Character Planner/Njord Vanhanen

Details

 * Seventh Year
 * Thomas Hayes
 * Actor
 * Half-Finnish
 * Half-Norwegian

History
Njord Vanhanen is the only son of famous muggle actor, Freya Christensen and her husband Martin Vanhanen. Now, by the time Freya started dating Martin she was already a very well established actor so the media found it very odd that she started dating this random guy. Or someone they thought was a random guy. It turns out that Martin was actually a childhood friend of Freya, and we're talking childhood because Martin started attending boarding school at age 11. Or at least that's what he told Freya. The reality is that Martin went to Durmstrang Institute. A magical school in Bulgaria. Yes, I did say magical. Martin is a wizard.

However, because of a little document called the Statute of Secrecy, Martin couldn't tell Freya this. So they went through the courtship process, the dating, the proposal, the wedding planning and the actual wedding and Martin still couldn't tell Freya. It wasn't until their oldest son, Njord was born that Martin finally spilled the beans, because Njord was inevitably magical so she'd find out later anyway. Luckily for Martin, once he explained everything including the reason why he couldn't tell Freya, the muggle actor took it well.

Freya took it well enough that she stayed with Martin and continued to have children with him. The couple had a grand total of 7 kids, including Njord. However all of them with the exception of Njord were girls. They are in order of birth as follows: Julia, two years younger than Njord, Karolina, three years younger than Njord, Rebekka, five years younger than Njord, Storm, seven years younger than Njord, Birgitta, eight years younger than Njord and finally, Isabella, 10 years younger than Njord.

Now, from a young age, Njord seemed to take after his father in terms of looks but his mother in personality. As in, he often found himself in trouble but was able to smoothly lie his way out of it. His mother, of course, saw right through it, but he almost always duped his father. Because of his apparent skill and lying and his mother's profession, Njord was signed up for acting classes at age four. Njord took to it like a fish to water. The boy was a natural.

For three years, Njord trained and practiced as an actor before finally at age 7, he secured a spot in the junior actor's guild from the company he was training with. It was a simple play really, a rendition of one of the Old Norse myths. Njord was cast as Thor, which was a very large part in the play. Before he went on stage, Njord started to get stage fright so he remembered something his parents told him. If you ever get scared, just imagine the audience is in their underwear. An old piece of advice, and usually harmless. If not given to a young wizard who's nervous and due for his first show of magic. Njord accidentally made his vision come true. The entire audience lost their outer layer of clothing and was clad only in underwear. Obviously, they didn't know it was Njord, so the audience blamed it on a freak accident that couldn't be explained. The show was postponed while everyone went home to get properly dressed before coming back the next day for the performance. Njord did fantastic, and he didn't picture the audience clad in underwear again.

Njord's closest childhood friend was a girl named Brynja Skovgaard. She was being homeschooled in Oslo as well, her reasoning was that she wanted to see her family and friends more, his was that his mother's reputation in Muggle world meant there were muggle paparazzi everywhere he went. Getting him to Durmstrang would be challenging and explaining where he was would also be tricky. So he was homeschooled in Oslo, and became very close with Brynja. When he was 14 and she was 13, Brynja moved to England with her cousin. Njord wanted to follow but his parent insisted that was not an option. It crushed Njord and he missed his friend, so he vowed that soon as he was 17, he was going to move.

And he did, or rather he tried. Soon as he turned 17, he tried to transfer because he no longer needed his parents signature, but his parents said they wouldn't pay for it. So Njord worked many different performances and plays, most magical, so he could work up the money for the transfer. Finally, he did it. He had enough money for the transfer, his parents couldn't stop him so he put the papers in and waited. It was finally approved and Njord was allowed to finish up his education in Hogwarts. However, it would be as a sixth year, because Hogwarts wanted to make sure he had the proper education under his belt to finish his NEWTs, so they were gonna make him do half of sixth year over again. Njord was fine with that. It meant he'd be in Brynja's year.

