Post by Lucius Malfoy on Mar 18, 2010 16:39:53 GMT
When creating a story world, a writer has to set out certain rules that will they must keep to in order to make it believable. The rules are similar to the likes of physics in the real world.
I.e. a rule in a real world scenario would be that people can not fly.
In the Wizarding World, a wizard can not fly, but they can cast levitation spells on themselves or use a charmed broom or other such devices.
This post outlines some of the rules stated by J.K Rowling, and so therefore are absolute canon that must be kept to.
---------------------------
Death
>>Magic can not bring the dead back to life. Once you are dead, you are dead.
>>Ghosts were people who were very afraid of death.
>>The happiest people do not become ghosts.
>>Peeves isn't a ghost; he was never a living person. He is an indestructible spirit of chaos, and solid enough to unscrew chandeliers, throw walking sticks and, yes, chew gum.
>>To see Thestrals, the death you have witnessed has to have 'sunk in'. Harry could only see them after Cedric's death as he finally understood what death meant.
Magic
>>Nobody knows where magic comes from: sometimes it is inherited, sometimes only one person in a family has it.
>>A wand is a "vessel for what lies inside the person". It should reflect personality.
>>You can do unfocused and uncontrolled magic without a wand. But to do really good magic, a wand is required.
>>There is legislation about what you can conjure and what you can't. Something that you conjure out of thin air will not last. This is why wizards need money.
The Five Principle exceptions to Gamp's Law
Things that can not be conjured:
1. Food or anything organic, you can make more of it, change the size, shape but not create it out of thin air.
2. Gold or anything that has in and of itself a substantial value. Remember gold is one of the things the philosophers stone creates because it has a value more than being shiny.
3. Life. Simple enough, you can transfigure something to be based on something else, make it behave realistically, but you cant make it live.
4. Anything too complex, which requires something of true value.
5. Anything too magical, which required specific magic. Like broomsticks, wands and potions.
>>Difference between charms and transfiguration: A charm adds properties to an object. Transfiguration alters its nature completely.
>>Wizards come of age at 17, meaning that they are allowed to use their powers outside school and be recognised as an adult suitable for employment.
>>Wizards can make themselves untraceable, which is why they can't be found simply by sending and following owls.
>>The animal that one turns into if an animagus and Patronus produced represents personality. It is not the persons favourite animal.
>>The plural of Patronus is Patronuses (not Patroni).
>>You do not know what animagus form you will take until you have transformed.
>>Pensieves "recreate" the entire reality of the memory and are free of any personal interpretations or biases. Even things not initially noticed are recorded.
>>Harry is not a Metamorphagus; he is just a boy who was "clearly magical from birth." Incidents like him growing his hair back were due to his untrained, uncontrolled magical powers bursting out when he was angry or frightened.
>>Veritaserum is not used in criminal trials because it works best on "‘the unsuspecting, the vulnerable and those insufficiently skilled (in one way or another) to protect themselves against it." Veritaserum is not infallible.
>>The Order do not communicate with chocolate frog cards, or any object that would have to be carried on and remembered by the person. They use a form of communication that needs only a wand, and we have already seen it used by an order member before we even knew the order existed.
School
>>If a teacher is head of a Hogwarts house, we can assume they were in that house; that goes for ghosts as well.
>>Hogwarts teachers have homes away from Hogwarts during the holidays. Only Filch lives in the castle all year round.
>>Witches and Wizards do not have to go to Muggle school before Hogwarts. They can either do that or be home taught.
>>Most wizard children are home educated before Hogwarts because they cannot be trusted to keep their magical abilities hidden from muggle schoolmates.
>>The MoM does not find out which children are magic. Instead, there is a magic quill in Hogwarts that records the birth of a magical child, and McGonagall checks it every year and sends owls to those magical children who are turning 11.
>>Not everyone in Slytherin house is hateful. The house is important to Hogwarts to create balance.
>>The four houses “correspond roughly to the four elements.” Gryffindor is fire, Ravenclaw is air, Hufflepuff is earth, and Slytherin is water.
>>Prefects can take points — Ron got it wrong on OotP.
>>Arithmancy is predicting the future with numbers.
>>12 Is the maximum number of O.W.L.s that a person can recieve.
Muggles
>>The Muggle and Magical worlds will never be rejoined.
>>To people like Lucius Malfoy, a Muggle-born is as bad as a Muggle, so Harry is considered Half-Blood because of his mother's parents. In effect, a Muggle Grandparent "pollutes" the blood.
>>Muggle-born wizards were not allowed to be Death Eaters.
>>If a muggle saw Hogwarts, all the would see would be an old ruin with a sign 'Keep out, Dangerous building'.
>>Special messengers are sent to muggle parents to explain about Hogwarts when their magical child turns 11.
>>Muggles cannot brew potions because there is always a magical component, and at some point you would have to use a wand.
>>If a muggle picked up a wand something accidental and possibly quite violent would be likely to occur. The wand is a vessel for what lies inside a person. You need the magical ability to make it work properly.
Creatures
>>House-elves are different from wizards; they have their own brand of magic, and the ability to appear and disappear within the castle is necessary to them if they are to go about their work unseen, as house-elves traditionally do.
>>House elves have powers that wizards do not, but wizards have powers that elves do not.
>>Wizard portraits are not living or thinking entities, they are only a "distillation" of the real person. This "aura" can give advice or repeat catchphrases but not much more.
