"Revelation of the True Form" or "Summoning" (not a formal title as author didn't give a specific name or spell)
- A form of conjuration which uses a physically, emotionally, or intrinsically charged object as a medium in order to bring into existense an artifact or tool of the same medium with varied results.

to quote from darklordpotter's "Traitors Within", "This sword is one of my gifts to you. I have summoned it from beyond, using the metal of your prison bars as a medium for it. It’s a spell I only recently rediscovered"

An ancient form of magic rediscovered in this story, by Lord Voldemort, and used to transform the bars, and presumably locks, window, etcetera of Harry's homemade prison created originally by Vernon Dursley, with no intrinsic magical properties, into a weapon magically charged by Harry's negative emotions surrounding said prison as well as the people and circumstances through which he arrived in that prison.

Like most spells, the energy the caster can devote to such a conjuration is a factor in the success of the conjuration, as well as the level of imagination and attention to detail which are always key with any form of transfiguration or conjuration. Further, with this spell, the perception of the original object has to have the focus and intensity needed for the conjuration attempted. In this case, a weapon of great power and anger is possible, because both the caster and the prisoner have a high level of loathing for the medium and the people and circumstances connected through that medium. Thus the medium is properly charged, or to put it more simply, 'primed and ready to explode'.

For this reason often this spell requires only a small amount of energy from the caster as the spell draws its power from a multitude of other places once enacted. The spell itself is really more of a 'release' of the energy already present within the medium as well as everyone connected to the medium, which may feel a slight drop in energy, but probably not notice it as they had already devoted so much focus towards the medium because of their connection to it. However those connected to it that are unaware of their connection may sense a slight drop in energy or may even sneeze or experience a coughing fit or hiccups unexpectedly, or even fall ill. Therefore depending on the circumstances surrounding a given medium, a wizard or witch of less than average power, with the knowledge of this spell, could in fact gain extra-ordinary results due to the sheer number of people connected to it, past, present and even future in some rare conditions.

It is suspected that many famous artifacts and even historic places were created or magically charged by this type of conjuration. An example would be Hogwarts, which would have gained much stigma from many people over the years. It has always been suspected that this magical school has a mind of its own separate from any enchantments that the Founders themselves, or any subsequent Headmaster produced.

Another suspicion of researchers into magical theory is that many of the magical races in ancient past were in fact created by use of this or related forms of transfiguration. The greatest evidence towards this is the more recent appearance of Dementors, which were first known to exist within the last few centuries, when Azkaban was seized by the magical government of Britain and the ancestral home of its lords, known to be the largest fortress in the British Isles, was made into a prison. It is said that the previous owners of the Island, who had lost their rights and titles when they surrendered to the Imperial Army and signed a treaty, placed a curse on the island which was laughed at for many decades after the Fortress had lived as a prison when the Dementors appeared. Although eventually once the magical government changed hands a few times and the Patronus Charm was invented the Dementors became the guards of the prison there is still the strong belief that Dementors were a direct result of the curse and the many thousands that died by their hands only added to that belief.

My personal belief is that the curse was not actually a curse but this very type of lost transfiguration, set to activate after the prison was properly filled with prisoners, by using their despair, their soiled and ruined prison rags, some corpses of prisoners that had died and been buried already from mistreatment, and created something truly horrifying: The soul-sucking vampiric Dementors. And once created they were able to breed and create more of themselves, so long as Azkaban held prisoners. It is possible the magic was a closely guarded secret of the Azkaban Lords and their ancient family.

This isolated example of Dementors which we can study leads one to believe that some of the other magical beasts and beings could have come onto being the same way rather than through simple evolution and mutation. No one knows how long magical humans have been in existence, as many of the ancient civilizations were lost, particularly the entirely magical island of Atlantis, which was destroyed supposedly in a magical catastrophe. Very few records remain that can tell us anything about the ancient history of the magical community for that reason, so this idea is left to speculation but still interesting to think about. Many of the magical beasts in our world could fit this description, and I suspect that human tranfiguration of this type is also a possibility.

A final note on this spell: The artifact, creature, or being created by this conjuration may not be usable for or loyal to the caster. The object will most likely move or act in accordance with the medium and who or what that medium is most closely connected to. For example, the sword Voldemort created through Harry's prison is a sword implicitly for Harry to use, and it would be surprising if anyone else would be able to touch it, let alone wield it. However that aspect of the sword could be overcome by someone who lived in very similar circumstances to Harry and had felt the same anger. It is possible that the 'beyond' Voldemort is referring to is in fact another place where the sword existed independent of the medium and was simply waiting there to be 'summoned', hence the idea that this is an entirely separate branch of magic from Transfiguration called Summoning. This is one of the great secrets of the universe, that by using seemingly ordinary objects you can call upon great power. You simply have to bring that power to the surface with the right circumstances and charged objects. Emotional teenagers are a boost.

personal notes:

I believe it takes a true artist to be a great summoner. It takes someone with a very vast imagination and depth of insight into their own and other people's emotions and thoughts. You would also have to be able to recognize objects that are connected through people's consiousness. Things that are not just 'things' to a person, but rather a part of their identity, whether they are consious of it or not. such things have vast amounts of energy surounding them that can be tapped by a skilled summoner. A rather simple bit of summoning we witness in Harry Potter is the Patronus. However, the Patronus is not a permenant conjuring like the sword because it does not have a physical medium to take shape from, but rather only the pure emotion of hope and happiness to take temporary form. However Patroni are a basic and important skill for a summoner to have. And there are many unexplored ways in which they can be used.

