Wow! I really didn't expect such a response to my previous post, introducing my original ideas for American wizarding schools! It seems I struck a chord with folks.
So I want to formally invite everyone who I inspire, to create at least one original wizarding house based on where you live. It was pointed out to me that some countries, like Russia, are so different depending on place and region, that coming up with all the different schools to accurately reflect those regions would be extremely difficult. So...just come up with one for your region/cultural context/geographical location! I would LOVE to see them!!!
I constantly see fans of the Harry Potter wizarding world say how it doesn't belong to JKR anymore...and I agree. She has been a poor steward of it. So, if it's to be ours, let it be ours! I want to see everyone's creativity and love, expressed toward their own place in the world - if we're to imagine a wizarding world, a true wizarding world, then it takes all of us to make it.
And with that said...
I think I'm falling in love with my own creation, truth be told. Before I dive into the wizarding schools for the US American South, I decided to expand a bit on Blackbriar's different houses. Enjoy!
Sidenote: I decided to change the name of House Emberjaw to House Emberthorn. All following images, FYI, are AI generated, I'm afraid. I have no money at present and my four year old niece has better artistic talent than I do, alas.
Emberthorn
Colors: Red & Black Crest Symbol: A blazing ember-flower blooming from within a thorn-wrapped circle, its heart aglow with flame. Fireflies drift around the brambles like watchful sparks. Meaning: Emberthorn represents resilience forged through fire -beauty born of pain, and power tempered by restraint. The ember-flower, blooming amid brambles, evokes the soul’s capacity to endure, to smolder without surrender. Fireflies mark the moments of clarity found in darkness. Emberthorn students are often spell-burned, stubborn, and fiercely protective, wielding magic that scars - but also sanctifies.
Common Room Aesthetic:
Deep in the old coal tunnels beneath Blackbriar’s foundation, lit by emberstones and iron sconces that glow with residual heat.
Walls are soot-dark with veins of glowing red ore; ash patterns shift subtly with nearby magic.
A fireplace smolders endlessly - embers flicker with visions if you stare too long.
Tables scarred by carving knives, spell burns, and blood rites.
Cursebreaker tools and hex jars displayed in locked shadow boxes.
Whistlestop
Colors: Dark Gold & Iron Gray Crest Symbol: A hanging iron lantern, suspended from a curved railway hook. Inside it glows a radiant arcane gear - its spokes enchanted, its core pulsing with quiet invention. Sparks drift outward like stars against the rusted light. Meaning: Whistlestop honors those who carry magic forward -tinkerers, dreamers, and restless waymakers. The lantern is a symbol of guidance and grit, but also of momentum: part signal flare, part soul-lamp. The gear turning within represents the bond between spellwork and machinery, tradition and change. Whistlestop students are bright-minded and smoke-streaked, hands always moving, hearts always half in the future.
Common Room Aesthetic:
Located in an abandoned train depot tucked behind shifting walls in the west wing.
Brass piping, enchanted rail lanterns, and gear-laced spellwork etched into the iron beams.
Benches from old train cars, tables made from repurposed cargo crates.
Occasional ghost-trains flicker through the common room late at night - part vision, part memory.
Clockwork familiars and thaumaturgical prototypes line the shelves.
Gravetail
Colors: Bone White & Moss Green Crest Symbol: A lantern cradled within a curling fox spine, encircled by crow feathers and a ring of ancient runes. The lantern’s glass glows with a sigil of sight - neither flame nor sun, but something older. Meaning: Gravetail is the house of those who walk the edge between memory and silence. The curled spine speaks to their bond with the dead - unbroken, coiled like a secret. The lantern illuminates not paths, but presences - its light drawing ghosts, not banishing them. Feathers drift across the veil, reminders of what’s passed through. Gravetail students are bone-readers, grief-binders, spirit-menders. They listen where others fear to linger.
Common Room Aesthetic:
Hidden inside a collapsed mineshaft converted into a bone-library and spirit parlor.
Lit by corpse candles and foxfire - soft, pale blue glows float midair.
Bones of magical animals hang windchime-like, each tagged with divinatory meaning.
Spirit boards, ancestor altars, and vellum scrolls clutter the shelves.
Smells faintly of grave moss, old parchment, and wildflowers left at headstones.
Yours truly is definitely a Gravetail...
Ridgewalker
Colors: Indigo & Dark Green Crest Symbol: A crescent moon suspended over forested mountain ridges. At the center stands a weathered standing stone, etched with a radiant ward sigil—glowing faint gold beneath the stars. Meaning: Ridgewalker is the house of those who keep the quiet watch. They are wardmakers, weather-readers, and silent stewards of the borderlands - those who walk the line between the mundane and the mythic. The stone is their anchor, the moon their guide. Their magic is carved slow and deep, like roots gripping stone, meant to last through silence, sorrow, and storm. Ridgewalker students are calm-eyed and hard to fool, their magic woven into the land like breath into prayer.
Common Room Aesthetic:
Nestled at the school’s highest point - half attic, half watchtower, always cold.
Open rafters where wind whistles through warding chimes and moon-moss dangles.
Walls lined with hidden compartments, old weather journals, and ward maps.
Stone floor etched with threshold sigils; stepping across the wrong one shifts your perception.
Silence hangs heavy here - perfect for those who watch without being seen.
My military AU MC, RP1 Thalia Glynn, is a Ridgewalker
@bassicallymaestra @whalesongsblog
