Wandlore to the Core
written by Tiago.
This book is written by Tiago., a young wandlorist and experimental wand researcher. It contains information gathered from history around the world and personal experiences, summarizing interesting facts about the history of wandcraft and wand properties, some of them never told by other wandmakers.
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
4
Reads
9,282
The History of Wandcraft
Chapter 1
A wand is a magic item used for wizards and witches to channel one’s enchantment and enhance accuracy, efficiency and power. Nowadays wands are so common that it is difficult to imagine how our magical communities would function without them. But there were many generations of wizards and witches that managed to survive wandlessly, and up to this day still some magical cultures prefer not to insert this European invention in their daily activities. In this chapter you will read about the different forms of wands that were created and the influential elements that shaped them to their current form, besides some curiosities regarding other items used in worldwide magical communities as a magic-channelling element.
The human as a biological species inhabit planet Earth for about 200,000 years. It is possible that magical beings (wizards and witches) and non-magical beings (muggles) have shared their existence together early in this evolutionary process. However, it is almost impossible to distinguish between wizards and muggles in the fossil records where no magical traces were left. While living in shared groups with muggles, the magic used for pre-historic wizards and witches was not strong enough to leave these traces available for our findings. About 30,000 years ago, however, some wizarding groups started establishing apart from the muggles. From that point on, they developed their magic further, and started creating group enchantments that have left residual magic and traces in some places that we can detect even nowadays.
The two most ancient all-magic groups that established in the world, according to the residual magic and traces found, are the Inyanga and the Sangoma, both in southern-central Africa. While Inyanga were powerful magical healers and the Sangoma succeeded in divination, no wand-like instruments were ever found with these tribes’ archaeological items. Even in present time, some African communities are known to refuse to use wands on a daily basis, and young wizards and witches learn how to cast spells wandlessly by using hand gestures.
Regarding the usage of wand-like instruments in old wizarding groups, we may find necromancers in Egypt and Middle East, and shamanists in North America. These two ancient types of magic are related to the dead: necromancy involving the use of dark magic to reawaken deceased bodies (without the spirits), and shamanism involving the evocation of spirits in different forms (without the bodies). Thus it is not by coincidence that ancient wizards used bones to increase the efficiency of their enchantments in both necromancy and shamanism.
Necromancers living in ancient Egypt and Persian empire have developed dark spells and potions, and it is highly alike that the Inferi were created by the Persians. To enhance the power of their enchantments and to channel all the magic inside the corpse used for such practices, these wizards started using bones taken from either the dead body to be awakened or from its deceased parents and siblings. Only male wizards were allowed to practise this type of magic. The preferred bones to be used as a form of wicked crude wand were taken from the shin (tibia) or from the forearm (radius or ulna), because of their long rod shape. Around 480 BCE, the Persians started influencing Greece and, posteriorly, Rome. The Romans tried using larger bones (humerus or femur) in the hopes that would augment the power of their dark magic, but it worked the other way around. These bones were way too big to channel magic properly and the constant failures on their enchantments led the necromancers to slowly stop using wand-like bones. It is important to state that necromancy is a forbidden branch of magic in most countries nowadays.
The shamanism is a word that bears two very different concepts. A shamanist may be either people (magical or muggle) who speak to spirits in religious cultures, or wizards and witches who use magic to evoke spirits in magical cultures. It is important to explain that both concepts have been broadly confounded and magical shamanists did not call themselves shamanists (they used ancient words in their own language), but the word is current in use to define their type of magic.
