Hello! my wands yew wood, Phoenix core, 14 1/2 inches, and had reasonable supple flexibility, but I was hoping you can analyze this if it had an occamy core (I’m not sure what part of the occamy would be best). And if it’s not too much to ask the appearance to please? Thanks so much!
Yew and Phoenix Feather, 14 1/2″, reasonably supple
Yew is traditionally a wood of death - deeply poisonous, grown in churchyards and used in making longbows, it is linked threefold, and three is a powerful number of magic. Matched to a Phoenix Feather you’re mirroring something dangerous already - the wand of the terrorist Tom Riddle - but that need not be a condemnation. Yew picks people who are unusual and Phoenix is versatile. Together you have a wand base that is potentially incredibly variable in who it might pick. Yew still has a predilection for duellers, though whether they are antagonists or defenders one can never easily say.
However, this wand does nonetheless trouble me. In this instance, the length indicates someone with a great deal more confidence, to the point of outright arrogance. The only saving grace here is the flexibility, granting some degree of give, some chance to change their mind. In the best case circumstances this is the wand of someone who’ll readily get into fights for what they believe in, but do so protecting others, changing their mind when challenged and allowing their confidence to encourage others to stand up in support and change their minds as well. However, in the worst case scenario you have someone who changes only as benefits them, who’s strength and confidence means they push to do what they want, and who only changes to find the path of least resistance.
I don’t have any particular ideas for how such a wand would look, I’m afraid. It depends too much on which of the two paths this wand’s bearer ends up taking.
Yew and Occamy Feather, 14 1/2″, reasonably supple
Occamy Feather is not a core I think is terribly common, not least because while Occamies may have sufficient magic to be adequate cores (if at the lower end, like Unicorn and Kelpie hair) their ability to change size as they will can make it hard to gauge which Occamies are older and more powerful, and which are new hatched. Consequently, one would hope this core had been well-vetted before being used, elsewise you might end up with a rather useless wand.
However, assuming the core is correctly selected, I feel that the predilection of Occamy cores towards charms and transfiguration would somewhat twist Yews own predilection for duelling and even curses. Instead of martial applications I feel that this wand would instead seek someone who always seeks something to do, who takes each new challenge as an opportunity. Not martial in magic, perhaps, but still someone who seeks a challenge and something that makes them push themselves. In this situation, the surprising length of this wand is much less concerning: it indicates someone who’s much proven themselves in the challenges they’ve thus far faced and who has a self-confidence that has far more likely been genuinely earned. Matched to the flexibility here you end up with someone who’s adaptable because they know just how useful it can be, and who is confident because they’ve earned it - and who nonetheless knows when to listen.
In this case I see the pale wood of yew turned almost silvery with some kind of stain or varnish, carefully etched lines stained darker that mark the handle and a little of the shaft in a pattern almost reminiscent of overlapping feathers.