Merrick Raine

Sir Merrick is the tall, dark, handsome astrology teachers sure to make the young witch students swoon at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Appearance
Merrick is often regarded as handsome, standing at about six foot two inches tall and decently muscled build. He has a charismatic smile that has made quite a few maidens swoon. He has the characteristic Raine dark hair, which he keeps clipped fairly short for the ease of washing. He has dark eyes that sparkle with his good natured personality and give the sense of warmth. Merrick tends to shed his knightly armor in favor of more comfortable riding clothes consisting of pants and a loose fitting shirt. An interesting feature always found on him regardless is a sash with the tartan of Munster, where he was born.

Personality
Being the middle child in a family of three children, Merrick was rather carefree. Being a natural born hard worker, once he sets himself to a task he becomes determined to finish it, almost obsessively. While he doesn't necessarily care for fighting, when provoked, he won't back down and will fight valiantly. As the second son, he is a fully trained knight, though he would rather do without the heavy armor.

History
The Raine family hails originally from Southern Ireland, namely the province of Munster, and are directly related to the line of current King of Munster, Brian Boru. As the family line grew, the Raine's spread to Scotland, Wales and Britannia. Mannix Raine and his bride Cait Connogh left the isle for Britannia in 960. Partially to keep tabs on the Viking raids there, but also to look for a better and less war torn life. One year later, Cait gave birth to their first child, a son they would name Maximus, after a dearly departed friend of Mannix. Two years following, they were graced with another son, Merrick, named after Cait's father.

Merrick was an easy going child, and always available to cheer the family up on rainy days. Where his brother was more serious, sturdy and smart, Merrick was more carefree, hard working and tenacious. The parcel of land that the Raine's owned, and thus derived their Barony, Merrick could often be found working different parts of the land for the simple joy of seeing his hard work pay off. His parents and later his brother would have to pull him away in order to do his studies.

While Maximus was more adept at learning theory and abstract in the ways of the world and of magic, Merrick required a much more hands on approach and thus excelled at subjects like charms, transfiguration and defense. When the boys reached a certain age, individually they were sent back to Ireland to serve time in armies of their heritage. They would both come back new young men.

When Merrick returned home, before his elder brother, he had a new understanding of the world. Though he had served as a respectable knight, he could do without the fighting and the heavy armor. It was in his easy going nature to prefer diplomatic solutions to problems. That's not to say he would not fight if need be. When the time came to fight, he would do so with honor and not give up until the battle was done. It wouldn't do his pride to not work hard at everything he did.

While in Ireland, he had become inspired by the commonalities and differences of the personalities of his fellow knights. He quickly made a correlation between these similarities and their times of birth. Fascinated by this, upon his return home he began pouring over any literature he could get his hands on including a transcribed account of Astrology by Alfred the Great. He then left home once more to explore the world to learn other worldly views about it.

While around muggles, he kept his interest in astrology to meteorological and medicinal use, but around his own kind he would research and prepare natal charts for them. He became quite renowned for this in the wizarding circles. With his now extensive knowledge of astrology he was asked to teach others at Hogwarts, a new Wizard's School that was the first of its time.