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Enter the Dragon (Harry Potter/Shadowrun)

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There's also the factor of various immortal beings working in the background to achieve their own objective, Shadowrun is choke full of conspiracies. Some of which probably manipulated and caused the nuclear accidents to help the creation of megacorp sovereignty.
 
Dunkelzahn said:
Well spotted, though what actually happened was significantly weirder than the known issue of vampirism. The situation was mentioned briefly back in 2.12.1.
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So it was.

Dunkelzahn said:
"We have Mr. Tepes, who first exhibited his absurd magical strength some five centuries ago,"
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This does somewhat imply Vlad III is not the Romanian Emperor, though Snape isn't exactly known for reverence.

Also, historical Vlad is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills turks and doesn't afraid of anything. If he got away with not being undead in this setting, I totally approve.
 
Belenus said:
So it was.


This does somewhat imply Vlad III is not the Romanian Emperor, though Snape isn't exactly known for reverence.

Also, historical Vlad is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills turks and doesn't afraid of anything. If he got away with not being undead in this setting, I totally approve.
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Yep. Seems like our favorite dragon isn't the only one who hooked himself into one of these nodes. Fun times ahead for sure.
 
Dunkelzahn said:
So, a bit of background for the setting:

Shadowrun canon involves a world in which everything magical disappears for thousands of years at a time, only to return from the depths of prehistory in a sudden unexpected reveal. This setting has magic become greatly restricted in extent, but not disappear completely, during those low-magic eras. During the Fifth Age, specifically, the small surviving magical component of the world chose to actively hide from everyone else, altering the dynamic of the past in a variety of ways. That is a very big change in the setting, and as a result, entire stretches of Shadowrun historical canon will be significantly changed.

For instance, in the back-history of the collapse of the USA and the formation of the NAN, Daniel 'Howling Coyote' Coleman canonically managed to make great inroads because he was one of the first magic users to reappear, and he used that novelty to engage in his unique form of aggressive homebrew vulcanism essentially unopposed. In this setting there is already a magical government in place with their own, much more experienced, magical combat personnel. The Confederacy is unlikely to be particularly tolerant of some young dumbass setting off volcanoes in their territory, nor are they particularly sympathetic toward their now quite distant non-magical cousins. The resulting political landscape of the Sixth World's North America is thus going to be quite different, or at least formed by different forces, than the one in Shadowrun canon.

As for the current structure of magical North America, the Shadowrun Native American Nations didn't form until 2018 when the Treaty of Denver recognized their sovereignty and ceded the western half of the US and Canada in exchange for an end to Daniel Howling Coyote's string of volcanic mass-murders. At the moment in-story, Howling Coyote is nearing his second birthday on an Indian Reservation somewhere in the US, so if we were dealing solely with the Shadowrun nations, everything would still be firmly under the control of the normal U.S. and Canadian governments at this point in history.

By contrast, the Confederacy in this setting has existed to one extent or another for over fifteen hundred years (I'm using the legendary accounts of the formation of the Haudenosaunee nations, rather than the currently accepted historical consensus that places the founding much later). It began as the original Haudenosaunee Confederation (a.k.a the Iroquois Nation), which formed around through the efforts of Hiawatha, Jigonhsasee, and the Great Peacemaker. I have them separating from their non-magical counterparts sometime in the eleventh century AD and going their own way, much like most every other wizarding society in the world (odd how widespread that tendency was, one might call it suspicious). The other native tribes went through their own wizarding secrecy movements as well, and while the non-magical remnants did their own thing, remaining separate until the eventual European colonization, the magical side of things banded together over time into the Confederacy, due in large part to the constant threat from their hyper-aggressive neighbors to the south.

As a result, the wizarding side of North America consists of two macroscale political entities: Aztlan (the Aztecs) which is a notoriously violent theocracy whose primary form of worship consists of sacrificing captured slaves and ritual cannibalism; and the Confederacy; which is a loose voluntary federation of everyone else. Nonmagical political divisions are entirely irrelevant in this context. European colonization never included many wizards, so there is no magical US, magical Canada, or any other magical equivalent of the modern nations of the western hemisphere. Aztlan coincidentally occupies close to the same space as nonmagical Mexico, but the two entities are not actually linked.

