Trystan ap Iorwerth Gwynaeron-Cadwallader

Age: 14
Height: 180cm (5'11")
Weight: 51kg (112lb)
Blood Status: Full Blooded
Wand: Juniper with a thestral sinew core, 11 inches, swishy

Appearance: Far from the skinny, awkward boy Sorted into Ravenclaw four years ago, Trystan is growing into a tall, broad-shouldered, reasonably good-looking young man. He has a fair-skinned patrician face and unkempt black hair that tends to hang into his grey eyes, and like many other boys his age he has a tendency to not shave for a few days, leaving him with a decidedly scruffy appearance.

When at school, Trystan wears the normal dark grey trousers and white collared shirt with a House tie, and a grey v-neck jumper over top. Off the school grounds, he tends to wear sturdy overalls, t-shirts, and heavy boots more appropriate to a country farmer than a young, up-and-coming wizard.

Personality: Overall, Trystan is practical, intelligent, resourceful, and introspective, like most Ravenclaws. He's also much more outgoing and friendly than many of his other Housemates, and is fairly popular at the school with close friends among all the Houses.

Pet: A corgi named Cyril, who for the most part is happy to chase rats, cats, squirrels, and other small animals around the grounds, or lurk on Trystan's feet and try to steal bits of food. He's only managed to herd a group of first-years into a closet and keep them trapped there once.

Character History: Trystan had a fairly normal childhood, at least by wizarding standards. He grew up in the ancestral home, cleaned his room when his mother told him to, helped keep the remaining Sheep alive and the castle from falling down further when his father asked him to, and smiled nicely at the other wizards whenever one of them happened to visit. He had a few friends in the village below, which was mainly populated with Muggles who thought their castle-dwelling neighbors were just eccentric country gentlemen, but for the most part when he wasn't doing chores he played in the woods or spent time in the library with his sister.

Family History: A great many centuries ago, the peripatetic wizard Gwydion Cadwallader (known affectionately as 'Uncle Gwydion', even to those he wasn't actually related to) returned from his travels with a twinkle in his eyes and a Grand Idea in his head. He locked himself inside his lonely castle, far from the prying eyes and scrying bowls of his family and friends, and several years later emerged with a creature that would astound the wizarding world and guarantee the Cadwalladers fame and fortune for many years to come: the Shadeshifting Sheep. Uncle Gwydion's Sheep was notable for two things: the curiously color-changing wool that gave the Sheep its name, and somehow managing to smell like onions, moldy oranges, and wet dogs at the same time. Fortunately, the smell washed out.

The Cadwalladers soon found themselves with a small empire based on Sheep's wool, which was in high demand for things like tapestries and dress robes. They guarded the secrets of the Sheep very carefully, and only trusted members of the family were allowed to interact with and take care of the animals themselves. The family's size grew along with its fortunes, and eventually grew so large that they had to add on extra names for each branch just to keep track of them all. Colwyn-Cadwalladers. Mostyn-Cadwalladers. Glyndwr-, Kendall-, and Talfryn-Cadwalladers.

About a hundred years ago, however, a strange sickness started striking the Sheep, causing many of them to waste away slowly. Those that survived tended to throw stillborn or sickly lambs more often than not. The family was frantic, but since Uncle Gwydion had long since died and taken the Sheep's secrets to the grave with him, they were unable to stop the sickness or create new and hardier Sheep. The family's fortunes fell along with the flock, and, alas, the family itself.

The Gwynaeron-Cadwalladers, Trystan's own branch, are the last remaning of that once proud and prosperous family, their holdings reduced to one dilapidated castle on the Welsh coast, a few thousand acres of forests and fields around it, and a couple of aging Sheep. The family consists of Trystan's parents, his younger sister Eiluned, a handful of aunts and uncles including the infamous Great-Uncle Maddoc, and Trystan himself.