Author Games: The City of Gold

Meet the Experts

Name: Gloria Itza

Age: 53

Gender: Woman

Position: Expedition head, resident expert on Mayan spellcraft and culture

Appearance: Gloria is of Mayan descent, with a strong, wide nose, graying black hair, and skin a rich brown from recent months of laboring in the hot tropical sun. Her face is lined, but filled with an energy that seems to radiate from her person like heat from an open flame. She stands at five feet, five inches tall, with a build made blocky, solid, and strong from years of walking miles every day.  

Personality: It's taken years of work, talent, and luck to bring Gloria from a small town in Oaxaca to global recognition in the wizarding world. Her insights in decoding and applying the spellwork in the  ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead gave her authority; it has all been for this purpose. With the Mexican Ministry's approval, she finally has the chance to search for El Dorado, a mythic city of alchemy so splendid that even most wizards deride it as a fairytale of Spanish greed. She knows better. And she has worked all her life to prove it right.

Frankly, if this doesn't tell you all you need to know about her personality, nothing will.

Wand: Hornbeam with thunderbird feather, 9.5 inches, unyielding

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: David Goethe

Age: 32

Gender: Man

Position: Security officer

Appearance: It is perhaps a bit too easy to overlook David; his face is the handsome side of average, extremely common in Europe, and absolutely forgettable. Dark brown hair is kept in a neat cut that could not be more age-appropriate if it had an office job and car insurance. The only feature of his that is truly startling is his eyes- they are a shade of green so bright they nearly glow in the dark. The strongest emotion his face displays on a daily basis is mild curiosity.

Personality: David has mastered the art of terror through gentleness; a native of Germany who studied at Beauxbatons, his undefined past has led to the birth of a thousand rumors- that he was an ex-Auror expelled for questionable battle tactics, that he practiced blood magic beneath the new moon, that he ripped apart minds with a single word. In truth, he is polite to a fault, elegant in every action, and competent at his job to a degree that makes others rather uncomfortable. Even the brashest of young wizards think twice before crossing him. He shares a close bond with his colleague Cerise Chevalier.  

Wand: Silver lime with dementor's cloth, 11 inches, reasonably supple 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Cerise Chevalier 

Age: 30

Gender: Woman 

Position: Runic Expert

Appearance: Though over a decade has passed since her graduation from Beauxbatons, there is no noticeable difference in Cerise's appearance. She is still small, still round, and still highly flammable. Though she is one of the heads of this expedition, she could very easily be mistaken for one of the students. Cerise has no sign of aging in her warm brown skin, and her large dark eyes still hold the wide innocence of a frightened forest animal. Her frizzy black hair is eternally singed, and has never grown any longer than shoulder length. 

Personality: This aspect of her, at least, has changed from her days at the academy. She now has a job (an important one at that) and has achieved her goal of making her father, the former Headmaster of Beauxbatons, proud. Though still childlike at heart, Cerise is able to be serious when necessary, and can be downright terrifying if her loved ones are insulted or endangered. She has gained better control of her magic and no longer spontaneously combusts (well, not as frequently at least,) and she is a master of deciphering runes and other ancient magical writings. 

Wand: Willow with Augurey tail feather, ten inches.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Faraji Wekesa  

Age: 25

Gender: Man

Position: Councilor 

Appearance: Faraji gives off an almost tangible sense of friendliness. He's tall, but not imposingly so, with a lithe athletic build. His eyes are a warm shade of brown, only slightly lighter than his rich coffee skin. His face is angular, but not sharp, and his easy smile reveals straight white teeth. His is handsome, though never arrogant, and seems like the type of guy you'd just want to strike up a conversation with. His hair is a labor of love and the only part of his appearance that he's remotely prideful about. The right side of his head is shaved to near baldness, while the left side is meticulously braided into shiny black rows that end in a plethora of multicolored beads made of glass, shell, and wood. 

Personality: Faraji is friendliness personified. To see him without a wide smile on his face or humor shining in his eyes. He's the type of guy a stranger in a coffee shop would ask to watch their belongings while they ran to the restroom. He's the type of guy who could calm down a crying kid in seconds, and who wouldn't think twice before handing his lunch to a homeless man on the street. (He's also the type of person who would beat up a guy for catcalling someone, but he didn't include that in his application for this position.) If there was one person on the planet who didn't have a single enemy, it would probably be Faraji. 

Wand: Rowan with unicorn hair, twelve inches, unyielding.