It’s almost Halloween and the perfect time to snuggle up with a dark and twisty YA series. This month’s Author Takeover, from Kendare Blake, is the perfect introduction to the Three Dark Crowns series. Read which House Kendare associates with her dark and dangerous fantasy world’s mysterious powers, and figure out your allegiance to the crown.
TDC Gifts as Hogwarts Houses
Hello, MuggleNet! As an HP fan from way back, I am THRILLED to be here to talk about the world of my fantasy series, Three Dark Crowns, in terms of the Hogwarts Houses. One of my favorite interview questions to answer is the old “which Hogwarts House would your characters be in?” and also the reverse: “Which Three Dark Crowns gift would the HP characters have?” (Harry would be war-gifted, Ron would be an elemental, and Hermione would be a naturalist, in case you’re wondering. More on that later.) So I can’t wait to dive into this. But before I get ahead of myself, here is a little background information about the world of Three Dark Crowns.
Every generation on the island of Fennbirn, triplet queens are born. Each of these baby queens may have one of five gifts: naturalist, elemental, poisoner, oracle, or war. The young queens are raised by foster families of their respective gifts and taught to embrace and control them, and when the girls turn 16, the Ascension Year begins, during which they must find ways to kill their sisters. The queen who survives becomes the Queen Crowned and will rule the island for the next generation.
Now to break down the gifts in relation to the Houses of Hogwarts.
NATURALIST/GRYFFINDOR
The naturalists of Fennbirn are an outdoorsy lot. Their gift allows them to ripen fruit and bring in excellent fields of crops. They can bloom roses in the palms of their hands, charm fish into nets, and have an animal companion known as a familiar, who lives with them for most of their lives and shares their thoughts and emotions. They’re also stubborn as all get out, and they have a tendency to leap before they look. They are fiercely protective of those they care about and generally stand their ground during a confrontation, though they do avoid confrontation whenever possible.
Many naturalists, if they donned the Sorting Hat, would find themselves much at home within the courageous common room of Gryffindor. They value things that are wild and things that roar. Within the world of HP, notable naturalists would be practical and grounded Hermione Granger and, of course, Argus Filch (whose familiar would obviously be Mrs. Norris).
ELEMENTAL/RAVENCLAW
On Fennbirn, elementals may control one or more of the following: earth, wind, fire, water, and/or weather. They live in a beautiful city by the sea, built up into the hills of evergreens, white stone buildings with colorful banners and flags. They value all of the higher arts, and the best painters, sculptors, jewelers, and armorers are known to come from the elemental gift. They are devoted scholars and preservers of history. Very refined. Though they can be a little emotional (or a LOT emotional) and tend to love freely and fiercely.
The elemental queen of Three Dark Crowns, Queen Mirabella, would certainly be most suited to the House of Ravenclaw. Clever and reserved, devoted to excellence, and she’d be excellent on a broomstick.
Notable HP elementals would be the Weasleys! Ron and his dad would both have gifts of water, while Molly and Ginny would wield gifts of fire. The twins Fred and George would have gifts of air. Mostly for fart noises.
POISONER/SLYTHERIN
Ah, the poisoners. They are the ruling class of the island. The last three queens to win the competition have been poisoners, and with each ruling queen, those with her same gift are strengthened, both in gift and in position. So now, the poisoners are strong to the last and filthy, stinking rich. To be a poisoner is to have great appetites – for power, for knowledge, and most of all, for poison. Poisoners are immune to all toxins and eat great feasts laced with them. Actually, they tend to turn their noses up at unpoisoned food altogether. They often wear venomous snakes and scorpions as jewelry, and they are, of course, experts at crafting new poisons and assassinating people with them. They’d get top marks in Potions, is what I’m saying.
Notable HP poisoners would be Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape. Draco would wear way too many scorpions to parties. He always struck me as an over-accessorizer.
ORACLES/WARRIORS/HUFFLEPUFF
Within the world of Three Dark Crowns, warriors and oracles (also referred to as the war-gifted and the sight-gifted) are rare. It has been a long time since a war queen ruled and even longer since an oracle did (baby oracle queens are now drowned at birth, but that’s a whole other story), and so the gifts have faded, growing less potent and fewer in number. At their height, oracles could make grand prophecies, read minds, and foresee the future. Now they wander the road as fortune tellers, if they are seen at all, and their once great city is nearly abandoned.
War-gifted folk have a hot temper and are naturally good with weaponry. At the height of their gifts, they possessed telekinesis, especially when guiding blades and arrows to their proper targets.
I equated the sight and war gifts with the House of Hufflepuff, not because they were “all the rest” but because I tend to think of Hufflepuffs as being more welcoming, more balanced. Not so much all the rest but a little bit of everything. Solid. Indomitable, when you get down to it.
Notable HP oracles would be, of course, Sybil Trelawney, but also Luna Lovegood. Luna always seemed very intuitive when it came to other people’s feelings.
Notable HP warriors would be our own Harry Potter. Why not a naturalist, you ask? Since I said many naturalists were Gryffindors? Well, I think that Harry has a warrior spirit. And a fairly hot temper. And he knew how to wield that sword with that basilisk, and he’d just found the damned thing like 30 seconds before that.
Anyway, feel free to argue. This is all just theoretical, and just for fun. But I will stop here, before my inner HP nerd takes over and I lose a whole day sorting characters back and forth. Thank you to MuggleNet for having me by!
