(Or, what is and is not canonical for Colonel Sebastian Moran. Because I think if people want to play about with Moran in all these different (usually modern) fan versions, fine, but surely knowing the basics is good even if you just want to ignore them and do your own thing? And some people seem to have the wrong idea about what is from canon and what is from pastiches/other versions.)
Canonically Moran was not:
- Irish (He was born in London)
- A sniper (He uses an air rifle for assassinations; he’s also a brilliant big game hunter (best known for hunting tigers) and an ex-army man and Holmes calls him “the best shot in India” and he appears capable of doing jobs for Moriarty that no one else can do. But he was not specifically an army sniper.)
- said to have any brothers or sisters
- dishonourably discharged from the army (He retired from the army after making “India too hot to hold him”. What precisely it was that he did is not specified.)
- scarred in any specific manner, such as a scar over one eye or on his chest.
- ever seen with Moriarty (The story in which he appears is set after Moriarty’s death.)
He is however canonically:
- Described as Moriarty’s “bosom friend”
- Well educated and intelligent and from an apparently respectable family
- Brave
- Moriarty’s chief of staff for a time, and well paid by Moriarty
- A card cheat
- An author
- Blue-eyed
- Described as old/elderly, although he is only in his 50s at the time
Anonymous
