Q:I only really have one question - what was going to come out of our gift to Sirius?
The idea was that Sirius would attempt to solve it shortly after receiving it, to endless frustration, and to no result. He'd be tempted strongly at one point by the idea of using magic, but ultimately grit his teeth and realize that's not the point. He'd then decide to give it a single attempt every morning and every evening, and the magic of Hogwarts would make him succeed in your challenge on the day before December begins.
Of course he'd be so ecstatic as to call you immediately to his chambers to show you.
Harry would then say, "Oh, cool." And use a spell to make it scramble again. "Can you do it again?"
Sirius would then wither away into a souless husk.
G: hey guys did you know that Voldemort was created by Dumbledore to fight Grindelwald
B: Exactly like Harry was
lol
That's true.
G: which is what Voldemort meant when he said
"I want the boys to live a normal life"
B: Voldemort was created as a weapon against Grindelwald, then went out of control.
So then Dumbledore created Harry and Neville as weapons against Voldemort, doing the classic wizard thing of not learning his lesson the first time.
But that ended up being unnecessary.
In this AU he also took down Grindelwald.
He was simply preparing/grooming Tom Riddle to take over in case of his demise.
Partially at the orders of the/pressure from the Ministry.
Also Geist had a family. I mean, like, a wife and children.
After he left Hogwarts without getting the job, he decided to have a normal life.
But circumstances ended up getting his family killed.
And he learned the same lesson as Harry did.
No matter how much power you have; how great a wizard you are, it'll never matter. You'll never be able to protect what you love.
He then went full Eren Yaeger against the Ministry and adopted Bellatrix as an apprentice.
Q: Would there have been any interesting area 51 stuff/advancement opportunities if we got Harry working with the engineering department?
For another couple of questions, the secrets in the Chamber of Secrets. What was the Secret of Ocean for example?
Somewhat. Although the Engineers of Hufflepuff were relevant to your advancement in creating magitech, learning to work with Charmed objects, and similar, any pursuit of further such career would've been up to you.
The Secret of Ocean was a Secret allegedly bestowed to Slytherin by the God Poseidon. The Secret wasn't, in fact, particularly impressive. It'd have allowed you to decipher one of the fundamental truths, and combining this knowledge with certain high-level Charms and Dark Arts would allow you to manufacture Potions that'd grant their drinker the permanent ability to speak with various animal species. It's how Slytherin became a Parseltongue. The fundamental truth was also, by part of its design, the exact geothaumic coordinate of Atlantis.
Q:The doom of Atlantis, how the Wraith came to be and his runes
The Wraith was a remnant of a pre-Atlantean system to maintain the proper course of destiny. However, due to the fall of Atlantis, it and its fellows were ontologically corrupted by the principle of Death and sought to end the universe instead. Although Death himself (as well as the other Powers) didn't care much about this, it'd have been a problem for humanity, assuming you didn't figure this out at some point. Learning his runes was simply a mistranslation of, 'learn to figure out what I'm saying, because my translator is broken.'
As for Atlantis, Death figured out that Atlanteans were about to breach the sacred pact of the Ancients and nuked them in accordance with his own job description. Surprisingly, because of how destiny works, there wasn't any other alternate path - destroying them utterly and completely was the only (and arguably most honorable) thing Death could've done in that circumstance. Harry's suffering in the dream every night was caused because his consciousness (and virtual soul) in the Dream persisted forcefully after Death, which isn't supposed to happen; the Dream defaulted to what it'd imagine that feels like, which is absolute torment.
Q: The gods were proto-wizards then?
No, the Atlanteans were proto-wizards.
And proto-Muggles, I guess.
There was nothing before the Atlanteans.
They were shaped exactly how they ended up looking and being by the Powers, wholecloth.
You'd have figured out a lot of this during the Department of Mysteries Raid, where you'd also meet the undead Dudley.
Q: Did he end up giving the coin to someone?
That was going to be a major focal point of the quest.
Harry would be heavily intent on taking the coin from him, and dying in his stead.
One of the potential endings was a self-sacrifice ending.
Where you defeat the Azkabanite then die to let Dudley live.
"Love you, cuz."
Then an epilogue where Dudley writes a book called Harry Potter and the Coin of Death lol.
