Salazar Slytherin

Salazar Slytherin is one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He teachers the Dark Arts and Potions.

Appearance
Standing at just under 2 meters tall, Salazar is a thin lanky man with a pale gaunt look. He is often well groomed, and though he can't grow a decent mustache, he wears mutton-chops. He has blue eyes. His hair is a reddish- brown, and he's self-conscious of the fact that he is almost a ginger, an unfortunate mistake as a child before he became proficient at potions. He leaves it as a reminder, though he has more than enough skill to remedy it. He is physically fairly clumsy, and often looks like he doesn't quite fit right with his body. His reactions are slow, and calculated.

Salazar is a scholar and a noble, and as a scholar, he should not be prone to brawls and fights. The scars on his body, though, tell another tale. He has a scar which runs from the bottom of his left cheek down to his left flank, from a wizard's duel which went terribly wrong. As well, he has several scars from attempted burnings. He tends to wear long sleeves, even when it is warm, to hide his prior indiscretions. His robes are either black or green, with a high collar to hide his scars.

Personality
Salazar Slytherin is a contradictions of sort when it comes to his personality. He is extremely intelligent when it comes to book learning, and potions. However, he has often been told that he has no common sense. He sees things logically and in black and white, and doesn't believe in shades of grey. Things are, or they are not. He tends to get into fights and duels more often than necessary because of this, as well as trouble with the muggle authorities. This is more or less out of a great desire to prove himself worthy, to prove himself as the better man, at anything, or everything.

When accused on his own right of being a wizard, it is often dealing with snakes, as Slytherin is a parselmouth. He has no great love for the beasts, but finds them immensely useful since he can speak with them. Unfortunately, he does not keep snakes around, due to the stigma involved. Salazar was raised in a wizard family, and grew up knowing the truth about magic, and how to properly wield it. He has a good grasp on spells, though combative magic is his weakest area. His greatest love is with potions. What he cannot fix with spells, he makes up for with potions. He can spend all day over the cauldron without eating, unless he's reminded to, which is partly why he's so lanky. Skilled and adept at Legilimens and Occlumens, Salazar is not very open with his emotions. Some family members say he was born without the ability to feel deeply, he works by logic. He does feel, but it is kept tightly controlled, especially now that he has matured more. His greatest power, and his greatest flaw, is the fact that he doesn't feel like a normal person, and has never truly known love.

Salazar has problems with muggle-born wizards, not so much for their lack of education of the magical world, but rather that all the family members tend to go into rants about devil worship, and then try to kill people. Those of the muggle-born wizards that don't have issues with family, tend to focus less on learning, and more on earning for their families back home. Being a scholar, and a genius, Salazar does not tolerate anything less than the best, and those not willing to give it their all and be beyond average are not worth his time or energy. It didn't really matter to him if they were the most skillful or the most intelligent, but rather just that they had the drive and the willingness to learn to be the best.

History
Salazar Slytherin was born to a witch and a wizard, Duke Cenwalh and Lady Odelia Slytherin. They were nobles with a large area of land, but it was a rocky area where little was destined to grow. It was only through the vast herbology knowledge of Odelia and Cenwalh's potions that the rocky soil was fertile enough to grow useable food stuffs and herbs. Thus, Salazar's older brother Severn, and he were taught by tutors that lived on the land. They were taught all the ways of nobles, from reading, writing, to arithmetic and law. They also taught the ways of wizardry, from transfiguring mice to goblets, to defending against trolls.

Severn was always the favorite of the two boys, able-bodied and strong, able to ride and fight with the best of them, destined to be a knight. Salazar on the other hand, was a thin and almost sickly looking child most of his life, who stayed in-doors and studied rather than go and practice with a sword or ride on a horse. Staying in-doors to study, he soon became much more adept at practical magic, and theoretical magic, than his brother.

Salazar also fought viciously with his brother growing up. They would duel with swords or wands constantly, and it was only with the wand that Salazar had a chance of winning. He was slower than his brother, and predictable, even if he did have a better grasp on magic. The young wizard was impetuous, and fought with people constantly over perceived insults and challenges of honor. As he grew older, he realized his fights were not working, and instead focused on occlumency and legilimency, and dark arts. Though he never practiced the dark arts against his brother.

When Salazar's brother Severn was married Aelfwyn Gryffindor, another noble wizard, Salazar met Aelfwyn's brother, Sir Godric Gryffindor, a knight of great repute and prestige. He was fascinated by a wizard who was able to successfully duel far better than any person he had ever seen. To get help with dueling, Salazar helped Godric with charms, spells and potions, although with potions, he found it was much easier to do them than to explain his process.

Godric left the Slytherin lands, and Salazar soon found his parents baring down on him to get married and start a family, or start a career. This was hardly something that the scholar was interested in doing, his love was knowledge, and through knowledge power. After some insistence, Salazar left his family estate and went out traveling the world, telling himself it wasn't to get away from his family, but rather to learn more about the world at large. During this time, Slytherin had several close calls and was at one point tortured in Spain for being a wizard. He escaped, but not before it scarred him and warped his previously neutral opinion on muggles.

When he returned from his travels, he was dragged all but kicking and screaming by Godric to a meeting which would change his life. The idea was mentioned to make a school for wizards, to train them and protect them from the world. This idea pleased Slytherin more than he could explain, especially given his experience in Spain. It took several years to find a place and build the castle. Slytherin was instrumental in some of the protective spells which were placed around the castle to keep muggles from accidentally finding it. School would start in September, and there were a few things to be done, and a few more students to be found.