A group of shamanists have arisen in southwestern North America and further spread to the whole continent. The original shamanists were magical healers from Navajo tribes, who developed enchantments and spells to bring spirits to the material world in order to get their help on treating injured and curing ill. It is believed that they used wand-like instruments to enhance their magic, as many were found carrying animal bones in the fossil register. These bones were robust and carved in the shape of a very short wand (from 5 to 6 inches), created around the year 400 CE. It is likely that these Navajo shamanists were experimenting with wand sources, since no distinct pattern could be determined (it has been found 13 different bones from 22 different species up to now). However, it has not been proved if the wand-like bones were created by the shamanists themselves or by the Yee Naaldlooshii (popularly known as skin-walkers). The Yee Naaldlooshii were accomplished animagi that probably started using animal bones shaped like wands to channel their magic for self-transfiguration, later on sharing these items with the Navajo.
Many different communities of magical shamanists spread to Central and South America. A group called Matsé established in the Amazon rainforest areas of Peru, Bolivia, northern Brazil and southern Colombia, and they developed their variation of shamanism through some new types of enchantments. Being situated in the middle of a vast arrangement of magical trees, the Matsé succeeded in using tree branches to channel spells. However, their primitive wands were much more rustic than the ones we are currently using: the branches of the trees were used with their ramifications and leaves, and were usually kept directly on the earthy ground when not being used. This group of South American wizards created their wand-like instruments around the year 650 CE, which is particularly recent. It is known that Celtic wizards used tree branches in a wand-manner since around 550 BCE, much earlier than the Matsé. Howsoever, it is likely that the two groups of wizards had the idea of using wood from magical source coincidentally, as none had knowledge of the existence of the other and they came to develop quite different instruments.
When a piece of a magical plant is removed, it eventually dies and the magic within fades out. The Celts developed enchantments to maintain residual magic in the piece of wood plucked from a tree, and that is the reason they are called the firsts true wandmakers. Those tribes from South America had not learned how to maintain the magic on a piece of tree after ripping it apart, therefore their rustic wand would serve only while the plant was still alive, and they probably used it with its leaves and constantly touching the ground to further keep the residual magic left in it.
That being said, we come to the first version of our recent wand, created by the Celtic wizards from European trees about 2560 years ago. The Celts were inventive and tried out all types of wood they could find, in many different sizes and girths. But their wands were pure magical plant carved, without cores. It is also known that around the year 400 BCE, the Celtic started trading wands with some other magical communities in Europe, especially the Romans. The Ollivander family, worldly recognised as great wandmakers, possibly descended from wizards and witches that migrated from the Mediterranean to the north and learned wandcraft from the Celts. Most wizarding communities in Europe and Asia had access to coreless wands in the first centuries of the Common Era, although their usage was not common or constant.
Among the known fail attempts to upgrade the Celtic form of wand, there are two oriental occurrences that deserve attention. From 824 to 854 CE, a group of Tsukimono-suji wizards tried to magically cover the wood wands with fur-capes made from kitsune (a fox-like Japanese magical creature) fur, and their wands stopped performing spells almost immediately. In 903 CE a group of 19 adventurer wizards and witches killed a young Chinese Fireball dragon and decided to coat their wands with the dragon’s scales. This ended up even worse, and only 4 survived the incident caused by the uncontrolled coated wands.
On one hand, the wands showed to lose magical proficiency when a coating was added, and on the other hand, it was quite difficult to think about filling it with a core different from the pure wood. But this was achieved by Antioch Peverell, who tried extensively to create a type of enchantment that would allow one to insert a magical core into a wand-shaped wood without releasing its residual magic, until he perfected this wandcraft technique in the middle of the 1240s decade. He created a unique wand made of elder wood and thestral tail-hair core, that became worldly famous after being depicted in a tale of Beedle the Bard (the are controversies about the origin of the Elder wand, but most evidences appoint this as the true version of events).