The closest ties between the two worlds in the western hemisphere are actually the drug cartels, which bridge the magical-nonmagical divide. They were created to push the Awakened drug, cocaine, which, in addition to generating a great deal of non-magical currency, also serves as part of a distributed blood magic harvesting scheme to draw magical energy from the suffering resulting from the drug's use. The power collected is a large part of why the Aztec blood mages are so feared. The South American cartels are run by the Inca (who originally developed the magical coca plant and its use), and the Mexican ones are tied to the Aztecs (who stole it from the Inca).

As a general note for the setting, wizarding national borders are generally independent of the non-magical nations occupying the same territory with three notable exceptions. The first is Britain, which is nominally tied to the non-magical royalty by lingering oaths which were forced upon them by Merlin during the time of Camelot. Though it should also be noted that between the secrecy policies and the historical changes in the royal bloodline, those oaths are very loose at present time. The second, Japan, is under much more binding sovereignty magics tying them to the Chrysanthemum Throne; however, a bit of political scheming and some targeted regicide has essentially rendered the binding almost entirely irrelevant on a practical level by making it impossible for the current Emperor to issue official commands to his magical subjects. The last is the Magical Romanian Empire, the emperor of which was originally the entirely non-magical Voivode of Wallachia before he became magical due to an accident. While the Empire has greatly expanded in the five and a half centuries of its existence, its European border remains unchanged.
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Ok - so I see where you're going with the story, and I appreciate that very much. I still don't understand though why the threat of a 'kill-team' would even *slightly* threaten Harry, and by extension, anyone around him. He's terrifying, just as a boy. What is a kill team going to do when their magic can't affect him and him can grab them, snap their necks, and then eat them? How terrifying would Harry be if someone threatened Snape or Minerva or anyone travelling with Harry? I can't even imagine the level of violence that Harry would unleash... and what it would be like to be the asshole who ordered them kill team when Harry caught up with him/her.
 
Edmond G. Bertrand said:
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Ok - so I see where you're going with the story, and I appreciate that very much. I still don't understand though why the threat of a 'kill-team' would even *slightly* threaten Harry, and by extension, anyone around him. He's terrifying, just as a boy. What is a kill team going to do when their magic can't affect him and him can grab them, snap their necks, and then eat them? How terrifying would Harry be if someone threatened Snape or Minerva or anyone travelling with Harry? I can't even imagine the level of violence that Harry would unleash... and what it would be like to be the asshole who ordered them kill team when Harry caught up with him/her.
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Yes, that's true. But considering the fact that Harry might well end up slaughtering the Kill Team, that sort of thing would forever ruin any diplomatic relations, and wiping out the kill team would be cold comfort if one of his friends had been caught in the crossfire.

Better to go through the proper channels and build a positive relationship from the start.
 
Edmond G. Bertrand said:
I still don't understand though why the threat of a 'kill-team' would even *slightly* threaten Harry,
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It wouldn't, but killing the troops that show up to stop Aztec raiders is not a good way to introduce yourself when you are asking for a favor.
Additionally, they're trying to keep everything as low key as possible,
 
Dunkelzahn said:
3.18.1 Deliberations
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So, are they aware that Harry is a dragon? Hell, forget that, are they aware that he's a shapeshifter? If not, they're in for the nastiest surprise this side of Pearl Harbor.

The rest of the world can only hope the Su clan doesn't have access to assassins, ineffectual as they would be; if and when Harry dies, the fact that his body is a multi-ton mass of metal, flesh, and a mix of the most volatile, barely-metastable chemicals known and unknown to mankind, all balanced precariously by what might be the magical equivalent of a fucking degeneracy reactor... well... can you say "planet buster"?

The Unicorn said:
Aztec raiders
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Boy, I hope to God they come to their senses reeaal quick if they show up. Shit, why not name Harry the next coming of Quetzalcoatl or something?
 
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corndogman said:
So, are they aware that Harry is a dragon? Hell, forget that, are they aware that he's a shapeshifter? If not, they're in for the nastiest surprise this side of Pearl Harbor.

