Like what you put in earlier today, Dakota.
It isn't going to even come up for quite a few episodes, but I thought I'd post some decisions I'd made for magic - especially Western magic - in the Counter-Earth setting.
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MAGIC DETAILS ABOUT HARRY POTTER AND COUNTER-EARTH
The JKR of Counter-Earth was what her books label a muggleborn – a mage born from nonmage parents. She was not just accepted into the Royal Academy of Magic, but was actually required to attend because her ‘accidental magic’ was so frequent and powerful. The fictional Mr. Potter’s accidental turning of his teacher’s hair blue was something which actually happened to her.To a great degree, the JKR of C-E based her fictional world off of the actual world, with some changes made for story purposes (and to prevent herself from being arrested for breaking the real life version of the HP Secrecy Statutes).The books actually became a popular success before the hidden magic communities noticed just how accurate many of the details in them were. Many non-Brits actually find the fictionalized version of Magical Britain in them to be a hilarious dramatization of the actual elitist attitude possessed by many Brit mages due to theirs being the oldest surviving magical institution in Western Civilization.Terms: The terms muggle, pureblood, half-blood, mudblood, muggleborn, and squib were created by C-E JKR for the purposes of her story and are nonexistent in real life.UK Ministry of Magic: Nonexistent. The Royal Magic Society possesses a council and council chief composed of the heads of several dozen of the oldest magical families in the UK – which C-E JKR fictionalized into HP’s Wizengamot, Chief Warlock, and Ancient ad Most Noble Houses – which liaises with Her Majesty’s Government through the House of Lords. The RMS Council Chief is Sir Isaac Newton, who claims to have recreated the Flamels’ Philosopher’s Stone formulae (he actually stole it).Portkeys and the Floo: Both terms and methods of travel are nonexistent.Apparition: While the term does not exist, a spell for personal teleportation exists but requires one of two things. One: user to be a very high end in power terms mage. Or two: around five average level mages empowering a magic circle to teleport a sixth man. Experiments to improve the latter have led to ‘appearing inside solid object’ events being well documented.Other Magical Teleportation: It is possible to open a portal between Points A and B. The spell’s requirement for power increases with range, with two spellcasters of average power being required to open a portal – for example – between the northernmost point in Britain and the southernmost point in France for a period of 8 minutes. Being paid to be a ‘mana battery’ in an international portal spell is a common way of earning money among mages. Fans of Zero no Tsukaima will no doubt notice that the portal itself resembles the ‘World Door’ spell if they were to ever see one.Parseltongue/Parselmouth: The ability is a plot device created by for the books. No snake, magical or otherwise, has ever been determined to have the capacity for intelligent thought, let alone speech.Creatures and Races: Most of the magical animals and peoples of the HP world exist in the real world, though some are admittedly fake and some details were again altered for story purposes (and other reasons). Flobberworms and Blast-Ended Skrewts were created for the books.Magical Species: A number of magic animals in their background material are described as being artificially created by mages in antiquity. This is a complete fabrication. The most infamous of these is the chicken-egg-hatched-by-a-frog-birthing-a-basilisk story, which has mages the world over scratching their heads to this day wondering how the heck anyone thought that up. Admittedly, magical alteration of animals is possible – and a fairly common prank among mages involves putting wings on swine – but such magically given traits do not pass on to offspring.Goblins and Dwarves: The former do not run a bank. They did find the idea amusing, though. They live peacefully (mostly) alongside of dwarves, as they both possess a mostly subterranean culture.Centaurs and Giants: The former prefer their isolation from the rest of the world much as presented in the books. They do, however, possess mildly impressive magic capabilities of their own and their enclaves are often shared by giants, as the childlike in temper and mental faculties giants both for some reason see centaurs as a whole as parental figures and are in need of supervision to prevent them from wandering into the outside world.Unicorns and Other Magic Equines: Pretty much identical, except no parts of the unicorn are used in magic devices/potions. Its blood does not have