Imperfectionist — Roleplayer Guild

Alright, well then there’s one essential piece to add, before we can get underway: a young woman by the name of Natalya Bruskenova. She’s short, just barely five feet, with waist-length blonde hair and large, icy blue eyes, fresh off a spaceplane from St. Petersburg. A rather cold and quiet person, not particularly social, Natalya wants to learn more about the magical and mundane worlds outside of her own country, and has thus immigrated to New York to finish her magical education at KingsRidge (the grandfather who raised her was a linguist, so her English is quite good). There has always been a large population of international students at the school, so she believes she’ll fit right in. Natalya is inquisitive, and achieved high marks in her classes at home, so now she’s looking forward to what her new American professors have to offer. She isn’t even unique in that regard, considering the other students from around the world have similar, highly academic backgrounds. Just your normal, smart young Russian witch studying abroad...

…At least, that’s what she wants you to think. The truth is, there’s currently a considerable amount of distrust between the Magical Bureau of Investigation, MBI Internal Affairs, and non-governmental entities such as KingsRidge, especially with the Fraternity gaining prominence both in the States and in Britain. People in the know are very afraid that the movement will soon spread farther than its roots in those two countries, and that the real fighting is not far off. For the moment, however, espionage is the name of the game. The Fraternity (whose members are thought to be current and former Aurors and MBI Agents) is beginning to subtly influence both the magical and the nonmagical populations, causing conflict and promoting distrust, while MBI Internal Affairs and the Auror Office are doing their best to identify and neutralize the movement’s members before it’s too late. Schools, like KingsRidge and Hogwarts, don’t want anyone snooping around their halls, fearing for their ability to teach with so much paranoia being thrown around, and for students who could be caught in the “crossfire”.

What does this have to do with Ms. Bruskenova? Well, KingsRidge is considered one of the prime targets for the Fraternity, and (naturally) Professor Grayson doesn’t want a spook breathing down the necks of his faculty, not to mention disrupting school activities and scaring the student body with speeches about an evil organization which might not even exist (at this point, for the general public there are only rumors as to the group’s existence)… So MBI Internal Affairs sent one in undercover. Natalya Bruskenova does not exist. Her papers are falsified, her history fabricated; her parents and grandparents have tombstones in a cemetery in her hometown (because it never hurts to be thorough), but the graves are empty. The Natalya Bruskenova currently walking around KingsRidge is in fact a Free Elf by the name of Nataana, an Agent-on-loan from America’s Elfmoot.

Elves Sidebar [+]

My basic idea is that alongside the integration movement there have been several secondary, smaller-scale social movements, including a truly successful push for Elven Freedom. So, long ago, the wand was invented concurrently by magical people in several parts of the world, including China in the days of Confucius, India in the days of Gautama Buddha, and Ancient Greece, well-known for being the progenitor of modern European magic. There were, at the time, two distinct species of Elves in Europe: “Wild” or “Forest” Elves, who lived apart from humans in their own magical communities, and “Metropolitan” Elves, who were friends to the Greeks, lived in their cities, and even helped them develop magical theory and wandlore. The Wild Elves did not like humans, and they definitely didn’t like their wealthy, snobbish, “superior” cousins, so once the wand became a popular tool, they devised a plan to undercut the Metropolitan Elves, playing off of the greedy, domineering and distrustful nature they saw in humans.

It is important to note that Elves of both kinds were connected by their magic, similar but altogether different from that of humans, and the Wild Elves were especially cunning in its use. A ritual was forged, a powerful, Dark blood curse that would bind the Elves and their blood to the blood of specific magical families; most importantly, it was performed by a Wild Elf and a magical human, both wielding wands. The Wild Elves convinced the Greeks, despite the protestations of the Metropolitans, that their cousins desired to use wands to overthrow the humans and set themselves up as the rulers of the various city states, and offered their ritual as a fitting punishment for this traitorous pride… And it worked. Before long, Metropolitan Elves ceased to exist, replaced entirely by the magically obedient slaves known from then on as “House-Elves”. The Wild Elves, gleeful in their trickery, disappeared back into their forest homes, barely ever heard from again (it is believed that other wild, Elf-like creatures, such as Erklings, are descended from these beings).