Q: Was the letter from D really from him or Dobby?
Letter from D was from Death. It'd have reached you when you met with Death for the first time, which is to say, the first time you had a near-death experience.
It'd inform you about Dudley's whereabouts, assuming you didn't figure them out already, and told you some other things of minor relevance, such as how Death isn't actually angry at you and doesn't want to fight.
Q: Like say if he crashed in his dive from the Astronomy tower..
Yes. The letter-reading scene would almost immediately be followed by waking up to Pomfrey shoving Wiggenweld down your throat.
Q: What about Excalibur?
Excalibur and its scabbard were crucial to resurrecting Geist.
Do you see, next to this channel's name, that Hagrid quote?
(One which doesn't show in the story.)
Q: Dumbledore painting?
Yes.
That's highly relevant, let me explain:
Hagrid would say that to you in the 3rd or 4th Year, and set-up the surprise for an event several years later, in which a very strong fragment of Voldemort possesses someone (assuming you hadn't removed the curse, he'd have possessed Sirius) and essentially Imperiates McGonagall or Pettigrew to follow him into Dumbledore's office. There'd be a stand-off between you, Voldemort, Dumbledore, and the Imperiated Professor in the office, as the Voldemort fragment gets the Transfiguration expert to target a specific painting in the room - a painting in which Dumbledore is sitting and holding onto the scabbard of a sword. The moment Voldemort gets it and touches it, Geist is ripped from your soul, as are all other existing fragments in the world (except one), and Voldemort's basically back. He then kills Dumbledore on the spot, looks at you with mild pity, comments you were a good student, and knocks you out. Then the last Arc of the quest starts.
Basically Dumbledore had hidden the scabbard in a painting to prevent Voldemort's resurrection.
Q:That's how you write a strong villian
Coincidentally, though, this'd actually be the red herring villain.
The real villain, that makes a reappearance after so many years (after hopefully all the questers forgot about him) is the Azkabanite.
Who's basically engineered, in one way or another, everything that happens in the quest.
Q: Who was he really?
That requires me to explain what really happened on that Halloween night in Godric's Hollow.
As you might've been able to tell, Dumbledore was significantly changed from canon. One of the most prominent changes of note is that he's a reincarnation of Merlin, although that's surprisingly not as important as you'd think (it only makes him stupidly powerful and knowledgeable,) and he doesn't possess any of his former memories.
Grindelwald, for all intents and purposes, was the modern version of Arthur Pendragon. He desired to return independence to the Muggles, and abolish the Statute of Secrecy as something evil.
However, as a wizard, he and "Merlin" in this era, were far more evently matched, so Dumbledore was forced to improvise. The war against Grindelwald in this version of canon, which was far hotter and more brutal and bloody and generally pitiless, was slowly decaying Dumbledore's morality and ethics as he was forced to make more and more questionable decisions.
This eventually would culminate in Dumbledore using some very forbidden, very fucking evil Dark Arts to create Tom Riddle, and gifting him with multiple 'blessings' that were supposed to be only granted to Atlanteans and sealed away since the Fall of Atlantis (which is a part of why the setting's metaphysics and destiny are so fucked, why the Guardians are so weird, etc.)
He trained Riddle to be a good and obedient weapon of extremely high competence, which combined with his natural prodigious skill for magic, made for a very dangerous wizard. However, Riddle proved to be ultimately unnecessary, and Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald on his own.
You already know most of Voldemort's backstory following that, so skipping forward slightly; Riddle becomes a terrorist, swears to abolish the Ministry, break the Statute of Secrecy, etc.
Dumbledore is a wizard and ergo can't learn from his mistakes. He decides to do the same thing he did last time, but twice; in case one of the Chosen Ones perishes, the other can go in. In case they prove unnecessary and one of the Chosen Ones betrays him, there'll still be a second one to kill the first.
So you have Neville and Harry.
Understandably, Voldemort is fucking infuriated about this, and decides to rescue them. However, Lily and James Potter know very little of Dumbledore's true nature, and when Voldemort attempts to explain his intrusion on Halloween, Lily Potter uses a highly powerful version of the Killing Curse on him that breaks through his many layers of immortality and causes him to detonate on a metaphysical level. This event is so extremely powerful that's why there's so many Voldemort fragments scattered everywhere.
