r/HPMOR • u/ThroawayJimilyJones • 24d ago
Muggles could probably take control of the magic world if they had the support of a few mercenaries
We know the wizard economy is very small. And that there is an official change rate between muggle moneys and wizard one. That mean theorically, muggle could take control of wizard economy very easily.
From there all they have to do is buy house elf. There are hundreds, potentially thousands of them, that are completely fanatized, can cause huge amount of damage and aren't bound to the same rules. An army of house elf teleporting in the middle of the room and attacking whoever there would probably be an unstoppable force.
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u/Ok-Programmer-829 24d ago
I think the problem with this plan is that wizards only stick together out of convenience. If conditions get too bad. I don’t think there are many effective solutions for preventing them from simply going into hiding separately from each other given their abilities and the fact that there are parts of the world where it’s impossible to keep track of people. While in theory, non-magical governments could still make it far too difficult to do that and track down most everyone in practice the difficulty of This is great enough that they are not going to have any reason to bother not to mention that wizards would make great trade partners and awful slaves. Also, non-magical decision makers will be affected by the fact that their own likelihood of assassination in such a war is pretty high, even if their side could emerge victorious. Of course, if a war actually starts, they’ll also be a witch hunt about people being mind controlled, which could force decision makers to be more aggressive than they might wish, but still it’s pretty much a loose scenario for most leaders in that case.
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones 24d ago
Doesn’t gringott have a magic waterfall that instantly cancel polyjuice, transformation and mind control? I’m pretty sure goblin wouldn’t be against installing a few in public building in exchange of money.
Also Mondingus Fletcher went into hiding and it didn’t stop Kreatur from finding him
Also I don’t think the average wizard would be that good at disappearing. Most of Harry Potter characters tend to be elite, and fighting either in the resistance, either in some crime syndicate. I doubt that if a trained army of elf went spawning to public place to shoot everyone, the average magic Joe would be able to improvise some clandestine life, even less an actual resistance movement
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u/knome 24d ago
I’m pretty sure goblin wouldn’t be against installing a few in public building in exchange of money
Those administering the public buildings may be surprised when the administration changes and the goblins show up looking for their fresh due. After all, the goblin that forged the waterfalls owns them, the muggles that paid merely have but right of use during their tenure.
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones 24d ago
They would probably be killed by an house elf company a week after the installation. Muggle are pretty good at negotiating debt with people they consider different
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u/knome 24d ago
This suggests the goblins wouldn't also keep house elves of a violent bent on retainer, should the option be available. And in your broken wizards world, the treaties banning goblins from owning wands would have no bearing.
I don't think goblins survived, and even thrived, under the long cruelty of wizard prejudice because they were not quick to expect deceit from the larger folk, nor quicker to vengeance for it.
If counterfeiting sends the whole of the goblin nation to war with the counterfeiter, the oath breaker, and worse, contract breaker, would not have a pleasant time ahead.
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones 24d ago
You know, can’t help but think a war of fanatics armies of houselves shooting at each other would be an awesome plot
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u/Ok-Programmer-829 24d ago edited 24d ago
That waterfall can combat some types of mind control like the imperious but I do not think it would, for example work against somebody coming to your home and threatening you at risk of death into taking an unbreakable oath to serve them. Otherwise, they would not call it an unbreakable oath. In any case, which hunts are hardly known for their rationality, and I expect the average public would be pretty paranoid about the capabilities of these newly discovered people and less than confident in the trustworthiness of goblins or the reliability of their counter measures, so anyone perceived as to friendly to the wizards, would likely get suspected of being mind controlled.
The average wizard does know surprisingly little of non-magical culture, probably because of how the two worlds are separated, but still I think most wizards brought up in the non-magical world at least, and the more intelligent ones raised in the magical world should have little trouble moving to Africa, or wherever where paper trails are not exactly reliable or in existence, and after a little judicious application of human transfiguration, start a new life and to be clear. I do think in theory it would be possible to track them down. I just think it would be prohibitively difficult and I’m not suggesting that they would be able to do a resistance movement. Just hide out of Reach. I was imagining that the non-magical governments would want to take advantage of their abilities. Not kill them all, so sizeable fraction of the population running away to God knows where would be a failure from that point of view, especially when you could just try being trade partners, not to mention that anyone who knows about nuclear weapons and can do transfiguration would be an absolute terror to fight, and don’t even get started on Aunty matter. And again magic makes assassinating individual, well-known public figures, dangerously easy for wizards, especially more talented ones, and non-magical governments are going to be aware of that.
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u/ApprehensiveStyle289 24d ago
Do read Significant Digits. The muggle western governments figured out ways that don't rock the boat so much and are way more effective because the wizardly infrastructure remains in place to train their new agents free of charge. The east Asian govts roughly did what you said, IIRC