The rest of the world can only hope the Su clan doesn't have access to assassins, ineffectual as they would be; if and when Harry dies, the fact that his body is a multi-ton mass of metal, flesh, and a mix of the most volatile, barely-metastable chemicals known and unknown to mankind, all balanced precariously by what might be the magical equivalent of a fucking degeneracy reactor... well... can you say "planet buster"?
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Do Shadowrun dragons have finite lifespans? At least the big, relevant dragons are very old.
 
Shadowrun dragons don't die of old age. They're also immune to disease, nearly immune to magic, and fully capable of magics that no human can come close to.


You can kill them, though, if you're hard enough, it's true. I'm not sure anybody in the Wizarding World counts, however.
 
Simonbob said:
Shadowrun dragons don't die of old age. They're also immune to disease, nearly immune to magic, and fully capable of magics that no human can come close to.


You can kill them, though, if you're hard enough, it's true. I'm not sure anybody in the Wizarding World counts, however.
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possibly the Dracula version if anyone. He seems to be the scariest person around.
maybe also the Wurrugu, a ritual able to wipe out a magical nation covering a decent portion of south america instantly sounds like the sort of thing that could kill a Great Dragon, the Thirty-Seconds War is a terrifying feat
 
pjung said:
possibly the Dracula version if anyone. He seems to be the scariest person around.
maybe also the Wurrugu, a ritual able to wipe out a magical nation covering a decent portion of south america instantly sounds like the sort of thing that could kill a Great Dragon, the Thirty-Seconds War is a terrifying feat
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Don't know anything about "Dracula" in Shadowrun. Haven't seen that one.


But, as for magic..... There seems to be two levels of magic. PC level, pretty impressive, sure, but, when you read some of the books, the big rituals....


The Great Ghost Dance is the classic example. "We want independance! The Volcano's will continue until we get it!" Insane levels of power.


No PC magic can really compare with a Great Dragons. The big rituals in lore? They're, well, they're capable of all sorts of things.
 
The Unicorn said:
Why? We're talking about Aztecs, I hope they all rush to attack Harry
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And what, get completely obliterated within 30 seconds, max? I admit the human race is not known for making well-thought-out decisions, but that's maybe taking things a bit far. Self-preservation instincts at least would be screaming "No" in mile-high flames etched into a mountain.
 
corndogman said:
I didn't think the Aztecs were that bad...
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Real life Aztecs sacrificed (i.e killed in a very painful fashion) thousands of people (possibly hundreds of thousands, sources vary) out of belief this was needed to sustain the god that kept the world from being destroyed. That would be bad enough IMO.
Shadowrun Aztecs are sacrificing tens of thousands (or more, depictions vary) out of greed for power. That's MUCH worse.
 
The Unicorn said:
Real life Aztecs sacrificed (i.e killed in a very painful fashion) thousands of people (possibly hundreds of thousands, sources vary) out of belief this was needed to sustain the god that kept the world from being destroyed. That would be bad enough IMO.
Shadowrun Aztecs are sacrificing tens of thousands (or more, depictions vary) out of greed for power. That's MUCH worse.
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With the Horror in the basement, well, there's a reason Aztechnology leads the world in both blood magic and cyber-zombieing.

The best at horrific magic, that's them.
 
Hope to see more of those interesting interaction of our most interesting dragon. Especially ginnymort so funny these fails haha.
 
AidanMorgan said:
Ah, dammit. I've caught up.
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Ah damn! That was my line! I've been ninja'd due to a fluke in the password/login gods.

that said I will return in one month based on the current pace of writing releases....

or ill get impatient and return turn every few days XD

HOLY COW! Dunzelkahn you really did crank out the words with that last release! Just realized it was practically a double release at 12k words! Can't wait to get more! Would also love to see some of those stressful situations that cause reversion of Harry's speech! (Okay that's just for the lols but yeah that speech reversion just might make a little more sense this time)

overall I'm wracking my brains trying to see how Su Li is going to become an adversary/ villainess without crossing the line (but still being a general PITA).