>>Dementors do not breed. They grow like fungus where there is decay. It is also rumoured that a person who a Dementor feeds from for too long may become one.
>>You can't domesticate a dragon.
I.e. a rule in a real world scenario would be that people can not fly.
In the Wizarding World, a wizard can not fly, but they can cast levitation spells on themselves or use a charmed broom or other such devices.
This post outlines some of the rules stated by J.K Rowling, and so therefore are absolute canon that must be kept to.
---------------------------
Death
>>Magic can not bring the dead back to life. Once you are dead, you are dead.
>>Ghosts were people who were very afraid of death.
>>The happiest people do not become ghosts.
>>Peeves isn't a ghost; he was never a living person. He is an indestructible spirit of chaos, and solid enough to unscrew chandeliers, throw walking sticks and, yes, chew gum.
>>To see Thestrals, the death you have witnessed has to have 'sunk in'. Harry could only see them after Cedric's death as he finally understood what death meant.
Magic
>>Nobody knows where magic comes from: sometimes it is inherited, sometimes only one person in a family has it.
>>A wand is a "vessel for what lies inside the person". It should reflect personality.
>>You can do unfocused and uncontrolled magic without a wand. But to do really good magic, a wand is required.
>>There is legislation about what you can conjure and what you can't. Something that you conjure out of thin air will not last. This is why wizards need money.
The Five Principle exceptions to Gamp's Law
Things that can not be conjured:
1. Food or anything organic, you can make more of it, change the size, shape but not create it out of thin air.
2. Gold or anything that has in and of itself a substantial value. Remember gold is one of the things the philosophers stone creates because it has a value more than being shiny.
3. Life. Simple enough, you can transfigure something to be based on something else, make it behave realistically, but you cant make it live.
4. Anything too complex, which requires something of true value.
5. Anything too magical, which required specific magic. Like broomsticks, wands and potions.
>>Difference between charms and transfiguration: A charm adds properties to an object. Transfiguration alters its nature completely.
>>Wizards come of age at 17, meaning that they are allowed to use their powers outside school and be recognised as an adult suitable for employment.
>>Wizards can make themselves untraceable, which is why they can't be found simply by sending and following owls.
>>The animal that one turns into if an animagus and Patronus produced represents personality. It is not the persons favourite animal.
>>The plural of Patronus is Patronuses (not Patroni).
>>You do not know what animagus form you will take until you have transformed.
>>Pensieves "recreate" the entire reality of the memory and are free of any personal interpretations or biases. Even things not initially noticed are recorded.
>>Harry is not a Metamorphagus; he is just a boy who was "clearly magical from birth." Incidents like him growing his hair back were due to his untrained, uncontrolled magical powers bursting out when he was angry or frightened.
>>Veritaserum is not used in criminal trials because it works best on "‘the unsuspecting, the vulnerable and those insufficiently skilled (in one way or another) to protect themselves against it." Veritaserum is not infallible.
>>The Order do not communicate with chocolate frog cards, or any object that would have to be carried on and remembered by the person. They use a form of communication that needs only a wand, and we have already seen it used by an order member before we even knew the order existed.
School
>>If a teacher is head of a Hogwarts house, we can assume they were in that house; that goes for ghosts as well.
>>Hogwarts teachers have homes away from Hogwarts during the holidays. Only Filch lives in the castle all year round.
>>Witches and Wizards do not have to go to Muggle school before Hogwarts. They can either do that or be home taught.
>>Most wizard children are home educated before Hogwarts because they cannot be trusted to keep their magical abilities hidden from muggle schoolmates.
>>The MoM does not find out which children are magic. Instead, there is a magic quill in Hogwarts that records the birth of a magical child, and McGonagall checks it every year and sends owls to those magical children who are turning 11.
>>Not everyone in Slytherin house is hateful. The house is important to Hogwarts to create balance.
>>The four houses “correspond roughly to the four elements.” Gryffindor is fire, Ravenclaw is air, Hufflepuff is earth, and Slytherin is water.
>>Prefects can take points — Ron got it wrong on OotP.
>>Arithmancy is predicting the future with numbers.
>>12 Is the maximum number of O.W.L.s that a person can recieve.
Muggles
>>The Muggle and Magical worlds will never be rejoined.
>>To people like Lucius Malfoy, a Muggle-born is as bad as a Muggle, so Harry is considered Half-Blood because of his mother's parents. In effect, a Muggle Grandparent "pollutes" the blood.
>>Muggle-born wizards were not allowed to be Death Eaters.
>>If a muggle saw Hogwarts, all the would see would be an old ruin with a sign 'Keep out, Dangerous building'.
>>Special messengers are sent to muggle parents to explain about Hogwarts when their magical child turns 11.
>>Muggles cannot brew potions because there is always a magical component, and at some point you would have to use a wand.
>>If a muggle picked up a wand something accidental and possibly quite violent would be likely to occur. The wand is a vessel for what lies inside a person. You need the magical ability to make it work properly.
Creatures
>>House-elves are different from wizards; they have their own brand of magic, and the ability to appear and disappear within the castle is necessary to them if they are to go about their work unseen, as house-elves traditionally do.
>>House elves have powers that wizards do not, but wizards have powers that elves do not.
>>Wizard portraits are not living or thinking entities, they are only a "distillation" of the real person. This "aura" can give advice or repeat catchphrases but not much more.
>>Dementors do not breed. They grow like fungus where there is decay. It is also rumoured that a person who a Dementor feeds from for too long may become one.
>>You can't domesticate a dragon.