I'd read it if it was Jesus from Nazareth. Jesus from South Park... well, I'd probably read that too.

 

She only quoted the Bible in them.

 

Actually, I'd rather see a fic where Voldemort starts a religion (not with himself as the god, though maybe an avatar of said god) and sues that to gain support. Brainwashing would be as standard for all new recruits and those who dissent just seem to... disappear.

Actually, this is sounding more and more like a Scientology!Voldemort >_>. Though that would be highly amusing .

 

Voldemort as Jim Jones perhaps?

Leads a whole bunch of Death Eaters to the middle of fucking nowhere and then has them kill themselves to grant him more power.

Those left alive see his gain in power and revere him as some new god or avatar of a god.

I wouldn't write it, I'm not sure I'd read it, but there's a premise there.

[Edit] Dammit Tehan springing epic fics that I have yet to read on me when I still have 1200 words to write on the Christian reaction to Darwin is just mean. Ah well it's something to look forward to.

 

Did she? Where? I dont recall that much after book5

 

Too bad Isaac Hayes is dead, or he could play Shacklebolt! Unless of course, you tried to portray Scientology in anything but a good light, in which case he ain't fuckin' playin', children! (try to read that with a Chef-voice)

And you know that Tom Cruise would want in, especially if he could play Harry and Harry converts to Magitology (can I trademark that before Scientology does?) and Katie Holmes is already crazy enough to play Bellatrix. They could get John Travolta to play Amos Diggory and Travolta's dead son could be Cedric! (I know, I know, I'll be sued by some Scientology front corporation for something or other; those loony fuckers do not mess around...)

 

The epitaph on Harry's parents' graves is from 1 Corinthians.

 

Honestly, I'm vaguely interested in this.

Anyway, Tehan's already sort of nailed the idea, but probably not the way you expected. I guess doing a sort of living god, Muad-Dib style thing could be interesting, but as Angelofdreams said, you'd have to be top-fucking-notch to pull it off.

 

You all have no idea how tempted I am to start something like this. Although mine might be more along the lines of:

1. Harry reads some of the medieval commentaries on Aristotle.

2. Becomes convinced that the purpose of the state is to cultivate virtue (as defined as a series of right opinions and right actions) in its citizens while gradually bringing them closer to theological virtue.

3. Goes about acquiring power/founding a religion.

 

OMG I so remember that. I read that one like 3 or 4 years ago.

I also remember that in like the 4th book or so, female!Harry gets with Cedric.

I remember it being a pretty good story. I'm a sucker for fem!Harry though, so that might've clouded my judgment.


edit: I went back and searched for this story with every word combination I could think of. It seems to be deleted from fanfiction.net....pity.

 

Great plot idea here, although you'd have to be excruciatingly careful on this front. I don't think anything like it has been done before, and I'd love to see the characterization that come from it, but setting up the premise and setting would be pretty damned hard. I think the hardest thing here will be explaining why the wizarding society would be willing to accept religion in any form, even if it is rooted in Aristolian virtue ethics. After all, religion was responsible for killing a lot of witches and wizards.

Funnily enough, I always thought that Harry (and Dumbledore, more so) seemed rather utilitarian in outlook, with the whole 'greater good' rhetoric.

 

No it wasn't. They weren't, as a general rule, killed.

Actually, you could easily say that Purebloods/any wizards in favor of separation would be rather grateful to religion, seeing as how the witch hunts probably provided substantial political motivation for the passing of the Statute of Secrecy, in the form of "see how much easier it would be if we removed ourselves from them?" Granted, anger could also exist, but given the attitude of wizards seen in the books, something more like... paternal condescension would be likely.

 

That aside, saying that witches and wizards would turn against all religions because of the actions of one religion is more than a little bit questionable. Besides, witch-burnings never quite took on as well in England as it did over in the colonies or even on the mainland.

 

Nah... Someone should give Harry a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land and he should use it as a guide for starting his own "Cosmic Halitosis" cult! If it was good enough for Charles Manson...

