Application for magicdraft

[rules_the_north]

PLAYER INFORMATION

NAME: Kira
AGE: 23
JOURNAL: whatisnarva
AIM/PLURK/EMAIL: plurk: whatisnarva
CURRENT CHARACTERS: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION

SERIES: Axis Powers Hetalia
NAME: Sweden | Berwald Oxenstierna (I rather dislike Sweden's human name because the first name is no first name; if the human names are necessary, I'd like to shorten "Berwald" to "Ber", because that could be the short form of an actual Swedish first name)
RACE: Nation
AGE: ~1600; looks 19
CANON POINT: 1588
REFERENCES: Wikipedia on Hetalia; Sweden on the Hetalia wiki; Sweden's short introduction, please scroll down
GENDER: Male
APPEARANCE: Tall, blond, short hair, wears glasses; typical clothes of a noble of his period; his general looks are simply very masculine and muscular without there being any exceptional body-builder muscles or something, he is however very threatening due to the combination of his scary facial expression and his tendency to not talk much and stare at/loom over other people. A few pictures, also future!Sweden

PERSONALITY & HOUSE REQUESTS:

Sweden is intimidating. That will be the first thing that people notice about him, and for those that never get to know him better (and even for some that do) he will always stay that. The only real exceptions to this are Norway, who is too deadpan and also too similar in him by nature to be scared of him, and Denmark, who is too much himself to be scared of anyone. A few factors contribute to this.

One is definitely his facial expression. Very early one in his life, his face fell into a frown that only seemed to get stronger when he started to need glasses, which was probably around or a bit prior to 1500 AD, as he doesn't have them yet on sketches that seem to be set during the Kalmarunionen period, so the 15th century, but wears them in 1523. He doesn't do it on purpose, and often doesn't even seem to be aware of it, but his default expression is a frowning one, and that gets worse when he is concentrating or thinks/worries about something: When Finland asks him if he wants to say anything in ways of congratulations, his attempt to figure out what to say get interrupted by his former territory because the aura and glare are almost giving the younger nation a heart attack.

Silence and thinking are two other reasons for the scary image. Sweden is very shy when it comes to the spoken word; he worries a lot about what to say and how it will come out, if it is appropriate to the situation and mood and down to details like wording choices. That means that every word that comes out of his mouth has been turned over and looked at from all sides multiple times when he gets it out, which makes for a) long silences (in which his frown deepens because he is thinking hard, which makes it look like disapproval) and b) very little words. When he speaks three short sentences in a row, Finland reacts very surprised, implying that that is a very big exception. This fanfic by me is a bit old, but it still demonstrates the ratio of words that he says and words that he thinks rather well. As in, the number of the second kind is disproportionally much larger. He simply does not say anything that he deems unnecessary, and for the necessary things, he takes ages to find the right wording.

The problem with this is that it makes for serious miscommunication or at least lacking communication. On the one hand, he sometimes will just utter the results of a long thought process without giving any context; on the other hand, he will do things without talking to those affected beforehand. Which is troublesome when dealing with other people - even more because his general intimidating image often keeps other from trying to bring up complaints. Finland, who has been living with Sweden for many centuries at that point and probably can read him the best (after Norway, maybe - it would make sense if Norway could read Sweden well, but we haven't seen enough canon interaction to decide on this), claims that he only understands what is going in the older nation's head half the time.

The miscommunication can turn good intent into oppressive, controlling or offensive actions, which is especially likely to happen because the Nordic can be very overbearing, possessive and protective (please look * for an example), but at the same time easily hurt: When Finland demanded his personal space, Sweden overreacted and retreated into a corner of the house, telling his partner that he could have the rest.

So I've mentioned Finland a lot up there, right? It almost reads like I'm writing about Finland and not about Sweden? Well, that is because you see, Finland is CUTE. He is even cute when he is wearing the scariest costume at the Halloween party. He has always been cute and will always be cute. He's the most wonderful guy in the world.

...in other words, Sweden like him. A lot. Word of God dictates that Sweden is gay for Finland, and only Finland, in a way that implies that he isn't bi and makes an exception for his eastern neighbour, but that he really is only interested that way in one living being, and that is Finland. Besides Denmark, who used to be his best buddy and brother when they were younger and now his his favourite enemy (it's a cannot be with and cannot be without kind of thing), Finland is the most important person in his life. * They met when they were still young, and at some point Sweden picked Finland up, made him Christian and took him home. How consensual all of this was is questionable, but fact is that Sweden wanted the other nation around, to spend time with him and protect him... He has always only wanted the best for Finland, to be sure that the other nation is safe and happy, to the point where he retreated from a battle to not see his "wife" hurt, and whenever he really did make feel Finland bitter or angry or bad in any other way, he didn't mean to; and because he isn't the best at interpreting Finland's words and actions, he probably doesn't even notice more often than not.

