How Many Death Eaters?

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 20732

Re: Number of Death Eaters
>
>
> --- Eric Oppen <oppen at cnsinternet.com> wrote:
> >
> > It could also easily be a case that Death-Eater-ism
> > (is that a word?) is a
> > matter of several different levels, like a lodge,
> > and only the
> > highest-ranking DEs were actually summoned by
> > Voldemort.  The low-ranking
> > Death-Eater-wannabes might only get orders like "go
> > to _this_ house, kill
> > _these_ people," while the higher-ranking ones get
> > to do more of the
> > planning.  This would minimize the chances of
> > infiltration by Aurors and of
> > betrayal by people who thought, at first, they could
> > gain power, only to be
> > horrified to find what they had to do for that
> > power.
> >
> > I don't know how many wizards there are in UK/the
> > world in the Potterverse,
> > and I'm new to this list (be gentle with me,
> > please!) but someone as
> > power-hungry as Voldemort certainly wouldn't limit
> > his ambitions to Great
> > Britain.  Karakoff's the only non-British (ex-)DE we
> > know about for certain,
> > but I wouldn't be surprised to find that Voldemort's
> > got Death Eaters from
> > all over.  At the Quidditch Championship match,
> > there are wizards and
> > witches from all over (even the US!) and that's
> > where we first find out
> > about _what_ Death Eaters are/were, and about the
> > Dark Mark.
> >
> >
>
> You mean kind of like some sort of cell
> system?(Members of one cell don't know members of
> other cells)  That would explain why Karakoff couldn't
> give the ministry any real names when he was trying to
> get out of Azkaban.  I can just see the 6th and 7th
> year Slytherins being in some sort of Junior Death
> Eater Club(secret handshake anyone?)
>
Yes, that would be one way of doing it.  I was thinking more of how some
lodges, like the Masons, work (and this is NOT a slam at the Masons, or any
existing lodge!!!) with lower-ranking members not having all the "secret
knowledge" that you get as you rise in the ranks.   We don't know much about
Voldemort, but he might well be familiar enough with Muggle culture to use
either system, or both.  A cell system, combined with a system of ranks,
would be very difficult for the Aurors to destroy entirely; hence, the
number of DEs who managed to get away, after the first fall of Voldemort.

As for non-British DEs, keep in mind that a lot of wizards have
"non-standard" given and/or family names.  Mulciber, mentioned by Karakoff
in his attempts to get himself out of Azkaban, could be any nationality.
Also, _someone_ had to give Karakoff, a known ex-DE, that job as headmaster
of Durmstrang, and that someone could have easily been a "deep cover" DE of
Eastern/Central European background.

We know the most about British Isles DEs because the books are set in
Britain, and Potter & Co., (to borrow a bit of terminology from the only
school stories I ever read before HP) are British themselves.

Eric Oppen
aka "Technomad."