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J.K Rowling Unveils the magic school names for U.S.A, Brazil, Japan, and Africa

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Jintor

Member
Wait, is it really new? Cause I'm pretty sure the Mahoutokoro thing already made me laugh my ass off a few months ago.

i remember it too, but i don't think she had uploaded the pottermore entries, just mentioned it offhand somewhere
 
Wasn't already stated in the books that the US wizard school is in Salem? Has that been retconed?

I don't think so. If I recall correctly the only acknowledgement of the US was during the Goblet of Fire book where "American wizards" was used as descriptor, nothing about the school.
 

foxtrot3d

Banned
I have to imagine Ilvermony is the preppiest snobbiest school on the planet.

You just know there aren't any black wizards at llvermony, they got us all going to the Martin Quizzulbum Jr.'s School of Voodoo and Hoodwizardy. David Blaine is our Headmaster.
 

kiguel182

Member
That Brazilian name is as generic as can be.

Also, dropping this information without, you know, actual stories means very little to me.
 
"Japanese witches and wizards at Mahoutokoro wear enchanted robes that change colour as their magical knowledge improves"

=_=

And it's not like Japan doesn't have their own pop culture of magic from which to draw reference from, right?

henshin1.jpg


EDIT:

I imagine the Japanese school would also send the kids out to do quests as part of the curriculum, and by graduation they would have to save the world at least once.
 

Jarmel

Banned
What happens when you give rich white kids even more reason to be elitist, even over other rich white kids?

Why you get Slytherin except instead of a house, it's now the entire school.

kkk-robe-l.jpg


School uniform.
 
As a brazilian, I'm quite happy with having a school ^^

And you know, the name Castelobruxo may be lame, but it does sound like something Portugal would come up with lol

(não levem isso a mal PortuGAF, eu brinco porque eu amo <3)

I remember when I was 10-12 years old trying to start an RPG in the SobreSites HP forum (without having ANY CLUE how forum RPGs work, it was the first message board I was ever a part of) set in a brazilian school of magic. The name my 10yo self came up with was Terra Brasilis. Good times...
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
I'm sure she consulted the people in charge of translating the books for those regions.

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).

BUT, chances are this school was created after magic was introduced by British magicians (even though it says ancient) and thus the school itself is most likely more western influenced rather being something that was always in Japan, hence a name like "mahoutokoro." This kind of thing happened a lot after Japan connected with the western world (there are Japanese loan words that are based off of a mishearing of a word from another language). Anyway I'm making some pretty broad assumptions here but I'm guessing it came from something like that, "place of magic" more than "magic place."

The Japanese reaction is more concerned with the background history sounding very ninja-like than anything.

Anyway, as someone who does this kind of thing for a living, i can tell you things like this are always have a lot of background the public is never privy to that goes into deciding these things, even though the end result may not sound like it.
 

Binabik15

Member
What is going on with Hitler in that universe? Mao? Stalin? Are the wizards too squeamish to use their names as well or what? Does Germany not have a school because there were too many of its students in the Zauberer-SS under Himmler?

And: Are the Bavarian wizards brewing their own butterbeer? Don't tell me they'd import British brews, ever.
 

stupei

Member
she actually was writing an encyclopedia, but then focused on pottermore? so not sure if she'll ever release that

Well, and there was that whole thing with the Harry Potter Lexicon.

JKR had been talking for years about how she intended to create an encyclopedia of the books after she finished book seven. Then right around that time Steven Jan Vander Ark, owner of the HP Lexicon fan site, was approached by a Michigan based publisher. The Lexicon was literally just quotes from the books arranged in a sort of order, with the occasional aside or observation. There might be a section on a specific professor that just listed every time that professor was mentioned or described. They decided to publish this, charge $25 a copy, and call it a Harry Potter encyclopedia.

Obviously this was pretty massive plagiarism. (Kind of shocking too, considering Rowling had always been super supportive of those kind of fan sites. She seemed genuinely hurt and surprised at the time.) There was a big trial. JKR testified. The guy broke down in tears on the witness stand.

A few times during her testimony, she made it sound like a lot of her enthusiasm over writing the encyclopedia had been tarnished by this whole thing. (She sited several times that she felt the sale of this book would interfere with the eventual release of her own, the proceeds of which were meant to go to charity.) After the trial, she got called greedy and money grubbing a lot, so I'm sure it left a bad taste in her mouth. She didn't even attempt Pottermore for several years after that.

I thought this was more widely known, since the whole thing was sort of stupidly hilarious.

Everyone except Ms. Rowling seemed to be competing for the wittiest Harry Potter references.

When her lawyer, Dale Cendali, spoke Lord Voldemort’s name — known to everyone who has ever read a Potter book as “he who must not be named” — she quickly said, “Forgive me for speaking the name.”

And Mr. Falzone, the defense lawyer, suggested in his opening statement that Ms. Rowling was trying to exert a bit of the dark arts herself, by testing whether she “has the power to make the Lexicon disappear from our world.”

Like a true fan, Mr. Vander Ark treated even Ms. Rowling’s assertions that he had made mistakes as wonderful revelations rather than embarrassments.

When Mr. Hammer told him that Ms. Rowling had testified on Monday about the etymology of “Alohomora,” an unlocking spell, Mr. Vander Ark — who had been sequestered during her testimony — blurted, “Oh, really?”

In her testimony, Ms. Rowling said Mr. Vander Ark’s link between the spell and the Hawaiian “aloha” was “errant nonsense,” explaining that it actually had come from West African dialect.

“That’s exciting stuff for someone like me,” Mr. Vander Ark said from the witness stand. “Did she happen to mention which dialect?” Mr. Hammer promised to “conference” on it.
 