"Wife"? Wife. That is what he describes Finland as when they visit Estonia. The most likely explanation for the weird gender confusion that shows in Sweden calling his crush his wife despite knowing very well that he is male is that he doesn't care much about gender, and more about the implications that come with it. The "wife" belongs to the "husband"'s household, is under his jurisdiction and stays with him; at the same time he has to protect and care for her, and the wife-husband relationship shows others that she is protected and belongs exclusively to her husband: If you touch her, it is his responsibility to kick you in the face. So the wording is a mixture of possessiveness, protection and a definition of male-female that sounds diffuse to a modern person, but probably not so to someone who grew up with Viking values, since in their society it seems to have been possible for a male to bed a male as long as the bottom wasn't a "man" - prisoners of war or slaves, for example (bottoming was impossible for a "man" because it completely destroyed his honor and could even be a reason for him to be executed - even if he had been raped).

So on the outside, Sweden is scary which he doesn't mean to be, and on the inside he is shy. Sweden on the inside has also been described as playful by the author. Playing with the dog, liking colourful designs and cute things in general, even lightly teasing others (which due to his above mentioned interior often goes unnoticed or gets interpreted incorrectly), things like that. It is a quiet, kind of domestic way of being playful, but it is there.

And if we add that, at first glance he would fit the description of a gentle giant, correct? That sounds like Hufflepuff to me.

Yeah, no.

His house would be Slytherin, and there are reasons for that.

Let's look at a few historical events first.
In 1658, Sweden invaded Denmark, seizing his capital. The only reason if this was to humiliate his neighbour. There was no military need for it.
Swedes are said to be very arrogant by especially the Danes and the Dutch. Since Hetalia is about stereotypes, that is something to look into. The huge shock that hit Sweden when in the last elections right-wingers were suddenly elected, despite Sweden always having looked down on especially Denmark but also others for having trouble with right-wing parties or even having them in the government was generally interpreted as a "see, you have no reason to be arrogant".
Sweden was a friggin empire. You don't get there by being nice.
He can be quite opportunistic and mean - when he seized Norway in 1814, it was a spoil of the Napoleonic wars (Denmark had been on France's side, Sweden on the Coalition's), and he was dead-set on getting that nation into his house. Even though at this point Norway wasn't a part of Denmark anymore. Despite the nations that helped him get Norway being highly uncomfortable and trying to talk him out of it. It was his right to get his hands on Norway and really, he had been trying for ages, and he would not suddenly fall from empire to nothing (he had lost Finland only a few years before that). And he would use any means for that.

Then let us have a look at canon.
Finland alludes to the downsides of living with Sweden as "Ah, but I had more freedom with Russia" - and while the younger nation tends to talk faster than he thinks and in modern day voluntarily hangs out with Sweden a lot despite his people not being too fond of the Scandinavian, he doesn't even bother to take it back.
Knowing Hetalia canon's tendency to only allude to negative actions of characters or don't mention them at all, that is definitely something to keep in mind.

And then, of course, lets not forget that Sweden is on the rise at the point that I'm taking him from. While his basic personality has always stayed similar, opinions change and personality traits become weaker and stronger with time... and right now he is definitely very ambitious. Modern day Sweden would most likely belong to a different house, due to having calmed down a lot and becoming peaceful, but at this time, his first choice for him would be Slytherin.

The choice of the second house is rather hard. While Sweden certainly isn't dumb, he's quite intelligent and has produced his share of great scientists and a couple of great novelists, and while he has one of the best educational systems today, he has a quite ambiguous history with institutional schooling. Sweden's first university was build in 1477, but when the Protestant reformation hit, it stayed Catholic so students would go abroad to study. Compulsory schooling came in the middle of the 19th century. Hetalia canon always portrays Sweden as a practical man with wits, but more a doer than a talker. Ravenclaw thus would be an option, but not the first choice.
Another possible choice would be Gryffindor: Within his own system of morals and principles, the four traits mentioned in the poem fit him. He is daring and brave and can be incredibly chivalrous - but the chivalry is directly connected to his code of morals and social expectations. Compare it to a crusader who is a perfect gentleman and the best comrade and boss that a knight could wish for - but who has no qualms about slaughtering (or worse) Muslims and pillaging their houses and villages because they are outside of his codex.