For now awesome job man! Hope you weren't wrapped up in any of the fallout from madame Dorian. She was a real nasty piece of work in the bahamas and the Carolina coast
 
pjung said:
possibly the Dracula version if anyone. He seems to be the scariest person around.
maybe also the Wurrugu, a ritual able to wipe out a magical nation covering a decent portion of south america instantly sounds like the sort of thing that could kill a Great Dragon, the Thirty-Seconds War is a terrifying feat
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The problem with this sort of plan to kill Great Dragons is that one and all of them have the ability to spend, not burn Karma as players do to avoid dead and suddenly be half way across the world from whatever tried to kill them, there is a reason the go to method for killing dragons by other dragons is drowning them in Heroes able to do similar things and to force them to spend all there Karma, then to basically Nuke them from orbit with Breath Weapon attacks

there is literally nothing as hard to kill in Shadowrun/Earthdawn as a Great Dragon, even Horrors and insect spirits die easier
 
Dunkelzahn said:
"He has flight organs arrayed beside his spine that work similarly to a broom, but do not push on the ambient magical field in the same manner."

"Do you have any idea how that flight enchantment works?" Flitwick asked, intrigued. All known forms of magical flight relied on ambient magic to work. IT WAS THE PRIMARY REASON WIZARDS HAVE NEVER TRAVELED TO THE MOON. "It might be another interesting topic to pursue."
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QUESTION:
For the professors' side projects, have Flitwick and Pomfrey made any progress reverse-engineering Harry's flight organs?

Flitwick said a broomstick not 100% dependent on ambient mana could allow wizards to travel to The Moon, jumpstarting magical space exploration.

Once the Statute of Secrecy falls in 2011, whoever owns the patent* could earn a fortune putting Muggle satellites into orbit. Currently, IRL space launches cost $10,000 per pound ($27,500 per kilogram).

Link: https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Space

Cheap satellite uplift would help post-Awakening Earth quickly rebuild its telecommunications network, electronic infrastructure, and orbital surveillance systems, mitigating the chaos caused by the return of magic.

*If Harry co-owns the patent or buys it from Flitwick, imagine Hogs Haulage Ltd. expanding to include interplanetary supply logistics like the Spacing Guild in Frank Herbert's "Dune" series.

Link: https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Spacing_Guild
 
Acolyte said:
I approve of harry the space wizard dragon.
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And it'd give Pomona Sprout a project to work on, as the Herbologist Hufflepuff hasn't contributed much to the professors' R&D:

=(A) Attempt to build a prototype closed ecological system like IRL Arizona's Biosphere-2 for self-sustaining agriculture on the Moon.

In the short-term, Sprout's super-greenhouse designs* would be very important in 2011 when the Statute of Secrecy falls, as FOOD SHORTAGES always occur during major prolonged crises (Great Depression, WWII, etc.). This would give Harry a means to provide humanitarian aid and literately starve out his enemies.

*Yes, I'm sure wizardkind (or the Gringotts goblins) already has the spells and Herbology knowledge to do so, it's just that nobody has combined it all together in such a way before, and working out the bugs can take years of trial and error.

=(B) Whether or not growing the right magical plants in lunar greenhouses can create small Mana-rich pockets, which would make it easier for wizards to cast spells on the Moon, enhancing wizards' ability to build and maintain a lunar outpost.

Also, successfully creating small Mana-rich pockets on the Moon could be considered a type of TERRAFORMING.

=(C) Studying the effects of magical plants grown in outer space, particularly species affected by lunar cycles or the position of planets/stars.

Additional revenue stream if magical plants grown in outer space are a valuable potion ingredient.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_in_space
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobotany
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_tree
 
How have I not found this earlier?
enter the dragon is a favorite of mine, and this is just as well done.

looking forwards to seeing where you take the story, and curious to see when 4th year comes along what the dragon makes of the Veela.
 
Don't necro. This is against Rule 7.
Hk473 said:
How have I not found this earlier?
enter the dragon is a favorite of mine, and this is just as well done.

looking forwards to seeing where you take the story, and curious to see when 4th year comes along what the dragon makes of the Veela.
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I thought about that, but I have to figure that if Harry is everything that has been written so far, that he's absolutely immune to Fleur's charms...
whereas he's not immune to Hermione's... but that has to do with the fact that little by little, Hermione's affection for him is beginning
to worm its way under his skin and down into his soul. He's already at the point that if anyone touches her, they die.

