Post by Unknown on Jul 28, 2009 21:34:02 GMT -5
The Life and Legend of the Nameless Shadow
A Researchers Travel through Myth, Legend, History, and the Modern Day[/center]
As any researcher learns over their career, myths and legends do not always just mirror facts, they sometimes are the facts. After the War of Shadows, fought in Spain by the local Anarchistic peoples against the invading Society of Shadows, a curious wizard was introduced to the Spanish society of Wizards. This man, for we are almost certain he is indeed male, fought alongside Count Scorpius of the Shadows and seemed to have no name.
There has never been a case such as this in history. There have been men and women who committed acts anonymously, some good and some very dark, but there has never been a man who existed without any record of a name. Before embarking into the legends surrounding the dark wizard, I spent a year simply searching for a name. I discovered, in pictures and first-hand accounts, that the nameless wizard has been involved in centuries of history. He, apparently, fought alongside Voldemort in both the First and Second Wizarding Wars. There is also some evidence to support that he was a Lieutenant of Gellert Grindelwald, the famous Dark Wizard bested by Albus Dumbledore in 1945. Even farther back, the dark wizard is reported as being present during the founding of the once great institution of Hogwarts, and possibly moving on from there to the building of Slytherin Palace, now called Firefox University.
Though, for the entire year digging up any history of the nameless Shadow, I found nothing to suggest he had ever acknowledged a name or used one. Of course, this led me to believe for quite some time that these were simply coincidences, thousands of years of wizards all who remained anonymous. Half a year ago, though, a secret informer brought me a painting he claimed to be of the unknown dark wizard. The painting was signed "S.S." and proven to be from the medieval period. Comparing it to a recent description of the same dark wizard, they are identical.
It became obvious that the dark wizard whom was terrorizing the Spanish countryside was indeed the same nameless dark wizard of ages past. It can only be assumed that this long life has been achieved by the darkest of magics most evil, the Horcrux. It is nearly impossible to estimate how many of the horrible creations the nameless wizard may have. Signs, such as his eyes and mental instability, suggest more than one, possibly more than the seven created by the last known dark wizard to have more than one, Voldemort.
The same secret informer brought to my attention an old wizarding legend, one much older than Beedle the Bard. The legend goes such as this:
Long ago, when the world was still flat and wizards ruled all men and women, in the fertile crescent of man's birth, there was a powerful city-state. The king of this place, a wizard of great power known for his skill in war, was holding a parade in his honor one day after a great battle. On the street side, he spotted a woman in rags and dirt, but she appeared to him to be beautiful. So, the king ordered that she be found and brought to him in the night. That night, the king forced himself upon her and had her dismissed from his palace. A year later, the woman arrived at the king's throne ill and with a baby boy. The boy, though young, was the mirror image of the king. The king took the boy from the ill woman, who died as soon as the child was out of her arms, and took him as his heir. The boy, though, grew to be violent and evil, killing and murdering with no conscience. Feeling fear for the future of his city-state, the king gave the boy over to his most trusted wizard, the High Priest. The High Priest promised to rid the boy of evil. Using all of his power, the High Priest succeeded in removing the evil that resided in the soul of the prince, but with horrible consequences. The High Priest found himself overwhelmed by the evil, and before night-fall he had destroyed the entire city-state, leaving the buildings nothing more than rocks and his temple, the Shrine of the Serpent, gone entirely.
The informant suggested that this could be the origin of the nameless wizard, and instructed me to look into the legends of the past for more clues. I uncovered what I believe to be signs of the nameless wizard in history.
Herpo the Foul: Given the accepted common knowledge of the nameless wizard's affinity to the serpentine kind, I have pieced together what could be the true origin of the Basilisk and the Horcrux, both originally credited to one 'Herpo the Foul'. No proper visual representation existed of the famous dark wizard and parselmouth until the mid 15th century. At this time, the time of the founding of Hogwarts, a famous painting surfaced of Herpo, depicting a man with bald head, white beard, and ape-like features. Essentially, the painting greatly resembled the Hogwarts founder, Salazar Slytherin. It could very well be that Herpo the Foul was truly a name given to the nameless wizard, "The Foul Serpent", and then related to the famous parselmouth, Slytherin. Such a mistake is not uncommon.
Salazar Slytherin: The painting mentioned earlier was signed "S.S." Given the time in which the painting was made, painting being a hobby picked up in Slytherin's old age, and the initials themselves, it could very well be that Slytherin himself painted the only depiction of the nameless wizard to exist. This theory coincides with the sightings of the nameless wizard made in Spain during the time of the building of Slytherin's Palace. The extent of any relationship between the two is unknown, but it is assumed that they were colleagues, both showing interest in darker magic and serpentine studies.
The Serpentine Unification: Based on what few records exist of the Society of Shadows' inner workings, the Serpentine Unification was the title given to the division supervised by the nameless shadow. After realizing that the name was familiar, I delved into documents from the First and Second Wizarding Wars. It appears as if this organization existed inside Great Britain as well, under the same name. The symbol of the organization, which appears as a blade facing downwards with a s snake coiled around its length, seemed most peculiar to me. It appears as if this symbol has been used in different areas of the world over thousands of years, further proving the dark wizards age.
I must warn, though, that all of what I have 'uncovered' is merely guesswork, and as such, it is liable to be incorrect. In truth, I fear that the only way to know the true nature of the nameless one, whose evil seems without any cause, would be to sit with him and ask him of it. To do that would be to welcome death openly, for it is the strongest weapon of the unknown one to remain just that: unknown.
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In addendum: The painting mentioned in this work was found to be missing shortly after publication.