I'm honestly unable to decide on the "second choice".

COMMUTER DETAILS: N/A

POSITION: Student

ABILITIES & POWERS:

Sweden, as a nation, is incredibly long-lived and more or less immortal (as long as there is a reason for them to be around, nations will not die, and even after that they seem to not "pass on" like humans do but in a lot more literal sense; they also seem to not be born like humans but simply show up). That does, however, not mean that he cannot be injured or that injuries would heal within seconds.
Since it is a passive ability, I believe that it shies away from being translated into HP-verse powers.

Except for that, Sweden has no supernatural abilities to speak of.
- Due to being very stubborn and slow to allow foreign ideas to overcome him, he will exel at occlumency.
- While they are not as extreme about it as Norwegians, Swedes love nature. Thus he will do well in Herbeology
- He is quite athletic and later on will especially like hiking and skiing. I'd say that, despite his height, he would be a quite skilled broomstick user (as soon as he can make himself use them...)
- Defence against the dark arts will probably a weakness because he is mediocre at best as soon as he is forced into a defensive position (just think about Poltava, 1809, Fehrbellin, and similar moments), so as soon as it comes to counter-spells, he's in trouble.
- Potions should be something that he is good at because he is good at putting things together piece by piece (like building a dog house or crafting things in general) and is patient and concentrated enough to get measurements and timeframes right.
- History of magic would probably be a weakness because he absolutely isn't used to having to study such things...

WAND: Pine, core of phoenix feather, unyielding, 13 inches.

Let's start off with the easiest, or why it has to be phoenix feather, because this worked in a knock-out reasoning.
-It cannot be unicorn, because unicorn wands suffer harshly from dark arts, and Sweden as a man who has been in uncounted wars of which a lot were offensive, has invaded and subjugated other nations, and just in general hasn't been the most peaceful nation (though not worse than others, and actually not nearly as feared as Norway and to an lesser extent Denmark during the viking ages), to have a real problem with them. If he were to get into situation where they are favourable, he would be pragmatic and use what seems to be the most useful.
-It cannot be dragon heartstring simply because it enables flamboyant spells. Sweden SUCKS at being flamboyant. He tried once to build a ship that was showing off a lot and it sank before it had left the harbour. Secondly, Sweden does not learn quickly. He has shown multiple times in his history that he adapts to new things very slowly - it took the union with Norway to push him towards democracy, and he took many decades longer than Denmark to adapt Christianity and the industrialisation, even though both would have helped him a lot.
-It cannot be Veela, because the only openly temperamental people in his area, Denmark, Prussia and Poland, he never got along with as soon as their temperament and his will clashed. And a wizard and his wand should be able to get through trouble together instead of trying to beat each other up. Also Veela would just... be weird on a tall scary guy, considering the creature that it is from and the only known carrier of a Veela core.
-Thestral hair is not only very rare but we also know nothing about its characteristics. Sweden is definitely able to see thestrals, but aside from that...
-And Phoenix feather works well because the wand has the widest range of possibilities but takes longer to reveal this - Sweden took about 700 years to reveal his abilities. Twice (during the viking ages and then for the second time starting a few decades after his independence). And Sweden is patient and strong in will and body, so he should definitely be able to deal with the phoenix feather's hard-and-taking-long-to-conquer trait.

The phoenix feather is from the same phoenix as that in Norway's wand (me and the mun agreed on this): They are the two Scandinavian peninsula Nordics and out of all the Nordics the most similar ones in language, culture and personality, so it wouldn't be too suprising for them to get twin wands.

