Support NeoGAF

[liliththepale]

Everyone going on about the names, Rowling has always been terrible with using other languages. The vast majority of the spells are just poorly spelled Latin or Afrikaans descriptions of what the spell does. Then of course we have Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Voldemort and half a dozen other unsubtle names. Her world building may be a lot of fun, but she's rarely clever with names.

 

[bagandscalpel]

having to think about how a society of actual magic users would deal with chinese history is giving me a headache

Saying the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was 70% fiction was merely a smokescreen. Guan Yu DID come back from death to possess Lu Meng and cause him to bleed out of every orifice.

 

[Sesha]

Everyone going on about the names, Rowling has always been terrible with using other languages. The vast majority of the spells are just poorly spelled Latin or Afrikaans descriptions of what the spell does. Then of course we have Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Voldemort and half a dozen other unsubtle names. Her world building may be a lot of fun, but she's rarely clever with names.

At least those names show some degree of effort and thought put behind them. As opposed to literally putting words in google translate.

 

[Currygan]

I can just imagine these Brazilian wizards not playing Quidditch but some sort of magic football with hyper stunts and shit Inazuma Eleven style

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

Mahoutokoro is fine (it doesnt -have- to be mahoudokoro.) Its definitely not the coolest name, and probably not the name a Japnese person would have come up with if this was a purely Japanese institution made from Japanese magic (chances are it would be a temple not a school and the name would come from the location or whoever built it).

I would have settled for Mahou Gakuen (Magic Academy), that's like bare minimum.

No, it would definitely be a school not a temple. Trust me, if Japan has a magical institution, it would be a school and in some part of Tokyo.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Calling out your spells is a thing and non-verbal is advanced, but I wonder if it is employed by Japan Magic School, complete with hotblooded fury.

Like...

MOERO! INCENDIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[liliththepale]

At least those names show some degree of effort and thought put behind them. As opposed to literally putting words in google translate.

Er, kinda. Not really. Remus (mythic cofounder of Rome) was raised as a wolf and Lupin means wolf. Sirius is very closely tied to canines and Black paints him as evil. Voldemort is French for fleeing death. It's not really any better.

 

[Dusk Soldier]

That Japanese name is lazy as heck.

The robes that change color as your knowledge increases is classic Japan though.

"Are you crazy? Someone with a green robe could never beat someone with a blue robe."

"Her robe may only be white, but she has something you can't learn from a magic scroll: The guts to keep going."

"His robe just turned gold?!? I thought the golden robe was just a myth."

 

[Boss Doggie]

The robes that change color as your knowledge increases is classic Japan though.

"Are you crazy? Someone with a green robe could never beat someone with a blue robe."

"Her robe may only be white, but she has something you can't learn from a magic scroll: The guts to keep going."

"His robe just turned gold?!? I thought the golden robe was just a myth."

I suddenly want to watch a shonen and shojo variant of this magic school. And maybe a slice of life.

 

[Dash_Riprock]

Dear Rowling,

Africa is not a country.

Thanks.

 

[oti]

I wonder what role Greece plays in her magic world. If it was as big a deal as it was for the muggles.

 

[Zombine]

Guys of course it's American, there's no unnecessary "u" in "morny." If it was Livermourny I could see the criticism.

 

[Kinokou]

I would have settled for Mahou Gakuen (Magic Academy), that's like bare minimum.

No, it would definitely be a school not a temple. Trust me, if Japan has a magical institution, it would be a school and in some part of Tokyo.

It actually could have been, even if I think it sounds like a terrible idea to put a magic school in one of the most densely populated cities in the world:

The precise location of each of the following schools is a closely guarded secret. The schools fear not only Muggle persecution, for it is a sad fact that at various times in their long histories, all of these institutions have been buffeted by the effects of wizard wars, and of hostile attention from both the foreign and domestic magical communities (it is not only in Britain that the education of magical youth has been subject to Ministry interference or pressure). As a general rule, magical schools tend to be situated in landlocked, mountainous areas (although there are notable exceptions, as will be seen), as such regions are difficult for Muggles to access, and easier to defend from Dark wizards.

But,I think her notable exception hints at Ilvermorny since we will get to see it and theirs is the only school featured on the page that doesn't have an entry yet. Maybe it is in the middle of New York or something along those lines.

 

[Woody Invincible]

The robes that change color as your knowledge increases is classic Japan though.

"Are you crazy? Someone with a green robe could never beat someone with a blue robe."

"Her robe may only be white, but she has something you can't learn from a magic scroll: The guts to keep going."

"His robe just turned gold?!? I thought the golden robe was just a myth."

M-M-Masaka! Shinjirarenai. . .

wwwwwwwww

 

[Kinokou]

Dear Rowling,

Africa is not a country.

Thanks.

She never said it was

Although Africa has a number of smaller wizarding schools (for advice on locating these, see introductory paragraph), there is only one that has stood the test of time (at least a thousand years) and achieved an enviable international reputation: Uagadou. The largest of all wizarding schools, it welcomes students from all over the enormous continent.

