Hello RPF, long time no see. Some of you may remember talk of a replica The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1 before the topic was essentially closed by me (If you contributed to the early stages of this project please let me know so you get proper credit, I have no way of knowing who was involved :confused). Since that time we (A friend, TK_2126MD and I)have a draft almost entirely completed, except for some of the spell instructions. To continue, however, we require artists to create images to go with the text so we have something truly awesome to display. Please note, there is no rush and you can submit as much or as little as you wish in whatever timeframe suits you, we've been slowly working on this project for 9 months, so we are at a very relaxed pace.
A special thanks to Decat for her original text, it was the starting point that made this project possible.
If you wish to contribute, please send me a message or leave a comment down below, I will also continue to update this post with more specific information about the artwork.
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A segment from The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1 1st Draft (This is now out of date, but it will give you an idea.)
An Introduction to Magic
The ability to perform magic is an inherited trait, normally found in the children of magical couples and occasionally in those of Muggles. The ability to wield or channel magic, found in witches and wizards is dominant, while it is not in Muggles and Squibs. Squibs are the offspring of magical parents that cannot manipulate magic. A witch or wizard born to Muggle parents is known as Muggle-born, this occurs when a Muggle family is descended from a Squib. The ability to control magic resurfaces many generations later. Muggle-borns are far more common than Squibs, but this may be a feature of the disparate sizes of the Muggle and wizarding populations. Individuals have been known to have magical abilities when coming from entirely non-magical backgrounds though this has not been studied thoroughly.
Using Magic
The ability to perform or control magic almost always reveals itself by the age of 11. There are some individuals who remain mundane until quite late in life when - in quite desperate circumstances - they suddenly reveal their magical capacity. However, such late-bloomers are rare, possibly more so than squibs.
Once the ability to manipulate magic manifests itself, so starts the journey to study the ways of Magic and its different disciplines. For a person's ability to perform magic to be useful, a great amount of study and training is required to acquire the correct mastery of the discipline. In cases were Muggle-borns have not been identified or know of there gift, it will still manifest itself subconsciously in moments of strong apprehension, fear or anger.
Most magic, especially initial magic is done with the use of tools that focus magical energy, typically a wand, being the most important and basic of all wizarding tools. One can do unfocused and uncontrolled magic without a wand, for many spells as one progresses in the study of magic. A few advanced wizards and witches are known to be able to perform directed magic without a wand. A wizard or witch is only at their best when using their own wand. When using another's wand, one's spells are not as strong as they normally would be, due to the Laws & Principles of Wandlore.
What Are Spells?
The definition of a spell is "The term for a piece of magic." A spell can be considered the realization of a magical action, often accompanied by an incantation (usually - but not always - Latin based) that makes use of the energy of magic in order to accomplish an action; for example, levitating objects, conjuring fire, or stunning a person. Spells often have some kind of physical manifestation or representation such as light, sound, smell or taste. Just as one can produce the desired affects with magic, others can counter act theses effects by directly negating the spell, by deflecting it or interacting with it to have a different end result.
When performed, some spells evoke light from the wand they are cast with, such as the tell-tale red of Stupefy or green of Avada Kedavra. However, other spells, such as Accio and Silencio, produce no visible intermediate effect. Some spells also make loud noises when cast, however bangs and smoke are more often the marks of ineptitude than experience.
Normally, spells require three main factors to be properly accounted for in order to succeed: wand movement, incantation and intent. If one does not move their wand in the correct way, does not speak the incantation properly and/or cannot retain their desired outcome in their imagination during casting then the spell will fail or backfire.
The incantation of a spell is what you recite to make it work. Spells can be cast non-verbally but the incantation still needs to be said in the head of the spellcaster. Most known incantations derive from the Latin language but there are a few which are from English or other languages.
It should be noted that spells can be performed with or without speech, though performing spells nonverbally is very difficult and requires a good deal of practice, as it requires concentration and mental discipline. Spells cast without the use of a wand are also possible, but are very difficult. Most incantations derive from the Latin language (such as Accio) but there are also some English-derived incantations (such as Obliviate or Stupefy).
