I believe a lot of Merlin's personality and background can be discerned by who he works for and what exactly he does for that work. The sort of responsibility he has excludes him from what you'd call a conventional social life since it's not exactly 9-5, meaning he either does not desire one or that he believes what he does is a higher calling - I would say the truth lies somewhere between them.
Merlin comes from old money, as all Kingsmen before Eggsy do, and would need to have an aptitude that made him capable of being trained to take on his current mantle. Thus I will say that Merlin was fascinated with technology from a young age, being raised during a time when computers were being developed and critical to staying ahead of other countries ( particularly Russia ) during the Cold War. While he acts as moderator and mentor, I think his true passion lies along inventing and research. It's not explicitly stated in the canon that he invented every piece used, but there isn't a scrap of technology he doesn't know how to utilize, and I believe it's highly implied he did develop the cutting-edge gadgets the Kingsmen agents use.
If we can agree that's true, then his ingenuity walks the line between imaginative and practical, making computerized recording devices out of an inconspicuous pair of glasses and hand grenades out of lighters. You can say the same thing about how Merlin chooses to train his recruits as well.
Merlin is very efficient and even-tempered. While I wouldn't go so far as to call him cold, he is a bit reserved and disciplined. We never see him get angry or lose his temper, though he is annoyed by disrespect and quick to correct it, as evidenced by him effectively stepping on Eggsy's attempt to cause a scene with him after the parachute trial.
I do think he has a kindness to him, but it's couched under his professionalism. He has personal asides with Eggsy where he encourages him to make Harry and his own father proud, something I don't think a person would do if they didn't have some sympathy for the underdog. There's also a part where Harry murders 50+ people in a church that caters to racist, homophobic, anti-semite extremists, and Merlin can be seen looking on, horrified, from his monitor. The seemingly unwarranted slaughter of these people disturbs him, while later he shows no remorse in destroying the major players of the world's population ( who were guilty of trying to cull everyone in the world that wasn't them ) in an attempt to save both Eggsy and himself.
I mentioned it in the original application, but Merlin believes in the Kingsman credo, which is that you don't take a life unless it's to save another. His actions follow along that line by making sure all of his recruits survive his strenuous training and even by blowing up the heads of the social elite that played into Valentine's plan to essentially kill the 99%.
The choices Merlin makes in his canon presentation are built to serve what he believes to be the better good. That's what Kingsman is about, really. They don't serve a political agenda, but people, and the good of the world at large.
I don't think that was always necessarily true in his youth. With his credentials at the time, he should have easily been seen as a candidate for MI6 ( James Bond is Scottish, after all ). What he chose to do, however, is serve a master with no political bounds and one that would highly depend on his own intellect and training to survive. I think there was a certain arrogance in that, and I think there's still a certain intellectual arrogance to Merlin. However, he does have a better idea of what his limits are - he'll take on a three-man mission to save the world, but knows he can't hack a biometric encryption. I think he enjoys a worthy challenge when it comes down to it, but he doesn't waste his time trying to peck at something crucial with his mind when he knows a well-placed agent will do the trick.
Finally, to address your question of what he'd be like outside of a professional setting: he'll avoid exploring it. In Sanctum he'll be required to act like a civilian, but that doesn't mean he's going to go around making friends for more than what information they're going to supply him. He may end up liking some people that aren't suitable for his agenda - he'll try to keep them at arms length. His first concern would be to establish a base of operations and start getting nosy about Proles. This will be encouraged by Eggsy's presence.
I think most people who initially meet Merlin will judge him to be a reserved, almost shy, but still intuitive Scotsman with the deepest brogue ever. Basically very British. This is largely an unassuming facade he'll use to get more naturally helpful, or else egotistically helpful, people to respond to him. He does have a sense of humor, if a subtle one.
At the same time, to explain his network sample a little more, he'll be making a list of the connections that try to hack/decrypt his work, giving him a good starting list of people who are technologically advanced, by his standards, whom he may call upon later.
Among his colleagues and people he trusts, Merlin's much more confident, acting as counselor and confidant. With the canonmate already in the game, Eggsy, he's not going to hesitate to take the reins and be the boss. I don't think Merlin would enjoy the position of figurehead like Arthur, but he is a handler, and it's been shown he doesn't shy at being a leader when it's just him to fall back on.
Merlin would indeed be willing to act as mentor to non-Kingsmen, should he deem it a power move for him to do so, or maybe even if he sees the Immune are struggling with no real help from the government. In this case, he'll cite his experience as being an instructor in his own military ( headcanon: Royal Air Force ). Part of the plan for him in Sanctum is to be there long enough for him to infiltrate the Callsigns in whatever role is open - trainer or tech - to learn more and feed information to whatever organization he's managed to form before then.
