FF: Origins of the Magical Brethren

[cunning_spirit]

No: HPFGUIDX 114211

There's been a fascinating ongoing discussion of the house elves and the nature of their 
enslavement unfolding in this board.  I was especially taken by Dungrollin's recent post 
about the surprising conflicts involved in the political enfranchisement of Swiss women 
during the 1960s and the parallels in house elf attitudes towards the concept of 
"freedom". Wow. Interesting grist for the mill.

Anyway, on a slightly different tack, I have long puzzled over the whole matter of the so-
called "magical brethren" and the nature of their relationships to one another.  It has been 
mentioned elsewhere on this board that the house elves, for instance, are a separate 
species. Nevertheless, I would maintain that this does not preclude a potential blood tie 
existing between house elves and otherwise "normal" humanity.  And as any thorough 
reader of Rowling's books knows by now, blood connections count for a lot.

I wrote the following riff on a possible explaination for the origins of centaurs as a part of 
a faux-scientific essay on the centaurs of the Forbidden Forest, but the basic concepts -- 
that the magical brethren are all decendants of ancient magical accidents involving human 
mages would hold for all the other magical "hominids" like house elves, goblins, and so 
on:


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      The origin of centaurs is probably the best documented among the magical human-
kin. Around 1000 BC, in the Central Asian steppes to the northeast of the Caspian Sea, a 
tribe of nomads, no doubt kin of the Scythians who later lived in the same territories, 
prepared to commune with their totem spirits.  As the Greek historian Herodotus later 
observed of Scythian practices, their methods were comparatively simple.  The entire tribe 
retired to a large leather tent, where they proceeded to smoke themselves silly on 
cannabis, during which time the tribal shamans guided their fellow tribes folk in a spirit 
journey to the Other-realms to commune with their tribe's totem animal, the horse.

	All well and good.

	Unfortunately this time something went horribly wrong with the magics raised by the 
shamans.  Nobody noticed the problem at first, but when the next day dawned and 
sobriety returned, it became obvious to all what a fix they were now in.  Where the day 
before they had all laid down to make their vision quests with two honest human's legs as 
their lower extremities, they now arose with four legs of a very different sort.  They were 
now the first of the centaurs.

	Nowadays, when such accidents occur there are of course trained healers and others 
who can help sort things out and set all aright again, but this was not possible for those 
unfortunate souls of three thousand years ago.  They were forced to go on and make the 
best of their new forms.  The most obvious lesson from  all this is that it is best not to 
work magic while stoned.  It invariably leads to disaster.

	In simpler magical accidents where a single individual suffers the affects of  a mis-
sprung spell, the consequences are comparatively brief, that is, limited to the lifespan of 
the original victim.  At most, the affected soul spends the rest of their days with 
unusual features, extra appendages or whatnot.  But when a botched spell affects a mass 
population as in this case, the results continue for generations.  The student should be 
made aware that magical beings that bear the marks of humanity, be it facial features, or 
nimble hands, or bipedal stance, or intelligence, or speech are possible kinsfolk, the 
descendants of survivors of ancient accidents...... 

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Anyway, I am not sure how this idea would play out fully, except that it makes the 
relationships between the WW and the other magical beings seem more like that of an 
enormous, complex, and highly dysfunctional family. 

Rowling has not overly brought up the issue of karma in the HP novels.  But I think a 
strong argument can be made while the level of karmic responsibility that humans bear 
toward animals we have domesticated, like dogs for instance, is great -- if indeed there is 
actually a blood bond between wizards and other magical beings, then there appears to be 
some tremendously heavy payback due for the WW's arrogant stance toward the rest of the 
magical brethren.

-cunning spirit