Chapter 75 - History of Magical Europe - I

The English section in the academy library contained books on many magical topics but what attracted me the most was the books on History of magic. I wanted to know how magical Europe with strong wizards like the founders and Merlin some 1000 years ago had been reduced to such a sorry state. I hoped these books would help me find answers I am looking for since I was unable to find them in Hogwarts Library.

I started with the oldest book and then proceeded to read the other books. What I found after a few days of research in the library was enlightening as well as saddening. The history of magical Europe was full of ups and downs that made you feel sorry for the people living there.

The book said that magical world came into being only some 6500 years ago. Before that there were no magical creatures or people on earth. It all changed one day when there was a major worldwide Earthquake. The earthquake not only led to the death and destruction of many lives but also brought many changes to the Earth's crust. It is believed that during the earthquake somehow the lay lines came into being. No one knows how that was made possible but it is ȧssumed to have happened. There is no way to confirm this but since there is no evidence of magic on earth before that worldwide earthquake, everyone believes that the ley lines were formed or dormant ley lines got activated due to the earthquake.

It is believed that the first ley lines originated near Europe, some distance away from mainland Europe in the Atlantic Ocean and from there, the ley lines spread to other parts of the world in no time. But the ley lines were not equally spread under the earth's crust. While some locations were kilometres away from the nearest ley line, some other locations housed intersections of two or more ley lines. It led to the non-uniform distribution of magic on the Earth's surface. One thing to note was that when the ley lines came into being, none of them passed even close to the human settlements or places with large population of wildlife. Most of the ley lines passed through plain land that did not have any large forests.

So due to the less amount of tress and animal in regions with high magic, there were no other changes in the world for the first few years after the ley lines were formed. Later as years passed, plants and trees started growing on these magic rich grounds due to natural seed dispersal. As number of trees grew and the plains became small forests, animals and birds started moving to these magic rich places and made their nests there. With the plants and animals living in these magic rich areas, they started evolving and eventually evolved into magical creatures and plants.

So the first to become magical were not humans but the plants and animals. The evolution of humans came later when these evolved magical creatures started attacking human settlements and threatening human life. The attacks led to human warriors hunting down the strange magical creatures as an act of revenge. Many warriors also went to fight these magical creatures to showcase their strength to others and gain recognition. The warriors tracked down the beasts to their nests and killed all the dangerous beasts that lived in that forest. When the warriors were looking around the forest for more prey they discovered that the forest was very rich in natural resources. They went back to their homes and after they discussed this discovery with the elders of their families, decided to move their families near the forests and form a village near it. The exposure to high concentration of magic in the area led to some of the children born in these families to develop a magic core in their body and becoming the very first magical humans.

From the appearance of the ley lines on Earth and the appearance of the first magical human, more than 2000 years had passed. It took that many years for the above mentioned things to happen and lead to the birth of the first magical human.

In the hunts all the evolved magical beats near human settlements were killed. Only the magical creatures in remote locations around the world survived and grew stronger.

As the communities in the magic rich areas grew, more and more children became magical. This was the beginning of the human magical age. At that time communities were small and people saw the special children with magical abilities as the children of god. Only in some communities around the world were the children killed for being unnatural. The surviving children grew up and started experimenting with their magic to find the limit of their abilities. They also started experimenting with all the magical plants and animals they found near their villages.

Slowly but surely the magical humans invented new magical things and put them to good use. This was happening all around the world. Years passed and magical communities were formed all around the world. New things that could be done with magic were invented every day and the development of magic was happening rapidly all around the world.

Magical plants and beasts also developed simultaneously. Many newly evolved plants species were discovered. Various species of animals and birds evolved and gained magical abilities. Most of the development was in forests far away from human interference. Some magical snakes evolved into basilisks while some evolved into the world's first dragons. Some birds evolved into phoenixes and thunderbirds.

Near 800 AD that is more than 5000 years after the birth of the first magical human, magic had been developed by humans to very high stages. Compared to no magical humans less than a millennium ago, now there were hundreds of thousands of human magic users all around the world. There were many arch mages and grand arch mages all around the world with more of them being in Europe.

But due to the low population of magical population compared to non-magical population, less than 1 percentage of world's population, the magical communities decided to stay hidden from the outside world. This rule was very strictly observed in Europe due to the presence of Church there. Other countries did not have as many problems as in Europe but they still decided to stay hidden. Most of the other countries saw supernatural activity as a good thing so small accidents by wizards led to them being seen as messengers of gods. These people took advantage of this misunderstanding by spreading good messages to their worshipers. The wizards spread the message of peace and harmony so that one day when they came out in the open, they will be welcomed with open arms.