Step 1: Idea SubmissionOn the island that became modern day Ireland, one of the oldest forms of enhancing the channeling of magic through spell or ritual was the art of establishing and preserving a
Draoi Grove. Those gifted with magical blood could enter this enchanted space to perform greater feats of nature-based magic than could be done without such a nexus. These feats included: profound healings of the body, fertility blessings of the land, temporary imbuement of greater physical attributes, complete purification of diseased crops, or the enchantment of tools to improve their performance. These Draoi Groves were cultivated spaces in nature that took a lot of time and effort to produce, and -being mostly of nature- were often fragile, hence their rarity and eventual extinction.
The first step in establishing a Draoi Grove was finding a space in nature that was remote from civilization, regardless of its developmental status. This space could be anywhere in the land, but it had to be away from unnatural construction of any kind. This included forests, high cliffs, swamps and bogs, lakes, hills, etc. The second step was that a magical blooded person (or persons) had to attune to the space for a considerable period of time. They had to live on that land, meditate upon it's features, defend it, and preserve it while not harming it in any way. Through this process, they would typically perform feats of communion such as expanding or cultivating the domain of that land, earning the respect of a magical beast that lived on that land, or rescuing the land from some external threat. After this, the winds of magic themselves would begin to flow in a noticeably different way for those who underwent the process of attunement, signaling the completion of the Draoi Grove.
A typical Draoi Grove would often feature a number of things related to the continued practice of magic. After the attunement process, carved stones bearing the symbols, runes, and glyphs needed for specific spells to be channeled were often placed with incredible precision to align with the flow of nature in the center of the grove. Basic homes like tents could be brought in and purified without disrupting the space. Gardens were also very common features, as long as the balance of the ecosystem was not violated.
As with most expressions of magic, there did exist a corruption or "Dark Art" variant. In this case, there was something known as a
Blood Grove. This variety could only be produced through the full cultivation of a Draoi Grove followed by the ritual sacrifice of an innocent magical-blooded human and a Unicorn at the center of said grove. Through this act, the one who established said grove could corrupt nature in a few ways including raising the dead as twisted servants, infecting the land with blight, plunging the sky into prolonged darkness, and artificially purifying magical blood lineage -all at significant cost to the caster. An instance of a Blood Grove only happened once, but said instance was so bad, it was aggressively resisted, destroyed, and hidden from record. The cult who created it were executed and burned, the land was salted and burned, and the writings of those who made it were gathered and burned. Well... mostly. Some writings survived in hidden stone carvings.
A small group of modern-day dark wizards and witches have found pieces of this ancient ritual and have begun kidnapping magical historians to help complete their goal of forming a Draoi Grove before corrupting it into a Blood Grove after. A case file within the Auror Office has been started to investigate these disappearances and eventually the secrets of this lost corner of magical practice.
Alias: River
Character Involved: Trixie Dolohov