razeandburnnotes

[razeandburnnotes]

MACUSA Regional Headquarters

On September 26, 1976 the fifty state members of the Magical Congress of the United States came together to solve a growing problem among the magical community.

In the decades since the defeat of Gellert Grindelwald and the conclusion of the second no-maj’s World War, the population of the magical community in the United States began to grow exponentially. While some witches and wizards had previously ventured out West with the no-maj federal government's purchase of the land between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean in 1803, most of the American wizarding community still resided along the East coast of the country.

The sudden surge in population had MACUSA finding itself facing a dilemma of increased possible exposure of the magical community in violation of the International Magical Secrecy Act. To help offset this concern new residents were encouraged to begin to form communities across the United States to help ensure accountability that the international law was being upheld whilst spreading the maj population across the great expanse of land to lessen the likelihood of an infraction from happening. Between the lure of inexpensive land and the ensured safety of being found by the less prevalent no-maj population  many families began to head West. 

During the 1950s and 1960s states such as California saw an exponential amount of wizards and witches relocating to the sunshine state and others like it, particularly herbologists and oceanic magizoologists seeking to find a place to set up their place of business with favorable weather for their greenhouses and research. So much so was the growth the first ever Regional Headquarters was set up in 1963 in Los Angeles, California. It was known at the time as the Magical Congress of the United States of America’s West Coast Headquarters. Having the country divided down the middle allowed for witches and wizards west of the Missouri River to report to the West Coast Headquarters and those East of the Missouri River continued to report to MACUSA’s Headquarters in New York City.

By the early 1970s a booming population in the Southwest and in the upper Midwest began to put a strain on these coastal Headquarters. Many witches and wizards began to complain about the difficulty to access MACUSA seeing as they had to travel great distances by broomstick or even by apparition.

After the meeting of all fifty states dubbed ‘The Maj Zoning Meeting’ the state representatives came to an agreement of how to split up the country into ten different zones with one city to be the location of each region’s Headquarters. The main location for MACUSA which to this day oversees all the Regional Headquarters is still located in New York City, New York.

The following are the cities that were decided upon for the Regional Headquarters:

Region One- Boston, MA Fun Fact: This Regional Headquarters hosts more international diplomats than any other due to the great interest in the no-maj historical sites and its proximity to Salem, MA, the site of the infamous Salem Witch Trials where a memorial has been erected in remembrance of the victims of those trials.

Region Two- New York City, NY Fun Fact: This Regional Headquarters office shares the same building as MACUSA’s National Headquarters inside the Woolworth Building, New York City, New York. However, the only way to access the offices is by an abandoned no-maj subway station.

Region Three- Knoxville, TN Fun Fact: The current director of the Region Three Headquarters, Samantha Williams, has appealed thirty-seven times for the Headquarters office to be relocated as it currently occupies the location of the original MACUSA national Headquarters building in the Appalachian Mountains. She has yet to be successful given the use of Floo-Powered cars and wider range apparition points availability.

Region Four- Atlanta, GA Fun Fact: The location of this Headquarters is beneath the World of Coca-Cola Building in downtown Atlanta simply because the then MACUSA president was so taken with the fountain soda drink they demanded the Headquarters be moved there upon the buildings opening in 1990.

Region Five- Chicago, IL Fun Fact: One time Chicago mobster Samuel Carlisi once stumbled into the Chicago Regional Headquarters located within the Sears Tower when he was attempting to retain a lawyer. The then regional director of Magical Law Enforcement, Corey Tuey, had to chase him through the entire Headquarters before being able to subdue the no-maj and obliviate his memories.

Region Six- Denver, CO Fun Fact: After being destroyed by the tornado on June 16, 1988 MACUSA first tested Floo Powered travel from Denver to the recently relocated Regional Headquarters at Mount Elbert. The initial test was almost a complete success minus that the driver of the vehicle did not travel to the Regional Headquarters but the vehicle made it without issue. The perplex driver was found unharmed hours later outside of Pueblo, CO.

Region Seven- Houston, TX Fun Fact: The Regional Headquarters for Region Seven is located in downtown Houston and has the largest Permanent Weather Ban Permit ward in the entire United States with a ward range of fifty miles.

Region Eight- Los Angeles, CA Fun Fact: As the oldest Regional Headquarters for the largest maj population in the United States the location of the Region Eight Headquarters is actually located under a no-maj movie studio. 

