Personally I like having the wand originate in Europe. Although the specifics differ, there are typically parallels between the Muggle and magical worlds. In many ways, the wand is the magical equivalent of the industrial revolution: a new way of doing things, dramatically more effective than the ways which preceded it, which gives a significant advantage to those who adopt it, and which will eventually spread around the world and be adopted by everyone.

So as the magical analogue of the industrial revolution, I feel like it fits for the wand to have originated in Europe (and potentially, if you want to stick with the parallel all the way, among Celtic communities in Britain rather than in Rome or Greece).

It would actually work nicely if the wand had been invented by Merlin - certainly that would explain the community's reverence for the man. It doesn't work canonically, both because Ollivander was making wands since 382BC (which supports a Celtic origin for wands), and because the canonical Merlin lived after Hogwarts was founded. But it would work well in a fanfic that changed those things and had Merlin exist in post-Roman Britain.

 

Yeah, you could keep the same dynamic as the Egyptian idea, but have the Roman Empire reach Britain and then spread wands back across the Empire. That would work just as well.

I do agree about wands being a good analogue to the industrial revolution, and it explains why they spread around the world and dominated magical practices.

 

Eh, I kind of like the concept of Egyptians inventing a primitive wand-scepter, while the wizarding nobility of that country (just as insular and self-obsessed as the ancient muggle Egyptian ruling class) restricts its use and production to the upper class. Maybe some enterprising Greek thief or treacherous Egyptian wand-maker (either one could be an ancestor of Ollivander's) steals the secret and brings it back to Greece, or better yet, Macedonia in 382 B.C.E., under the reign of King Amyntas III. This Ollivander precursor spends a while refining wand-creation into a more advanced form, maybe an intermediate version superior to the crude scepter-wands of Egyptian royalty, but not as good as modern wands.

This proto-wand's use really takes off around the time of Amyntas' grandson, Alexander the Great. That could be the tie-in with IRL history, that Alexander's armies smashed all opposition because of both superior leadership, and battle wizards armed with the new foci. At some point in the following centuries, the Ollivander family (or whatever they were called at the time) moves to Rome, where the superior wands they produce help drive the conquest of western Europe. Later (around the time the Western Empire collapsed), the family (or a cadet branch of it) moves to the Londinium colony and establishes the predecessor to the shop in Diagon Alley.

Over the many centuries since the original theft, Ollivander's ancestors produced many apprentices and offshoot families that spread wand-lore across Europe, and eventually the world.

 

Yeah, that sounds like a really good piece of historical world building to me. I realise it doesn't fit with the thing on pottermore, but heyho.

Perhaps the process of innovation with the foci involved both reducing the overall size, and reducing the number of components. Early sceptres were full height staffs, with elaborate head pieces, and presumably at least one core from a magical creature. Perhaps more than one core in early examples. Over time it reduces the length to something you can wave around with one hand, then the headpiece reduces first to a simple capstone style, then a metal cap, then is removed all together. After that the number of cores is reduced down to one, and the size is further reduced to the point it can be held in fingers rather than needing to be gripped in the palm. And then the final innovation is reducing the length down sufficiently that intricate wand movements are feasible, thus allowing the wandification of much more complex magics.

 

And maybe earlier wand iterations had more intense creation requirements, like dangerous, expensive rituals, or the core had to be collected by the wandcrafter him/herself without assistance (meaning every wandmaker who wanted to use dragon heartstring cores had to go out and slay a dragon themselves), or the wand could only use wood from the edge of a volcano, or they needed to be carved on a mountaintop during a thunderstorm or something. Later innovations in Arithmancy, Enchanting and Alchemy allowed wand-crafters to dispense with the more taxing steps of creating one under specific environmental conditions.

 

Jumbled thoughts below:


Ollivander says "the wand chooses the wizard". Now, when making a focus, there's two paths this could take. Either the crafter can influence how this choice will go, and will have knowledge on it; or won't.

For Ollivander in the modern era, where he can make and then store hundreds of wands, and sell them all eventually when the right person comes along, this isn't a problem. Historically, this might have been less so, especially if foci were limited in distribution (As you'd expect in an era of Might makes Right).

