I equate them with modern cultists/terrorists. Trained in specific tactics but when they get into a situation they are unfamiliar with, they freeze and screw up. So I agree with Syaoran.

 

I think Death Eaters are followers of a cause and their power levels vary. I don't believe Voldemort would be too picky. He would use weaker wizards for different tasks and value those like Lucius, who has the required political connections to be of value to him.

The opening chapter of DH offers an interesting incite into the Death Eater world. It does not appear to be a strict military type regime. Death Eaters speak up and vie for the attention of Dark Lord. They know the price of failure and they want to please. The jealousy towards Snape for being asked to sit at Voldemort's side indicates that they want to be favoured by the Dark Lord and are dedicated to the cause. Something I believe would be lacking if they were mere cannon fodder. Indeed I believe Voldemort would be quite annoyed if one of his loyal followers were lost. They seem to use the Imperius curse to do a lot of their menial biddings too.

 

Power levels? You might want to change that before Taure comes in and raises a fit.

I agree with the rest of the post though.

 

Voldemort: IT'S OVER 9000!

 

IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!! (In B4 Taure spazzes)

 

Eh? I've never denied that wizards are varying in power - just that this is another way of saying they vary is skill. So I read Randeemy's statement thus:

"I think Death Eaters are followers of a cause and their power/skill levels vary. I don't believe Voldemort would be too picky. He would use weaker wizards for different tasks and value those like Lucius, who has the required political connections to be of value to him."

Anyway, in agreement with Randeemy: the competence of the Death Eaters vary: some, such as Snape and Bellatrix, are above the skill of Aurors, but most are below, I would say.

Aurors are given an additional 3 years of training in catching Dark wizards after Hogwarts, and most Aurors did exceptionally well at Hogwarts too - Os and Es in the NEWTs.

Most Death Eaters will not have the advantage of this extra training, and indeed most won't even have done as well at Hogwarts. Thus, those few Death Eaters who are stronger than the Aurors are those Death Eaters whose skill at magic is great enough to compensate for that three years extra training, and then some.

We do know that being a skilled wizard in general does make up for a lack of Auror training: the best duelists we know of aren't Aurors: Dumbledore, Voldemort, Snape, McGonagall, Bellatrix. This is because they're just awesome at magic in general.

 

I agree with you mostly, but don't you think that the one's that by the time they do join, they'd have been taught some dark arts. While most aren't intelligent enough to take it far, it would still make them a force to be reckoned with.

 

Frankly, no. I find the idea of "Death Eater school" rather comical. Voldemort may teach the odd spell to favoured followers (we know he has done so for Bellatrix and Snape) but the idea of some sort of organised training programme for Death Eaters is something I just can't see happening.

 

Most of the Death Eaters we have seen are purebloods, and they get trained before Hogwarts (Weasleys are an exception), the quality would not be the same, but if MoM if anything like many ministries of the world (In that they try save money and cut costs at EVERYTHING) the auror training quality would drop too... And thinking about Fudge, being the incompetent asshole that he was, I could easily believe that auror training is not all it's cracked up to be...

 

Uh...where's your backing for this?

Also, the Aurors take in only one person for training every few years - they're that selective - so not only will training be fairly cheap, but it'll also it means they only take the best: another reason for why the Aurors should be considered competent.

 

I see them as a motly crew, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, that Voldemort can then use to the best effect. I dont believe its anything like a military organisation with any training or a caste system of inner circle etc with your skill/power changing as you go through the caste's. Inner circle are just the ones who have proven themselves most and are of most use to Voldemort in their own special ways.

 

I'd agree with others who have said that the Death Eaters probably vary significantly in combat skill. Some of them probably are nothing more than canon-fodder; things like Muggle-killings hardly require using highly skilled wizards, and Voldemort would certainly find it useful to have at least a few followers who were more or less expendable. Others, like Bellatrix and Snape, are clearly very dangerous duelists who can take on Aurors and win.

From what I've read of canon, Voldemort strikes me as the type to have some purpose in mind for every one of his followers. Lucius is meant for subtle political maneuvering, which would why he fell out of Voldemort's favor once he was arrested and exposed, Snape is a subtle planner and a fine-edged scalpel for precise missions, Bellatrix is the sledgehammer who can smash the opposition through sheer brute force.

 

I would imagine that training would be handed out in the same manner as recruitment; with the recruiter teaching a few key spells (Unforgivables and probably not much else) and then letting the new guy sink or swim when he's got the Mark. Sucker the new guy in with powerful spells and then see if he can handle being a Death Eater.

I would imagine having a close relationship with Death Eaters (Draco), or being related to them (Sirius/Regulus), would raise the chances of you being trained. After all, if your recruiter also happens to be your father it's in his best interests to make you as strong as possible.