Region Nine- Kailua-Kona, HI Fun Fact: The Kailua-Kona Regional Headquarters is world renowned for their work with magical oceanic creatures. They are considered one of the leaders in the research and publication of these creatures with many magizoologists seeking access to their Archives said to be some of the most extensive magizoology records in the world.

Region Ten- Anchorage, AK Fun Fact: This is the only state that works in tandem with a foreign government, The Ministry of Magic in Canada, to track the troll population in the North American hemisphere. The Canadian and Alaskan troll populations is three times the size of any other country in the world.

[razeandburnnotes]

North American Fire Whisps

American Fire Whisps: Native to Central and West North America, the North American Fire Whisp can generally be found in the mountainous forest regions in the Northwest of the United States up into Southwest Canada. Due to deforestation, several Fire Whisp packs have been found as far east as the Mississippi River and as far West as Southern California. These nocturnal carnivores are considered a class XXXX magical creature and should not be approached by any untrained witch or wizard. 

The 'whisps' in their name is considered a misnomer. Prior to being studied after its discovery in 1877 many witches and wizards who immigrated from countries where will-o-wisps are common, noted the similarities in these creatures in appearance to the folklore creatures found in bogs to mislead travellers to their watery grave.

The 'whisp'-like glow they are signaturely known for is created by rubbing their dragon hide-like scaled bellies across spark producing rocks such as Flint, Obsidian, Jasper, or Dacite. Fire Whisps produce a flammable mucus secretion over their entire bodies to help keep their delicate salamandar-like skin from drying out in the drier mountainous climates they are prone to. Once this mucus comes into contact with a spark the entire Fire Whisp's body will be consumed by fire. This flammable mucus will continue to burn until the Fire Whisp extinguishes itself by means of dousing themselves in water or smothering their bodies in dirt. When migrating to find more food as a pack of Fire Whisps have been observed doing a rather peculiar preparation tactic. They will break apart these flint knapping rocks by dropping them from higher elevations and run their scaled bellies backwards over the rocks, embedding them between the scales. The theory among magizoologists is that they do this to make it easier to ignite themselves whilst they hunt during migration in locations where flint knapping rocks are rarely found.

It's believed the combination of heat and mucus producing glands allows a Fire Whisp to inhale and hold large gulps of air in their stomachs, giving them the ability to 'float' for a period of time. This floating ability is mainly used as a luring tactic for hunting prey and in mating rituals.

Behavior: Fire Whisps are pack centric. As an endangered magical salamander species their pack numbers have dwindled down to 10-20 Fire Whisps in an average pack. At the peak of their numbers it was recorded that one pack had over one hundred twenty-five Fire Whisps whose alpha was over four feet long and still the longest recorded Fire Whisp to date. Fire Whisps migrate with the seasons, spending their summers usually around the Canadian border and their winters as far south as New Mexico.

Their packs tend to overtake existing shelters, such as prairie dog towns or snake dens. They will widen and expand existing tunnels to fit the larger adults and for expectant mothers to nest.

 As a pack they tend to hunt smaller game. However, in recent decades there have been an increasing number of larger game attacks such as elk, caribou, mountain lion, and pegasus. They have even been recorded taking down a wayward troll. There have also been instances of Fire Whisps killing witches and wizards if approached without caution. However, as mentioned before, they tend eat small game like prairie dogs, coyotes, jackalope, and colocolos. 

During these hunts the alpha Fire Whisp will ignite himself and use his buoyancy to attract a target by floating midair like it’s aforementioned name a ‘will-o-wisps’. As the target is distracted other unlit Fire Whisps will begin to approach the intended prey, surrounding it in the cover of dark before charging from all angles.

Tactics for larger prey tend toward the Fire Whisps igniting themselves to herd the large prey into a semi circle fire wall which they then charge in a joint attack on their intended prey.

Physical Description:

Measuring at the shortest average length being 3 inches for hatchlings to the longest average length being 3 ½ feet for a fully grown adult male. 

References:

Hellbender Salamander (inspiration reptile): https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/animals-we-protect/hellbender-salamander/

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/hellbender 

https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/eastern-hellbender-salamander_us-dept-ag_flickr.jpg (This was the specific image that I referenced to when coming up with the idea.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander (general information on terrestrial salamander)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamanders_in_folklore (salamanders in folklore)

*I am not an artist. This is simply a sketch I made of what I think Fire Whisps look like.*

[razeandburnnotes]

Raze and Burn is set in rural South Dakota, specifically Central and Western South Dakota. For anyone who's been to or heard of South Dakota they will usually think of Mount Rushmore, The Black Hills, and The Badlands. All of these are incredible National parks to visit. However, Eastern, Central, and Western South Dakota are very geographically different places.

