Lethifolds are apparently related to them - coupled with the fact that they 'breed', means that they're just magical creatures.

Ya know, unless ya want to be douchey and create an elaborate 'kissed souls are reborn as dementors when a mommy and a daddy dementor get frisky or shit 'em out', thing.

Dementors want souls/emotions; Lethifolds want your flesh. Yum.

Oh, snap: lethifold/dementor crossbreed - they'll swallow your soul whilst humping your body. gg wizarding world.

 

Dementors are an anthropomorphic personification of misery in the populace. They "breed" i.e. multiply when the population is generally less happy. Presumably when the population is more happy their numbers decrease. If all humans were to die out, there would perhaps be no Dementors.

 

Idea:

I don't recall exactly what incident caused the ban on magical breeding, or whether the origins of the ban were explained, but what if the origin of the Dementor was that some wizard either well meaning or malicious bred them by experimentating with Lethifolds?

 

Problem? :awesome

 

I liked the way CR did it - they're basically creatures that are immune to most magic, but if you can get close enough and not be incapacitated, they're physically frail. Of course, that doesn't answer why banishing a rod of steel into their heads won't work, but meh.

 

Taure's explanation could be right, or it might not be. There is no where in canon that says that Dementors are immune to anything, magic or otherwise. It just states that the patronus will drive them off. I prefer to think of them as just another kind of critter that feeds on happiness, and is able to be killed by anything from killing curses to knives in the torso.

 

I should say that the above isn't my idea, really. It's inferred from:

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/1000-canadianpress-moore.htm

 

Like a fungus. Well. It's a wonder more aren't spawning up around Azkaban, being the general pit of decay that it is, but being fungi-grown sounds like a good round of proper fire whipping should at the least disable them.

 

I think it's a bit more of an analogy than that. For example, I don't think there are Dementor spores >_< Also, I think "decay" isn't meant to mean biological decay.

 

I always inferred from Fudge's conversation with the Prime Minister in book 6 that the Dementors were breeding because of a rise in despair, but I just reread the passage and it says that they would be spreading despair.

Of course, I also find the idea of them feeding off of happy thoughts to be counter-intuitive, so what do I know?

 

I could see nonjon, nuhuh or Big D using that in a semi-serious way:

<A disheveled, bloody and bound young man is stood in front of a leathery, vicious-looking man seated on an ornate throne. Torches burn in brackets around the smooth stone walls, throwing the two into shifting relief. Despite the half-dozen Dementors milling around the periphery, the tomb is bathed in sweltering heat. The seated man is of indistinct age, dressed in golden robes, wearing a bejeweled crown, and holding a golden sceptre. For his part, the bound young man seems at his ease, his green eyes giving managing to look bored and disdainful at the same time.>

Dark Pharaoh Ra: <smirking> "So nice of you to drop by, Mr. Potter-Black. Are you quite comfortable? You seem to be sweating."

IndianaJones!Harry: <nonchalantly> "'M fine, but thanks for asking. It *is* a bit warm in here, but I'll manage. And it's just Potter; my godfather and I had a bit of a falling out. He tried to steal the hot babe I'd just finishing stealing for myself."

DPR: <tittering, his pinky finger at his lips> "How positively horrid! Are you quite sure about the temperature? I could have Cleo bring in another Dementor or two. Y'know what? Why don't we do that; I'm feeling a bit parched myself." <shouting> "Cleo? Cleo! Be a dear and have a concubine bring in another cooler, would you? We're positively boiling in here."

IJH: <rolls his eyes> "Well don't bother on my account, Ray-Ray. I can't stay long, anyway. See, I've dinner plans with a certain French Veela..."

DPR: <chuckles darkly> "My, but you have *quite* the imagination, Mr. Potter-Black. No, I'm afraid you'll be staying here for dinner. In fact, I'm quite sure you'll be *dead* before dinner. It was terribly fortunate for us that my new wives convinced you to - how did you put it? Oh yes - convinced you to 'shag' them in a real pyramid. It might have been another millennium before a wizard of your power stumbled into my grasp."

IJH: <predatorily> "... though after I wipe the floor of this fucking oven with what's left of your decrepit husk, I might make the time to shag your undead queen and a few of those thralls before I Apparate straight through your flimsy and out-dated wards."

