The devil made me do it. Her name is MJ.
Nicknames: —
Birthdate: October 30th, 1852
Current Age: 40
Gender: Male
Occupation: Gentleman of Some Leisure & Keen Pursuits
Reputation: 8Former rakish reputation (mostly reformed); present-day eccentricity
Residence:
Wand: Aspen, 12¼ inches, with a dragon heartstring core (specifically Welsh Green). Stiff.
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Upper
Family:
In-Character
Full Name: Madoc Llewelyn Roderick YarwoodNicknames: —
Birthdate: October 30th, 1852
Current Age: 40
Gender: Male
Occupation: Gentleman of Some Leisure & Keen Pursuits
Reputation: 8
Residence:
Primary: Woods Cottage, Avalon GlenHogwarts House: Slytherin (‘71)
Secondary: Yarwood House (the smaller of the family’s London dwellings), London
Wand: Aspen, 12¼ inches, with a dragon heartstring core (specifically Welsh Green). Stiff.
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Upper
Family:
— Yarwood nee —, Wife [c. 1857]Appearance:
Cadogan Yarwood, Son [1878]
Draconia Yarwood, Daughter [1880]
Roderick Yarwood, Father [1811-1870]
Llewella Yarwood nee Hughes, Mother [1823-1884]
Gwendolyn Yarwood nee Yarwood, Sister [1845], and family
Bronwen Yarwood, Sister [1847-1850]
Madoc also has two bastards (that he knows of). He is not directly involved in their lives, but quietly pays their school tuition in full.
History:There are a lot of small indignancies in his life, not least among them the fact that Madoc stands a full two inches shorter than his sister. Still, his 5 foot 9 frame isn’t short in the traditional sense, and his shoes when in Town add a quarter-inch more than is typical. In spite of his age, his frame remains athletic, due to a large amount of time spent outdoors and engaging in more hands-on hobbies. His attire is practical for his setting, but decidedly well-made. He always carries his wand on his left side (he is right-handed) in a dragonhide sheath upon his belt, easily accessible.
Madoc sports a square jaw, often sporting stubble when not reminded by his wife to shave. His prominent ears are only somewhat obscured by chestnut hair. He inherited his mother’s green eyes.
His PB is Matt Smith.
Personality:A Boy
The third and final child arrives (1852) after the middle has already left the mortal coil, a boy with a mouthful of names. Madoc, to start, then named for each parent in turn before carrying the weight of the Yarwood name upon his shoulders. He is remarkably unproblematic: an easy delivery, quick to soothe, lulling his nanny and his parents into a false sense of security.
It is in his fifth spring (1857) that he sees his first dragon, flying low above the family home. Watching as it snatches a sheep, Madoc feels as though muggles who say they have seen God must–deeply in awe and forever changed. His first act of magic happens this same day, his arm burning his nanny’s hand as she tries to tug him to safety.
As the years march on at a pace, young Madoc endures (and excels at) his academics only so that he might win time outdoors, time to explore, to ride, and to (hopefully) see a dragon. By seven, at least, he has matured enough to know he should give them a wide berth; by nine, he starts to appreciate the damage they can do. But when nearly-twelve comes and he is off to Hogwarts, Madoc still has not shaken the fascination.
A Serpent
A hat brushes the top of his head, muses for an instant on Ravenclaw, before promptly sending another lad to Slytherin in the fall of 1864. Having been raised in Avalon Glen, Madoc is faced, for the first time, with young boys of his own sort, and quickly raises some eyebrows when he proves to prefer the company of farmers’ sons to that of the elite. A swift and keen exception to this, however, is a boy called [Shepherd], similarly of Means but raised in a similarly wild setting by a nanny who did not know what to do with his desire to be out of doors and parents who were often in Society, not in the home. The two boys shared a love of the outdoors, tried out for quidditch together (Madoc himself would not make the team until his third year) and even enrolled in the same electives (Care of Magical Creatures and Earth Magic). Where they differed was in their academic leaning: Madoc cared little but was naturally successful, while [Shepherd] worked hard for mediocre results. Still, their friendship endured until the winter of their seventh year and Roderick’s passing.