One of them, like shrapnel, embeds itself in you.
Another tangle, however, embeds itself in the corpse of James Potter. One thing leads to another, he goes to Azkaban, barely even sure what kind of being he is.
The Dementors eat the shit out of him, but the fragments keep restoring his mind, so by the end of it, he's basically a hollow shadow of what he used to be.
Q: Why was Geist going quiet on us for the last few chapters
Geist's overall activity was tied down to a pool of mental energy he borrowed from you. He was a spirit fragment; he didn't possess his own brain to think with, so he was forced to use your own resources, both for holding memories and processing thoughts. Every conversation you had with him was, in effect, a sort of schizophrenic hallucination; any information he gave you was in effect your amnesia being partially reverted/healed. It'd not be inaccurate to say that Harry in effect possessed two personalities (his own personality, Harry Potter, being the dominant one,) that could communicate with one another.
As you saw in the conversation with Bellatrix, the personalities could merge in certain stressful situations.
James Potter experienced something similar but far more intense.
He was effectively a total blank, with a far larger amount of personalities, some of which were Voldemort, some of which were James Potter, some of which were Lily Potter, some of which were Harry Potter, a very small amount of which were Severus Snape, and some of which were a combination of the elements available, and some of which weren't anything at all.
All of them fighting for dominance over the corpse. Voldemort and James were usually somewhere close to the top of the dominance.
Q: Oh wait was the spy Lockhart
Yes. He was investigating a number of organizations that'd become relevant later.
Unironically, in this AU, Lockhart was competent and a very good/benevolent ally.
Q: Also how did snape detect us under the cloak
No, although I planned to introduce and change vampires as well. Snape was affected by Lily's spell and was metaphysically dead.
The Ministry had to literally seal away Godric's Hollow
Because it has the equivalent of Killing Curse radiation all over it.
Something similar to what happened in Atlantis.
But on a smaller scale.
Q: What was the Infinite Patronus?
A form of Patronus that can permanently kill Dementors and heal their victims by restoring their good memories.
Could it have saved James
Yes, that was one of the good endings.
Q:And Ron and Hermione?
They were chosen by the Guardians. The reason they were weaker in comparison to you and Neville is because you and Neville were chosen by the Guardians + boosted by Dumbledore with the fate of heroes.
Q:fate of heroes?
Atlantean mechanism for exalting certain people.
Research. By drawing a chart of the night's sky, and overlaying a chart of the Earth's leylines, and then overlaying a chart of the human soul's Perfect Shape over that, you'd get a geometric alignment called the Teleiótita. Any coherent mind observing this symbol is granted knowledge of Atlantean society, magic, and metaphysics expected of the average Atlantean. This was used as an accelerated training course for children back in those times.
He figured out the rest from first principles.
It's said that Dumbledore was an elder Wizard of Britain so powerful and so wise, he could use Charms to influence the midi-chlorians to create life
Q: Would we ever had an epic duel with Neville?
No, unless something went seriously wrong.
Also Neville would've offered himself instead of you and Dudley depending on how far your relationship progressed.
Q: What would Voldemort have done post resurrection
Called the Death Eaters and immediately attacked London and the Ministry. Voldemort himself would barge into the parliament and demonstrate to the Muggle government the existence of magic. By that point, Rowena's astrological effect would be ineffective.
Q: What was the apocalypse brewing in the horizon?
The Guardians were lying to you to get you to destroy the Ancients. The Ancients mostly didn't care. Although it's true there'd be an apocalypse of sorts, it's for completely unrelated reasons.
Q: Can we learn the basics of the Dudley plot
He'd attempt to sneak onto the Hogwarts Express; I'd roll some dice. If he failed, nothing happens but he can't get onboard again and has to pester you again. If he succeeds, he arrives in Hogwarts and tries to find Excalibur like a fool and almost drowns. Dumbledore finds him by the side of the lake and decides to take him in as an understudy. The next day, Harry spits out his pumpkin juice upon seeing Dudley waving at him from Dumbledore's side.
