I have a question about Canon Voldemort and his plans.

Let's assume for a moment that Harry somehow failed and Voldemort won, killed Harry and destroyed the Order and kept ruling over Wizarding Britain.

What now? How does Voldemort's Britain develop from there?

I know that in fics like Prince of a Dark Kingdom we have Voldemort kidnapping muggleborns and having them raised by purebloods, but that's obviously not what Canon Voldemort would do.

What we know about the Dark Lord from Canon is that he expected nothing less but the complete extermination of muggleborns and half-breeds (like Teddy Lupin).

We also know that Voldemort forced the Ministry inside Gringotts and Hogwarts now taught the Dark Arts including the Unforgivables. Of course, muggleborns are not informed about magic and possibly killed whenever they are discovered.

So, knowing what we know about Canon Voldemort, how does his Britain look 19 Years Later after he defeated Harry in DH?

 

He gets overthrown fairly quickly I believe ~ easily within the next 30 years. Either by one of his more fanatical deatheaters, or by a future Hogwarts student. Now that Hogwarts explicitly focuses on the "Dark Arts" their students will have access to the knowledge that it took Voldemort decades to acquire.
Also canon Voldemort's ambition seemed to end at immortality, he wasn't focused overmuch on improvement for improvement's sake and that makes him vulnerable to being overthrown.

 

Well, he would probably make more horcruxes and killed anyone who discovered what they are, which would make him pretty much invincible. He would wipe out all muggles and became ruler of England.

 

Wait, Canon Voldemort who kills Harry kills his own Horcrux. If the vessel is destroyed does that soul piece just disappear into the ether or can Voldemort return it to himself somehow?

 

Yes, if the vessel is destroyed the Horcrux is destroyed as well.

 

Yeah, I've always thought Voldemort's plans in canon seemed to be quite short-sighted, especially given how focused he was on immortality.

I like to think, then, that there was a lot we never learnt about him, and that his goals really were focused in the long term - as a man whose greatest ambition was to live forever, perhaps this meant that his plans for the world were so absurdly long-term that just seeing them come to fruition would require greater than one lifetime?

I don't know what his actions might mean if that's the case - it's possible that the pureblood dogma was just a tool he used as a stepping stone to insert himself into position as the ruler. The fanatical purebloods, at the time he was growing up, were really the only faction besides magical creatures with a bone to pick against the world. The world was slipping out of their aristocratic grasp - muggleborns were growing more and more accepted, and they didn't like it one bit.

Given how we've seen how Voldemort gains his supporters in canon, he seems to target those people with motivation to go against the current system. He reached out first to the blood purity fanatics, presumably because as a wizard and the Heir of Slytherin, this was the easiest first step. Next he promises greater rights to magical creatures, gaining allies in werewolves and giants etc. The blood purity faction probably doesn't like magical creatures any more than muggleborns - so they probably see them as tools to be used in order to usurp the Ministry, without realising that Voldemort likely sees them the exact same way.

I find it likely that his first and foremost goal is to rule the wizarding world. Perhaps at first he would feel satisfied with Britain alone, but I suspect his character is such that his ambition is unending: his eventual goal if he did rule Britain would probably be to have the rest of the world under his thumb. Immortality helps with that kind of ambition.

I could definitely see Voldemort imagining himself, thousands of years in the future, to be the grand god-emperor of the world, ruling uncontested from an iron throne.

But as to what his plans for the world itself would be? Other than ruling it, he never seemed to have too many. If we take the idea that his power-base of followers were taken from blood purists for convenience, he really may not have too many strong convictions of his own beyond 'There is no good or evil, only power', and his own bloodthirst.

In the first several centuries of his rule, perhaps he would satisfy his followers' wishes and suppress muggleborns, but I don't think he would let those under him dictate what he did or did not do for too long, especially when he gets to the point in his rule where he's pretty much a fixture of the wizarding world. The problem for the muggleborns in this situation is that he definitely wouldn't care about them... but I do wonder if he'd be paranoid enough to not allow them into a position where they spawn their own Voldemorts with an axe to grind - because who better knows the power of revolution than Lord Voldemort who spent so long gaining his own minions?

