Disclaimer! This is my version of Castelobruxo. I know J. K. Rowling pictured it as a somewhat Mayan/Incan/Aztec temple, but we don't have that much influence from these cultures in Brazil. I also made the school to be exclusive to Brazilian students, even though Rowling described it as the only Latin American school. That – at least for me – would be a problem, because we are not a Spanish speaking country. So it would make much more sense if there was another school, specific for the Spanish speaking countries (even though their languages do have a lot of variations).
A/N: This story will be composed by a bunch of tales, so you'll get to meet a lot of different characters, a bit of Brazilian folklore and history, and because I'm a biologist/botanist, I'll add a lot of information about our native flora and fauna. I hope you guys like it. I'll also add passages of Brazilian songs or poems in the beginning of every chapter (but translated to English). If you want, you can check out my Hogwarts Mystery story, which is a lot longer than this one. Nevertheless, any comments, critiques or concerns, feel free to contact me.
PREFACE
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Our sky has more stars,
Our floodplains have more flowers,
Our forests have more life,
Our life, more loves.
Canção do Exílio – Gonçalves Dias
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Pindorama.
The land of the palm trees. That was how the natives named this wondrous land, whose rich soil is home to an incredible diversity, capable of nourishing and sheltering millions of species. The palm trees along the shore are just a small fraction of an immensity of plants that compose the greatest biodiversity of the planet; plants that can heal, feed and have hidden magical properties.
Such magnificent place went through so many changes over the course of centuries; people from all over the world came, claiming the soil as theirs, ravaging and deforesting, putting an end to a culture of love and respect for the nature and all its beings. And those who came and changed the name of this paradise, were unaware of the magic lurking in the ground, living in every tree, animal and stone.
It was said – among those who had magic running through their veins – that this beautiful country was home to a secret place, fuel for myths and legends and stories carried for generations. And the tales would always begin the same way: about the source to every magic which layed in the heart of the Amazonian forest.
Such place, never being found, remained just a story. But how every big story, there were some pathfinders, adventurous and thirsty for knowledge, who decided to embark among the trees, vines and layers of moss, in the hopes to find this sacred land.
It all began with three siblings: Rudá, the eldest and most responsible brother, Potira, the middle child who craved adventure, and the young Jaciara, who had the most intense love for nature and magic. They felt the earth speaking to them, the magic almost throbbing on the ground, and were guided through denser and more dangerous woods, until they reached a place that emanated magic from every inch of nature.
They learned and they studied, forever maintaining the respect and the love for all things – living or not -, and the years went by until they felt that place had nothing else to teach them. But leaving such wonderful place behind was too much liability; for they would never know who could find it and if the new pathfinders would have the same love and respect for that land. After all, risking losing such magnificent place was too much to bear.
So the siblings raised a temple, home to all sorcery and knowledge, where they would live to cherish and protect that sacred ground, but would also welcome those whose minds where craving the teachings that nature had. The place was called Orému – a native word for spell – and it began to receive magical people from all over the country.
Rudá, Potira and Jaciara never came to know how many witches and wizards ended up finding their temple; perhaps, and it was only a theory, it was the earth's calling. A way of nature to tell that magic will always find those who'd respect it.
Orému gained a layer of protective spells, coming from the hands of those who wanted only the best for that land, so the temple remained hidden from the curious eyes of those without magical blood, who would simply find a building in ruins and would immediately be compelled to leave.
The years passed and sorcerers from every corner of the forests would come to be trained by the elders. The siblings transmitted all their knowledge, until a day came when their bodies and souls also became a part of the nature which for so long kept them alive.
Those who succeeded them went through all the changes of their country; from the changing of its name to Brazil until the establishment of a language under which they'd have to adapt. After all, that was the principle of the nature. Adaptation, resilience and evolution. Their respect and open-mindedness was what guided Orému through decades, until the sons and daughters of the foreign, who were now residing in Brazil, started to receive their calling.
The school, now home to witches and wizards with mixed blood and coming from all sorts of ancestries, adapted to the new time, deciding to change its former native name to one every single sorcerer from that country could understand. And that's how Orému turned into Castelobruxo.
Inspired by the ancient schools of Hogwarts and Ilvermony, the new protectors of the land decided to sort their new students into houses, or, how they would call, into tribes. The native fauna was the inspiration and Castelobruxo's crest would proudly bear its representatives: the Azure-Jay, with its mysterious black and blue feathers, the Manatee, with its calm and peaceful nature, the Golden Lion Tamarin, with its unpredictable and social demeanor, and the Anteater, which was the symbol for restlessness and quietude.
It was Aiyra Pitanga, the headmistress from Castelobruxo who was nominated as Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, who determined that the schools would admit those from ages eleven to seventeen, for that was the period where children were most susceptible and opened for change and would be able to grow into adulthood learning to respect the earth, that was the means and the end to all the magic.
So that's how children all across the country, by reaching the age of eleven, receive the enchanted amazonite; a stone that when touched by the chosen ones turn into the letter that would take them to the heart of the Amazonian Forest, where they'd find a wondrous temple, covered in bindweed and moss, exhaling energy.
Castelobruxo.