Just something to sate my curiosity, but how do you think would the magical ministry or school in your region or country look like? Do you have a certain picture in mind how your magical world would be?

I give it a try.

Magical Germany divided between dozens of counts, dukes and powerful houses, just like its counterpart, is shaped by the wish to outdo rivals. These reasonably powerful (magical and societal) entities try to leave their mark with monuments.

Akademie für höhere Zauberei

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The seat of the count and his magical government

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I would love to know how you imagine or picture a magical society at the Mediterranean Sea.

 

I'd imagine in Ireland there'd be some sort of school on Tory Island or The Burren. Tara and Newgrange would be too obvious. Then again Seamus goes to Hogwarts so wooooooooop.

 

Well, I guess we are going to see America in the next movie, but I feel like I'd have a different take on it. First of all, America is a big country, and I doubt there'd be one wizarding school serving all of America. I've always thought the population of wizarding Britain was around ten thousand to twenty thousand. If we apply that same ratio to the U.S. there'd be almost a hundred thousand wizards living across the country.

So, I'd think that the different regions of the country have their own schools in especially remote areas, I'd think there'd be wizarding settlements in those same remote areas. I like to think wizards congregate in older areas, so I tried to place these schools in areas which are both remote and have been settled for a long time. It seems like the schools we have been shown in canon have generally been in mountainous regions, and I tried to continue that trend.

I could see a school in the Berkshires of Massachusetts serving New England and some of the north east, including the Great Lakes Region. A school in the middle of New York serving the lower half of the North East, a school in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, serving the South and a school in Oregon serving most of the West. There'd also be smaller public schools across the country.

I think a Magical Congress is pretty much on the right track. But I also could see wizarding villages being more isolated than in Britain, small pockets of Magic divided from the larger whole. I do see Boston being the center of Wizarding America, as the oldest English founded city here.

 

Conveniently located in a Walmart.

EDIT: But speaking of which, the Art Deco look of the Magical Congress in this new movie reminds me of the Niagara Mohawk building in Syracuse.

 

I don't understand the joke here. If anything the most likely one to be in a Walmart would be the one in Tennessee- not upstate New York.

I'd expect the North Eastern Schools to be fairly similar to Hogwarts, echoing as Hogwarts does, the private schools around the area. I'd expect a sprawling campus and Brick or white painted wood buildings, looking especially at Governor's Academy, Lawrence Academy and Roxbury Latin, as the three oldest private high schools in the New England area. I could see the upstate New York echoing these looks, tending more towards the Collegiate School looks. I can't speak for the south however.

 

Central New York's largely rural and has economically depressed for decades. Lots of abandoned factories and dairy farms -- and a lot of Walmarts. Hence the joke. Pretty far and away from the New England-y things you're describing.

I wonder if CNY might be something of a hotbed for some Native American magic in the Northeast, actually.

 

Mohawk magic sounds pretty sick. But in general I think Wizards are less affected by twists and turns of the Muggle world, and the original character of that area would remain. However, that was me just throwing out the least populated part of New York, can you think of anywhere else in New York or the lower North East in general that would be remote, old and rather mountainous? The Vermont border maybe? I could actually see Appalachian Pennsylvania being another option but that might be the midwestern school.

 

Well, I don't know. Your placement is dependent on mountainous regions, which I don't think necessarily has to be the case. But maybe move that school from NY down to Pennsylvania, in the Alleghenys? I don't think that would cover the Midwest, it's too far east.

If you free it from the mountains I'd suggest a school down in Virginia.

 

I think that a New England school would fit very well in northern New Hampshire, especially if one wanted a preppy boarding school vibe in the vein of Phillips Exeter Academy. There are mountains in New Hampshire as well (although not particularly large ones), and the area is very sparsely populated. I imagine this kind of school would either be red brick colonial style buildings like Harvard or Collegiate Gothic architecture like Yale. I don't see it being quite like Hogwarts Castle (castle with soaring towers).

If you wanted a less preppy school then I think upstate NY or western PA works the best to get a depressed, somewhat rural, small-town NE feel. Imagine a run-down, underfunded high school built in the 50s that's accumulated a layer of grime over the years and make it magical.

 

To be honest, I've always had a very vivid mental picture of the American wizarding world as being made up of small villages spread out across the country where students would go to muggle school and learn magic in an afterschool/ summer camp setting (I'm pretty sure this idea is from some fanfic I read at one time or another).

 

I'm from India so I will give my thoughts on magical government here.

First off, I think that magical boundaries of Indian subcontinent will be different from it's muggle counter part. Since witches and wizards don't seem to be particularly religious which means there won't be any event like partition in magical society.

The whole area of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will be divided based on cultural difference and not religion (as in muggle world). There will be 3 societies.

1. Northern India:
Mixture of indian and arabic cultures. The magical school will probably be a fort in Rajasthan's desert example.


2. Southern India
Traditional south indian culture. The school here will be something similar to ashrams with a large campus made up of many small buildings, spread out in a forest. example.