Jintor

Member
"Where'd you go to school?"

"Hogwarts. How about you?"

"Magic Place."

"And you, Pablo?"

"Wizard Castle."

I mean, it's not like people can't come from New Castle (Newcastle) or East Capital (Tokyo) or Angel City (L.A) tho so *shrug*
 

Sesha

Member
Lazy google translate job notwithstanding, I like the idea of the shifting colored robes, and:

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. The only address ever given is 'Mountains of the Moon'; visitors speak of a stunning edifice carved out of the mountainside and shrouded in mist, so that it sometimes appears simply to float in mid-air. Much (some would say all) magic originated in Africa, and Uagadou graduates are especially well versed in Astronomy, Alchemy and Self-Transfiguration.

I like everything about this.


Edit:
I mean, it's not like people can't come from New Castle (Newcastle) or East Capital (Tokyo) or Angel City (L.A) tho so *shrug*

At least Tokyo follows the naming conventions for places. Mahoutokoro is just nonsense.
 

Booser

Member
Mountains of the Moon is a real place. It's the nickname of the Rwenzori Mountains on the Uganda / Congo border.
 

PsionBolt

Member
I imagine the Japanese school would also send the kids out to do quests as part of the curriculum, and by graduation they would have to save the world at least once.

Sounds about right.
I'm pretty much assuming it's like the school from Sorcery Saga / Puyo Puyo, where kids have to conquer a tower filled with monsters and traps in order to pass kindergarten.
z561oQe.jpg
qSQ5i6u.png
 

foxtrot3d

Banned
What is going on with Hitler in that universe? Mao? Stalin? Are the wizards too squeamish to use their names as well or what? Does Germany not have a school because there were too many of its students in the Zauberer-SS under Himmler?

And: Are the Bavarian wizards brewing their own butterbeer? Don't tell me they'd import British brews, ever.

The Russian wizarding community tried to dabble in politics once they subsequently had to go into hiding for a number years following the murder of Rasputin.
 

Jintor

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

scamander

Banned
Wasn't already stated in the books that the US wizard school is in Salem? Has that been retconed?

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/607275327111458816

I wonder if we'll see the American school in Fantastic Beasts.

JKR already confirmed it some time ago; so we will unless there have been changes with the script or it doesn't make it into the final cut.

I imagine that the rest of the schools have generic google-translate names. lol

I'm sure she consulted the people in charge of translating the books for those regions.

She wouldn't need a translator for the Brazilian one, as she speaks Portuguese fluently.

What is going on with Hitler in that universe? Mao? Stalin? Are the wizards too squeamish to use their names as well or what? Does Germany not have a school because there were too many of its students in the Zauberer-SS under Himmler?

you mean under Grindelwald, right. :p

And: Are the Bavarian wizards brewing their own butterbeer? Don't tell me they'd import British brews, ever.

I imagine Butterbeer is more like the disgusting Ginger Beer I tried once in the UK. German wizards probably brew the real deal. :p
 
I suppose its not cannon but IIRC the quidditch world cup game had the Spain school or magic place said. Something about Galicia (obviously as witch spanish legends come from there).

As there are so many different languages around europe and that makes a barrier for being a big central european school (and hogwarts was shown as only having UK students) I suppose each major european country has a school and smaller countries in their borders are home schooled or go to the school next to their country.

Also, we already know France has a only female school, there has to be an only male one also.

If i was Rowling I would start using other authors to create a expanded universe with her supervision.
 

Kinokou

Member
I suppose its not cannon but IIRC the quidditch world cup game had the Spain school or magic place said. Something about Galicia (obviously as witch spanish legends come from there).

As there are so many different languages around europe and that makes a barrier for being a big central european school (and hogwarts was shown as only having UK students) I suppose each major european country has a school and smaller countries in their borders are home schooled or go to the school next to their country.

Also, we already know France has a only female school, there has to be an only male one also.

If i was Rowling I would start using other authors to create a expanded universe with her supervision.

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.
 

Switch Back 9

a lot of my threads involve me fucking up somehow. Perhaps I'm a moron?
I'm assuming, as a Canadian, our wizards and witches just go to the States for school?
 
I wonder what would have happened to American slaves that turned out to be magical, especially under muggle parents. Did any wind up at the school? Or at least use their powers to escape or improve their situation under bondage?
 

Kinokou

Member
I wonder what would have happened to American slaves that turned out to be magical, especially under muggle parents. Did any wind up at the school? Or at least use their powers to escape or improve their situation under bondage?

Hopefully Ilvermorny was established and took them in, or maybe they got visited by the Dream Messengers from Uagadou.

I thought a bit about it to, and I find it unlikely that there would be wizards among the slaves in the same way no real witches ever got burnt on the stakes. But there would be a chance of some No-Maj born wizards and witches among them for sure.
 

Branduil

Member
I wonder what would have happened to American slaves that turned out to be magical, especially under muggle parents. Did any wind up at the school? Or at least use their powers to escape or improve their situation under bondage?

Given that wizards never did anything about slavery, Nazis, communism, etc. I think we can safely conclude they're all assholes.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Japanese magic school huh?

tumblr_mrhzxwFogJ1s9o2o3o1_500.gif



This place lol

It's like she googled Japan real quick. White = evil check, Tengu check. Direct translation for magic school check.

I now want a book written about a student at the Japanese magic school that is betrayed and his robe turns white because of nefarious machinations. A fugitive on the run, where most of magic society thinks he's evil.

Needs more school cramming, homeroom, senpai/kohai shenanigans

also they need a k-on! equivalent
 
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