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Post by Wyndi on Jan 1, 2015 23:43:29 GMT
Actually, while we're throwing ideas out there, I'd love to do a roleplay set at another Wizarding school. Unfortunately, it'd probably have to be a school in a country that uses the Latin alphabet just so we'd have spells the majority of us can actually recognize, but still. (By the way. I recently found out that Rowling had announced there were only eleven schools in the entire world, which is complete BS imo. Really? Eleven schools? For all of the Wizarding community?)
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Post by fishstyx on Jan 2, 2015 0:20:49 GMT
OMG YUSSSSSSS. I would love to do Beauxbatons.
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Post by mdf2711 on Jan 2, 2015 0:39:37 GMT
I agree with Wyndi. The moment she announced there were only eleven schools I started crying foul, makes absolutely no sense from a universal worldview and how do you justify three schools so close to one another for the Triwizard tournament and only eight others, one of which is Mauhotokoro and the rest I don't know. Probably one or two for each continent? That's honestly ridiculously unrealistic but a different school still sounds fascinating in my opinion! But I don't really see why it has to be strictly Latin-derived.
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Post by dracoon on Jan 2, 2015 0:42:41 GMT
But I don't really see why it has to be strictly Latin-derived. ^ Not to sound rude, but I'm a bit confused by a Latin-centric sentiment. Also Fish, everyone covered what I meant while I was asleep so um, yeah
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Post by fishstyx on Jan 2, 2015 0:50:32 GMT
s'all good
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Post by Wyndi on Jan 2, 2015 1:01:44 GMT
Not necessarily Latin-derived languages (i.e. Romance languages) - I meant languages using some adaptation of the Latin alphabet (i.e. what we recognize today as ABCDEF). The spells we've seen in HP are derived from mostly Greek and Latin roots, and are written using the English alphabet (which originated from the Latin alphabet). It'd be Eurocentric to think that other cultures, especially those who do not use any alphabet at all (e.g. Chinese), would have the same set of spells.
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Post by fishstyx on Jan 2, 2015 1:59:39 GMT
But...Beauxbatons?
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Post by Wyndi on Jan 2, 2015 3:34:07 GMT
lol, Beauxbatons would be doable since French uses the Latin script (and is also a Romance language).
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Post by fishstyx on Jan 2, 2015 3:50:11 GMT
Okay then. This sounds good to me.
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Post by mdf2711 on Jan 2, 2015 4:19:57 GMT
Well, I totally agree that the spells would change, it would be narrow minded to assume that only Latin roots could hold power, especially over languages with no or little relation to Latin at all (think Quechan languages and even Asian and Australian-native languages and many African languages) but I've always held an opinion (possibly just a headcanon but still) that due to the fact that nonverbal spellcasting can be achieved, it's not so much the word spoken itself as the intention and mastery of the spell and theory that allow the magic to occur (and possibly the wandwork). Of course, there is that whole thing about the Wizard Barrufio that might contradict that but I've always thought it was more because he was careless and not just his slip of the tongue (because that seems ridiculous and how do you accommodate for speech-impaired wizards and witches, like those with lisps or laterals or even stuttering issues? do they just spontaneously combust all the time because they simply can't pronounce words?) If we were to do a school based in a land or culture devoid of relation to Latin and the Latin alphabet, I would think we could just use the titles of the spells rather than the incantations themselves in those cases or assume it's translated regardless (since we would be no more likely to RP entirely in French in a Beauxbatons setting than we would be to use Russian the full Cyrillic alphabet if we RPed in a setting at Koldovstoretz
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Post by Wyndi on Jan 2, 2015 5:08:48 GMT
This is true. Wow, I'm dumb.
By the way, what are your thoughts on the wandwork accompanying the spells? Do you think other cultures would have similar wand movements for the same spells, or different ways of using their wands entirely?
I agree that Rowling made magic seem really finicky, though. :\
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Post by fishstyx on Jan 2, 2015 5:11:16 GMT
I think the movements should be the same just because magic is a world thing, not quite like a language. So the words behind it can be different as long as the intention and movements are the same.
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Post by mdf2711 on Jan 2, 2015 5:28:21 GMT
I'd have to say it's a tricky subject for me. I've never given it a ton of thought to be honest but I would think possibly that since the wandwork is so important to spellcasting in the games and books (think when you try to cast a spell on Pottermore or one of the video games or that old dueling app, the shape was really important and also the whole thing about how long they took to practice swish and flick before actually performing the spell at all at all) that it might just be a universal concept? As fishstyx said, it's not quite a language but I imagine it has some universal properties nonetheless, like how math is seen as a language to some. In that manner, it would explain why one culture would not develop magic that was inherently different or astoundingly foreign to another culture but the means to the ends of spellcasting could still change. As in, no matter how you say Expecto Patronum (or don't say it in the case of the nonverbal caster), it's still a Patronus charm and attempts to take a corporeal form to protect its caster against Dementors, does that idea and logic make sense?
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Post by fishstyx on Jan 2, 2015 5:34:29 GMT
Yeah that's what I was thinking. Also, do we want to come up with different terms for muggle-borns and squibs and such?
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Post by mdf2711 on Jan 2, 2015 5:39:05 GMT
It might depend on where we are in the world and what culture we pick but I'd assume whatever terms they have would just be translated as the English word, does that make sense? Unless they have a highly different worldview/cultural distinction regarding these people, I don't see why it would be different. For instance, if we did Beauxbatons, a Mudblood would be known as a Sang-de-Bourbe but we wouldn't be conducting the RP in French so I don't see why we wouldn't just simply write Mudblood anyway?
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