With about 38 canon wand woods, and ten different cores known to have been used in the canon, it might seem like a weird thing to ask about. However, as
I am basically a lore hog, I wanted to know what everyone thought about the usefulness of wands. For almost every character I have ever created for Harry Potter I have created an extensive description of all the usual proprieties of the wand.

I have also gone to the extent of using obvious but non-canon wand cores, with their own temperaments based in those of the creature. It is obvious that the wand core magic comes from the magic of the creature, considering that some of the most magical creatures ever devised are the main three cores.

So here are my questions for you: Do you go through the effort for every original character you create to do an extensive wand? Do you experiment and allow your characters to have non-canon cores that seem to make since based on their location, personalities, and the magical prowis of the creature in question? Do you think that people should stick to the main 3 cores, and the 38 explored woods? I would like to know your opinions on the subject, because certainly it must be an interesting combination.

 

Disregarding the multiple spelling mistakes in your post and the assumption of "cores create the wand", personally, I consider the wands and wandlore in general to be a neat little detail, but certainly not a necessary one to have when writing. In the (perenially unpublished) stories I've got in development, wand specifics are very much a background detail, at best.
I also think sticking to the canon cores is best, especially for Harry, since noncanon wand cores can be quite the red flag.

 

No. The whole thing with the pottermore wand lore was neat and all, but it's ultimately more cute than useful. I care about the characters, not their wands. The whole thing reeks of post-revisionist history, and it reminds me of those boring English lessons where you have to dissect the meaning of blue when used in a certain way.

 

I don't think most writers on this site have created an original character within the Harry Potter fandom that they'd consider important enough to warrant that level of detail.

Personally, I don't really care what wand a character has at all - not unless it's relevant to the plot in some way.

 

A wand is supposed to be relevant to a character's personality or heritage. While it's obvious that the wand can work for someone depending on it's temperament (ron's was a hand-me-down) It seems like their should be some thought put into it if you're going to actually mention it at any point in the story, which JK does a lot, for a variety of characters. Although, I would like to know why people seem resistant to OC fiction in the Harry Potter community.

 

I think you missed the point. You can certainly draw a parallel between the qualities or virtues of the wand and its owner, however if it's not relevant in your writing, why bother going to all that trouble if you can simply make a note "He's arrogant" besides the character name to remember when you write him in your story.

As per OC, personally, I'm reading HP fanfiction to read about Harry Potter or one of the cast, not some new character that 80% of the time is badly portrayed, end up being some form of mary sue or SI.

 

I just mean, do people even actually write what the wands are half of the time? A wand should be a part of the character, consider how important wands are for the characters in the books. (The connection from Harry to Tom, Ron's wand acting up, ect)

As for OCs, I made a thread about that, because I really wanted to know why it is that Harry Potter fans seem more resistant to them then other fandoms I participate in.

 

I know. But what's the point of going through the whole process of determining what the wand of someone like Marietta Edgecombe is if you never actually bring attention to it. At worst, you can simply said "her wand..." and be done with it. No one actually cares about what kind of wand she has; it's not relevant to the story.

 

I guess wands can be awesome to lore whores, but if I were one, I would whore myself out for some other lore.

There are instances of great OCs in HP fanfiction, characters that are well-rounded, have their own agenda, and a life "outside of the pages". I could name a few, but none of them is the star of the fic they're a part of. Like Basilisk said, most people read fanfiction of a specific fandom to read about characters they know from canon.

 

I just think that everything that you can do with the cannon main characters without au is mostly explored. At least for the ones that are actually important to the books. Honestly though, I understand that wand-lore isn't that important it just seems to be confusing at times and I wanted to get people's opinion on using non-cannon cores. (Kitsune whisker, Thunderbird feather, Pooka tail hair, Sphinx whisker, ect.)

---------- Post automerged at 02:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 PM ----------

The thing is, that, in many cases it can be interesting to the characters what their wand is and the like. I have wanted to basically just use the wands as they are, and yet I still go to the trouble of making a wand of reasonable stats for each character... just the basic things, length, core, wood, 'suprisingly springy' and the like.

 

Oh god, please no.

.....

Personally, I'm fascinated by the minute details as well. I like to psychoanalyze even the least important characters. Even if these characters will never serve me in any way. Sometimes I sneak in the littlest references that only a die hard fan that's as meticulous as me, only might probably notice. But even then, I know they won't care as much as I do. It's just one of those things that only serve you. It's something that makes me giggle a bit to myself as if I'm holding a secret that only I know.
I think anyone who believes in astrology in real life is bat shit crazy. But for a fictional verse filled with nonsensical things I can make an exception. For example, I read this long winded article of Tom Riddle's astrological portrait and character breakdown with glee. http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/essays/issue1/astrologicalpuzzle/ It's one of my ideas of fun, but whenever I've shared it with others, they find it boring.

