Ozpin

Ozpin was the headmaster of Beacon Academy.

Ozpin is introduced in "Ruby Rose", inquiring of Ruby Rose about where she learned how to fight, her future goals, and her desire to join his school. He is frequently seen with his cane despite having no visible motor impairment.

After "End of the Beginning", his fate and whereabouts were unknown after his battle with the newly ascended Fall Maiden, Cinder Fall.

At the beginning of "The Next Step", it is indicated that the villains believe Ozpin to be killed by Cinder's hand, though in "Of Runaways and Stowaways", doubt is cast on this when Salem interrogates Cinder about the matter once more. In "Family", Ozpin speaks to a Mistral farmhand named Oscar Pine through a connection later revealed in "Punished" to be that their souls have combined.

In "Unforeseen Complications", Ozpin reveals his own circumstances - because of a curse placed upon him by the gods, he is forced to reincarnate through individuals with mindsets similar to himself, with Oscar as his latest reincarnation.

Appearance
During the Beacon Arc, Ozpin looks like a middle-aged man with tousled silver hair and thin brown eyes. He has a light complexion and sharp facial features. Interestingly, Ozpin has black eyebrows, suggesting that he may have had black hair when he was younger.

He wears shaded glass spectacles and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the cowl around his neck. His outfit mainly consists of an unzipped black suit over a buttoned vest and green shirt. He also wears black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants. In addition to his cane, his other frequent accessory is a mug bearing the Beacon Academy emblem, from which he drinks hot cocoa.

Personality
Ozpin is typically both stoic and affable towards people he speaks to. It can be inferred from his indifference toward Ruby fighting Roman Torchwick, as well as the way he literally launches new students into the Emerald Forest for the Beacon Academy Initiation, that he has no real problem putting his students in mortal danger, given the right reasons or to accomplish an objective.

Ozpin can be humble, admitting that he has made many mistakes in the past. In addition, he possesses a more caring side, comforting Ruby and assuring her that her appointment as team leader was not a mistake. He is seen to care for the well being of his students, as with Blake Belladonna when he told her if she needed to tell him anything, she should not hesitate to ask. Ozpin is also shown to harbor a respect for the Faunus, something made clear during his conversation with Blake, yet is highly aware of the racial discrimination they suffer from humans.

Ozpin can also be very blunt, as shown when Jaune Arc asks him questions about the launch. According to Ruby and Yang Xiao Long in "The Shining Beacon, Pt.2", Ozpin did not "seem himself" while giving his speech to the incoming students.

Ozpin is also known to believe dearly in teamwork, which is one of the reasons why the huntsmen academies focus heavily on it.

According to Qrow, Ozpin believes in the validity of the religion of the brother gods who created humanity and the four relics.

Powers and Abilities
Ozpin harbors immense physical power as demonstrated in his fight against Cinder after she became the Fall Maiden. He's specifically shown to possess superhuman speed, creating a gray afterimage when he moves. Whether this is a natural ability or his Semblance is unknown.

Furthermore, Ozpin is able to resist attacks of incredible power by creating an energy barrier around himself.

Ozpin is a capable strategist and leader. He has the ability to persuade even volatile personalities to co-operate with his plans, and knows the right balance of firmness and kindness to get the desired results from his subordinates. He is also flexible enough to "bend the rules" if he feels the situation requires it, as shown in "Field Trip".

Ozpin's voice now resides in Oscar's head, due to his soul transferring to and fusing with Oscar's soul.

In "Unforeseen Complications" its is revealed that Ozpin was cursed by the gods of Remnant due to his failure of stopping Salem in the past. This curse allows his soul to be reincarnated and merge with a new host should his previous body be destroyed, his curse also allows him to retain all of his collective memories from previous hosts.

Ozpin can also take control of his host's body should they relinquish control to him. However, this ability seems to be temporary as it only lasts for a specific amount of time.

Trivia
For information on his character allusion and other choices for the character made by the creators, see Ozpin/Behind the Scenes.
 * Monty Oum released an image detailing the color-naming rule of RWBY, stating "Thus all the names in RWBY (Minus Ozpin... for reasons....) follow this rule."
 * In "Field Trip", Ozpin reveals that the color-naming rules have been a naming tradition in Remnant because of a war that ended almost eighty years before the events of the series.
 * Despite popular belief, Ozpin drinks hot cocoa, not coffee.
 * Ozpin's voice actor, Shannon McCormick, said, "Ozpin obviously takes his coffee black", jokingly noting that there's never any cream or sugar around him when he pours a cup. He also noted that, by the sound effect used in "It's Brawl in the Family" as the headmaster sloshes his coffee, he drinks iced coffee. Gray G. Haddock, however, has noted that this interpretation of the sound design is not true.
 * Shannon has cited Charles Dance's portrayal of Tywin Lannister from the American television series Game of Thrones as an inspiration for Ozpin's voice, despite their being very different characters from one another.
 * A silhouette of Ozpin appears in the DVD and Blu-ray exclusive World of Remnant episode, "Aura", while the narrator says "With enough training and focus, a user's Aura can turn them into something much more than just a man".