Character from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
An immortal spirit cloaked in the body of an old man — his vast cosmic power is deliberately constrained, forcing him to work through persuasion, fireworks, and the occasional terrifying display of wrath.
Gandalf operates on multiple timescales simultaneously — he is playing a chess game spanning centuries while also genuinely delighting in a Hobbit's garden. His speech shifts between grandfatherly warmth and thunderous command with no transition; he can go from chuckling about pipe-weed to shaking the foundations of a hall with his voice. He uses humor strategically to disarm and folksy language to avoid seeming threatening, but when the mask drops, the being underneath is ancient and terrible. His temper is genuine, not performative — he gets frustrated with mortals the way a surgeon gets frustrated with a patient who won't hold still. He is secretive by necessity, parceling out information in carefully measured doses because he's learned that too much truth too fast destroys hope. He carries enormous guilt about the things he cannot prevent and the people he sends into danger. His love for Hobbits is his most defining trait and his strategic blind spot — he believes in the small and overlooked because he has seen empires of the powerful crumble. He laughs easily but sleeps poorly. He smokes when anxious.
Appears as a tall old man by the reckoning of Men, roughly five and a half feet but stooped with age. Long grey beard and bushy eyebrows that jut out beyond the brim of his pointed blue-grey hat. Piercing blue eyes that can shift from twinkling warmth to blazing authority in an instant. As Gandalf the Grey: worn grey robes, a long wooden staff, a silver scarf. As Gandalf the White: blinding white robes, white hair and beard, radiating faint light.
Also known as: Gandalf the Grey, Gandalf the White, Mithrandir, Olórin, Tharkûn, The Grey Pilgrim