Jo has actually tailored the character's birthdays to their personalities as well. Sometimes even to their ultimate fates. I think the idea of wand lore falls in this similar category.
tl;dr: I get you. I'm the same. But you have to understand that no one else gives as much as a fuck as you do with these type of things even with the main characters, least of all with OC's.

Spoiler

*english isn't my first language

 

Not even remotely close. Ideas are cheap. It's the execution of the idea that matters.

If you're into it, more power to you. Maybe even some of your readers will check that out, or another wand-nerd will be like "wow, he actually paid attention to that, that's so cool". Thing is, most ff readers will skip right over that, being more interested in other things.

Basically, putting more thought into a story will (probably) make it better. My subjective opinion, since this is what we're sharing here, is: I spent my efforts on other things, which I believe are more important.

 

Unless the particular wand plays a role in the story other than regular casting (ex. GoF, DH) I don't see a need to describe it. Super-wands are also a massive red flag.

 

1. May I please ask what you meant by the first part?

2. I understand what you mean, it just seems... I don't know like there's more to be explored. A world out there that we may never really get to see. I like details, and I don't particularly care if they notice or not, it just seems like people should at least KNOW what the wand wood and cores are.

---------- Post automerged at 02:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------

Heh, I just mean that their are like entire continents that get almost litteraly no exploration.

---------- Post automerged at 02:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:47 PM ----------

I just mean in the most basic of ways, like Ollivander did to five different wands at the start. Considering that my main character in one story (I haven't gotten a name yet, so I'm calling him Oliver Vanderson >.>) is a wand enthusiast I would probably get that somewhat.

 

I'm not him but whenever people use cores like that, it's a big red flag. They often mean the story is an indy!Harry story and we all know how those go.

 

I'm not entirely sure what that means, I just thought that each of those cores made since for the aria the character was in considering the likely rarity of unicorns, dragons, and phoenixes in Egypt, Japan, or America. Or the age of one of them (it is a totally stupid plot device, everyone's going to hate it, but fuck I want to see it done.)

 

Non-canon cores might be viable, even interesting if you're not trying to trump the existing canon. The Ollivander family settled on the three cores they use for Reasons, and anything you inject into the story that contradicts their educated generations of assessment is going to leave a bad taste. Worse still if you use cores for creatures that don't exist in canon (e.g.: kitsune, pooka, pokemon). I do enjoy a bit of background trivia being included when it comes to magic's tools. I've been working on a wandlore story for a bit, though I'm rather stuck for an actual storyline that seems meaningful. Still, most instances of wand-wank end up being too wanky.

"My Mithril and Dementor vocal cord rod will totally pwn your pathetic Elder wand, Dumbledore!"

"Ah, but I recently visited the Valkyries, and they upgraded the Deathstick with Yggdrasil parquet and two additional cores of frost giant ganglia and Foodog tail! Every time I cast a spell, three spells come out. It's like an anime explosion."

"I thought Foo-dogs were Chinese?"

"They were on special at the Inter-theistic marketplace..."

 

Most of the times, when people write a story where Harry (an OC in your case) gets a new wand with a not cannon core, it just doesn't work. What is the point? To make him op? Because more often than not, that is what happens.

To be honest it is just off putting reading a story where a wand has a kitsune whisker at his core. Especially because, as canon has proven, there are dragons everywhere. Why can't there be phoenixes and unicorns as well? And why not use creatures actually mentioned in canon?

 

I've read quite a few fanfics that use non-canon wands deliberately, but I never understood why people thought that would be necessarily a good idea. I mean the Ollivanders chose their favourite wand cores for a reason and exploring those reasons might be fun. Gregorovitch used different cores and his reasons would be interesting, too, but he also didn't superpower every wand. Super powerful wands seem to be one fanfic short-cut to a superpowered character. Personally, I think that's a cop-out.

That being said, every OC I wrote has a wand that suits him (going by JKRs description). It might never be described or be important, but I like those little details. Essentially, what Constantine said.

 

The olivanders know what their doing, those are the most stable cores that make the most since obviously. I don't want to make a character p.o., I want to describe things. Also, can you really tell me anything about what things are outside of Europe?