Q:What is exactly the deal with the 4 champions and the like? The reincarnations, what is their purpose?
The original Founders of Hogwarts assumed certain roles already carved into universal metaphysics. You were simply accepting their mantles.
The Ancients created the universes. The Guardians were supposed to safeguard its proper destiny but failed.
There were also the Powers, who dictated and guarded its rules but decided to stop once Atlantis fell.
Death was one of the Powers.
No, they're entities.
In terms of power level.
Ancients >>>>>>> Powers >> Guardians >>>> Atlanteans >>>> Wizards > Muggles
Q:What is the purpose of the 4 founders/reincarnation thing? Like, what are their roles?
They have no role or purpose. They're simply shapes carved in the universe that any sufficiently talented magical being of the proper spiritual properties can shape and assume.
They were originally blank shapes, 'shells,' if you will. Metaphysical containers filled with nothing.
The Founders, under Merlin's guidance, found them and filled them in with themselves. Anyone of sufficient talent can access these shells (and what's contained within) or reshape them, fill them with their own essence.
The fate of heroes also grants you access to these shells.
But it's not really necessary.
Most Ravenclaws have some access to Ravenclaw's 'shell.'
Most Hufflepuffs some access to Hufflepuff's, etc.
Q: What were they trying to accomplish by doing that?
Make themselves easier to change.
Rowena wanted to be a genius.
So she filled her shell with intellect and curiosity and other such wonders, and then continued to fill it with nothing, and she turned herself into a caricature of those things, every other trait and aspect withering away over time.
Q: What was Merlin trying to accomplish by informing them of this? Why was Merlin reincarnating in the first place?
He reincarnated to ensure that wizardkind and Muggles would stay separated.
Although his reincarnations didn't have their past memories, they carried on the original's intent.
Q: Would we have been capable of killing death by quest end
No, one of Death's duties is that he dies last out of every other quantifiable being.
His last action before Dying is to report to the Ancients that he (and everything else) Died successfully.
At our rate of growth how powerful do you expect we would have been by quest end? Like what was your projected power growth for us.
If that's not too complicated a question
I guess I just wanna know the intended power ceiling
You'd have been capable of casually altering global politics and creating a utopia through astrological manipulation. If you went too far, Death would nuke you as he did Atlantis, because it's his job. However, the other Powers, especially the Stars, would attempt to steer you away from that.
Q: Did ornias have anything special to him that we never found out
Ornias would warn you in advance of a single terrible event near the end of the quest.
Q: Oh yeah what was Hecate's deal?
Ariana Dumbledore. She possessed an Obscurus, which in this AU is more like a Stand.
Q:What was the point with Hecate/Arianna?
She was intent on figuring out what changed, then once she figured out the exact circumstances, stopping Dumbledore from doing anything more stupid.
There was no way for you to gain an Obscurus in this quest.
There was no one to abuse you for being magical. Dumbledore made sure of that.
No. The Obscurus requires intense mental and emotional trauma.
It condenses your magic spiritually until it essentially detaches from you and forms its own magical being.
That being is generally loyal and attached to you, its creator.
No. He crafted you to be a weapon of what he (perhaps mistakenly, depending on how you view the politics of the situation) perceived to be the actual greater good, not to sadistically torment you
Also Obscuri are kinda weak compared to wandcasting
Most of them can achieve 1-3 effects, maybe 2x or 3x stronger than a 4th Year Charm. The only appeal is that you can train with them more easily.
Ariana asked you to cut up her robe because one of her Obscurial Effects was controlling very small things (she was attuned to) at (near-)infinite distances, with high speeds and hardness, so she could basically use the strips as a handblast, like a shotgun firing flechettes, in case anything bad happened
Q: Were the deathly hallows important at all
They were far more powerful than canon, and even more powerful when held together by one person.
The Cloak would allow you to teleport to any place where someone has died within the last 24 hours, assuming their soul hasn't moved on. The Stone would've allowed you to move them on into the afterlife, and the Wand would've allowed you to reap them, which simply destroys the soul and peacefully/painlessly ends their consciousness.
The Stone would also be usable for various necromantic rituals, talking to the dead, summoning and commandind Ghosts.
The Elder Wand would boost the power of your spells to an incredible level.
