From Harry Potter to Wizards Without Boundaries

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From Harry Potter to Wizards Without Boundaries

To Celebrate the Release of the Last Harry Potter Film, and also because there has a been a few q's on this topic, this guide should give you guys the low down on how Wizards Without Boundaries relates to the original books and films.

Please note that because of the nature of this document it contains some light spoilers

What is Canon?
According to Wiki:

In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official", in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical. It is used in two slightly different meanings: first, "it refers to the overall set of storylines, premises, settings, and characters offered by the source media text".[1]:28 In this sense, canon is "the original work from which the fan fiction author borrows,"[2] or "the original media on which the fan fictions are based."[3] Secondly, it is used "as a descriptor of specific incidents, relationships, or story arcs that take place within the overall canon"; thus certain incidents or relationships may be described as being canon or not.

Or in short, in our case Canon refers to the world described in the books written by JK Rowling around the story of Harry Potter.

For us this includes all the original 7 books, we also acknowledge the movies and all publicly available additional material using HPWika as a guide.


Is Wizards Without Boundaries AU?

An alternative universe fan fiction (also known as alternate universe or alternate reality), commonly abbreviated as AU, is a type or form of fan fiction in which canonical facts of setting or characterization in the universe being explored or written about are deliberately changed.

So Not really. AU or Alternative Universe runs on the principal that somewhere in the history the original story has been changed.

Normally in the case of Potterverse this means moving Hogwarts to a new School in another location or time.

We're not about that, we're about keeping Hogwarts as it was and keeping canon right up till the final chapter, then exploring how the world on a larger scale has evolved since and in the background to the events described in the books.

For us All Events recorded by JK Rowling and referenced at HPWika are considered Fully Canon.

The only difference is that while JK's writing is taken as full Historical Canon we also acknowledge the books falling into Muggle hands allowing us to play both the 'real world' and magical world together without sacrificing realism.

This means that you can play a Muggle 'obsessed' with Harry Potter (Which they of course believe to be a 'fictional character') or play a Wizard and go to a screening of the film (no doubt complaining that Apperation just 'doesn't look like that at all!'). It's a fun, crazy new twist that brings in both the traditional and the modern together in new ways.

What about Harry, Ron, Hermione etc.etc?

We take a respectful view of JK Rowlings creations and that of other writers/film etc. While it can be fun to roleplay a famous and much loved character (or the children's children of characters etc.) we prefer to keep a hands off approach and instead focus on purely original characters.

Canon's are 'famous names', much like real life celebrities their names and deeds are well known thought both the Muggle and magical world thanks to the exposure though books and the films, posters, computer games and likewise tie ins. All canon characters are considered part of the world just as Hogwarts and other locations are.

In some situations you may be able to NPC a minor canon character or have a connection to a minor character, these are allowed as long as it doesn't damage canon, and is deemed by Admin to be in character and respects the epilogue. This means that characters who died in the series are very much dead, and all the other character's lives are based upon what we know from the epilogue in book 7.

Keeping the Magic Alive

There's a million Harry Potter Roleplays out there, we know it, you've probably come across a few on your way here and are probably wondering 'what makes it different?'. Wizards Without Boundaries started after a search for a new home for a group of characters, in searching we found that a lot of what's called 'Potterverse' in roleplay circles these days had more to do with The Disney Channel then JK's World.

Harry Potter was a great series, it balanced real world issues with magic in such a way that it grew to be loved by millions around the world. For Us (M&"Q") it was the parts of the story that wasn't told, the hints towards the size and scale of the magical world and how it worked alongside/opposite and reacted to our every day world that made it special.

It's characters where not perfect, they made mistakes but grew to learn from them. It wasn't simply a story of who was dating who, who wore what dress and how so and so was really good at stuff. It was the way in which any seemingly ordinary person could do extraordinary things, they didn't have to be rich or popular and have all the cool things to be important. Yet even with magic they had the same universal troubles that any person growing up today had to face. Yes there was a war and Lord Voldemort and all that but in the end Harry Potter was about the good guys learning to work together to defeat hate and evil with a power greater then that.

So love the series, and we hope that in our own little way this guide will help keep the spirit of the original books today and into the future.

M and "Q"