Hey guys, welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Now, if I were to ask you guys to think of just one dark witch or wizard - who would
you think of? Try to think of one. Got one? Okay. Now, I would expect that the majority
of you would immediately think of Voldemort- he was the most recent threat to the wizarding
world and certainly secured his place as one of the most sinister dark wizards in history.
Voldemort experimented with the darkest and most twisted forms of magic- even going as
far as to split his soul apart in his pursuit of immortality. After Voldemort, I’m going
to assume that a good portion of you thought of Grindelwald. Grindelwald, though maybe
not quite as purely evil as Voldemort, was certainly evil and a bit twisted in his own
right. He was expelled from Durmstrang for experimenting with twisted and dark magic,
and would do whatever it took to achieve a global wizarding hierarchy-where witches and
wizards would rule over muggles. He tortured, killed and captured in his pursuit of establishing
this hierarchy, all in the name ‘of the greater good’. Some of you may have even
thought of other witches and wizards, like Bellatrix or even Barty Crouch Jr-who’s
a nutcase.
But what I bet a lot of you didn’t think of was the dark wizard known as Ekrizdis.
Ekrizdis isn’t particularly well-known, but he certainly marked his place in wizarding
history- as he was a practitioner of the worst kinds of dark arts imaginable. The types of
magic that he performed and experimented with made Voldemort’s horcrux creation look fairly
commonplace. Very little is known about Ekrizdis, other than the fact that he was alive during
the 15th century, and that he was evil-pure evil. No one even knows his nationality, and
even if it was known, I’m sure no one would want to claim ownership of him. He was that
bad. Ekrizdis was the original inhabitant of the island fortress of Azkaban, what we
now know as the prison that holds some of the darkest witches and wizards within its
walls. While travelling in the 15th century, Ekrizdis stumbled upon the island- which at
the time had no infrastructure to speak of. Azkaban gets its name from a mixture of the
words ‘Alcatraz’ - the famous muggle island-prison, and ‘Abaddon’, the hebrew word for ‘place
of destruction’. When he first arrived, it was just a regular island, but he soon
turned it in to his own little dark arts experiment. Hoping to keep the location of the island,
which was located in the North Sea, a secret, Ekrizdis kicked things off by placing concealment
charms on the island - meaning that no one would be able to intentionally find it. After
placing the concealment charms on the island, Ekrizdis began his dark arts experiments by
luring muggle sailors to the island, then torturing and eventually murdering them. Before
ever stepping foot on the island, Ekrizdis was mad, but after spending some time there,
he became totally insane as he had completely lost touch with reality. He became so wrapped
up and enthralled in his experimentation with dark magic, that he had lost his mind, and
the poor sailors that he lured to the island witnessed it first hand. In his madness, it
has been speculated that Ekrizdis either unwittingly or perhaps intentionally created what we now
know to be Dementors. I could describe what Dementors are for you in my own words, but
I feel that this quote best sums it up:
“Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest,
filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness
out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can’t see them.
Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you.
If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself
— soul-less and evil. You’ll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your
life.”
And in the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry’s encounter with a Dementor is described in
great detail:
“An intense cold swept over them all. Harry felt his own breath catch in his chest. The
cold went deeper than his skin. It was inside his chest, it was inside his very heart. . . .
Harry’s eyes rolled up into his head. He couldn’t see. He was drowning in cold. There
was a rushing in his ears as though of water. He was being dragged downward, the roaring
growing louder... And then, from far away, he heard screaming,
terrible, terrified, pleading screams. He wanted to help whoever it was, he tried to
move his arms, but couldn’t . . . a thick white fog was swirling around him, inside
him.”
If a Dementor isn’t the product of dark magic, then I don’t know what is, and given
the fact that Ekrizdis may have CREATED these horrific creatures- I think that he is deserving
of the crown of the most evil wizard to have ever lived- usurping even Voldemort and Grindelwald.
