In-Character

Full Name: Baron Djura Charles Isaac Crossridge IV
Nicknames: N/A
Birthdate: February, 6, 1845
Current Age: 45 Years
Occupation: 29th Baron Crossridge, Boer & Anglo-Zulu War Veteran.
Reputation: 9; commendable noble, decorated war veteran, but thought to be unfriendly.
Residence: Hazel Cottage in Hawthorne Hollow, Irvingly, Scotland. Occasionally Crossridge Manor in Canterbury, England.
Hogwarts House: N/A
Wand: N/A
Blood Status: Muggle
Social Class: Upper
Family: His wife was Calliope, now deceased. He also has various elder relatives and two young children, Isaac and Calliope.

Appearance: Djura cuts the quietly proud figure of a seasoned military man, perfect posture adding to already substantial height. He is muscle-bound, rangy and lithe, but what youthful grace he once held has mostly acquiesced to a limp in his right leg. He walks with a silver cane.

Given the outdoors to which he is inclined, Djura's everyday attire is often windswept and weather-beaten — but this is something a Baron can get away with. On social occasions, he dresses precisely as society expects.

An insightful onlooker could quite easily make assumptions based on his presentation. His poise and war wound convey a military background, while his speech and cool confidence reveals noble blood. And Djura's eyes, the green-grey of a Winter forest, often betray a darkness forever haunted by the ghosts of war.

History: Great expectations heralded Djura from day one, born eldest child to the Baron and Baroness Crossridge of Canterbury. A smoothly proud and patriotic balance of bright and athletic, the boy attended Winchester College followed by the University of Oxford, studying politics and economics and exceeding in football, rowing and cricket. The only recreation he pursued without purpose or approval was falconry; the one hobby he enjoyed above all.

Upon graduating university, Djura enlisted in the British Army by way of following his father (a Colonel). Djura was on annual leave when he married Calliope, an elite young lady earmarked by his matchmaker grandmother. Calliope was a kind and curious person, but they never truly grew to know one another. And when finally they started a family in 1879, war broke out with the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa and Djura was sent to fight.

By now Djura was himself the Baron Crossridge, and an upright 34-year-old Colonel, meeting expectations on all fronts. He fought heroically in the Battle of Ulundi and championed the conquering of the Zulu capital. The war was won, but at terrible loss to the Zulu people; Djura found himself stood in the devastated city of Ulundi, witness to British soldiers cheering over abandoned Zulu corpses and chasing down terrified widows, silhouetted by roaring hellfire. The British army had once filled Djura's heart with patriotism... and now it repulsed him.

But he hadn't much time to reflect. In 1880, only months later, Djura was summoned once again to South Africa, this time to fight in the Boer War. It would prove a far less successful endeavour for the British. Djura lost countless men to a Commander's foolish sacrifice at Laing's Nek, more to starvation at Mount Prospect, and despite objections was forced to partake in a great military humiliation at Majuba Hill, where the British lost the war and Djura almost lost a leg. As he lay bleeding in the ashes, Boer militia cudgeled the British wounded and jeered at their screams. Among the painfully familiar hellfire, Djura came to realise an absolute truth: war itself is the enemy.

Discharged with honour and decoration, but part of a downtrodden homecoming, Djura returned to England only to find that the wife he'd barely gotten to know had died during the birth of their youngest child.

Now in his 40s, the Baron Djura Crossridge remains deeply traumatised by his experiences of war; so much so that he was scarcely rattled by the news that his eldest son, Isaac, possesses otherworldly abilities. A representative of an institution named Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry explained the circumstances of Isaac's enrolment, and, even more strangely, the larger existence of a wizarding world. Djura accepted the empirical evidence of this bizarre new reality, and was distantly supportive of his son. But when Djura lets his mind wander to the subject of magic, he is filled with a seething resentment born of realising wizards were always able to intervene in war... but never did.

Despite all this, Djura finds solace in the quiet eeriness of nature. He spends much of his time living at Hazel Cottage, a quaint but handsome country home he had built near Isaac's new school, a location chosen partly so he can at least be vaguely aware of the new world his son has found himself embroiled in, but also so he himself can be closer to nature. This has allowed Djura to return to his first and only beloved hobby: falconry.

The Crossridge family motto is "Natura Non Constristatur"; Nature Is Not Saddened.

Personality: Now aware of magic as a result of his son being enrolled in Hogwarts, Djura harbours a profound but nonviolent loathing for the wizarding world. He finds it deplorable and unforgivable that wizards do not intervene in war, disease, famine, and other magically preventable atrocities.

Because of his experiences during times of war, Djura is quiet, distant, and does not allow himself to get close to people. This includes everyone from "friends", locals and servants to his own children, who are raised by a governess back at the Crossridge family home in Canterbury. Meanwhile, Djura spends most of his time living alone with a few servants in Scotland. He is a friend to animals and the wild.

Thus positioned as a lone wolf, Djura finds it safest and calmest to live solo, exploring the sundry landscapes, hunting, sketching, and distracting himself from the dark depths of his mind, being unable to confront his trauma and forbidden by propriety and masculinity from expressing it aloud. But he is also very dutiful and proper, obliged by Queen And Country to attend military functions, and compelled by his elder relatives to occasionally socialise with fellow elites.

When discretion is assured, Djura occasionally engages in acts of unethical distraction such as opium and promiscuity.

Other: Cashing in an AtO for noble family! ^___^
Sample Roleplay Post: N/A

Out-of-Character

Name: Willow
Age: A wee bit older than 30 at this point >___>
Contact: PM
Other Characters: Arven Fisk Bragi Holm Clue Leverett
How did you hear about us?: On the Devil Winds~

  

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

— graphics by lady ❤ —