Personality
Njord is a very old-fashioned romantic, he strongly believes in chivalry and manners. However, that doesn't mean he's blind to all the new ideas behind who can date who and gender identity. Njord fully supports that, love is love after all. He doesn't care, the only thing that's old fashioned is his style of courtship. Which, generally transfers to how he acts outside the dating world as well. He's a perfect gentleman.

That said, Njord does know how to have fun and get crazy with his friends. He's not opposed to wild nights and weekends, the only thing he would object to about that would be getting into fights. Njord is a pacifist and hates violence, in fact, he hates violence so much he refuses to act in plays that involve violence. Or, grotesque violence really. If it's necessary for the plot, and is simple and not gory, like Romeo and Juliet, he has no objections.

Njord is not perfect, nobody is and that certainly applies to Njord. The young man suffers from some pretty serious low self-esteem and needs his friends and family to keep his head up. He makes self-deprecating jokes all the time and is prone to bouts of depression where he just doesn't want to talk to anyone or do anything. Very few people have been able to talk him out of those bouts. Brynja, his parents, and his siblings. It's an exclusive list.

Njord's also a bit naive, a trait that comes with pacifism it seems. He's an idealist and believes that everyone has the potential to reform and become a better person. He believes in redemption and many chances as it takes for someone to turn their life around. He's ambitious and wants to shoot for the stars, but what he's accomplished so far is never enough. He could do something else crazier, something better. He could never settle for what he's done so far. He's constantly chasing perfection, even though he believes perfection doesn't exist.

Open-Ended Questions
1) What would you consider to be your character's strengths, and your character's weaknesses? Elaborate on your answer.

Njord's strengths would include his ambition and drive to constantly improve. He's also got impeccable manners but knows how to have fun with his friends. So he's not a stick in the mud. He's open-minded and believes everyone is equal, no matter what they look like, what their race is, who they love or any of that. Everyone deserves respect and love, no matter who they are.

However, Njord is also very naive and idealistic. He believes that everyone deserves an unlimited amount of chances and will always forgive someone if they apologize. He's also got extremely low self-esteem and suffers from serious bouts of depression. He'll never settle from what he's accomplished, always chasing an unattainable perfection.

2) What goals and objectives has your character set out in their life? Is it to be successful and rich? Is it to find happiness? Why?

Njord's goals are constantly changing. He's very goal-driven, constantly setting goal after goal, constantly improving. Currently, his goal is to win the heart of his childhood crush, Brynja Skovgaard.

3) What's their ideal way of spending a free day? Why so?

His ideal way of spending a free day is spent improving himself through some means. Maybe it's becoming closer with friends by spending time with them, maybe it's spent improving his acting, maybe he's practicing and refining his manners. Maybe he's doing something nice for a friend. Long as he's doing something, Njord can't just sit around and do nothing.

4) If your character could only keep 5 possessions, what would they be? Why?


 * 1) His Locket: His locket has a picture of his family on one side and a quote on the other. "No family is perfect... we argue, we fight. We even stop talking to each other at times. But in the end, family is family. The love is always gonna be there." Every member of his family has one, each person has a different quote depending on what they need reminding of. Njord needs to reminded that he has people there for him, always.
 * 2) His Ring: At age 13, he won an award from the magical actor community in Norway. Best Young Actor's Award. It came with a trophy and a ring, he always wears the ring to remind himself he is good at something.
 * 3) His Wand: He needs it to perform magic. Simple at that
 * 4) His Bracelet: It's nothing special, just a simple silver band with an inscription. If you only knew how much those little moments with you mattered to me. It was from Brynja before she left. He's never taken it off since.
 * 5) Book on Old Norse Myths: His mom used to read this book to him when he couldn't sleep. He still reads it to himself if he can't sleep, even to this day. There are simply too many good memories about this book to give it up.

5) What one thing would your character change about the wizarding society? Why?

He'd blend the magical and muggle world. He's personally been stuck in the middle and it sucks to be in the middle because it tore him away from his best friend.

6) What house does your character want to be in? What house does your character not want to be in? Why?

Njord wants to be in Ravenclaw because it's Brynja's house. Other than that, he doesn't really care.