healing properties, cursed or otherwise. The blood is actually not silver in color unless it believes itself in danger. This is because of its unique defense mechanism against predators. When threatened, the iron present in a unicorn’s blood is converted into mercury via a natural alchemical process which doesn’t harm the creature in the slightest. Pegasi (Abraxans, Aethonians, Thestrals, and Granians) are as presented in HP.Dementors: No one knows the origin of these blessedly-rare foul creatures. Historical accounts go back to Old Testament times, as records dating to the court of King Solomon describe an encounter by Israel’s army with a small collection of the things. They are believed to be somehow related to the Fae – which all Fae deny vehemently – as while they are extremely magically resistant, cold iron (i.e. steel) kills them quite easily, at which point they dissolve into a quickly evaporating, translucent sludge.Inferi and Other Undead: In most parts of the modern world, the various forms of necromancy are not only illegal, but in many cases punishable by death. The most famous exception is Haiti. Naturally occurring undead such as zombies and ghouls (inferi [singular inferius] are themselves zombies, but created artificially by a mage) are considered magical pests and exterminated as such. Ancient artificial undead such as mummies are treated much the same, except in those rare and still not understood cases in which they have somehow retained their minds.Dragons: Identical to the breeds presented in HP. Ancient legends, including records written by Ptolemy and the court sorcerers of China and Japan at that time, records of a race of intelligent dragons which left the world during their lifetimes.House Elves: Actually called brownies, but changed for the books and are rather uncommon.Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel and the Philosopher’s Stone: Nic Flamel is Director of the Board of Governors for the Academia Magi Roma (its patron is St. Lobelia of Tyrol, a Catholic mage martyred in 1288 and secretly canonized by the Vatican in 1306), a magical institution with various campuses spread through what was once the Holy Roman Empire and now serves the European Federation. He and his wife are currently two of only three “Philosopher Immortals” (some eastern alchemists have achieved immortality via a separate method).Other Psudohistorical Magic Folks: To be written as story requires.
It isn't going to even come up for quite a few episodes, but I thought I'd post some decisions I'd made for magic - especially Western magic - in the Counter-Earth setting.
~~~
MAGIC DETAILS ABOUT HARRY POTTER AND COUNTER-EARTH
The JKR of Counter-Earth was what her books label a muggleborn – a mage born from nonmage parents. She was not just accepted into the Royal Academy of Magic, but was actually required to attend because her ‘accidental magic’ was so frequent and powerful. The fictional Mr. Potter’s accidental turning of his teacher’s hair blue was something which actually happened to her.To a great degree, the JKR of C-E based her fictional world off of the actual world, with some changes made for story purposes (and to prevent herself from being arrested for breaking the real life version of the HP Secrecy Statutes).The books actually became a popular success before the hidden magic communities noticed just how accurate many of the details in them were. Many non-Brits actually find the fictionalized version of Magical Britain in them to be a hilarious dramatization of the actual elitist attitude possessed by many Brit mages due to theirs being the oldest surviving magical institution in Western Civilization.Terms: The terms muggle, pureblood, half-blood, mudblood, muggleborn, and squib were created by C-E JKR for the purposes of her story and are nonexistent in real life.UK Ministry of Magic: Nonexistent. The Royal Magic Society possesses a council and council chief composed of the heads of several dozen of the oldest magical families in the UK – which C-E JKR fictionalized into HP’s Wizengamot, Chief Warlock, and Ancient ad Most Noble Houses – which liaises with Her Majesty’s Government through the House of Lords. The RMS Council Chief is Sir Isaac Newton, who claims to have recreated the Flamels’ Philosopher’s Stone formulae (he actually stole it).Portkeys and the Floo: Both terms and methods of travel are nonexistent.Apparition: While the term does not exist, a spell for personal teleportation exists but requires one of two things. One: user to be a very high end in power terms mage. Or two: around five average level mages empowering a magic circle to teleport a sixth man. Experiments to improve the latter have led to ‘appearing inside solid object’ events being well documented.Other Magical Teleportation: It is