In-Character
Full Name: Edgar Howard CurtisNicknames: TBD
Birthdate: October 29, 1866
Current Age: 28 Years
Gender: Male, perceived Male
Occupation: Cursebreaker
Reputation: 9?
You can't be this intense about something without coming off as at least a bit odd.Residence: A flat in Irvingly
Hogwarts House: N/A - Attended Ilvermorny
Wand: Sycamore, 11 1/4 inches, phoenix feather, sturdy
Blood Status: Half-Blood
Social Class: Middle
Family:
Father. Joseph Curtis (b. 1828)Appearance:
Mother. Matilda Curtis nee Selden (1834-1874)
Sister. Margaret Curtis (1865-1881)
Standing only a bit under five feet nine inches, Edgar is a man of average build with brown skin. His hair is a curly black, and he has dark brown eyes. He wears rather unassuming fashions--nothing particularly flashy really suits him, to be honest. He is right-handed.
History:
The thing about blood curses is that they take their sweet time. When Edgar is young, he doesn't think too much about it. He's a curious child, but early on that curiosity is funneled into books, and if his early years are dotted with the tragic losses of some cousins, he's at least too young to really understand. There's a kind of mercy in that, Edgar thinks. Children, even children surrounded by death, don't really understand what it means yet, and that was probably good for Edgar's long-term sanity overall.
Still, the loss of his mother in 1874 to wasting illness is devastating, and Edgar isn't sure he's ever truly recovered. Maybe he might have, eventually, but then three short years after that they lose his cousin Goneril, too--not the first cousin he's lost to the curse, but the others had gone before he was old enough to remember, or understand, and though by then that branch of his Selden family had moved to Britain, it adds to the weight Edgar feels on his shoulders.
There is some solace to be found in his studies, and Ilvermorny gains a particularly dedicated student when Edgar joins his sister there in 1878. He takes a particular interest in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, though he works hard enough to at least be reasonably competent in his other core subjects. And everything is... well, if not good, at least it's fine enough. For a while.
And then, in 1881, Margaret succumbs and it's worse. It's so much worse to lose his sister, and it casts a pall over the rest of Edgar's school days, as he buries himself in his studies. It's easier to feel like he has something to do, to work towards, than it is to let himself feel his grief--or worse, to be consumed by something that felt suspiciously like survivor's guilt.
Cursebreaking might have been a bit on the nose as far as career paths went, but honestly, it made life easier. Edgar wanted to find a way to break his family's curse, and if he had to work anyway, this seemed like the most natural option. And like the only option where he wasn't likely to get in trouble for being distracted. He spends the first several years post-Ilvermorny working for an American cursebreaking firm, where he increasingly felt like he was floundering as the years dragged on without anything like progress. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that it's not doing him much good studying the curse from afar, and begins making plans to move to Britain to be closer to his family there--particularly, his cousin Morrigan, who Edgar at least doesn't actively think about like a specimen to be studied. It doesn't prove too difficult to find himself freelance cursebreaking work in the meantime, and he finally makes the move to Britain in the last weeks of 1894.
Personality:
DEDICATED. CURIOUS. STUDIOUS. LOYAL. SINGLE-MINDED.
Out-of-Character
Name: Steph