Eastern South Dakota is flatter land with much of it dedicated to farmland. Almost 2/3 of the population in the state live east of the James river. With less than a million people across the entire state that's quite a bit of people in less than a third of the state's landmass.

This fic takes place mostly in Central South Dakota. Central South Dakota is a mixture of flat land, rolling hills, and the beginning of the signature Badlands/Black Hills. There is still land used for farming (the sunflower fields are worth the drive alone) but given the alkaline soil combined with the rockier land formations not condusive to farming the further west you go much of the rolling hilly land is used for ranching (cattle and bison). Below in the second picture is the dried bed creek I used for reference in Raze and Burn. The last photo shows the transition from large rolling hills to the badland formations of Western South Dakota.

There are 3 National Grasslands in the Central and Western part of the state. The Fort Pierre National Grassland conservation is the only one located in Central South Dakota. The other two are located jn Western South Dakota; Buffalo Gap National Grasslands in Southwest South Dakota and The Grand River National Grasslands in Northwest South Dakota.

Western South Dakota is known for the Black Hills, which if you didn't know are actually considered mountains, and the Badlands both of which are incredible National Parks. The large forests here consist of various types of pine trees. Sadly, many of these trees have been ravaged in recent years by fire and a very invasive infestation of Pine Beetles that have killed acres and acres of trees. Still, the scenic drive through the Hills is something to this day my family likes to do when we visit. Other fun places to visit would be Black Elk Peak (first photo below) which is the highest point in the Hills, Crazy Horse Monument which my kiddos love to attend the annual hike to every year, Wind or Jewel Cave but there are many more (second photo below), and Devil's Bath in Spearfish Canyon. Side note, visiting historic Deadwood with the haunted casinos and saloons is fun too!

That's it! I hope you enjoyed this run down of where Raze and Burn is taking place. If you want to know more about the national parks an excellent source is this site:

[razeandburnnotes]

The purpose of this Tumblr is to update it with info as I go through the AU in my fanfic 'Raze and Burn' to add additional information that may not be needed in the main story itself but fun tidbits for anyone else like me who likes to know more than neccessary. (For example as the original and not canon to Harry Potter magical creatures appear I will add information about them and links here.)

I originally posted this blurb below on my LaDeeDaa35 Tumblr but I want to consolidate it all onto one Tumblr account:

Fun fact, my daughter gave me the inspiration for this story. We are huge Harry Potter fanatics. I was reading her the illustrated Goblet of Fire and she asked me if there are wizards and witches where we live like the Durmstrang students. I told her of course! :)

She followed up with a question about what their life wpuld be like here in the Midwest. So I told her a few things and she mentioned what a cool story that would be. I immediately realized that she was right, that there was potential for a very interesting concept for a story. How I could explore what the magical world in America would be like between the magical government with its inner workings, explaining how people lived with magic while intergrating in the rural muggle world, and the kinds of magical/folklore ceatures native to North America that could be found there (and add some original magical creatures in there too because why not?)

With all that in mind the story for 'Raze and Burn' started writing itself in my head until I wrote the first five chapters in a week and shortly thereafter finished the first ten before publishing.

I picked South Dakota as the setting because it's a place I've lived and it's one of my favorite places in the world. It's beautiful and unique place and I think it deserves some love.

If you are interested in the Spotify Playlists I listen to while writing below are the two I currently use. These songs may change from time to time:

Rock (Past Memory Flashes): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3NQYPaFxzSjks0kTYbvQfa?si=945e7804e0064d70

Country (Present Day): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2QxGLZzsLpxnMk8iiTJpUh?si=8ba6bb3fb94a47df

Some songs are specific. For example when I write about Draco present day I listen to Crazy Girl by Eli Young Band or if I write Draco and Hermione together present day I put on Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland. Other songs are more about a mood like when I write about Hermione doing anything for the Order I listen to Sell My Soul by Mephis May Fire or when I write about Draco's mood in the past I'll listen to You're Mine by Disturbed. It's quite the mesh up but feel free to puruse if you'd like.