Also Summoning can be a double edged sword or even turn entirely against you if you don't do it under controlled circumstances, and even the best Summoners can have a 'calling' backfire on them significantly. This concept also has a root in ancient philosophy with Plato's 'forms' and the sugestion that things in the physical world are imperfect shadows of true and original 'forms' locked away in a higher dimension.

It's an interesting topic for discussion.

 

Wow, you're serious. It's an interesting concept - although when I think of the art of summoning I'm more inclined to relate it to summoning spirits or creatures (from the same Intelligible World spoken of in Pluto's theories of reality). To this effect could it be said that Summoning is the art of 'creating' sentient or concious beings from the Intelligible World, thus negating the popular idea that one must intimately 'know' the object in question; because what is perceived in our Subjective Reality is not true to the objects actual form.

The same could be said for Conjuring (the art of summoning or 'creating' inanimate objects) which would make it a relatively simple act (e.g. Molly Weasley conjuring the sauce in GoF). Of course, summoning a concious being would be significantly more difficult, as sentient beings are innately more complex than the in animate (tea set anyone?), which could explain the reason why most creature summonings are generally pictured with Runic (or similarly complex binding and power systems) elements, and conjuration is easily accomplished with the flick of a wand.

This is an interesting concept... maybe we could start a few more topics dealing with the metaphysics and sciences behind magic, perhaps a series named "DLP: Magical Theory - An Introduction".

 

I do have my theories on the differences between Conjuring and True Summoning in that conjuring calls forth an object, food, or idea that comes from a witch or wizard's personal pocket universe of perceptions and forms rather than the higher dimensional forms only accessible through a collaberative effect that could be called 'summoning' alternatively. Summoned objects or beings would have an identity that is entirely separate from any one individual's perceptions.

The difference being between that of the 'self world' and the 'true world'.
One is easily accesible to an individual but the other is more tricky to access and need a medium that fits certain perameters. But both are separate from the 'real world' where the object or being is 'called' to.

And yes a thorough discussion of magical theory is a very good idea, I think.

Too many people fall back on Arithmancy as the sort of math behind magic when in fact I think it can only cover a small aspect of the physics involved, particularly the interdimensional stuff.

 

I don't feel that physics covers it at all, in actual fact Arithmancy is a form of Divination (take that Herman), in the case of Arithmancy (also known as Numerology) based upon the idea that a person's name contains clues to their character and destiny, and that each of the numbers between 1 and 9 have a unique meaning that can contribute to the understanding of all things (one of Pythagoras' theorems).

With these two ideas systems have been developed to convert names into numbers to analyze the results, it's also a method for discovering one's sigil - their personal sign that can be used in conjunction with other runes or symbols to write spells or charms.

Now for another interesting fact, Divination is sometimes referred to as The Mantic Arts, its base in the Greek word Mantikos which means prophet, the suffix "-mancy" is generally used to describe divinatory arts such as Chiromancy (Palm-Reading), or Tasseomancy (Tea Leaf Reading).

I've got this great book that elaborates on magical systems and arts that are featured in Harry Potter, its called The Sorcerer's Companion...Great reference.

But back to my original reason for this post (lol) physics cannot fully apply to magic due to its extraordinary nature, to begin to understand it I believe that we must look towards Metaphysics, and apply those theorems towards magic, they certainly make more sense than using hardcore mathematical equations to understand the supernatural.

 

true, I suppose that metaphysics would be the best approach for any realistic discussion as physics really hasn't advanced that far yet I don't think.

But yes Arithmancy is mostly related to divination, I was just pointing out how so many authors abuse it as a way to mathematically break down almost every form of magic which isn't actually possible to my knowledge.

But there are many other topics for discussion, and potions comes to mind as a fairly important subject, seeing as there would be a set number of ingredients to work with and the subtle difference of stirring some mixture one way rather than the other seems like a very unlikely reason for things to be so drastically different and it's probably one of the most complicated subjects because of things like this and the sheer number of possible combinations and methods of mixing and heating, etc. It reminds me horribly of the elemental tempering process in the Legend of Mana game, except slightly more complicated than that.

 

I've thought of something else I might add in relation to summoning and particularly the dementors as they are such monstrous and powerful creatures to literally be able to devour a person's soul in order to sustain themselves, even moreso than vampires I would say....

I think that in order to do something this powerful and make the dementors a permenant presense in the physical world that the people who did so, and I say people because it was probably a joint effort, most likely had to give up their own souls to generate the sort of foundation stone or original theorem which eventually became the first dementors once they absorbed enough of the right energy from the prison. It would probably be the same or similar with most permenant alterations to the physical world in this manner.