--bornagainpenguin

 

I don't see why he couldn't.
The founders, seem to be the starting point for the wizarding world timeline, and that's 1000 years. Given that wizard's and witches seem to have longer life spans in alot of fanon (unsure of canon), then that equates to only 9 or 10 generations - a society still in it's barest infancy.
Cultural Revolution is quite up for grabs.

 

For those interested in the previously mentioned story "The Girl Who Lived", which is by one of my favourite authors (author of HP and the Ancient's Journey), you can find it on said author's Yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/girlwholived/

It's not his best fic as its not very original... the sheer amount of text taken from the books is huge, though as the series progresses and diverges you get more original stuff.

Warning: front page and picture section of the group is NSFW.

Also check out his recent Buffy/Watchmen crossover.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3077936/1/Trading_My_Sorrows

fic about snape converting to christianity - it should have some inspiration for you.

I have not read the fic, nor do I plan to - but in any case it should, at worst, give you an idea of what NOT to do.

 

I was thinking along the lines of Harry is told early on about his role as the Boy-Who-Lived and lets it go to his head. He believes that the reason he lived from the Killing Curse is that some deity or another, maybe a god of death and chaos, had sent him down as his avatar to bring peace -through more death and chaos, of course. Maybe Voldemort, who is more in control of his own form due to the same happenings that allowed for Harry's early knowledge, is the one sending him these images. He wants to gain control utilizing his greatest enemy, gaining his sweet revenge and the entire Wizarding Britain in one fell swoop.

Harry, being such a celebrity, grows up slowly building his plans to bring the world under the power of his deity -Harry being his Avatar on earth. He fakes his innocence to Dumbledore and Fudge, who frequently use him for their political scheming believing him unaware, and by such gain their total trust. This should probably progress through his slow beginnings of influence in the Ministry, utilizing the unknowing power bases of Fudge and Dumbledore who all believe they are working for their figure head. Some of them, though, he would begin to persuade into his cult and they would become his loyal servants much like Voldemort's. A group of them who come willingly would probably be Voldemort's men who are contacted by their master. Voldemort is staying in his weak form so as to keep people unaware of his existance (can you see how I'm formulating as I write?)

From this, and when he gets to an appropriate age even with Voldemort's influences on his mind, he slowly draws in his loyal supporters from both sides and they begin the Revolution. His cultists draw in their friends and family, adding to the number who also begin to go around telling of the True God: the first God of the Wizarding World.

You can even begin the spread into other countries, allowing for them to get early warning and beginning side plots where Harry must fight off foreign opposition secretly and silently.

This would continue on as he gains his support, maybe adding a ship in there for good measure as he wants to bring up a son who will become the new Avatar if someone somehow found a way to slay him -which he as an intense fear of because of Voldemort's influence on his mind. This begins a decent into insanity as he searches for ways to cheat death, maybe even acquiring his own Horcruxes by using the souls of his dissenters.

You can even take this intense fear and turn it into a Henry VIII kind of thing. Harry's wives, hopefully Ginny as one of them so you can kill her off horribly, will each marry him one at a time -Harry killing them when they birth him a daughter when he desperately needs a son. As his line of failures begins to take its tole on his sanity, Voldemort decides that he is losing control so does the ritual to come back to full power so he can kill Harry.

When he tells his Death Eaters of his plans to kill Harry after he is resurrected, they are not thankful. Brainwashed by the Cult, they flee back to their true master, believing that Voldemort was not fit to be their leader in the face of the True God's Avatar.

I'm too damn lazy to continue through the rest of the story line. If anyone thinks this is a decent idea and wants to lay out more, go for it. If it sucks, maybe someone can warp it into something better.

 

A god of chaos wouldn't use "political" machinations to achieve his ends.

 

Not true. A lot of people manage to confuse chaos with stupid. They have the image of this psycho running around blowing things up, or a caveman with a big hammer. Fact is, chaos can be spread efficiently through blowing something up, or unraveling an entire nation's political system from the inside. Who cares? Chaos is happening. The method is unimportant, as long as it furthers the agenda.