Why is there a worldwide statute of secrecy?

Obviously, there are the writer's reasons, but I'm asking for an in-world context. This goes beyond canon and will require a certain amount of scenario-thought, but it's something I've been trying to reason out and I'd like to hear alternate opinions.

It just seems like the canon explanation falls short- muggle persecution on the rise? So what? You're not going to convince a shaman of the Lakota that wizards and muggles are doomed if they are allowed to continue living together. Why wouldn't the solution be 'we're wizards, so tell everyone to leave us alone or a dozen of us will wipe out a city that you like'?

If you need a set-up, imagine it's Dumbledore talking to the Flamels in 1910; after his break-up with Gellert but before he'd decided on what to do with his talents if he wasn't going to rule magical society.

The Flamels were alive for the whole matter- they married in 1368 (real world) and thus have a contextual perspective on the whole matter. Was there a prophecy? Did Merlin wake up and say something? What sort of incident or trend would be necessary to convince the majority of wizards across the world that it was time to hide magic for good?

 

I think it's a simple combination of two main factors:

1. Wizards found having to interact with Muggles tiresome.
2. There is no downside to secrecy.

A bit of a no-brainer, really. Quidditch Through the Ages makes it clear that, even before the Statute of Secrecy was official passed, an increasing number of wizards had been withdrawing from the Muggle world, a process that had been going on for some time.

 

Yes, but why?


World building:
European wars deriving from a move into statehood and the Reformation, which gave local leaders the ability not to look to Rome for spiritual/source of temporal authority began with the Peasant War in Germany. Such wars spread quickly across northern Europe and Britain. Fueled by sectarianism and a shifting cosmology whereby local troubles came about because of local actions, witch hunts resumed again after fist abating since the Christianizing of Europe (that part is actually true, contra modern pagan/wiccan historiography—witch hunts slowed down or in some places, even became illegal in early Christian Europe).

The International Federation had twice before determined to withdraw from Muggle peoples. The first time was during the Roman conquest when they wanted to withdraw after seeing the Druid Priests slaughtered through Gaul and the British Isles. But the continued Germanic tribes defeat and the stalling of Rome's forces, coupled with the opposition of Roman members of the ICW, defeated the drive for secrecy.

The call was taken up again in the 400-600s as witch hunts picked up again (this here is made up, no reason to state there was a surge. It's just world building), but again was quieted as the hunts diminished.

Then, when the hunts picked back up, and came to a head in the sixteen hundreds, the argument for seclusion picked up again. What isn't mentioned however, is the wizard/witch's ugly side of the equation. They were forming mercenary groups and selling themselves to the highest bidder in Europe's wars, casting spells and killing enemies and armies.

A secret meeting between the ICW, Roman Catholic religious leaders, and certain protestant leaders concluded a split between Muggles and Wizards and that wizards would not partake it what would later be known as the modern state. Thus, they could no longer raise armies or mercenary groups and go to war with Muggles against other Muggles. A Quid Pro Quo agreement had the church, certain state, and certain protestant leaders agreeing to push for a cessation of witch hunts and witch trials throughout Europe.

The agreement held until the mid 20th century when Grindelwald and Hitler paired, throwing into danger 300 plus years of agreement. When he was defeated, a revitalization of the agreement is made, and the modern wizarding states all agree on it, which is why it is now enforced in every wizarding country by their own governments.

?????

That's off the top of my head. Probably has numerous plot holes, but it's a start, at least.

EDIT: Damn it. Somewhat Ninjaed by Sesc

 

Also muggles kept developing. For most of history Muggles were wizards with out magic, but as technology increased, muggles started doing stuff wizards couldnt, at least with out devoting themselves more to the muggle world than they previously had to.

 

At the time the Statute went into effect, there wasn't anything the muggles could do that wizards couldn't. In fact, I'd wager that there still isn't anything that muggles can do that wizards can't.

 

The idea that wizards went into hiding because muggles annoyed them does not work. The statute of secrecy has a lot of drawbacks: People can't use magic wherever or whenever they want. They cannot wear whatever they want when they go outside of their small enclaves. They need an entire department ready to modify the minds of dozens of people at once, and a magic detection grid to cover the entirety of their country. That's a LOT of manpower for a small population. Magical creatures need to be kept away from the real world as well - with not many of those sentient, that's another big budget to approve. Any wizard event like the World Cup needs special measures to keep the statute. People cannot even easily fly their brooms or play Quidditch without having to isolate themselves. And hiding is annoying by itself - or worse.

As others pointed out, Wizards were likely respected in many other countries as shamans, healers, gurus, priests, even god-kings. To make them go into hiding needs far more than some annoyance in Europe.

