+- Children of Merlin - Harry Potter 1980s RPG (https://hiddenkiss.net/nevermore)
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+--- Thread: BASICS & PLOT (/showthread.php?tid=124)
BASICS & PLOT - Kieran - 11-10-2021
BASICS
Children of Merlin was foundd on July 18th 2015 under the name Nevermore, and is run by Kieran. In November 2021 I made up a whole new plot. Our player base has been mostly between 25-40 years old, and our minimum age for joining is 18. Content rating here is 3-3-3 or free-for-all. Our primary method of contact is Discord, but feel free to use the cbox or to send me a private message.
Children of Merlin was foundd on July 18th 2015 under the name Nevermore, and is run by Kieran. In November 2021 I made up a whole new plot. Our player base has been mostly between 25-40 years old, and our minimum age for joining is 18. Content rating here is 3-3-3 or free-for-all. Our primary method of contact is Discord, but feel free to use the cbox or to send me a private message.
PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
Canons and original characters are accepted, as are a lot of canon species.
We have board-canon lore on many species so check this out before applying for a magical creature. We don't accept mixed creatures like veela-vampires or such.
BASE
We base on the seven Harry Potter books and the two companion books Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, adapted with our own site-lore. We do not accept lore from Pottermore or the Fantastic Beasts movies, nor from the Harry Potter films or video games. And the Cursed Child never happens. Exceptions may be made upon a request but such must be first approved by the admin. Please use the information found on site first and foremost. If you have any questions or suggestions, contact Kieran.
TIMELINE
1985-1992
You don't have to make use of the full timeline. Time is fluid here, so you can make use of any month and year at any time without any hurry. You can also set game events outside the timeline, according to your character development needs - but the focus of this RPG is supposed to be on the timeline years. There's a calendar link in the floating main menu above and on the Plotting & Planning forum.
1985-1992
You don't have to make use of the full timeline. Time is fluid here, so you can make use of any month and year at any time without any hurry. You can also set game events outside the timeline, according to your character development needs - but the focus of this RPG is supposed to be on the timeline years. There's a calendar link in the floating main menu above and on the Plotting & Planning forum.
![[Image: 108c8daa611d6425865366bedcd2b606.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/10/8c/8d/108c8daa611d6425865366bedcd2b606.jpg)
THE PLOT
After Voldemort disappeared and Harry Potter was taken somewhere to live in peace away from his fame, after the Longbottoms' cruel fate and the Crouch family scandal, the wizarding society had difficulties recovering. Many struggled to find peace of mind and happiness after so much terror and loss during the war and living with the uncertainty of what really happened to Voldemort. The Ministry of Magic on its behalf struggles to regain people's trust.
People lost a lot of trust and faith in the wizarding government because the Ministry let known Death Eaters walk free, even judge Crouch's son was a Death Eater and tortured the Longbottoms to insanity and Crouch sent his own son to Azkaban for life after publicly disowning him. He sent a lot of people there without a proper trial if gave them any at all, whilst used controversial methods in fighting Voldemort. Most notably allowing Aurors to use the Unforgivable Curses even on suspects. And then it was a toddler who seemingly defeated Voldemort and not the Ministry's people.
For a few years Daily Prophet's Readers' Column section reflected all this, people kept sharing and discussing their fears and views keeping the Ministry under pressure to prove it cares about morals and family values and that it can be trusted to do better next time if Voldemort should ever resurface or another one like him rise. Many also criticised the decision to hide Harry Potter away, the one person who obviously had the power to defeat dark wizards as powerful as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. In an effort to prove themselves the Ministry couldn't forbid Daily Prophet to publish them but some letters sent in were heavily censored which frustrated and outraged people even more.
Until in January 1985 letters start appearing with a very concerning or very hopeful message, depending on your point of view and personal beliefs. They are so anti-establishment, in parts so truthful, and thus potentially dangerous that the Ministry controlled Daily Prophet won't publish them or any talk about them on the Readers' Column. Those letters were published every month in some other newspapers - one on the first day of each month - and people started cutting them out and sharing them on Diagon Alley and other all-wizarding areas so the word spread fast.