Q: What did the omnipotent attainment do
Gives you the same revelation that Dumbledore did, about overlaying the human spirit, the chart of the cosmos, and the leylines of the earth
Q: Do tell about that Martian dragon quest D:
Martian Dragons are highly intelligent beings that worship the Stars and they breathe dangerous psychic energies. You'd be tasked with capturing one by the Atlantean government to prove yourself as a magical entity before being granted citizenship.
Q: Was there a philosophers stone
Dumbledore used one as a paperweight.
Q: What were Dumbledore's attainments
Everlasting, Omnipotent, and one that doesn't have a name and wasn't supposed to be purchasable but granted him great talent in Alchemy
Acquired in roughly that order
Q: What attainment would endgame Neville have?
Lionheart Attainment. It'd make him into supernatural John Wick/Big Boss, with conceptual bravery (too brave to be affected by Imperius, too brave to be affected by a Jinx that causes you to flip with your legs hanging in the air, etc.)
Q: What was the prisoner trying to accomplish?
He wanted to make you and wizardkind suffer.
For creating Azkaban.
Also he was insane.
Literally he was the corpse of James Potter possessed by several fragments of Voldemort that had been repeatedly tortured by Dementors for several years. These fragments were forced to use James Potter's memories with their own conflicting spiritual knowledge producing what's basically a constant, never-ending state of vertigo and mental dissociation.
It wouldn't be entirely accurate to say that Zombie Joldemort, as you called him, was partially a p-zombie of sorts.
But it also wouldn't be entirely inaccurate.
Grindelwald wasn't a reincarnation of Arthur, he simply had similar ideals.
Arthur's still alive in good old Avalon as of late 20th century.
And shall supposedly return
to aid Britain
in her time of need
(lol)
Q:Is he like sealed in the sabbard?
No he's in Avalon.
The fairy dimension that wizards used to kidnap elves from to make into slaves.
Q: Like, what was even the main plot anyway?
Gain an education and decide what to do with it. Although the main idea was to fight to protect your friends and prevent tragedy, since those were Harry's motivations.
There were multiple endings planned depending on choices surrounding that.
There were various competing organizations, groups, and persons of interest in the background that you would've gotten to know. The main idea was to plant the seeds of mystery in years 1-3 and reap them during the rest of the quest.
Q: I wonder if there was an ending where Harry settles down with a family or something
That's the true good ending.
The one you should ideally aim for.
- James Potter healed.
- Dudley safe and alive.
- All of Harry's friends safe and alive.
Q: Who was our waifu
Anyone you want.
Even Neville.
Q: What is the deal with demons? Where do they come from?
They're slave-entities of Atlantis.
Mark of the Equal - Received option for, like, Geist to exist.
Impaired Eyesight - Extreme bonus to learning Occlumency and improved spiritual defenses. As much as your eyes obscure the world, so do they obscure your soul.
Arrogance - Arrogance sometimes has grounding. +Natural Talent, and you get to pick a free Attainment later on in the quest whenever I deem it most crucial, represented as Harry reaching 'beyond.'
Q: what was the effect of the diamond sky thing
If used in an astrological ritual, it'd allow you to manifest virtually unlimited amounts of pure carbon dust.
Also the ritual would be
really epic and flashy
with big effects.
so I could laugh at your expressions when all it did, instead of making you a god, is create a pile of dust
Q: Who was the most powerful wizard ever? You said that no wizard broke past 10 on your ranking system, but only supposedly
Hermes Trismegistus.
Q: Who was Hermes Trismegistus, and what was up with Yggdrasil?
Hermes was one of the pre-Roman people to have codified the laws of wizardry. Yggdrasil was the tree built by the ancients to hold up worlds on it.
The Ancient Romans figured out a way to shave off pieces off Yggdrasil and made them into wands.
Q: Where does Yggdrasil reside though, can you tell us about that dimension?
It doesn't reside in dimensions.
It's a structure that connects them.
Q: Hell Attainment lets you do stuff with demons.
It lets you summon better-quality demons (on par with Ornias) by divining them in Hell for cheaper, use demonic senses, and perform a variety of other minor tricks, like giving demon traits from demon to demon with transfiguration.