3. North Eastern India
Something like a buddist monastery in mountain area at a high altitude. example.

 

Honestly, I think something more like how Tenhawk portrays America in his Shadow Council Series would fit America more then some of the options given.
By that I mean a patch work of various groups, divided along ethnic lines, both original Natives and of the countries who originally settled here, who only cooperate at the minimal levels needed.
I mean, look at it this way. The American Civil was was 1861-65. And back then, everyone thought of themselves more as a member of whatever state they belonged to rather then a citizen of the United States.
J.K. Rowling placed Dumbledore's age at anywhere from 150 to 115 depending on when she was interviewed. Thats 1900 conservatively. Add int he fact there were people alive in the books that taught/examined Dumbledore, and you can tack another 20 years or more onto that. So, wizards and witches live a long time.
Long enough to have been one or two generations removed from knowing people still alive when George Washington was.
So, after that, I think there'd be several magical schools situated all along the East Coast, each representing the particular group/country that settled there originally.
And there'd be a minimal government, the smallest possible, both due to the original tenants of the country that called for very minimal federal government, and the fact that frankly, I don't believe wizards need a government. Most of the ministry in the books seemed rather useless, and when you have cosmic powers that only really can be countered by other cosmic powers, I figure you're much more likely to look at your neighbor and say 'You stay over there, I'll stay here, and all's good,' then to want someone from somewhere else coming and telling you how to live your life.
So, in conclusion - Many schools based on original country or area of origination's building design, and minimal government.

 

I guess in Australia, I think it would look like USYD, it pretty much figures the description. The magical community would be in clumps all over the place. Probs have some desert tribes as well

 

The local school would probably have vegan potions classes.

 

For Australia, I guess that'd be a tin shed in the Pilbara out back of Meekatharra. Built out of slabs of Emu Export, 4X, or Swan Draught. It being mining country, the school would be fly in/fly out.

I've actually taken a more global approach to a magical school in my writing at the moment.

For the current original book I'm working on, the magical school is nestled securely in the Akaishi Mountains in Japan. It's set here in the real world, but I've tried to distance myself as much from Hogwarts as possible. I based the design of the school roughly on how Atlantis looks (yeah, I know, always fucking Atlantis) in Stargate:



So imagine something like that nestled in a valley surrounded by these mountains:



It's an elite academy called Haven - only the rich get in - so what's my dirt poor fugitive protagonist from the slums of London going to do there? Take fucking names, shake up the established order, bang some sloots? All that and more.

The Haven Academy is protected by the Japanese government, and by the wealthiest families in the world - and thus, most governments. It's not so much a secret as the true nature of what goes on there isn't known to the world at large. They're tapping into a power they call Yūgen - which grants magical abilities - and teaching kids how to use it.

Yūgen effects people in different ways. There's no set spellbooks or pathways. Sometimes it grants enhanced strength, other times flamethrower arms, or the ability to levitate, to heal, glimpse the future, avoid death, and so on... As such, it's all about learning to control whatever unique talent the Yūgen grants a user. Also, to abuse the power leads to death or, worse, madness. So it's more of a master/apprentice learning environment. The Path of Yūgen, as they call it, is how best to control the power - it doesn't always work, but by following the Path there's a good chance you'll gain control of the abilities. Haven can teach that path.

You can start reading here and find out more about my efforts.

 

This may be a bit stupid, as I'm French, but I always thought that French Magical World would have a Revolution (series of?) in the end of the XVIIIth/beginning of the XIXth century and as a result, most of the old families and nobility had been executed/converted to the "new order"/exiled.
So nowadays, muggleborns are much less victimised than in England, partly due to the heavy criticising of the belief in blood purity that followed the Revolution and the obligatory schooling from 8 to 14, ensuring that they now magical history and customs.

I would place, given what I know of it, Beaubatons somewhere near Bordeaux, with important magical residential areas in Paris, Rouen, Calais, Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Toulouse, Carcassone and Brest based on how important historically they were (and because Carcassone just IS the city that screams "medieval themed sorcery").

So basically, I would see Magical France as much more open than England due to all the revolutions and wars that followed them. But then, it may be just my patriotism that speaks.

 

Since the Age of Enlightenment was most prominent in France, which was for example unlike Germany unified, I can get behind that notion. Personally I would add some nothern african influences to the mix.

After Gellert Grindelwald, the subsequent revenge of other nations and a lack of something similar to the Wirtschaftswunder I expect modern magical Germany to be almost non-existent (no government, no school, etc.) except for some remote settlements in the Black Forrest and the Alps.

 

Well for me, Durmstrang was build for this, as they cathered to the (now defunct) Holy Roman Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire .

 

For America's Magical Government -- I can see Federal centralization of power never happening, and the maintenance of regional magical governments.

• The Northeast block would be most similar to the UK's ministry system, with a strong centralized government.
• The Pacific coast block would be more less centralized, live and let live, with individual magical cities with decision-making on their own regulations.
• Texas would be, well, Texas. Anything goes, unless you become a dark wizard. Then the local aurors would put you down (I imagine this as similar to wardens in Dresden Files).
• The South could still be an aristocracy stronghold with serfs/house elves in play, and be culturally still tied to purebloods in the U.K.
• Everywhere else could just be magical hermits living in the Rockies, mostly doing their own thing.

 

I would imagine that most magical countries, due to them being so far behind, would not comply with modern-day country borders, as there would be different conflicts in the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. For example, Imperialism may have never happened in Magical Europe, and so many countries that fell under Muggle Europe during Imperialism may have never fell under the magical country's rule, i.e. Australia, Asia, America, etc. Without European influence, these areas may have developed differently, retaining their traditional culture, such as Native Americans, Feudal Asia, Aboriginal Australia, etc. and then would receive an influx of Muggleborns from European immigrants due to imperialism. The governments may also have developed differently, or they may have no government at all.