In further years, the success of spellcasting using a proper wand with core extended to the world, and wandmakers experimented (and continue to experiment) many forms of magical cores. It was also common until early 1800s for some wizards and witches ask to have a wand crafted for them bearing some core of personal importance. Due to the muggle persecution of magical people, the International Confederation of Wizards declared the right to carry a wand at all times in 1692, which contributed to the popularization of the item and its usage for daily activities. In summary, you know now what makes a wand so special: it is made of materials from magical source, there are enchantments on its parts to keep the residual magic of both wood and core, there are spells casted upon their crafting to guarantee the survival of its parts as one, there is the combination of wood and core (a knowledge particularly new in wandlore), and the combination of that wand with a suited wizard or witch (something that can never be fully predicted). In the following chapters of this book you will know some magical properties of wands and wandlore.
The human as a biological species inhabit planet Earth for about 200,000 years. It is possible that magical beings (wizards and witches) and non-magical beings (muggles) have shared their existence together early in this evolutionary process. However, it is almost impossible to distinguish between wizards and muggles in the fossil records where no magical traces were left. While living in shared groups with muggles, the magic used for pre-historic wizards and witches was not strong enough to leave these traces available for our findings. About 30,000 years ago, however, some wizarding groups started establishing apart from the muggles. From that point on, they developed their magic further, and started creating group enchantments that have left residual magic and traces in some places that we can detect even nowadays.
The two most ancient all-magic groups that established in the world, according to the residual magic and traces found, are the Inyanga and the Sangoma, both in southern-central Africa. While Inyanga were powerful magical healers and the Sangoma succeeded in divination, no wand-like instruments were ever found with these tribes’ archaeological items. Even in present time, some African communities are known to refuse to use wands on a daily basis, and young wizards and witches learn how to cast spells wandlessly by using hand gestures.
Regarding the usage of wand-like instruments in old wizarding groups, we may find necromancers in Egypt and Middle East, and shamanists in North America. These two ancient types of magic are related to the dead: necromancy involving the use of dark magic to reawaken deceased bodies (without the spirits), and shamanism involving the evocation of spirits in different forms (without the bodies). Thus it is not by coincidence that ancient wizards used bones to increase the efficiency of their enchantments in both necromancy and shamanism.
Necromancers living in ancient Egypt and Persian empire have developed dark spells and potions, and it is highly alike that the Inferi were created by the Persians. To enhance the power of their enchantments and to channel all the magic inside the corpse used for such practices, these wizards started using bones taken from either the dead body to be awakened or from its deceased parents and siblings. Only male wizards were allowed to practise this type of magic. The preferred bones to be used as a form of wicked crude wand were taken from the shin (tibia) or from the forearm (radius or ulna), because of their long rod shape. Around 480 BCE, the Persians started influencing Greece and, posteriorly, Rome. The Romans tried using larger bones (humerus or femur) in the hopes that would augment the power of their dark magic, but it worked the other way around. These bones were way too big to channel magic properly and the constant failures on their enchantments led the necromancers to slowly stop using wand-like bones. It is important to state that necromancy is a forbidden branch of magic in most countries nowadays.
The shamanism is a word that bears two very different concepts. A shamanist may be either people (magical or muggle) who speak to spirits in religious cultures, or wizards and witches who use magic to evoke spirits in magical cultures. It is important to explain that both concepts have been broadly confounded and magical shamanists did not call themselves shamanists (they used ancient words in their own language), but the word is current in use to define their type of magic.
A group of shamanists have arisen in southwestern North America and further spread to the whole continent. The original shamanists were magical healers from Navajo tribes, who developed enchantments and spells to bring spirits to the material world in order to get their help on treating injured and curing ill. It is believed that they used wand-like instruments to enhance their magic, as many were found carrying animal bones in the fossil register. These bones were robust and carved in the shape of a very short wand (from 5 to 6 inches), created around the year 400 CE. It is likely that these Navajo shamanists were experimenting with wand sources, since no distinct pattern could be determined (it has been found 13 different bones from 22 different species up to now). However, it has not been proved if the wand-like bones were created by the shamanists themselves or by the Yee Naaldlooshii (popularly known as skin-walkers). The Yee Naaldlooshii were accomplished animagi that probably started using animal bones shaped like wands to channel their magic for self-transfiguration, later on sharing these items with the Navajo.