Through breeding programs and manipulation of the blood curse, the practice of keeping House-Elf servants survived the millennia, and was spread all over the ancient and modern worlds by Alexander, the Roman Empire, and (most recently) European Colonialism. The stipulation of clothes was a final jest, a final piece of degradation on the part of the Wild Elves, forcing the Metropolitans to wear rags and discarded things, or else go nude, when once they had worn the finest of clothes, on par with the Greek nobility. That, and the tests of time, changed the once-proud Metropolitans into the rather pitiful creatures seen in the HP books. In the 21st Century, however, as the whispers of integration began to be felt around the magical world, certain “strange” Elves began to see that they might actually have a chance to break the subtle magic that had been a part of their lives for so long. All they really needed were wands. Sympathetic wizards and witches began to teach this unique group of revolutionaries in wand-based magic and magical theory, until finally, in the early 2020s, a breakthrough was had.

This group, along with their human sympathizers, managed to magically isolate the hidden curse deep within their own blood, and broke it, becoming the first Free Elfmages of the Era of Integration. There would be many more. Once the curse was broken, multitudes of Elves who otherwise would never have left their masters or demanded equal rights had life-shattering epiphanies. They wanted more from their lives. They wanted freedom, and self-determination, and they didn’t want to be bound by the uncaring laws of humans. So, as their numbers swelled, and more Elves were set free, they formed their own, separate governing bodies in the various magical and nonmagical states, known as “Elfmoots” (the American Elfmoot, the Brazilian Elfmoot, the Chinese Elfmoot, etc). These groups were on the cutting edge of the Integration, instrumental in showing the nonmagical world how beneficial magic could be, by setting up magically-replenished wells in areas of extreme poverty, providing food and magical medical care to anyone they could, and generally aiding the poor and downtrodden of both worlds. They had been there. They knew what it was like.

Elves began to be accepted into prominent magical schools, such as Hogwarts and Beauxbatons and the School of Athens. New Elfmages, with their own wands, started studying the differences between Elf magic and human magic, becoming highly acclaimed in the field of magical theory. It was even in conjunction with the Elfmoots that magical electronics and technology were developed, as it was discovered that Elfmages have a knack for nontraditional enchantments. For example, the method Nataana, the Elfmoot Agent, has for disguising herself as a human is known as a PersonHood, a strange and difficult to explain amalgam of genetic engineering and magic that allows an Elf to inhabit and psychically control a specially prepared human body, making her appear human to all but the most absolutely strenuous magical and scientific tests. It is still in the trial phase, but Nataana’s superiors wanted to give it a live situation to be tested in, so she was given one as the basis of her cover.

Despite all of this, the Fraternity and other “Old Guard” witches and wizards are very distrustful of the Free Elves and the Elfmoots, and pine for the days in which the House-Elves had been such wonderfully reliable servants… Giving the Elfmoots a very good reason to work against such groups, hence their loaning of Nataana to MBI Internal Affairs.

Nataana is there to watch, and wait, to point out any possible targets of the Fraternity, and identity any Fraternity Agents that might have infiltrated the school themselves. In case of combat, she is a relatively powerful Elfmage, and her superiors are confident she will be able to defend herself and keep herself hidden even from the highly trained Fraternity Agents. Little does she know that the Fraternity would show its hand on the very first day of term, with unexpected and incredibly gruesome results...

Bam, there you go. Hopefully the idea makes sense, and no one's too mad that I invented my own backstory for House-Elves...

Hmm. Honestly, all that I believe is needed in this kind of situation is a story. An immediate conflict that involves everyone's characters, something they can do and bond over, or at least have discussions and arguments about. The lack of anything like that means the death of the vast majority of academy-style RPs, I think...

-ahem- If I may be so bold, I'll also say that I already have a conflict in mind, one that HOAL no doubt had plans for, but didn't implement before her/his absence. The characters, or at least any of you who would be interested in such a thing, would be the coincedental witnesses of a... scene. A rather grisly display, if you catch my drift. They realize that something not quite right is going on at KingsRidge this year, and they're soon contacted by someone who confirms those suspicions, plunging them into danger and intrigue...

If anyone would be interested in a mystery like that, go ahead and post in the thread again, and I'll include your character.

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