The Letters
The letters lay out a vision of future where the Ministry no longer exists and most wizardkind have lost their magical powers, leaving only a select few to rule and carry on the magical bloodlines. A world where muggle-borns and squibs are all treated the same as half-bloods and purebloods, and where werewolves and vampires are understood and not shunned. A world where magic is kept secret from muggles but is not thought of as something that makes one superior, and where people like Grindelwald and Voldemort can never rise again.
The authors call themselves the Children of Merlin; wizards, witches and squibs who favour squibs, muggle-borns and their relatives over half-bloods and purebloods. That is, those who understand what it is to be looked down on, shunned and bullied just because of one's heritage or lack of magical power.
They claim that their founder and leader actually is a descendent of Merlin and that he has access to an ancient potion recipe that once brewn can strip anyone of their magical powers if drinking it or anything if submerged in it. The recipe however is incomplete and some of the ingredients that are known are extremely difficult to get so the potion isn't fully effective yet. They are recruiting members who share in their view and want to help them research and complete the potion for use.
They point out that the Ministry's Trace that tracks underage magic use has been made to function so vaguely and inefficiently that it really only targets muggle-borns and anyone who lives in a muggle family, bullying and punishing them for not having all magical families whilst giving all-wizarding families total advantage in magical education and self-defence. And how Hogwarts won't admit and teach squibs despite of most of its subjects not requiring the ability to cast spells.
They also point out that the most powerful of wizardkind tend to either go dark and seek world domination through war and murder, or choose not to use their influential power to better the wizarding government. They say it's especially inexcusable because the wizarding society is integrated into the muggle society and thus everyone should be perfectly aware of how muggle-borns and squibs are just as valuable, as are muggles, and how some muggle inventions are far more useful than magic. That magic and magical power isn't automatically superior.
As months pass it becomes increasingly clear that the letters are truly from a secret society that seeks to change the world and not just some lone radical with no significant powers. Below is more details about what happens during our timeline because of them. And for those who may want their character to be or become a member or an ally here is more info about them.
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Reception & the First Scare
Because the Children of Merlin don't seek to reveal magic's existence to muggles nor to start a war, some people are drawn to them regardless of their own blood status. Some genuinely agreeing with them and wanting the same thing, and some just hoping to get in to keep their magic in case they succeed in bringing their vision forth. Whereas others feel they're too radical to support.
The Ministry doesn't take the letters seriously until after the September 1985 letter makes a threat against Hogwarts and then in October there is no letter but a significant number of students and professors at Hogwarts begin to show unusually consistent and severe decrease in their spell casting skills and powers, as are many residents of Hogsmeade. It is suspected that the Children of Merlin has members inside Hogwarts and that they've put something in the water or are tricking people into drinking the unfinished potion. These cases are nothing more than the placebo effect, but no one can know for sure. A booming business of antidotes, amulets and other protective charms spreads all over Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley whilst anyone trying to start up a new potioneer business in general struggles to do so due to lack of trust.
Now seemingly qualifying as a terrorist group in addition to anti-government group, the Ministry of Magic finally directs some of its resources into serious efforts to discover and disband the Children of Merlin and to destroy the weapon they claim to have access to. Anyone suspected of being a member can be brought in for questioning and put under surveillance, and spreading the letters is made illegal. Punishment for doing so is a very large fine. Meanwhile many parents pull their children out of Hogwarts to be home schooled instead, some by themselves and some hiring tutors from the Ministry. No more mass cases like the Hogwarts one happen, but occasionally an individual case here and another there. All placebo, the threatened potion is not yet in use.
