The Drawbacks Of Naturalist Magic

Mun Note: This ties into my science of magic meta which, when this blog was a single muse Severus Snape, was not as prevalent as it is going to be now that muses who actively interact with the different kinds of magic are present. As Rowling’s laws of magic are essentially non-existent or extremely loose at best, I have built my own over the years and expanded on matters extensively.

While anyone is welcome to apply these concepts to their own characters I need to stress that these ideas are my own and have no canon backing whatsoever ( or very slim ones ) so should not be used as debate pieces due to being purely fan created material.

The drawbacks of naturalist magic are based on several factors. The first being essentially how much of a force of nature the naturalist is – someone who is practically a tsunami in human form is going to be significantly more impacted by a lack of access to water than someone who is more like a light rainfall.

The second – as the previous example might indicate – is what kind of naturalist they are – a force of earth, air, fire, water, or other – the last of which being the hardest to define as it is often astronomical or tied to matters of life and death itself ( which historically tended to be associated to various polytheistic beliefs, often resulting in tales of witches and wizards cast as demigods or epic heroes )

Typically speaking earth and air suffer the least amount of drawbacks as these elements are everywhere, while water tends to shift mercurially and fire tends to be the most susceptible, as there are rarely fires every day to sit by in order to recharge. ( For reference: Gellert is Earth, Harry is Air and Druella is Fire )

Lastly, drawbacks are based on the feats of magic performed – as while a naturalist is capable of summoning forth incredible magic, their bodies can only take so much raw energy flowing through them – what is more, if they are attempting to perform a great feat ( or even general magic in some cases ) while torn far from their element, it can cause incredible damages that may prove irreparable by anything save a return to their element and a specific rite to heal the damage done.

Because Druella’s element is fire and her understanding of her magic is limited, she cannot perform the kinds of feats Gellert is capable of – nor even the sort of easy magic Harry manages. Her magic is at its strongest when fire is in the room – but as it rarely is, she is often susceptible to headaches, nausea and a sense of being lost.

Her instincts want her to seek out fire – however this instinct combats with logic, as Druella has no reason to understand the allure, and the more she resists this need the ‘louder’ the world around her gets, the more intense magic feels, because she is actively ( albeit unintentionally ) denying something she needs to survive. Anchoring herself with conductors, whom magic flows through naturally, aids her in combating this and is the sole reason she manages to live as long as she does. Should interest prove relevant, verses may be drawn in which she is taught to seek out her element and to use it as her strength, but at this point in time Druella has little need for such a storyline.

Harry rarely suffers any form of drawback due to being air based – unless in his verses where he is actively calling on his skills as a naturalist. His wild magic, when it does show itself, presents as gusts of wind – these can be as minor as something that shifts through the fabric of his cloak to as major as something capable of pushing a person away from him. In his youth it permitted him the ability to fly, and to cause others to engorge and float away.

After performing greater feats, Harry may need to go someplace higher up in order to center himself. Depending on how far he has extended his abilities – ( think of naturalist extremes as stemming from a pool of water – the more that pool retains the stronger the extremes, but as time goes on if that pool continues to be emptied without being recharged, it can dry up. This will result in the naturalist being unable to cast any form of magic – if the pool dries up completely, the naturalist will die ) – Harry may need to go to specific places to recharge as he will need to draw on the forces of the world to realign himself as one of them.

This is the same for Gellert – but as an earth bound element he has more vulnerabilities than Harry does. Being pulled away from the earth ( flying, or being in a cell surrounded by water, or a cell thousands of feet above ground ) can and will deplete his pool of magic rapidly, especially if he attempts to keep using or casting magic despite not being landlocked.

As with Drusilla, this can lead to nausea and headaches, as well as dizziness and a loss of general motor functions. If he attempts to perform extreme feats despite not being at all attached to earth or lines of power within the earth – the farther he is from the earth the greater a toll this will take on him, and can lead to aforementioned irreparable damages. This is especially notable if he attempts to cast while flying, or while standing on False Earth ( aka: wizard space ) as both can result in extreme and sudden duress due to how unnatural it is for someone of his disposition.  

Naturalist Magic As Presented By My Characters

Mun Note: This ties into my science of magic meta which, when this blog was a single muse Severus Snape, was not as prevalent as it is going to be now that muses who actively interact with the different kinds of magic are present. As Rowling’s laws of magic are essentially non-existent or extremely loose at best, I have built my own over the years and expanded on matters extensively.

While anyone is welcome to apply these concepts to their own characters I need to stress that these ideas are my own and have no canon backing whatsoever ( or very slim ones )  so should not be used as debate pieces due to being purely fan created material.

Working in reverse order as it is easier, Harry is a naturalist who acts as a conductor due to the fact that this is the only kind of magical training available and widely understood. The  result   is that he has a seemingly incredible aptitude for magic, the ability to make even the most complex of spells work after just a few tries and no real study into them so much as a basic understanding of what he wants, and later in life an extreme predilection and skill toward and with wandless magic. Generally speaking, this is the extent of Harry’s capacities throughout his school verses, victory lap, and immediate post war verses.

However. Harry does gain access to understanding his power as a naturalist in his Career Verses. How he approaches this ability varies – it is most notable in his vigilante verse where he makes constant use of his naturalist capabilities, and least notable in his professor verses where he actively works to ensure he does not appear in any way remarkable. As an auror and a healer, he will fall back on naturalist magic when all else fails, and bear the consequences of appearing to be a Dark wizard if he must.