People, even stupid people like Wizards, generally do not go that far unless there's a really pressing need. My guess would be that there was a prophecy by (almost) every seer on the planet, stating that unless they went into hiding, they would be doomed. And since they went into hiding from the real world, my guess is that the real world would be that danger to wizards.

 

Space? Maybe?

I dunno. Spitballing.

Also this... seems far fetched.

 

What else would explain why wizards who, if we are to believe many on this forum, would easily be able to rule the world, would instead go into hiding, world-wide?

If the real world was no threat to them, why bother going into hiding?

 

You mean what else aside from every single seer in the world having the same prophecy at the same time? Probably, I dunno, anything.

But really, I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in the books (or I'm making this up) that a major reason is that when magic exists in the world, muggles will just keep wanting you to give them magical solutions to their problems. Wizards just find it more convenient to live in a world that's essentially an entirely separate entity.

 

IIRC both Quidditch Through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them have details on the Statue. I'm pretty sure the majority of it is in the forward to Fantastic Beasts actually.

So look in your copy of that, pretty sure it's at the beginning. I'd cite the page number, but my copy is elsewhere right now.

 

Pre-empting this now: Do not have another muggles vs wizards debate.

That's the reason we have, officially. "Muggles kept wanting wizards to solve all their problems with magic." Hagrid says it in the first book even, if I recall correctly.

 

Because they just couldn't be fucking bothered. That and before the machine gun, the tactical and strategic utility of the Imperio curse was limited, not to mention it was invented after the Statute had been implemented. The Floo Network might not have existed, Portkeys might not have been invented yet, and without highly responsive and skilled medical attention at the ready, Apparition is a shitload riskier, even for the calm and highly skilled.

So the magicals of the time may very well have been restricted to Muggle Speed transportation, and magicals at the time might also not have had the combat capability to truly slaughter hordes of non-magicals.

In short, its complicated, and by the time the situation had changed, inertia and pitiful morality got its way, along with Muggle Repelling Spells and other hiding spells making Muggles incredibly easy to just fucking ignore.

---------- Post automerged at 08:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:35 AM ----------

That guy probably just got shot in the face or blasted by American Wizards/Witches or absorbed.

Also, it isn't too clear that there exist an international enforcement body beyond "If you spoil it now, everyone War-Dec's you". So most enforcement is local and such, especially local to the continent at least. So unless Britain has an absolute assload more Magicals per capita than everyone else, which I won't believe unless J.K. herself says so for some asinine reason, then it can't do much about the rest of the world keeping things secret, abusing muggles however they wish, etc etc.

So I am guessing that the treaty was originally European centric, and most other countries adopted it because it was already de facto policy if not de jure in another manner.

 

I don't know when the other magical forms of transportation/teleportation was invented but a broom goes a hell of a lot faster than anything the muggles have for a couple of hundred years. I'm also fairly certain that magicals indeed had the capability to destroy a muggle army considering the most famous and powerful wizards like Merlin, the Four Founders and several Dark Lords came way before this period. Something like Fiendfyre or even a simple Banishing Charm would cause immense damage to an enemy army.

 

Don't say "magicals," the board isn't a Indy!Harry shitfic

Additionally, I know flying carpets were a thing. We can't really be sure of when most things (spells, transportation, potions) were invented so it becomes silly to guess. We can find whatever the books have as the earliest instances of these, but some things (like Apparition) could have been invented in the 19th century or the 9th.

Unless Pottermore has info on travel.

 

Before I get into this, let me just say that this wasn't meant to be a muggle vs. wizards thread- I assume that wizards would win but that the devastation might be too horrible to contemplate. Like Biblical.

This is more like the conspiracy theory thread.

Now I'm thinking the whole Secrecy bit was Europe-initiated and the devastation of native peoples in the Americas was punishment for non-compliance. After all, the native shamen were the 'American' wizards, those applying the smackdown being Spanish/Portugese/French/British wizards.

Theory: despite all the claims of non-interference being the goal, the rise of European colonialism was wizard-driven, with the intent of connecting to all the different wizard-types across the planet.

There's also a question in my mind as to how much religion was involved in the push for secrecy. I could see the Jesuit order of Missionaries as actually being wizards working towards Secrecy.

 

Yeah, right, you can annoy people who can do magic into hiding... without having any way to harm them...

 

This is the case in modern day wizarding Britain, but it likely didn't start out that way. The introduction of more rules and regulations, and departments to enforce them was likely something that happened gradually over time.

Perhaps at the outset the statue of secrecy just required you to memory charm any muggles who had seen you do magic.

The development of restrictions against hunting and harassing muggles are relatively recent.

 

Sheer numbers are a threat in and of themselves, and if any of the estimates on this board are correct, then the wizarding world is very small in comparison. A person can only shoot a gun, swing a sword, or manipulate a wand so fast. If there's enough people coming at them, even with sticks and stones, they'll get overwhelmed.