Many different communities of magical shamanists spread to Central and South America. A group called Matsé established in the Amazon rainforest areas of Peru, Bolivia, northern Brazil and southern Colombia, and they developed their variation of shamanism through some new types of enchantments. Being situated in the middle of a vast arrangement of magical trees, the Matsé succeeded in using tree branches to channel spells. However, their primitive wands were much more rustic than the ones we are currently using: the branches of the trees were used with their ramifications and leaves, and were usually kept directly on the earthy ground when not being used. This group of South American wizards created their wand-like instruments around the year 650 CE, which is particularly recent. It is known that Celtic wizards used tree branches in a wand-manner since around 550 BCE, much earlier than the Matsé. Howsoever, it is likely that the two groups of wizards had the idea of using wood from magical source coincidentally, as none had knowledge of the existence of the other and they came to develop quite different instruments.
When a piece of a magical plant is removed, it eventually dies and the magic within fades out. The Celts developed enchantments to maintain residual magic in the piece of wood plucked from a tree, and that is the reason they are called the firsts true wandmakers. Those tribes from South America had not learned how to maintain the magic on a piece of tree after ripping it apart, therefore their rustic wand would serve only while the plant was still alive, and they probably used it with its leaves and constantly touching the ground to further keep the residual magic left in it.
That being said, we come to the first version of our recent wand, created by the Celtic wizards from European trees about 2560 years ago. The Celts were inventive and tried out all types of wood they could find, in many different sizes and girths. But their wands were pure magical plant carved, without cores. It is also known that around the year 400 BCE, the Celtic started trading wands with some other magical communities in Europe, especially the Romans. The Ollivander family, worldly recognised as great wandmakers, possibly descended from wizards and witches that migrated from the Mediterranean to the north and learned wandcraft from the Celts. Most wizarding communities in Europe and Asia had access to coreless wands in the first centuries of the Common Era, although their usage was not common or constant.
Among the known fail attempts to upgrade the Celtic form of wand, there are two oriental occurrences that deserve attention. From 824 to 854 CE, a group of Tsukimono-suji wizards tried to magically cover the wood wands with fur-capes made from kitsune (a fox-like Japanese magical creature) fur, and their wands stopped performing spells almost immediately. In 903 CE a group of 19 adventurer wizards and witches killed a young Chinese Fireball dragon and decided to coat their wands with the dragon’s scales. This ended up even worse, and only 4 survived the incident caused by the uncontrolled coated wands.
On one hand, the wands showed to lose magical proficiency when a coating was added, and on the other hand, it was quite difficult to think about filling it with a core different from the pure wood. But this was achieved by Antioch Peverell, who tried extensively to create a type of enchantment that would allow one to insert a magical core into a wand-shaped wood without releasing its residual magic, until he perfected this wandcraft technique in the middle of the 1240s decade. He created a unique wand made of elder wood and thestral tail-hair core, that became worldly famous after being depicted in a tale of Beedle the Bard (the are controversies about the origin of the Elder wand, but most evidences appoint this as the true version of events).
In further years, the success of spellcasting using a proper wand with core extended to the world, and wandmakers experimented (and continue to experiment) many forms of magical cores. It was also common until early 1800s for some wizards and witches ask to have a wand crafted for them bearing some core of personal importance. Due to the muggle persecution of magical people, the International Confederation of Wizards declared the right to carry a wand at all times in 1692, which contributed to the popularization of the item and its usage for daily activities. In summary, you know now what makes a wand so special: it is made of materials from magical source, there are enchantments on its parts to keep the residual magic of both wood and core, there are spells casted upon their crafting to guarantee the survival of its parts as one, there is the combination of wood and core (a knowledge particularly new in wandlore), and the combination of that wand with a suited wizard or witch (something that can never be fully predicted). In the following chapters of this book you will know some magical properties of wands and wandlore.