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Fantastic beasts help both sides
In January 1986 Children of Merlin start using fired house-elves to help in achieving their goals of research and ingredient hunting. They do this in secret and for the most part treat them well. Those who own house-elves may suspect something's going on and some order their house-elves to investigate. At the same time, the Ministry attempts to break it up by secretly hiring werewolves and vampires, to utilise their heightened senses and animal forms in spying and their social status to perhaps even infiltrate into the Children of Merlin for the Ministry. With little success, because most do not trust the Ministry or other wizardkind enough to step forward and reveal themselves as such. But some do, with the understanding that if the magical population was to drop, their chances of ever getting a cure would drop to virtually none.
Nothing major happens this year and there has been no letters since December '85, and the Ministry keeps reporting small successes in their attempts, making the public think maybe the Ministry is winning but in fact the Ministry is not much closer to finding the headquarters of the secret society nor to knowing who its leader is.
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Rising Crime
April 1st 1987 Ollivander's wand shop is broken into and burned down. Ollivander continues working and selling his wands from his home until the shop is rebuilt. After this and other similar cases of somehow vandalised certain type of businesses*, being proven a Child of Merlin or their ally may lead to a prison sentence of some length, depending on what and how much is proven or if the Ministry decides to make an example of someone. These crimes may or may not have been committed by the secret society as it has outsider supporters and some people may be just trying to get away with vandalism.
Meanwhile Children of Merlin are no longer recruiting only on the streets and pubs, but people who openly advicate for muggle-born, muggle and/or squib rights or downright have any of those in their families may get letters encouraging them to join despite of it been made illegal but at least to continue their good work outside of the group. They understand that the more right-minded wizardkind there is once the potion is ready the better it is for the magical gene pool of the future.
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The Ministry's Victory
May 1st 1988 the potion has successfully rendered a working magic wand useless so it's believed ready for testing on something living. One of their house-elf allies volunteers to test it. The potion puts her in deep magical coma. Though it doesn't work quite as intended, it is considered good progress. They arrange professional care for the brave, comatose house-elf and start working on an antidote whilst also continuing to improve the weapon.
The Ministry has managed to get in a couple of Aurors as spies, at least a year or two earlier. By this time those two have gained enough knowledge about the members, and the way the society functions, and gained the leader's trust. On May 7th 1988 they are able to trick the leader into drinking the potion himself. He is moved to the St. Mungos' to be looked after until the antidote is ready and he can be brought back to stand trial. Further arrests of members and ellies are made in the following weeks. The Daily Prophet reports all this that.
May 8th 1988. The Ministry assures the public that everyone is safe now, the whole secret society has been disbanded and the potion and its recipe will be destroyed as soon as the antidote has been brewn to wake the leader. Until then they'll be kept In a secure location. (But really it won't be destroyed. It'll secretly remain in the Ministry's hands and they try to perfect it so they could use it against Voldemort should he return. And likely would use its threat in order to get confessions and things like that. But they will not succeed to perfect it for such use.)
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The Aftermath
For the next few months newspapers report about the trials and sentences of the members and known allies. Some are sent to Azkaban for a time, some are not but sentenced to community service instead. Depending on what their part in the operation was. In November the antidote is figured out and the leader stands trial. He is charged with terrorism and treason. The trial lasts a full year because the man is wealthy and can afford some of the best lawyers the British wizarding society has, but in November 1989 he is convicted and sentenced to Azkaban for 15 to 20 years.
Chidren of Merlin were not a complete failure. Their cause was never completely overshadowed by their methods, especially with some supporters driving it in legal ways. So the Ministry agrees to look into and make some reforms to laws and policies regarding muggle-borns, squibs and other minority groups. But, just as in the muggle government and politics, non-emergency changes are slow. Changes to the Trace or Hogwarts admittance policy for example, do not happen any time soon but the Ministry starts enforcing the Trace a little less harshly for a time.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
1989 and beyond
Newspapers report about the leader's trial, but the wizarding society's life is blessedly peaceful in that no major threats occur and trust in the government has increased more or less. Harry's first school year 1991-1992 goes as it does in canon. In the summer of 1992 the wizarding society is buzzing again, with the rumours of You-Know-Who having resurfaced.