Ekrizdis was a wizard that served as a representative for evil in its purest form. He had no agenda
or goal- he didn’t want power or money or really anything, he just wanted to torture
for the sake of torturing. And to this day, we don’t actually know what the extent of
the torturing was- we just know that it was horrific. When Ekrizdis finally died, presumably
of old age, or perhaps a spell going wrong, the concealment charms that he had placed
on the island were finally lifted. This is when the British ministry of magic first found
the island- an island full of creatures that they had never seen before: Dementors. It
has been reported that the investigative team from the ministry that first went to Azkaban
never discussed their complete findings-in fact, they refused to discuss their findings.
I can’t even begin to imagine what sorts of horrific things went on if every single
ministry employee that went there on the initial visit REFUSED to describe what they had seen.
The only other magic that I can think of that fits in this category-somewhat, is the horcrux
creation process, which similarly doesn’t have much light shed on it. When Azkaban was
first discovered by the ministry, tensions were high, and they were unsure of what to
do with the island fortress RIDDLED with dark creatures.
“Many in authority thought Azkaban an evil place that was best destroyed. Others were
afraid of what might happen to the Dementors infesting the building if they deprived them
of their home. The creatures were already strong and impossible to kill; many feared
a horrible revenge if they took away a habitat where they appeared to thrive. The very walls
of the building seemed steeped in misery and pain, and the Dementors were determined to
cling to it. Experts who had studied buildings built with and around Dark magic contended
that Azkaban might wreak its own revenge upon anybody attempting to destroy it. The fortress
was therefore left abandoned for many years, a home to continually breeding Dementors.”
Though it was under much scrutiny initially, when the ministry recognized that they could
utilize the island to imprison evildoers, they capitalized on this, and began sentencing
people to the island fortress. The Ministry of Magic felt that the smaller, existing wizarding
prisons that were scattered across the country posed a considerable security risk, and put
citizens in danger- thus Azkaban prison was born.
Though many believe Ekrizdis to be the father of the Dementor’s, there is a counter argument,
and it involves an old tale featured in Wonderbook: The Book of Spells. In this tale, the origins
of the patronus charm are discussed, and dementors are mentioned as well:
“The strange power of the Patronus, and its peculiar qualities, are well illustrated
by the ancient story of a shy, poor orphan boy called Illyius, whose Patronus went down
in wizarding history. Illyius lived long ago in a mountain village,
which was surrounded by a dense forest in which a Dark wizard called Raczidian lived
in a black castle guarded by Dementors. These evil, faceless, hooded creatures, which cast
fear and despondency all around them, suck the very souls from humans whom they succeed
in weakening. For many years, Raczidian left the villagers,
who were fellow witches and wizards, in peace, and they avoided the part of the forest where
his castle was situated. Knowing that Dementors roamed the forest, they took care to teach
every new generation the Patronus Charm, the only spell that worked against these evil
creatures. Many were unable to master the difficult spell, but there had always been
just enough Patronuses in the village to stand guard against the Dementors, in case Raczidian
ordered an attack.”
As we can clearly see, Dementors are mentioned, but we still don’t know when this tale actually
takes place as it is only described as ‘ancient’. Because of the way that it’s described,
I think that it would be reasonable to assume that it preceded Ekrizdis- but we don’t
know for certain. We also don’t know long Ekrizdis lived for - he was a dark and twisted
wizard, and may have even lived for millennia.
Raczidian, the dark wizard of the tale, appears to be able to control dementors- but this
doesn’t mean that he created them either, as Dementors have proven themselves to be
subservient on occasion. We also don’t know HOW dementors were created- all we know is
that they breed/multiply.The most heavily supported theory for how they ‘breed’
is that they ‘grow like fungus’ under conditions of despair, unhappiness, and hopelessness.
As long as these things are present within an environment, then the Dementors seem to
thrive.
What do you guys think? Who really created the Dementors? Was it Ekrizdis, Raczidian,
or someone else altogether? Let me know down in the comment section below
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY