This opening post is under construction, but nearly complete.

Hogwarts, 1480

It is a time before the Ministry of Magic. Britain is ruled by a Wizard’s Council in a much less bureaucratic manner than the Ministry that would succeed it. Wizards are freer, with no Statute of Secrecy preventing them from casting spells in public, and no Restriction of Underage Sorcery to stop them from learning early.

Wizards are not the only ones with fewer restrictions. The Code of Wand Use has not yet come to pass, and creatures such as centaurs and goblins can legally use wands, though the legality does not stop it from being looked down upon by wizardkind. Still, goblins are rising in prominence and importance with the newly formed Gringott’s Bank. Goblins have no great protection under the law, but their own magic and ability to make amazing weapons and armor keep most wizards cautiously friendly with them. They have answered wizardkind’s refusal to share wandlore by refusing to share any of their own metallurgical knowledge.

The looser law and order of the country has its darker sides, however. Pureblood fanatics like the Malfoys, Gaunts, and Blacks are able to get away with horrible acts of muggle baiting. And on the reverse side, it’s not uncommon for less skilled wizards to be taken captive and subjected to trial by muggles.

Muggle born witches and wizards have it the worst. There is no institute dedicated to locating and protecting them, and far too few of them ever reach Hogwarts or have their powers explained to them. Many are treated as freaks by their families, and some are put to trial for witchcraft for magic they weren’t even in control of.

Around the age of eleven, children can be sent to the Hogwarts Castle, which has already been operating as a school for young witches and wizards for almost five centuries. Without a Ministry’s oversight, the castle is a power of its own amongst the wizards of Britain. It is a stronghold of ancient and powerful magic, and has a great influence on witches and wizards even after they leave it.

Something is beginning to happen, this year. Some are finding sleep in the castle uneasy, and younger students are plagued by strange and sometimes frightening dreams. So far no one has been hurt, and the nocturnal anxiety has not been blamed on a magical source. But that is about to change.

Subjects:

Transfiguration: The changing of one thing into another. Students often start with small twigs into needles. Unlike charms, there isn’t much incantation or specific wandwork here. Transfiguration is in the mind, and comes from the caster’s willpower and knowledge of the thing being transfigured. ((Teacher to be filled by player, maybe))

Potions: One of the more ancient arts of the witch and wizard. Potion making has been perfected over millennia and has reached a peak of precision and power. In addition to being an excellent chef, the jolly Italian professor Benedict Dante is the castle’s potion’s master.

Combat: This age has a looser definition of light and dark, and Defense Against the Dark Arts hasn’t been established as a subject yet. Still, violence is an ever present possibility and even young witches and wizards need to be able to defend themselves, whether in a duel or against magical beasts. ((Teacher to be filled by player, and subject is subject to change))

Charms: Spells that alter the nature of an object, area, person, or sometimes reality itself. Sometimes Charms are confused with transfiguration, but they are quite different. If you bring an object to life without changing its shape, it’s a charm. If you do so by changing it into an animal, it’s transfiguration. ((Teacher to be filled by player))

Herbology: Hand in hand with potions, Herbology focuses on the taking care of plants that have magical uses or properties. The castle’s glass gardens are looked after by Professor Gwendoline Galare, who teaches the classes as if they are interrupting her alone time with the plants.

History: Some find knowledge of past wizards to be important, though most students consider the subject matter to be dry at the best of times. Young Professor Edwin Plinny tries his best to inject enthusiasm into the class, but often fails.

Astronomy: Witches and Wizards for centuries have found the movement of celestial bodies to be relevant to the magic they work. Professor Aquila Altair roams the towers and walls of the castle tirelessly every night, pointing the constellations out to her willing students.

Care of Magical Creatures: Animals as well as plants can have magical traits, and their usefulness makes a working knowledge invaluable. ((Teacher to be filled by player))

CS:

When making your character, I’d rather you make a character for their own sake, rather than starting with the house you want to be in in mind.

Feel free to use known family names, and feel free to be related to each other. Come up with rivalries between families, or old friendships.

Name:
Age:
Appearance: Pictures are allowed, but be warned that I reserve the right to ask you to find a new one if I don't like it.
House: Leave blank for sorting
Wand: Leave blank, the wand chooses the wizard.
Personality:
Bio:
Plotting: Anything that might make for some interesting interactions. Include any ways you see that your character might clash with others, or get on well with them.
Family: Any relations you have among other characters. If you made up your own last name, tell us a little about their family background.

Rules:

1) As always, guild rules apply. There's no reason they wouldn't.

2) Use common sense. You should know what won't fly.

3) Be polite. If I call you out on attitude, and you didn't mean to have one, just say so. Sometimes intent can't be read through text.

4) Don't sweat post size or Cs size. Do sweat your grammar and how much sense you're making.

5) I am the goddamn headmaster. If I tell you something, feel free to make an argument, but don't complain if I don't buy it. And don't keep going after I've said no. I think people who have played under me would agree that I'm diplomatic, but very firm.

Im interested, do you want us to post CS in here or wait for an OOC? (sorry if thats not how the site works, i've been out for a while)

The site works both ways, I think you can go ahead and make one, though making one early runs the risk of being asked to make adjustments if anything new is decided.