For the pine... I will admit straight away that the main reason is that this wood is good for non-verbal magic. Sweden will have a hard time with verbal magic due to his speech predicament, and he will thus try to go for nonverbal spells as fast as possible, even if he has to sacrifice something (most of his free time, his grades in unrelated subjects, etc) on the way. A wand that supports him in that would be great.
The long life of the master fits Sweden, as one of the oldest nations, well. And while Sweden is often late to pick up new developments, he also is definitely no stranger to new, unusual ideas - IKEA, the build-your-own-furniture-for-cheap idea; to lay off merchants and only recruit people from one's own nation in the military sector; having a kind of retirement home for (merited) soldiers... all these were ideas that were odd and revolutionary in their time. So a wand that doesn't fight new and maybe unusual ways of doing things would be a good pick.
When Sweden was younger, he could certainly be perceived as a loner, since he did not go west like his two buddies Norway and Denmark, but instead headed east and then as far south as the East Mediterranean. While he isn't opposed to family life and even enjoys it, he will not take being second or third in command for a very long time; when he isn't alone, he at least wants to be left alone to do things the way he wants to do them. He most certainly seemed mysterious and and intriguing to those that he visited on his way; the varingian guards were in high demand, and he records that we have left speak of amazement in the people that were visited by his people. And while Sweden has never been an Italy, regarded as the country to go to if you ever go on a pilgrimage, have the money to travel or want to educate yourself culturally, it has sure been there in Europe's fantasy and fascinates until today (even though the reasons have shifted).

As mentioned above, Sweden is not one to change with the wind, and he also is too stubborn and proud to easily bend to pressure (please remember that we are talking about the pre-19th century aka pre-calming down Sweden here, as quite a few of his actions during the 20th century spoke of something different). As such an "unyielding" wand will work the best for him.

As a last point, the length will be 10.5 inches. While Sweden does have a large personality and does have a sense for dramatic gestures, he does not do them on a personal level and rarely on a nation level; his style of performing magic would be pragmatic and effective and not spacious and dramatic. For the same reason his style will hardly be elegant - Sweden is known to produce sturdy furniture, the elegant one comes from other places, just as an example. Thus a wand of mediocre length would work the best here.

The wand is obviously good at non-verbal magic; it is mediocre at defensive spells and below average at healing, but will be able to deliver amazing results with charms and really all other kinds of spells if Sweden puts effort into it.


MISC.: How long will it take until I can say that Sweden would start to be able to perform non-verbal magic?

WRITING SAMPLES

FIRST PERSON:

F'n 's my wife and nobody'll touch h'm.

[A face that is... really scary beyond intimidating glares into the camera.]

His name's Finland or T'no. [There is a short pause, he had thought about what he wanted to say thoroughly beforehead, but now he gets insecure again - is it really the right thing to say? But yes, there is no other way to figure this out.] 's there a way t' have h'm move ov'r?

[Everything in rules_the_north should work as well, if you need additional speech samples (Sweden simply does not talk much); he was from roughly a hundred years later in that game and had grown stronger, but the personality was essentially the same.]


THIRD PERSON:

He needs to figure out a way back as quickly as possible. Sure, his wife is here, and that is a relief; at least the man he can keep safe. The problem lies with the soil; what if- no, surely Russia will try to win the lands that were taken from him back as soon as he can, and that treaty will run out in only two years. A human might consider that a rather long time, but while time is just as relative for nations than for humans - an hour can be an eternity or gone in a moment depending on how it is spent - it just moves a lot slower in general. And he is from a time when time is still a concept different from the modern one. But, all that aside, the important thing is that time passes. And the Finnish southeastern border is not the only one that Sweden has to worry about.

Sweden calmly walks over to the next bookshelf and continues his search for books on crossing long distances or switching realms by magical means. While the use of magic, and even more him being supposed to do magic, still leaves lingering uneasy feelings in him (back home, people are burned on the stake for even the suspicion of that, and while he wouldn't do that to Norway, Norway is a special case and has always been), there is no reason why he should not use it to get back. After all, it is the most obvious way since it seems to have brought them here.

Norway... He would ask him for help with this in a heartbeat, simply because this is no field that is honorable enough for asking for help to injure his pride, but the whole being from the future deal makes him wary. In their time, Norway is, while in theory on Denmark's side, rather uninvested in their fighting and, most importantly, Sweden would know what to expect. But Norway from the future? Who will assure him that he isn't planning smething on the side that Sweden cannot predict because he lacks information? He'll try to get as informed as possible himself and then probably ask his neighbour. After all they will go back home together if at all. He's not leaving Norway behind any more than Finland.

Running his fingers over the back of a tall, slim book, the tall nation halts and looks over at the door. It's time for breakfast, and if he doesn't get there in time, the seats next to Finland might be taken. He cannot have that happen. With a short nod to the librarian, he quickly leaves the library and heads towards the Great Hall. If he can catch Finland before he enters hall, he can lead him over to Sweden's own correct table. That would definitely be a lot more appropriate than him sitting at Finland's table... but in the end, Sweden really doesn't care enough about the houses to let such details keep him from spending as much time with his wife as possible.

[If you need more samples: here & here & exactly this Sweden]