By that, I mean that if the King requests a wand, then maybe the crafter can plan "the guy's an arrogant arse, but he's got the strength to back it up. Guess he's getting a Blackthorn sceptre, with a Redcap spleen core, and an iron cap". This only works though if different wandwoods and cores have known combinations, and will always be the same - a wizard with a Elm/Dragon wand will be able to use any other Elm/Dragon wand better than an Elm/Unicorn or Apple/Dragon, and don't even try with an Oak/Phoenix.

But if the crafter can't plan, then maybe, instead of building something with the best possible combination, they just shove every possible combination in, in the hope that one of them works well enough. Hell, maybe crafters didn't know about the links early on, and some people just had wands that didn't work well for them.

As the craft moved on, and people started understanding the wandlore more, the sceptres didn't have to have twelve different cores - instead, they'd realised that they could put in three, and that would work better for some people, and be nearly unusable for others. But it allows them to spend less time working on each wand, so they can make more wands. But each is more useful for those who have it.

This could be another form of the Magna Carta - rather than power resting in the hands of the Ruler, it's been devolved slightly to those who can afford (still high) prices. The King is still the most powerful, but the high-end nobles how have some ability to resist and revolt.

 

Years ago, my friend and I had a conversation about what kind of life a Turk magical student would have. While most of stuff revolved around making jokes about our school life in Harry Potter context, I always liked the idea of using prayer beads as a magical focus since then. Prayers beads are sort of a male accessory and stress toy akin to spinning pen with pleathora of options if decided to get one. So, we giggled this image of an 11 year old getting his first prayer beads, "amethyst, 33 beads with silver tassel, good for transfiguartion".


This wouldn't even look jarring in hands of Lucius Malfoy. All it needs a sneak themed tassel for more authenticity.

So, following this guideline, I will attempt to create a middle eastern magical tradition.

Doing magic in middle eastern understanding means that you summon and bind a Jinn (djinn, cin) to do your bidding. Jinns are creatures of smokeless. Whatever magic you do, you use them as proxy. However, magic in haram and only malevolent jinns will answer your call and you will like commit not really wholesome acts with your magic. Though there are ways to contact with good ones and use them if you are a holy man. These don't really count as magic and counts as sacred acts.

So, when we pass this through filter of Harry Potter we have:

• Jinns are small and cute nonbeings created by wizard.
• Most middle eastern magical dwellings will have a firepit or oven for creation of jinns.
  
• Wizard can bind jinns to objects. For example a wizard can bind a jinn to a broom and order it to sweep.
• After task is fulfilled, jinn will cease to exist.
• A jinn binding lasts longer and it is easier to give detailed instructions than standard wand charms (like dancing teacups), but it is not permanent in practice. It takes some time to create and bind one compared to swish and flick of a wand, so today most middle eastern wizards use standard wand charms for daily work and permanent enchantments for long lasting necessities.
• You can bind a jinn permanently to an object but in time mental state of bound jinn will detoriate and spell will go awry. Sometimes these mentally unstable jinns will escape their bindings and possess nearest individual for a while. This is called "jinn smitten" condition in direct translation.
• Today, only small group of enthusiasts practice this kind of magic, though tradition itself inspired modern automation charms using standard wand casting

 

I like that djinn style, feels quite Harry Potter appropriate. If I was to change it, I'd probably say that Jinns are actually a type of magical creature that take perceptible form in particularly hot, dry air. So the firepit or oven that you describe isn't so much a way to create them, as to cause them to gather or form to an extent that they can then be captured.

 

I think the staff to scepter to wane ideal is a good idea. Perhaps magic was very ritualistic prior and these foci were created to speed up the ritual...but some rituals like being animagi couldn’t truly convert.

Considering this, you’d want to make foreign magic into two pieces. Pre wand and pose wand. What were the rituals/magic like for the population before wands? How did the introduction of the European wand effect society?