I honestly suspect life under Voldemort's reign wouldn't be too terrible, eventually, other than the horrible death you'd meet if you defied him. Ultimately Voldemort is a self-serving bastard, and if it's true that his only real goal is his own power then I could see him doing all he could to ensure that the population remains loyal mindless sheep.

So there you have it, my idea of how it would turn out: God-Emperor Voldemort, reigning eternally on his Golden Throne.

Until the new Voldemort turns up.

 

Voldemort isn't going to stop after conquering Wizardling Britain.
Soon he'll find out that he is a big fish in a small pond, and killed by some ancient shaman or Voodoo priestess skilled in Soul magic.
Or his wars will break the Statute of Secrecy... with predicable results.

 

I hesistate to ask because I don't want this to become a Wizards vs. Muggle debate but what are the "predictable results"?

I think the first thing Voldemort is going to do is try to destroy all mention and knowledge of Horcruxes and make more of his own. He must've been aware of how close he came to defeat and will seek to prevent it at all costs. That's essentially his prime directive, immortality.
I'm honestly not sure what his plans would be for magical society after the war. I'm leaning to the common side that Voldemort didn't really care about blood purity, except his own, and were simply using the purebloods. He values power above all and likely recognizes, reluctantly, that muggleborns seem to be more or less the same in this regard as purebloods.
Unlike Palindrome, I think life under his regime would be absolutely horrible. He'd likely keep the populace under control with a totalitarian government whose primary tools are terror tactics and random killing/torture sessions, because Voldemort is a sadistic bastard. He likes seeing others in pain and loves to manipulate. He thrives on fear and hatred and would initiate a bloodbath just because it's fun to him.

 

He conquers the wizarding and Muggle worlds and turns the entire planet into a timeless and desolate wasteland in which all of humanity is enslaved to his will, worshipping him as a god, their short, brutal lives devoted entirely to Voldemort's glorification. All technology disappears, the Muggles are ruled openly by the wizards, Muggleborns are systematically murdered at birth. Wizards constantly vie for Voldemort's favour, and Voldemort spends eternity taking sadistic pleasure in the pain and suffering of his hordes of Muggle slaves and the struggles of his wizarding servants. He continues to explore magic beyond anything anyone has done before, becoming truly immortal, invincible and all-powerful. A thousand years can pass and yet nothing changes.

The sun expands into a red giant. The Earth is destroyed and Voldemort finally dies.

 

And in the mean time rename the planet Korriban?

 

Fixed that for you.

Spoiler

I was expecting the end to be along the lines of: Sirius Black, heir to the House of Black, is pulled into a conflict he wanted no part in, while in the north, there are whispers of an ancient enemy.

Harry Potter.

 

Voldemort in Prince of the Dark Kingdom has been blessed by the Gods and cares about giving back to the Earth as well -- so he has an extra factor to his motivations that canon Voldemort never had. While both canon and PotDK Voldemort are psychopaths and more or less the same character, canon Voldemort wouldn't act the same way as POtDK Voldemort does if he wins.

I would say the most accurate representation of a society in which canon Voldemort wins is Shezza's Resistance of Azkaban. The ministry is heavily biased towards Purebloods and muggleborns are imprisoned at the first signs of magic. Most muggleborns are deported rather than killed however -- The ICW does not approve of Muggleborn genocide. Voldemort controls the population through propaganda via the Daily Prophet and other media. Once society settles down, it isn't nearly as bad as the 'Barren Wastelands' the Resistance's propaganda machine makes it to be -- the people are more-or-less happy, just as they were under Fudge's reign.

 

I doubt Voldemort is as sane as most are assuming here. He is in many ways like a dog chasing a car. Once he gets it he had no idea what to do with it. I think the most likely scenario is that he goes too far in his quest for power and immortality and ends up blowing himself up.
Keep in mind even in canon he was the architect of his own destruction.
He does a lot of damage though and his demise creates a power vacuum resulting in a civil war between the various pureblood factions tearing the country apart before a revolution of sorts takes place leading to some sort of stability a few decades down the line.