possible to open a portal between Points A and B. The spell’s requirement for power increases with range, with two spellcasters of average power being required to open a portal – for example – between the northernmost point in Britain and the southernmost point in France for a period of 8 minutes. Being paid to be a ‘mana battery’ in an international portal spell is a common way of earning money among mages. Fans of Zero no Tsukaima will no doubt notice that the portal itself resembles the ‘World Door’ spell if they were to ever see one.Parseltongue/Parselmouth: The ability is a plot device created by for the books. No snake, magical or otherwise, has ever been determined to have the capacity for intelligent thought, let alone speech.Creatures and Races: Most of the magical animals and peoples of the HP world exist in the real world, though some are admittedly fake and some details were again altered for story purposes (and other reasons). Flobberworms and Blast-Ended Skrewts were created for the books.Magical Species: A number of magic animals in their background material are described as being artificially created by mages in antiquity. This is a complete fabrication. The most infamous of these is the chicken-egg-hatched-by-a-frog-birthing-a-basilisk story, which has mages the world over scratching their heads to this day wondering how the heck anyone thought that up. Admittedly, magical alteration of animals is possible – and a fairly common prank among mages involves putting wings on swine – but such magically given traits do not pass on to offspring.Goblins and Dwarves: The former do not run a bank. They did find the idea amusing, though. They live peacefully (mostly) alongside of dwarves, as they both possess a mostly subterranean culture.Centaurs and Giants: The former prefer their isolation from the rest of the world much as presented in the books. They do, however, possess mildly impressive magic capabilities of their own and their enclaves are often shared by giants, as the childlike in temper and mental faculties giants both for some reason see centaurs as a whole as parental figures and are in need of supervision to prevent them from wandering into the outside world.Unicorns and Other Magic Equines: Pretty much identical, except no parts of the unicorn are used in magic devices/potions. Its blood does not have healing properties, cursed or otherwise. The blood is actually not silver in color unless it believes itself in danger. This is because of its unique defense mechanism against predators. When threatened, the iron present in a unicorn’s blood is converted into mercury via a natural alchemical process which doesn’t harm the creature in the slightest. Pegasi (Abraxans, Aethonians, Thestrals, and Granians) are as presented in HP.Dementors: No one knows the origin of these blessedly-rare foul creatures. Historical accounts go back to Old Testament times, as records dating to the court of King Solomon describe an encounter by Israel’s army with a small collection of the things. They are believed to be somehow related to the Fae – which all Fae deny vehemently – as while they are extremely magically resistant, cold iron (i.e. steel) kills them quite easily, at which point they dissolve into a quickly evaporating, translucent sludge.Inferi and Other Undead: In most parts of the modern world, the various forms of necromancy are not only illegal, but in many cases punishable by death. The most famous exception is Haiti. Naturally occurring undead such as zombies and ghouls (inferi [singular inferius] are themselves zombies, but created artificially by a mage) are considered magical pests and exterminated as such. Ancient artificial undead such as mummies are treated much the same, except in those rare and still not understood cases in which they have somehow retained their minds.Dragons: Identical to the breeds presented in HP. Ancient legends, including records written by Ptolemy and the court sorcerers of China and Japan at that time, records of a race of intelligent dragons which left the world during their lifetimes.House Elves: Actually called brownies, but changed for the books and are rather uncommon.Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel and the Philosopher’s Stone: Nic Flamel is Director of the Board of Governors for the Academia Magi Roma (its patron is St. Lobelia of Tyrol, a Catholic mage martyred in 1288 and secretly canonized by the Vatican in 1306), a magical institution with various campuses spread through what was once the Holy Roman Empire and now serves the European Federation. He and his wife are currently two of only three “Philosopher Immortals” (some eastern alchemists have achieved immortality via a separate method).Other Psudohistorical Magic Folks: To be written as story requires.