 

Sounds about right as far as training goes; new Death Eaters who have relatives or close friends within their ranks probably get more in the way of training than ones with no real connections. That particularly makes sense considering that a lot of the Death Eaters make much of their pureblood pedigree and long family lines.

However, I'd imagine the neophytes without connections might occasionally get a bit of training/mentoring from one of the more experienced Death Eaters who decides to mentor them for whatever reason. I could see Bellatrix showing a little interest in new recruit with a strong sadistic streak, or Lucius giving a few pointers to a young protege in exchange for some brown nosing.

 

In my own stories, I generally characterise Death Eaters as well trained and disciplined troops. I divide Death Eaters into three overall categories. The lowest level consists of purebloods who are incapable of a coherent thought (Crabbe and Goyle, for instance). These would be the cannon fodder, used for duties that would merely annoy regular Death Eaters. The second bunch consists of the regular Death eaters - people like Igor Karkaroff. These are generally slightly above auror level. A battle of like numbers between aurors and these would be a tossup. The third group are the Death Eater elite - like Rookwood, Yaxley and the Lestranges. These are well above regular aurors. People in Kingsley's class. Finally, there are a few captains like Dolohov and Bellatrix, who are just one step below Voldemort himself. Considering that Bella managed to escape Dumbledore himself without deux ex machinas is testimony to her skill, and Dolohov was able to outclass both Moody and Lupin (both formidable fighters). I would put Dolohov in Minerva's class, while Bella is perhaps one step above even Minerva.

Regards,
Maidros

 

Just how canon is the inner circle concept? I know it gets mentioned, but I don't see how it's a well defined term. As far as I'm concerned, Voldemort doesn't distinguish an elite force, rather some are more skilled (Taure effect) and some are less so. Crabbe and Goyle are full death eaters, there's no reason to think they would be canon fodder, but obviously they're not very good. I also think in battle that involve a lot of fighters, like they often do in canon, it's sometimes harder to distiguish the better and worse fighters. For example, doesn't Moody go down at the end of GoF?

 

I don't recall there being any canon mention of a formal Inner Circle, but there are clearly some Death Eaters like Bellatrix that are Voldemort's favorites; however the fate of the Malfoys in book 7 would seem to show that eviction from Voldemort's favor can be quick and brutal.

From what we've seen in the books the lowest level of Voldemort's forces are sympathizers/allies who don't have a Dark Mark and tend to get drudge work like hunting down muggleborns in book 7. The full Death Eaters likely have some sort of minimum standards they have to meet in order to merit being marked; probably something like having the proper bloodlines and convincing Voldemort that they can be of significant enough use to him to deserve a Dark Mark.

As an addendum to my previous post, it probably bears mentioning that Voldemort ultimately sees all of his Death Eaters as being expendable to some degree; he killed Snape (who he considered one of his best and most loyal) just to get control of the Elder Wand. Voldemort is not the type to waste resources, but he's certainly willing to get his followers killed if that's what it takes to accomplish his goals. Presumably he also sees some of his servants as being more expendable than others.

 

QFT. Fanon has the misconception that Aurors are nothing more than the magical equivalent of the police. This is utter bullshit. The magical equivalent of policemen are the regular Magical Law Enforcement patrols. The Aurors are Dark-wizard catchers. They do not deal with your petty criminal. If anything, judging by how selective their intake is, and how rigorous the trainings are, I'd say they're the magical equivalent of the Special Forces- the elite, cream of the crop.

I never could stand how fandom portrays Aurors as a clueless, incompetent bunch of wizards/witches, and how the Unspeakables or Hitwizards are seen as the ultimate, uber law enforcement agents.

Let me clear this up for you guys. The Unspeakables are nothing more than scientists and researchers. You know, those guys in white coats that work at Los Alamos et cetera? I see Unspeakables as their magical counterpart. They are not highly skilled wizards with mystical skills.

As for Hitwizards, I see them more as auxiliary fighters. Somewhere in between the Aurors and regular MLE patrolmen in terms of prestige and competency. I can easily envision them to be summoned to reinforce the patrolmen in an investigation, or as assistance to the Aurors in a fight.

But one thing is for certain- The Aurors are the best of the bunch. Canon has emphasized this more than enough. In a head-to-head fight, your regular Auror will tear apart an average Death Eater. It's the very skilled ones, like Bellatrix or Snape, that can take on the Aurors and beat them comfortably enough.

 

Well, in canon it's been proven time and again that the Death Eaters, with the exception of a couple in the 'Inner Circle', are just cannon fodder. Those in the 'Inner Circle' circle each have some sort of trait that differentiates them from the others. Some are loyal, having spent years in Azkaban, some are batshit insane, and more than a few are both. I figure that Lucius Malfoy got in because of his money, not because of his loyalty.

 

Quite.

Another proof of this is that when Fudge tries to arrest Dumbledore, or when he needs protection, he takes a few Aurors with him, nothing else.