Magizoologist
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Early Life
Antonya Embers, maiden name Groff, was a witch born in 1898 in the village of Haggleton. She was raised by her parents, Philip Groff and Henriette Groff, both graduates of Hogsworth. Post-graduation, they stayed near the school to care for the creatures in the woods surrounding Haggleton and the wizarding school. The family had their own unique morals towards the magical creatures, after their fair share of first-hand experience with the animals. These opposed the ideas from the Ministry of Magicians, who had created a simple system to grade the creatures, based on the difficulty required to kill the animals. At the time, magical creatures were only seen to be used for potions or for their magical abilities. The Groff family, however, swore to take care of these creatures and not to use them for their own good.
In 1903, Antonya Embers accidentally wandered into the woods herself. Her parents found the five-year-old Antonya hours later near the Hippogriff’s habitat. The parents were afraid for their daughter's life, as the creatures were rated very hard to kill. Yet, she hopped around the group of feathered horses like they were her friends, with no scratch on her. Her parents fell to their knees, thanking the Hippogriffs for keeping their daughter's life safe. A friendship between the family and the creatures was created.
Antonya grew up with the group of Hippogriffs, and when she was 13 years old, she knew she wanted to change the way all magical creatures were treated in England. After Antonya graduated from Hogsworth, she applied for a position in the Ministry where she would take care of magical creature incidents. During this period, she learned about plenty of different creatures. Antonya found different ways to care for them and began to write these strategies down.
Life's Work
When Antonya was 21 years old, she married Samuel Embers, a 23-year-old in the same position in the ministry as Antonya. He listened to all of Antonya’s beliefs and supported her as she published her book A Magical Guide for Handling Creatures when she was 25 years old. It took a while before she found the right publisher, as the first few only wanted to sell the book as satire. The first copy was sold in December 1923 by Obscures Books, a well-known company for political and groundbreaking content. It came to be the bestselling book that year. After the Unmagical war, where a lot of Unmagical and magical lives were lost, people were ready for compassion and hope. Believing that magical creatures could be befriended and were not only dangerous or good for harvesting was a change that everyone cared about.
In her book A Magical Guide for Handling Creatures, Antonya described a new system to help determine how to take action towards the creatures, with the letters symbolising the new system as follows:
| Grade | Description | Approach | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| A - Amiable | Creatures from A group are easy to bond with. Their nature is often curious, and they tend not to feel threatened. | Because of their open and curious nature, special care may not be needed. Proceed as always with care. | Phoenix |
| B - Bewildered | Magical creatures from B group are usually threatened at first sight and will strike in defence if needed. | Slowly approach this group. They are mostly shy creatures that just need some time. | Mandrake |
| C - Challenging | It can take days or weeks for the creatures from group C to adjust to you. They will attack if they feel threatened. | Slowly and, most importantly, respectfully form a bond with these creatures. | Hippogriff |
| D - Detrimental | The creatures from group D will attack on sight. It can take years to train them. | Stay behind or hidden well. These creatures might need to be restrained first. So, only approach if it must. | Dragon |
| E - Exponentially Dangerous | Group E creatures are untrainable. Best to stay clear and avoid them. | Stay away from the habitats of the creatures from group E. They will attack and most likely win. | Kappa |
It took ten years for Antonya’s system to be adopted by the Ministry. It outlined that creatures could be taken care of if approached well and became extremely popular in England. Antonya travelled through England, providing lectures about the content of her book while working on her next one. Later, she and her husband, Samuel, started a camp where they took care of injured creatures near her hometown of Haggleton.
Antonya Embers won awards for her discoveries and work as a magizoologist, such as the award for best magical change in 1932. She lived to be 82 years old. She saved many magical creatures with her research, showing that creatures should be taken care of.
Impact on Gameplay
Antonya and Samuels’ Magizoologist Camp can be found in the quest A Feathered Friend, along with Hippogriffs from the Deep Forest near Haggleton.
Trivia
- You can learn about Magizoolgists and other careers in Magical Career Exploration classes taught by the Academics team.