Irony of ironies, it was Dragon Pox that took Roderick Yarwood’s life in December of 1870. The house under quarantine, Madoc spent the holidays at Hogwarts for the first (and only) time so as not to fall ill himself. The news of his father’s passing came on Christmas morning. It was not until the new year that a funeral was held, the will read. Surprising everyone, Madoc inherited immediately–it had, for many years, been insisted that his inheritance be held in trust until his twenty-fifth birthday, to give him time to “settle”. Even more surprising, however, was what he inherited: very little, as it turned out. His sister inherited—entailed to her and her alone, much to her husband’s chagrin—the Glen itself, Avalon House, the tenant farms, a large house in a nothing-village outside of Hogwarts around which Wellingtonshire would eventually grow, and Yarwood Place in London. Indeed, the lion’s share, by far. Madoc? A cottage (in name only) in the Glen, a smaller London property, and an equal share in the breeding stables the family had long maintained, in addition to a (respectable) allowance for life. While some of his classmates (indeed, some of his friends) would have given their left arm for such a haul, he was, for all intents and purposes, rather snubbed by the will.
And he didn’t even mind.
Oh, he put on a good show, of course, he always could, but with everything else, his sister had inherited the responsibility of the Yarwood name and he was, in a sense, free. [Shepherd], though, simply could not let the matter lie, and one too many jokes about “Gwendolyn being a better son” caused a near-permanent rift between them.
A Party
He is a Hogwarts graduate. Leaving the castle (1871) would prove entirely a sweet experience, as without academics and rules to constrain him, Madoc is able to give himself freely to myriad indulgences, from cards to boxing to quidditch to hunting to women to anything that tickles his fancy. It is in these intervening years that he develops a rakish reputation—one that is, he is quite proud to say, altogether earned. The party, however, cannot last forever.
There comes a time in every lad’s life when he must become a man. In Madoc’s case, that is when he does the math and realizes that his existing income would not support his lifestyle indefinitely. Faced with the decision of many a second son (find a profession, or...), he chooses the or and marries a woman with a sizable dowry (1877).
A GentlA Very Selected History
A man should tell his own story, don’t you think?
My life began again the day I blackmailed my sister into financing a reopening of the dragon preservation in 1874. This financing was, of course, contingent on my silence, and so I will not trouble you with the details. It is this, and my research, that has long been my firstborn, predating both Cadogan (1878) and Draconia (1880) and gifting me with a sense of purpose I previously failed to find—entirely for lack of trying. It is well-staffed and well-regarded, and I am a man who has found his place in the world—now to change it.
The rest of my story is not mine alone to share, and so I will demonstrate discretion in this regard. Suffice it to say no more than half the rumours you have heard are likely to be true, and I am a good boy—most of the time.
SOCIAL CHAMELEON — INTELLIGENT — DRIVEN — PROUD — BOLD — CALCULATING — PROTECTIVE
From a middling age, Madoc has learned to adapt himself to his surroundings. Oh, he probably could have in his youth, but preferred to cause a stir. With seemingly no effort, he drifts in and out of persona, from the devil-may-care sportsman to the prudent and frugal gentleman. At his core, though, he is a man who is unsatisfied, who won’t be happy until the world is remade in his vision and so is unlikely to ever find total contentment. In the meantime, though, there are a number of things that get him close:Of what’s his, Madoc is fiercely protective—even his wife, who he has never particularly liked—and he is, in his own way, quite loyal. Madoc’s (hopefully not) fatal flaws, however, are his pride and his icarian tendency to push boundaries both legally and morally. Other:
- Spending time outdoors
- Researching dragons
- His children’s successes (all of them)
- The people he considers friends (whether or not it’s mutual)
- “Winning”, whatever that might look like in the moment
SKILLS:
- Languages: Fluency in English and Welsh. Competent in written Latin and Ancient Greek, though not at all fluent enough to do more than read/write.
- A skilled duelist, tournaments are one of the few things that get him willingly into Town.
- Having played as a beater on his house quidditch team, Madoc remains quite a good flyer.
- As part of being Outdoorsy, Madoc is good at a number of muggle skills, including shooting (guns & bows), swimming, horseback riding, and even piloting small sailboats.
- Good head for maths.
- Occulmens.
PETS:
- Epona, his Aethonan, kept in Wales.
- Madog, his wolfhound, who travels with him from residence to residence
- Gus, short for Augustus, a Boreal owl who goes where he chooses.
TRIVIA:
- Refuses to keep a valet.
- Once spent a week in the wilderness (not the Glen) without magic just to prove he could.
Out-of-CharacterName: Kayte
Age: 30s
Contact: PM Aldous Crouch; Hit me up on Discord/Skype