DPR: <laughing maniacally> "Oh, but you do have *quite* the nerve, don't you? Once I've taken over that lovely new world out there, I might tell my new subjects how it was their precious 'hero' who made my return possible! Even your memory will be hated, Mr. Potter-Black, I'm quite happy to tell you."

IJH: <spreads his arm wide, revealing a faintly humming wand as his bonds fall sizzling to the floor> "Is that so? Well, lemme give you a few talking points." <bisects DPR with a fire whip>

DPR: <falling to the floor in two different parts of the room> "Urk."

IJH: <cracks his neck to either side and muttering to himself> "Dammit. I didn't mean to kill him straight away. I guess after the tenth 'quite' I can't really blame myself for getting carried away with... myself." <looks at the corpse pieces, annoyed> "And it's just *Potter*, you fucktard." <looks angrily at the Dementors> "And you - all of you stay over there but don't even *think* about leaving. It's fucking hot in this shithole."

Cleo: <running in wearing a very revealing toga> "What has...? NO! My king! I'll kill-" <hungrily looks Harry up and down>

IJH: <looks skyward, sighing> "Right, let's get this over with. Are we fucking now, or are you gonna put up a cursory fight and have me subdue you first?"

Cleo: <glances sheepishly over her shoulder at the scantily-clad thralls> "Normally, I would rip out your lungs for speaking to me in that manner, however... it *has* been over three millennia since my king could get it up. If your meat-wand is up to snuff, I'll make an exception for the death of my husband."

IJH: <drops trou'> "I reckon *this* will suffice, right Queenie?" <Cleo's eyes widen> "Now let's get this party started. Imma railroad you bitches for making me late for my Portkey home."

Cleo et al: <fumbling with what passes for their clothing> "Drool."

IJH: <sighing> "Chop chop,now. I don't have all day, goddammit! There's no telling what ideas my no-good godfather is cooking up to steal my French pussy. Start sucking, or I'm outta here."

Cleo et all: "Slurp."

So... Harry and Co. should just go all Duncan McLeod on the Dementors? Hmmm - what would be the best way?

Expecto Katana?
Accio Sword of Gryffindor?

That's probably the most... I don't know, existential? just philosophical? - take on the Dementors that I've seen.

Not saying it's correct, since the beginning of HBP would then become a chicken-and-egg question, and one would think that the Middle Ages - Black Death and all that - would have spawned enough Dementors that there wouldn't be enough souls on the planet to give them each more than a light snack.

 

The only question I had about Dementors was how often do they need to devour a soul if at all? I mean, we know they suck them out of people. In DH, I always imagined them roaming the countryside having a feast on muggles, now that the Ministry no longer regulates them.

Also, if they devour the soul from a man suffering from depression, would it taste better than a man who was generally happy with their life?

/pointless tangent.

 

The thing is. The dementors are as far as JKR is concerned immortal. They can get scared off, but not killed. So why the hell do they follow anybody's wishes? They could just soar around killing people as they pleased, which is clearly what they want.

If there was a valid reason for them to be subservient to wizards that'd be acceptable, but there's not.

As for their origins, we can go bonkers there.

 

I rather liked jberns explanation in Lie, namely that Transfiguration magic allows wizards to more or less contain and trap them in any way and twisted form as desired by the wizard in question(chained to a rock at the bottom of the ocean~HJ).

 

They can't be killed, but they abhor the Patronus Charm, so I would guess that controlling them would be as easy as conjuring your own Patronus to threaten them with. In effect, extorting their subservience from them. Either that or threaten to lock them in a single place with people being constantly rotated in and out to cast their Patroni at them. Being immortal only means you can suffer for far longer than anything else.

 

Going way back to my original preposition, Maybe the Ministry has their horcruxes locked up in the DoM and can influence the dementors through them. Any that the Ministry can't find gets transfigured and dropped into the ocean.

 

I really do not buy the concept of anything being utterly indestructible. Perhaps they reasoned that if they were to be too large a threat, wizards would go to great lengths to find out just how to kill them and eventually figure it out?

So they place themselves where they can safely feed, seemingly subservient, and thus remain safe.

In my opinion, what cannot be solved by violence can be solved with more violence. Should apply to dementors too. Surely it could not survive being next to an exploding nuke.

Taure did bring up a good point, though.

 

Or maybe they can't be killed by normal, magical means, and the Ministry worked out a deal with them. Unlimited food, if you stay on this island.

It almost seems pointless conjecture at this point, but I enjoy reading the various theories. I think Dememtors were one of her better ideas in the books.