 

[Boss Doggie]

So who are the headmasters in these schools?

 

[liliththepale]

So who are the headmasters in these schools?

American schools don't have headmasters. They have presidents and principals.

 

[bagandscalpel]

American schools don't have headmasters. They have presidents and principals.

And Super Nintendos.

 

[Arials]

American schools don't have headmasters. They have presidents and principals.

For some reason I don't think Ilvermorny is in tune with the mainstream American education system.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Yes it is confirmed that Wizard schools are few and far between with many countries not having them at all and therefore homeschooling is done, but you are also right on the border crossing since Beauxbatons accepts students from France, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

And no, Beauxbatons is not a girls academy, that was only in the movie.

Now i feel stupid because I actually read the books and didnt remember that beauxbatons was a mixed school.
Fucking movie.
Also pretty stupid to put spain and portugal in the same mix, those two could sustain their own school in Galicia. And Spain has a richer magic legend history than France.

 

[SoRuffShoNuff]

Very disappointing that apparently the other continents are able to house multiple magic schools of note but Africa is only capable of sustaining one of significance.

Edited since people are assuming I didn't read the text.

 

[brawly]

Don't care that the japanese name is stupd and pronounced incorrectly on the site if we get a manga out of this.

"The delinquents of Mahoutokoro"

 

[Jintor]

Saying the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was 70% fiction was merely a smokescreen. Guan Yu DID come back from death to possess Lu Meng and cause him to bleed out of every orifice.

lol i was more thinking about the difficulties of the cultural revolution and so on

either it's "mages were persecuted and ultimately erradicated/subsumed by the state/driven out of the country" or it's "mages were fucking assholes and locked themselves away for like 40 years"

maybe they all went to hong kong instead

 

[DrForester]

What happened to "The Salem Witches Institute"?

 

[liliththepale]

What happened to "The Salem Witches Institute"?

They got a burn notice.

 

[Kinokou]

Now i feel stupid because I actually read the books and didnt remember that beauxbatons was a mixed school.
Fucking movie.
Also pretty stupid to put spain and portugal in the same mix, those two could sustain their own school in Galicia. And Spain has a richer magic legend history than France.

They could still have one if Beauxbatons is the European counter part to Uagadou (granted all over the cointinent isn't much to draw detailed conclusions from), but I immagine Beauxbatons would only pick the most gifted students then since French isn't really a common language for this cluster. But then again maybe French has stronger hold on the European Wizard community than it has on muggle Europe which would eliminate that issue. I'm just specualting and expanding on personal head cannon, as we simply don't know enough about the Potterverse yet, hopefully Rowling keeps the good stuff coming.

Very disappointing that apparently the other continents are able to house multiple magic schools of note but Africa is only capable of sustaining one.

You have no reason to be disappointed since they have more, see #216.

 

[CloudWolf]

Why does Rowling even reveal this? Is she planning on writing more books?

 

[Angelus Errare]

Why does Rowling even reveal this? Is she planning on writing more books?

People love the world of HP so she feeds them more information.

 

[DrForester]

Why does Rowling even reveal this? Is she planning on writing more books?

She's basically been writing the appendices to Harry potter for a while now. Lots of stuff on Pottermore with more details about characters, places, things, etc. For example, she's written and put on the site, full histories for characters like Professor McGonagall and Dolores Umbridge.

 

[Maintenance]

Brazilian name is lame as hell.

 

[Kinokou]

Why does Rowling even reveal this? Is she planning on writing more books?

As someone who wrote some embarrassing Harry Potter OC fan fictions I guess it is for the same reasons as I still think about the characters and occasionally give them more development. It's both enjoyable and hard to let go of something that engaged you enough to tell their story.

 

[higgsboson1997]

OF the last three, I'm sure there's one in India and one in China. The third one could be anywhere (though Russia, Australia seem likely).

 

[scamander]

What happened to "The Salem Witches Institute"?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=193734524&postcount=192

EDIT: Didn't I answer this question already to you in another thread?

 

[TheSeks]

Why does Rowling even reveal this? Is she planning on writing more books?

She's writing a "ninth book" as a stage play, so... yeah.

Honestly, the Harry Potter universe is her Middle Earth. At this point she should just write the supplementary stuff for kids and adults that read them as kids so they can have their own Elvish/Snake-tongue rap battles or whatever like LotR nerds.

 

[plasmawave]

I'm assuming, as a Canadian, our wizards and witches just go to the States for school?

We are their wizard hats.

 

[scamander]

I really hope one of the remaining three schools is located in Germany (or A/CH). Home schooling isn't even legal in Germany and I'm pretty sure German wizards wouldn't allow it either... They're still German after all.

She's writing a "ninth book" as a stage play, so... yeah

eighth.

 

[SoRuffShoNuff]

You have no reason to be disappointed since they have more, see #216.

It says right there in the text that only one has garnered any type of international recognition. She could have easily used an actual country for the school and then still stated it was the largest in existence, but nope.........Africa. It's amazing how often people find ways to lump something up to represent the entire continent of Africa when other nations are represented individually.