 

Voldemort decides to invade France. The ICW comes down on him with everything they have, and Voldemort lives the rest of his eternal life possessing small animals in Albanian forest.

Alternatively, Voldemort decides that UK is enough, and dies of boredom after a couple of years of managing the bureaucracy of the ministry.

For any kind of sustainable reign Voldemort needes a strong ideology that people will support. Canon Voldemort doesn't have one.

 

Voldemort wins?

Game over man, game over!

 

"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity."

Harry Potter cannot die, plain and simple. He is a hero. He will fuck Voldemort even if he manages to kill him by coming back as a ghost, possessing his body, and AKing himself.

Then he will marry Ginny Weasley in Lord Voldemort's body and Albus Tom Potter will be born who will sacrifice himself for the sake of his father, and Harry will take a permanent possession of his son's body. Ginny Weasley will die of sorrow at her son's death and because she had genuine feelings for Voldemort.

Harry Potter will then have to grow as a technical orphan again but he will find a Silver Coin that will change his life forever by giving him true immortality and a life partner for eternity. Her name will be Meciel.

See. Meciel always wins.

 

That depends on how far you want to stretch the definition of what's canon. Because, if you ask me, the author herself set out a background for the character that had great potential and then personally proceeded to mangle his character or, at least, the promise of what he could have been. So, giving JKR the benefit of the doubt and assuming she wouldn't make more atrocious choices for Voldemort's character development...

I strongly believe Voldemort would be crap at ruling -- at the administrative parts of ruling -- and that it wouldn't even manage to hold his interest for too long. The man works best as a cult or conspiracy leader, as a shadowy figure, half rumor and half creepypasta, not as a goddamn king. He'd get bored to death by resting his bony ass upon a throne in like two days. Likely he'd find some new Dark artifact to obsess over and wouldn't give it a rest for long enough to see what his country was doing.

In the later books, JKR made what I understand as the mistake of mixing up personal/magical power and political power on Voldemort's list of priorities. This is understandable because she had set out to condemn political oppression and tyranny from the beginning, but it doesn't line up with his character in a number of ways. This is Grindelwald you're looking at here, the world-conqueror type of character. Voldemort would be too lost in his quest for more personal power to be a good politician. I think, if he were himself alone with Dark magic in the whole universe, he wouldn't mind much; whereas an "extroverted" power hungry individual absolutely depends upon a supply of people to dominate for psychological comfort.

So, what I think would happen is: Voldemort would appoint a figurehead ruler who'd do all the boring administrative work; he'd push him into foreign policy decisions that would antagonize rulers of other magical countries; the local world police superpower would wage war upon magical Britain to hopefully make it less of a Dark Arts Crapsack World, the Horcruxes (to the extent to which he still had them) would remain a secret because none of his new enemies would have been sufficiently close to him to know these details about him, and Voldemort would end up as a wraith yet again. In a few hundred years he'd become a sort of legendary ancient evil floating around, but he's too mentally broken to avoid making "his" type of mistakes this time around.

 

What 'local world police superpower'?

As far as we know, Wizarding Britain is the most powerful magical nation in the world.

 

Or he becomes powerful enough that he's unstoppable. The entire magical world was already scared of him, and he was growing noticeably more powerful all the time.

 

Xandrel: I was thinking about an analogue to America, which may or may not be magical America in this story; it could be any other country. The international magical world has benefited from considerably less worldbuilding than Britain, so we don't know that magical Britain really is as powerful compared to the others. Besides, an international alliance tends to be more powerful than any one nation it goes up against.

esran: I don't know whether they were scared of him as a guy with a spooky reputation, or of him as a leader of a nation. The potency of the spells he can cast is a strategically different matter from his ability to coordinate the best offensive forces he has at his disposal, in mass combat. And they're both different from coordinating economic resources in such a way that the entire structure he's leading isn't vulnerable to sudden collapse.