 

As an arab, I'd say jinns are bit too broad of a category to turn into a single magical creature, like while certainly fit the concept of nonbeings, others really seem more in line with just other kinds of beings similar to centaurs who've got theit own brand of magic and intentionally avoid humanas. And then some could be a race similar to house-elves, but bound to objects instead properties.

Like your idea certainly fits for some of their mytholgy about them and would be fine to include, but I wouldn't make it the only one.

Also about your ideay, since the creation is serving humans and mostly existing temporary, I'd say it fits more into the same category as the patronus, instead of nonbeings.

 

I think you missed the bit where the idea was to very much not stick too closely to the source material, but use it as an inspiration to create a substantially derived idea.

 

I considered it too but decided to go creation route because they felt too similar to house elves otherwise. It doesn't help that we call house elves "house jinns" in Turkish translation.

 

I think there's a way to reconcile the two standpoints. The idea @kelkorkesis proposed had wizards creating/capturing djinn and tying them to objects to imbue those objects with a magical effect.

That sounds awfully like the same thing as a spell - only viewed from a different perspective and cast with a different procedure. That procedure, since it draws upon a magical entity, introduces more sentience into the magic which can be malevolent or mischievous. This is like a more extreme version of the "character" different wand cores/wood types give to spells cast with wands.

So you could have many different "species" of djinn - basically you could view each different magical effect as a different type of djinn. A levitation djinn, and fire djinn, a befuddling djinn, etc.

 

No I understand that point, which is why nothing I said was very close to the source material. My point is rather unlike western media potrays jinns in mytholgy are much more than just spirits bound to objects that serve humans. And if you put a bit of effort into it you could probably create dozens of magical creatures out of them that fit into Harry Potter.

 

I am aware fo that. I also don't really know how western media portrays them. Jinn is a sort of umbrella term for supernatural beings in Arabic and Middle Eastern mythology. But I am doing what @Taure proposed here

Countless cultures from Japan to America have dragons and dragon like beings in their mythology with many differences and smiliarities. Yet in Harry Potter they are glorified stock animals. So my jinns are just proxy for spellcasting.

 

Which is why I think its a bit weird to reduce them to a single kind of creature. Like your idea is still good, but I think it would fit more as one of many kinds of creatures non-wizards call jinn(none of which have to be particularly close to mytholgy).

For me it doesn't seem like turning dragons into single kind of creature(though they still have over a dozen different breeds in canon), but rather as if you take a broad term like monster and turn it into a single kind of creature.

 

As someone who is currently writing a version of this (Harry living in magical Constantinople, the capital of the Ottomans, which still exist magically), I've been doing just that.

I ended up sticking with the wand as it felt more appropriate with a more military culture of the Ottomans. However, as they are still a multi-cultural empire, many wizards also use traditional foci of various kinds.

As for Djinn, I'm using them as the lands house-elves, as house-elves are banned from the a ottomans due to an old sultan being assassined by one.

One hilarious bit about them is to bind one, you must find the perfect lamp for them. You see, djinn can't help but be attracted to lamps. But if they go in, they aren't satisfied with it, and you try to bind them... Well they get a little pissy and send you into the lamp to be stuck for eternity.

There is a bunch more bits about them that I can't say as it is a huge spoiler, but they are quite important.

Tuplar are the winged horses of the ottomans, often used for transportation and for racing at the hippodrome.

Seriously though, @kelkorkesis, I'd love to hear more of your ideas. I'm assuming you are turkish? I'm most certainly am not, and most my experience is through research and the month I traveled around turkey last year.

 

This is a very good choice actually. We were rarely pioneers of science in history, but adopting superior practices for military purposes were essential part of our culture for a long time.

It would be very fitting if that house elf was sent by a high ranking Janissary. Also make it sure that house elf killed that sultan in a bloodless mean. It was considered bad luck to draw blood from ruling family, because their right to rule was divine and that made their blood sacred. Choking was go to method for fratricide.

Yes. Though this answer looks rather obsolote now.

Most of our ideas were not really that serious like praying beads. And there is nothing specific comes to my mind but if you have any questions feel free to post here or send a private mesage. I would be happy to help.