Just my $0.02 worth....

the_scribbler
 
I went back to re-read 3.18.xxx and came across this:

""It has to do with the nature of magic," the sentient headgear began. "Magic adheres to purpose at its most basic form, that is, free magic — magic that is not already bound to a purpose — will tend to enhance whatever purpose it finds nearby. I believe you were instructed in this during your basic charms curriculum last year?"

"Yep," Harry said with an affirmative nod, causing Donald to sway on his perch atop the currently human-shaped dragon's head. "I remember that lesson."

"One important consequence of that tendency arises in long-running or very powerful spells," the Hat continued after his conversation partner stilled. "Despite being constructed of magic, a spell itself has a purpose, and free magic will tend to try to enhance it just as it would any other. This tendency has several consequences. For one, it means that enchantments will gain strength over time, for better or for worse…"

"You must be really strong after all this time then, right, Mr. Donald?" Harry offered. "I mean, you've been around Hogwarts for like a thousand years now, right? And there's lots of free magic around here."

"After a fashion, I suppose," the Hat allowed. "Though I should point out that the supposed 'strength' of my enchantments would only come into play should they be able to directly contest something, which they cannot by their nature. The magics of which I am composed simply record and process information before regurgitating an answer. The only thing they could contest would be a direct attack on the spells themselves — an attempt to disenchant me or corrupt my purpose, as it were. Though, that discussion leads into the second consequence of such enhancements."

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"The the more magic a spell is exposed to, assuming it is durable enough to survive, the more idiosyncracies it will collect," the Hat explained. "Essentially, it means that the older a spell is, and thus the more magic it is exposed to, the more lifelike it will act, regardless of its actual purpose. It is commonly referred to as the tendency of magic to beget life."

"Why?"

"The technical term for it is, as silly as it sounds, teleological fuzz," Donald chuckled. "Can you guess what it means?"

"Well, 'telos' means 'purpose' in Greek, so it's probably something about that," the young dragon frowned thoughtfully. "I'm not sure what to make of the 'fuzz' bit; how would that fit together with 'purpose' anyway?"

"Think of 'fuzz' in this context as little extraneous bits that stick out from the main body," the Hat prompted. "As if you had dropped a piece of candy on the ground and it picked up various debris."

Harry's currently human-shaped eyes widened, "You mean it's little bits of 'purpose' that got stuck onto the main one? How would that even happen? I mean, it's not like there are 'purposes' lying all over everywhere, are there?"

"Actually, there are, after a fashion," Donald corrected. "The world is full of such purposes, and life is the principal source of most of them. What is a living creature, after all, if not a collection of various bits and bobs bound together in a common purpose?"

The young dragon nodded slowly as he processed the idea. "I suppose that makes sense," he allowed, "but why would any of those affect a spell, especially one that is durable enough to last for a long time? Wouldn't that kind of thing have to be made to resist external influence?"

"They are, in fact," the Hat gave the odd mental impression of nodding, even as it remained motionless on Harry's head. "Yet no such measures are perfect, so while they might delay things, they will never completely stop the process."

Harry hummed for a moment before nodding in acknowledgement of the point and asking, "So, how does this teleological fuzz thing work, then? I mean, I know you explained it as little bits of purpose sticking to a spell, but… well, it's not like it's real, material stuff — as far as I know, you can't go out and grab a handful of 'purpose' — so how does it stick to anything, even magic? I mean, if it were the same stuff as magic, I guess that'd work, but I can see magic, and I don't think I've ever seen something like that."
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From a pure story-telling perspective, and more specifically, from the perspective of someone taking up JKR's work, this is some of the best writing that's ever been done in
a fanfiction work. Not only does it offer clarity in terms of the way that magic might very well work, but it generates so very many possibilities. It's the kind of thing
that JKR should have seen as being possible in the world she initially built (but didn't) and it took you to come along and offer this commentary.

Regards,
the_scribbler
 
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