Next we have Druella, whose relationship with magic and naturalism is somewhat complicated, as she is more susceptible to the drawbacks of natural magic than either Harry or Gellert, who tend to only suffer from them in times of great duress or after performing extreme feats of magic. ( These drawbacks will be discussed momentarily. )

Druella often addresses magic as if it is noisy and as though it is a living and breathing entity. She is a naturalist who is trained as a conductor but registers that this kind of magic doesn’t suit her. She feels wrong with a wand in her hand and will often insist that the magic doesn’t like it.

While she has her fundamental Hogwarts training, she was often disruptive in the fact that she would refuse to perform, or would cast things wandlessly well before classes were permitting such action. She was seen as a showoff and pretentious, when in truth she simply did not feel – in a word – natural – casting the magic the way she was directed.

She is very good at helping people strengthen their spells and even to feel their magic boost, often through physical contact and verbal encouragements – in this case, she is acting as an augment to their power. As a naturalist, Druella is part of the balance – she is in and of herself a force of nature, a piece of what makes magic flow through the world – and she is lucky to be born in a time when this is no longer understood, for historically such augmenting as she gravitates too naturally was highly sought after by those who wished to increase their own power and range.

Lastly there is Gellert – a naturalist who acts as a naturalist without the training to be a proper naturalist. His studies into the old ways lead him to not only coming to understand his own magic, but to meeting people who were able to teach him rites and rituals that would enforce his power and also maintain his long term health. In verses not yet on the blog, he does leave the canon path of war to instead peruse his role as a naturalist – in these cases, he is much more stable and calm overall, and has lost much of his manic energy.

Yet in his canon arc, Gellert’s magic is in a word wild and tied extremely intimately not only to his emotions but to the very Earth. This is particularly notable as it means he is bound by Earth forces over any other element ( air, fire, water, etc ) which again ties to the drawbacks of this kind of magic.

Gellert is capable of acting as a conductor and prefers to as he finds it directs his energy better and with greater focus. His magic is deeply rooted and can be devastating when he loses his temper or his control. He is seen as the most powerful wizard of the age aside from Dumbledore, which is primarily due to the fact he can perform feats nobody would even think to attempt.

This is as much due to study as it is to instinct, but Gellert is an anchor piece – he was born to be a part of magic – the lack of understanding of what that meant and the lack of training into what to do in such a case ultimately resulted in the rough equivalent of an earthquake in human form. Temper could cause fissures – explosions of wild magic – while control was the calm before the crash. In short, Gellert was never meant to maintain himself or perform in the way that he did, and this caused extensive damage on him psychologically over time.

Naturalist Magic Through The Eras

Mun Note: This ties into my science of magic meta which, when this blog was a single muse Severus Snape, was not as prevalent as it is going to be now that muses who actively interact with the different kinds of magic are present. As Rowling’s laws of magic are essentially non-existent or extremely loose at best, I have built my own over the years and expanded on matters extensively.

While anyone is welcome to apply these concepts to their own characters I need to stress that these ideas are my own and have no canon backing whatsoever ( or very slim ones )  so should not be used as debate pieces due to being purely fan created material.

Naturalist magic is the same now as it was a thousand years ago – it is fundamentally impossible to alter or change it in any way because it is a part of the very structure of the Earth and its elemental forces.

What has changed is the approach to naturalist magic as time has gone on – primarily the  understanding   of magic as a concept and how it is accessed has been obfuscated by the passage of time, the destruction of tomes and archaic texts and the systematic classifications set in place by various ministries over the generations.

In the time of Gellert Grindelwald, naturalist magic was referred to as old magic or simply asthe old ways. Few understood it, and many who had access to information on it believed this kind of power was accessible to anyone – or would be, if it were not illegal to practice. By this point in time most naturalist magics were classified as Dark Rituals and were considered illegal by ministries due to their inherently dangerous nature to the caster and often, to the region itself.

The reason these spells and rites would fail so catastrophically was due to the simple fact that  conductors   were attempting to use magic they were not physically capable of – causing devastating results when attempted. Naturalist magic pulls on the very forces of nature – be they elemental or astronomical – thus its given name. It relies on born naturalists to function because they themselves are part of the balance – a conductor or even a weaver calling on this type of magic is forcing quintessential forces of magic through their bodies, that are not  built   to withstand that kind of energy. The result is often the death of the caster, or explosive areas of destruction as those forces break past a barrier not built to direct them.

Although this magic is classified as Dark due to its danger thanks to the loss of general understanding of the old ways, it was still taught in some areas of the world in a theoretical sense. Often used to illustrate the powers of the past, and to illuminate the idea that this kind of magic is not available anymore – that it is lost, or that it has been oppressed. ( Pureblood dogma often utilized the impressive feats of old magic as a means of demonstrating what wizards could have if not forced to hide, often withholding the fact that this kind of magic has always been for a very select few indeed in order to further bolster the ideas of pureblood elitism. )

By Druella’s time, ancient magics like this were not studied save by those with esoteric interests. Old magic was broadly classified as Dark, but she was among the select few lucky enough to be born into a family that specialized in Dark magic – had she not been, she likely would be far more like Harry in how she utilizes magic and interacts with it. As it is, because she had access to older works she came to understand her place with magic better – that is for another portion of this piece, however.

By Harry’s time, these arts were lost. They were not studied or discussed. To find access to them, one would need to have very particular interests and friends in order to hold much hope of finding anything concrete to study. With the advent of a second dark lord, a second wizarding war, there were countless purges that cleared out even more of the few remaining texts on this kind of magic – making the use of it appear, in and of itself, to be an act of Darkness.