of his childhood was a practical thing, calling showers of rain where rain was needed, reducing the weight of tools so that the young Alastor could use them, healing the multitude of minor injuries that farming work brought with it. These displays of magic were so subtle that his father did not notice, nor indeed did Alastor, and so they were both astonished when Albus Dumbledore, Hogwart’s new Professor of Transfiguration, showed up at the farm one rare sunny morning to invite Moody along to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
When he arrived at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat saw the ambition to be free of his father that lurked in Alastor’s heart, along with cunning and determination, and sorted him into Slytherin, the first Muggleborn student the Serpent House had taken in as far back as anyone at Hogwarts could remember. He was unpopular, and faced great hostility from his housemates, but proved to be a skilled student, especially talented in Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration.
In his second year, he returned to the school resigned to the fact that he would remain an outcast among his house. Now indifferent to the opinions of his housemates, he formed a friendship with a 1st Year Gryffindor named Minerva McGonagall over their shared interest in Transfiguration, a friendship that would last throughout his years at Hogwarts. His Head of House didn't particularly care for Slytherin's lone Muggleborn, and so most of the interest displayed by authority figures came from his Transfiguration teacher, Albus Dumbledore, and to a lesser degree from Galatea Merrythought, his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
Through the years that followed, he continued to display a fierce aptitude towards his magical studies, and together with Minerva McGonagall formed a close friendship with Albus Dumbledore, his Transfiguration teacher. In his fifth year, now well known among his peers for his DaDA and Transfiguration skills, Alastor Moody attracted the attention of the Slytherin Head Boy, Tom Riddle, who tried ceaselessly to inveigle Alastor into his circle of friends.
However, said circle of friends included (among others) all of the ringleaders in Alastor's torment by his house, and so Moody constantly refused Riddle's invitations and was glad when the Head Boy graduated at the end of the year. Alastor Moody spent most of that year in a heightened state of paranoia due to the continued rampage of Slytherin's Monster. Dumbledore kept a close eye on him in an attempt to spare him from the creature, and Moody was never entirely convinced of Hagrid's guilt. Dumbledore didn't believe it, and rough and naive though Hagrid seemed, he didn't feel like a killer to Alastor.
In the summer before his sixth year, Alastor’s father passed away, and he struck out on his own, living on the streets because his Slytherin pride would not allow him to enter the welfare system. Living on the streets hardened him, and left him contemptuous of the softness and laziness of his pure-blood housemates. He graduated from Hogwarts in 1943 with NEWTS in Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and DaDA and a pair of recommendations from Dumbledore and Merrythought, and went straight into the Auror Academy.
After his graduation, Moody swiftly rose to become one of the most feared Aurors in the country. He also spent a year in training with Albus Dumbledore, learning Occlumency and how to conjure a Patronus, among other things. He spent time working with Gringotts Cursebreakers at various points of his career, picking up an array of nasty defensive wards. He lost his leg and the team he was leading while breaking into the lair of one of Grindelwald’s surviving lieutenants as part of a European Auror task force, a mistake for which he continued to blame himself for, and the eye in a fight with a young and newly infected Fenrir Greyback, who had just infected his first victim.
In the years leading up to 1970, Alastor was one of Dumbledore’s main confidants, and strongly supported his idea of creating a force to counter Voldemort’s Death Eaters, at the same time as hunting down the Death Eater's as an Auror. When the Order of the Phoenix was founded in 1970, Moody was the first member sworn in, and among the most committed warriors in it, sinking so many hours into coaching and training his fellow members that the Ministry recommended him for retirement on grounds of slowing down.
However, with the darker side of the Wizarding community on the rise, the Head of the DMLE refused to force Moody out of the Aurors, and so he continues to hunt down and take in as many Dark Wizards and Witches as he can lay his hands on.
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Hey, I'm Luke, and I've been roleplaying for 7 years.[/b]
roleplay sample:[/color][/b]
Moody limped his way along the road to Hogwarts, humming under his breath. Even with his cloak wrapped around him, he could feel the cold beginning to settle into his bones. That he was alone on the road Alastor knew for a fact, the constant spinning of his magical eye leaving no possible hiding place unchecked, but he still felt exposed and unsafe. Areas in which Apparation were impossible always made him uncomfortable, the lack of an escape route making them the perfect spot for an ambush.
Tightening his trip on his walking stick, and the wand concealed inside, Moody picked up his pace, eyes and ears open for any sound or sight even the slightest bit out of the ordinary. It might be the perfect place for an ambush, but if anyone tried one then he would ensure they were in for a world of hurt. Sending off a messenger Patronus to let Dumbledore know he was on his way, Moody made his way towards the castle.