 

[NumberTwo]

Has she written a 'lore' book? Just a huge encyclopedia of everything there is to the Potterverse?

 

[DJKhaled]

In an ideal world where "Uagadou" isn't an afterthought, I'd like to imagine that it's not one single location, but many interconnected enclaves secreted away here and there all throughout the continent (that's many times bigger than Europe, Rowling), like a distributed network. Hence, the vague location of "mountains of the moon".

Spoiler

Who am I kidding we'll never hear about ti again.

God, people will get all uppity over nothing. And apparently in your case without even reading any of it.

 

[Spaced Harrier]

She should write a book about about going to school in a magical academy.

 

[scamander]

It says right there in the text that only one has garnered any type of international recognition. She could have easily used an actual country for the school and then still stated it was the largest in existence, but nope.........Africa. It's amazing how often people find ways to lump something up to represent the entire continent of Africa when other nations are represented individually.

"The precise location of each of the following schools is a closely guarded secret. The schools fear not only Muggle persecution, for it is a sad fact that at various times in their long histories, all of these institutions have been buffeted by the effects of wizard wars, and of hostile attention from both the foreign and domestic magical communities."

It has nothing to do with 'Africa'. It's never said in the books that Hogwarts is located in Scotland and to this day we still don't know for sure the country Durmstrang is located in!

 

[NHarmonic.]

Love the names, the lore keeps expanding

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

They could still have one if Beauxbatons is the European counter part to Uagadou (granted all over the cointinent isn't much to draw detailed conclusions from), but I immagine Beauxbatons would only pick the most gifted students then since French isn't really a common language for this cluster. But then again maybe French has stronger hold on the European Wizard community than it has on muggle Europe which would eliminate that issue. I'm just specualting and expanding on personal head cannon, as we simply don't know enough about the Potterverse yet, hopefully Rowling keeps the good stuff coming.



You have no reason to be disappointed since they have more, see #216.

We need a real Expanded Universe with all this info.
I wonder what the german school did during ww2. She clearly is never going to touch that theme.

 

[DrForester]

Has she written a 'lore' book? Just a huge encyclopedia of everything there is to the Potterverse?

She hasn't printed one, but Pottermore is basically just that.

 

[Kinokou]

OF the last three, I'm sure there's one in India and one in China. The third one could be anywhere (though Russia, Australia seem likely).

The Russian one is one of the eight we know, Koldovstoretz.

But only if the Wonder Book of Potions is considered cannon, which I guess it would be since Rowling contributed to it and you could connect it to your Pottermore account, but it dosen't have an entry on Pottermore, and the map only shows 7 schools so who knows?

Also, the map disproves the theory that Dumrstrang is in Norway or Sweden since it's located in what seems to be on the east shore of the Baltic sea, this despite being funded by a Bulgarian witch. Anyway it seems Durmstrang then is also like Beauxbatons and Uagadou and accepts students of a variety of nationalities.

 

[Sesha]

The "Durmstrang is in Scandinavia" theory was the worst.

Er, kinda. Not really. Remus (mythic cofounder of Rome) was raised as a wolf and Lupin means wolf. Sirius is very closely tied to canines and Black paints him as evil. Voldemort is French for fleeing death. It's not really any better.

All of that required some modicum of thought (except Lupin, obviously). "Magic place" and "witch castle" in Google Translate is anything but.

I would have settled for Mahou Gakuen (Magic Academy), that's like bare minimum.

No, it would definitely be a school not a temple. Trust me, if Japan has a magical institution, it would be a school and in some part of Tokyo.

Or a step above that, touyou majutsu gakuen.

 

[DJKhaled]

Dear Rowling,

Africa is not a country.

Thanks.

Dear Dash_Riprock,

You clearly didn't even read any of it

Thanks.

 

[DJKhaled]

It says right there in the text that only one has garnered any type of international recognition. She could have easily used an actual country for the school and then still stated it was the largest in existence, but nope.........Africa. It's amazing how often people find ways to lump something up to represent the entire continent of Africa when other nations are represented individually.

Reading comprehension can be hard.

 

[Kinokou]

It says right there in the text that only one has garnered any type of international recognition. She could have easily used an actual country for the school and then still stated it was the largest in existence, but nope.........Africa. It's amazing how often people find ways to lump something up to represent the entire continent of Africa when other nations are represented individually.

I was specifically nitpicking since you didn't even look at the source material before making the statement. You can of course nitpick too, but mountains of the moon is a real world location.

At least Africa has the luxury of canonically confirmed having more schools unlike North and South America and Asia, and poor Australia who gets nothing.

 

[Kal]

She never said it was

There are 54 countries in Africa - she could have chosen one. She's being lazy. Most of the time in the media locations on the continent aren't very specific (it's either "somewhere of the coast of east Africa" or some other generic place lol) and I don't understand why. It could have been a school in Tunisia or South Africa. We are a continent with many races, tribes, cultures, dialects/languages (not saying you don't know this) and it would be nice to see us depicted that way and not under a giant "African" umbrella.