Hopefully this clarifies things! Thank you for your consideration!
Re: REVISIONS
Merlin comes from old money, as all Kingsmen before Eggsy do, and would need to have an aptitude that made him capable of being trained to take on his current mantle. Thus I will say that Merlin was fascinated with technology from a young age, being raised during a time when computers were being developed and critical to staying ahead of other countries ( particularly Russia ) during the Cold War. While he acts as moderator and mentor, I think his true passion lies along inventing and research. It's not explicitly stated in the canon that he invented every piece used, but there isn't a scrap of technology he doesn't know how to utilize, and I believe it's highly implied he did develop the cutting-edge gadgets the Kingsmen agents use.
If we can agree that's true, then his ingenuity walks the line between imaginative and practical, making computerized recording devices out of an inconspicuous pair of glasses and hand grenades out of lighters. You can say the same thing about how Merlin chooses to train his recruits as well.
Merlin is very efficient and even-tempered. While I wouldn't go so far as to call him cold, he is a bit reserved and disciplined. We never see him get angry or lose his temper, though he is annoyed by disrespect and quick to correct it, as evidenced by him effectively stepping on Eggsy's attempt to cause a scene with him after the parachute trial.
I do think he has a kindness to him, but it's couched under his professionalism. He has personal asides with Eggsy where he encourages him to make Harry and his own father proud, something I don't think a person would do if they didn't have some sympathy for the underdog. There's also a part where Harry murders 50+ people in a church that caters to racist, homophobic, anti-semite extremists, and Merlin can be seen looking on, horrified, from his monitor. The seemingly unwarranted slaughter of these people disturbs him, while later he shows no remorse in destroying the major players of the world's population ( who were guilty of trying to cull everyone in the world that wasn't them ) in an attempt to save both Eggsy and himself.
I mentioned it in the original application, but Merlin believes in the Kingsman credo, which is that you don't take a life unless it's to save another. His actions follow along that line by making sure all of his recruits survive his strenuous training and even by blowing up the heads of the social elite that played into Valentine's plan to essentially kill the 99%.
The choices Merlin makes in his canon presentation are built to serve what he believes to be the better good. That's what Kingsman is about, really. They don't serve a political agenda, but people, and the good of the world at large.
I don't think that was always necessarily true in his youth. With his credentials at the time, he should have easily been seen as a candidate for MI6 ( James Bond is Scottish, after all ). What he chose to do, however, is serve a master with no political bounds and one that would highly depend on his own intellect and training to survive. I think there was a certain arrogance in that, and I think there's still a certain intellectual arrogance to Merlin. However, he does have a better idea of what his limits are - he'll take on a three-man mission to save the world, but knows he can't hack a biometric encryption. I think he enjoys a worthy challenge when it comes down to it, but he doesn't waste his time trying to peck at something crucial with his mind when he knows a well-placed agent will do the trick.
Finally, to address your question of what he'd be like outside of a professional setting: he'll avoid exploring it. In Sanctum he'll be required to act like a civilian, but that doesn't mean he's going to go around making friends for more than what information they're going to supply him. He may end up liking some people that aren't suitable for his agenda - he'll try to keep them at arms length. His first concern would be to establish a base of operations and start getting nosy about Proles. This will be encouraged by Eggsy's presence.
I think most people who initially meet Merlin will judge him to be a reserved, almost shy, but still intuitive Scotsman with the deepest brogue ever. Basically very British. This is largely an unassuming facade he'll use to get more naturally helpful, or else egotistically helpful, people to respond to him. He does have a sense of humor, if a subtle one.
At the same time, to explain his network sample a little more, he'll be making a list of the connections that try to hack/decrypt his work, giving him a good starting list of people who are technologically advanced, by his standards, whom he may call upon later.
Among his colleagues and people he trusts, Merlin's much more confident, acting as counselor and confidant. With the canonmate already in the game, Eggsy, he's not going to hesitate to take the reins and be the boss. I don't think Merlin would enjoy the position of figurehead like Arthur, but he is a handler, and it's been shown he doesn't shy at being a leader when it's just him to fall back on.
Merlin would indeed be willing to act as mentor to non-Kingsmen, should he deem it a power move for him to do so, or maybe even if he sees the Immune are struggling with no real help from the government. In this case, he'll cite his experience as being an instructor in his own military ( headcanon: Royal Air Force ). Part of the plan for him in Sanctum is to be there long enough for him to infiltrate the Callsigns in whatever role is open - trainer or tech - to learn more and feed information to whatever organization he's managed to form before then.
Hopefully this clarifies things! Thank you for your consideration!