Choosing Your Wand

[Head of Administration]

CHOOSING YOUR WAND

We all know that in the actual books, the wands choose the wizard. But on a role-play site, you're in charge of choosing your wand. I actually had a few people ask me if there were any limitations on wands, their cores, and size, so I thought a info thread regarding wands was in order. Choosing wands is always a little difficult for me, because it's hard to determine the wood and core, without overusing a certain type of core, or wood, or making sure that you don't use a rare core, etc. So I thought I would create a list of acceptable wands on the site, and maybe give you some information on the type of woods that are used, cores, and what the wands would be good for, for example: charms, defense, etc. I have tried to do some research regarding the wand types used in the series, so most of it is canon, though I will probably add a little information to make it slightly more interesting. The sources I used are Harry Potter Wiki, specifically the page on Wands, and the Harry Potter Lexicon, as well as various searches in Google. Anyway, onto the good stuff.

Documented Cores:

• Phoenix Tail Feather **
  
• Unicorn Hair
  
• Dragon hearstring
  
• Veela Hair
  
• Thestral Hair
  

** So far only Harry and Voldemort's wand have a Phoenix Tail Feather for the core. This is why they keep conflicting. Just fun fact!

Documented Woods:

• Elder – only used for the Elder wand
  
• Walnut
  
• Ash
  
• Hawthorn
  
• Rosewood
  
• Holly
  
• Blackthorn
  
• Vine
  
• Mahogany
  
• Willow
  
• Elm
  
• Cherry
  
• Chestnut
  
• Oak
  
• Yew
  
• Hornbeam
  

Types of wand wood also have a lot to do with mythlore. Like Voldemort's is yew, which is poisonous and also in myth has the story of being reborn. Harry's (although chosen for his Celtic zodiac) is holly which comes from holy.

Lengths of Wands:

Since numbers have known magical properties it is also something to take into consideration when choosing your wand. For the site, wands can be anywhere between 6 inches to 18 inches in length. In the magical world the number 13 is known to be a sign of death or evil, and Voldmeort's wand was 13 ½ inches. So as you can see, the length of the wand is also important. Another example is Dolores' wand is very short, and it is assumed that she isn't very skilled in magic because of her unusually short wand. Just something to think about, I don't know what each number signifies but if you wanted to get a little creative you could always go into more detail about the significance of your wand in that manner.

Length is a great indication of height in the characters. Umbridge (short) has the shortest and Hagrid has the longest documented. Most of the others fall within a similar range, so there is some loose coordination between the two.

Broken Wands:

Wands can be broken, but their magical powers are decreased significantly if this happens. An example would be when Ron's wand was broken, and he couldn't even perform the most simple of spells. On the site, if your wand is broken somehow, then you'd have to find a way of replacing it, either by getting another in Diagon Alley, or borrowing one from a family member, etc. However, I do not think this would happen frequently, considering that it only really happened once to a character – except in the scenes when wands were taken by the Ministry from those of non-pure blood.

Flexibility:

It is said that the flexibility of the wand makes it good or bad for certain things. For example, if the wand is particularly springy, it's good for charms work. If it is unyielding it may not give off the same performance for charms but may be good for other things. I didn't see a detailed section about flexibility of a wand, so with this you can be as creative as you want.

Flexibility/rigidness can also be attributed to personality. Victor Krum for example has a rigid wand and personality. So the physical attributes can signify either the magical ability or personality of a person.

A Wand's Allegiance:

Wands are capable of changing masters. When a wand's master is disarmed, stunned, or killed, but not had their wand snatched from their hand, the wand will accept the old master's attacker as its new master. This will occur even if the wand in question is not in the possession of either of the two people involved. However, most wands share an affinity with their masters and will not easily discontinue its allegiance with the previous master; furthermore, wands forcibly taken in circumstances of purely competitive or friendly nature, or are stolen without attacking the previous master will not change allegiance.

Got this awesome post from BETH thank you!

[/b][/blockquote]