I want to make a guy from a very rich, ancient and influential family of magical assassins (which is pretty much the Guild of Assassins from Discworld, but with wands), who was already homeschooled for some time before being sent off to this most respectable establishment for being educated on wizardly matters amongst the peers of his age and mentality. Would you accept that?

@Keksalot

I'm not really a fan of assassin-related groups. They tend to make for characters who are unnecessarily edgy and badass, usually disproportionately so compared to the rest of the characters. It's too often played up as an untouchable and existentially frightening group whose name is feared above all others. That just really puts me off in an RP, because it kind of puts your character above the rest in certain ways.

Either A) your character will be just way too good in combat related scenarios or B) they won't be, and all of that ancient house stuff was nonsense.

If you can work with the same idea without putting them up too much, give it a shot and show me a CS.

Oh no, nothing of the edgy and high-and-mighty sort. His family is just like, for example, Ruperts who are widely renown for being the biggest people in cigars and wine business, Genovese who own half of the world's casinos or Rothschilds who simply decide how much any gold in the world is worth at any given moment.
It's just that instead of some banking or agricultural business his family is renown for having a practical monopoly on commiting political and other assassinations, maybe due to some ancient agreement between many wizards of the days long gone or simply because no one else has thought of this.
Of course, they aren't just some hired thugs or paid murderers - they have really strict Rules about who can and who can't be their possible victims, how the inhumation must be conducted and how much of a sporting chance should be allowed to the target. The whole business in general has became extremely formalized throughout the untold ages of the family's history, to the point where everyone who can't properly protect themselves from an attempt at their life are pretty much safe - partly because the family's services are very expensive - and those who can protect themselves and don't can only blame themselves for their sudden demise.
Other than their highly excentric business domain, this is just another rich and old english family who has sent their son, who is too just like any other boy of his age to study in the best school there is.

Alright, you are aware, I hope, that this is an inherently dark sided family, yes?

EDIT: They may well not view themselves this way, but it's how many will see them.

I hope that you can make a character who is their own person, and not just a definition of the family. Feel free to put up a CS.

Also, I wanna note for you and everyone else, that homeschooling before reaching Hogwarts is not uncommon. And furthermore, richer pureblood families also likely tutor their children on dueling, to help them protect family honor.

you say "Wand: Leave blank, the wand chooses the wizard." but what if you have a wand already before you go to hogwarts??

@Teddyinahat You might, I just mean that I will assign your wand.

Unless you use an heirloom wand, I guess, but we all know heirloom wands are worse than bonded wands.

Super into this.

Here's something that people might find useful if they want to play a character from a pureblood family. The list is from the 30's, so there would be other names, but these ones we know for sure, and there's plenty of them.

The good thing about this timeline is that it's far enough out of the way that we don't have to worry about stepping on toes.

@GiskHey! The game looks fun!

A few questions, though:
A) Would it be a problem if my knowledge of HP lore were a bit rusty? I am limited to movies, I am afraid. It has been years and years since I last read a Harry Potter novel. I can always check the wiki or ask here, of course.
B) Can you at least give us an outline of the plot?
C) Do we have to play students?
C1) How will our interaction be affected by our age, because we're all going to be students of different years in Hogwarts.

Thanks!

@Sigurd

Sure thing, here we go:

A) Nah, you'll be fine, I think. If someone has to correct you, it's not the end of the world. As long as you make the effort to check the wiki before talking about something too in depth.

B) Yeah, I've been working with another old RP partner of mine. Right now I have a few plot threads, including a teacher character who is going to be making a greater effort than anyone has before her to bring muggle born witches and wizards to school. There's going to be a push from certain families to shun those students, a lot of conflict will be had in this way. I want to point out that the "pureblood" attitude won't be sequestered to Slytherins here. This is a time where wizards are actively hated by muggles who still believe in their existence, people from muggle families are not well liked by anyone. I hope we have a good mix of students from wizard families, and from muggle families.

The major plot involves non-human creatures sort of rising up. I will need some willing victims, if there are any, PM me so we can get this going secret like. If there aren't any, be warned that you might be an unwilling victim. Don't worry, the worst of what will happen to students will happen to NPCs.

C) Most people will have to, yes. I'm only going to let teacher roles go to people I trust.

D) That's up to the players, and how they choose to have their characters interact. I hadn't decided if I'm going to put everyone in the same year or not. I think it's probably best, though.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't have much plot in mind when I posted the thread, but since you asked about it, I decided I wanted to give you an answer and I've come up with one I'm actually really excited about.

@Prints Avoid@MiddleEarthRoze@Eyeris@Apoalo

Just sending word out to the usual suspects, in case they don't troll the interest checks and haven't seen my thread.

Ooooo, nice one Gisk. Count me in a hundred percent.

Thanks for the heads up! Definitely interested in this.

I'm adding "combat" to the subject list. It might replace DADA, which I think we might not have, due to there being a looser definition of dark magic. I imagine this time being less "dark vs light" and more "This family vs that family" or "wizard vs muggle."

And so instead of being taught to defend against Dark Magic, they're taught to defend their family and its honor.

@GiskThanks for the answers. I will keep an eye out and let you know if I am in. I fail to do so in time, have fun! :)