There are two types of magic within the world; Free Magic, and Charter Magic. Though commonly practiced within other realms, Charter Magic was non existent within the Wizarding World as it existed upon Earth. The only remnants of it's former use lay in the ancient runes which even now were taught at magical schools throughout the world, their only use laying in advanced arithmetic, and some of the more advanced and ancient rituals. These rituals were, of course, highly illegal and dangerous; even their study was ground for imprisonment within Azkaban, and their use could easily lead to a Dementor's Kiss.
Charter Magic had not always been absent from Earth; in those early days after Azkaban had been created, it's use was common enough among those who had made the journey to this untamed land. Charter Magic was, after all, a magic of control; unlike Free Magic, one could not simply call upon it accidentally. It took many years of careful study to cast even the simplest of runic constructs, and the possession of a Charter Mark was required before such study could even begin. The Free Magic of Earth was reviled as a thing of evil among such Charter Mages, and it's practice had both dismayed and shocked those who had discovered it upon entering into this fertile land.
How might this world have changed, had those Charter Mages been successful in their attempt to convert the Free Magic Users to their way of thinking? Had they been just a bit more aggressive in their efforts, the whole of the Wizarding World would have changed drastically - such as it was at the time. There was no true unifying government at the time, no 'wizarding world' to speak of. Only a collection of natives who had discovered the use of magic, and used it to enhance their lives and that of their kin.
But as the years passed and those with the potential for Free Magic began to come together, those who still knew of Charter Magic grew smaller and smaller in number. They were a dying breed, their knowledge dwindling with their numbers. What little of Charter Magic they had passed on to the natives of this world was not enough to turn them from the chaos of Free Magic, though its remnants remained still in the history of the Wizarding World.
Charter Magic, you see, was different from the Free Magic of the Wizarding World. Free Magic was unconstrained, wild, and without mercy. Thousands of years ago it had reigned as the only magic - a power beyond reckoning. The creation of The Charter had seen a form of control finally being placed upon magic itself - a way in which creatures both mortal and immortal might exert control over this primal energy.
The history of Charter Magic was long and complicated - it's very existence had consumed the lives - and the souls - of those who had sought to bring order to the primal forces of creation. The creation of the Charter, then, had been an undertaking unlike any dreamed of by the magic users of Earth - those Free Magic users who sought to use Free Magic for their own purposes.
The Charter was created long before any sought to bridge the gap between the worlds - long before any had existed who could. Before light and civilization had existed, when the Free Magic of that far away world had run wild, unconstrained and with an energy that could not be contained, shaped, or controlled by even the most skilled of magical practitioners.
The creation of the Charter had brought order where there had been naught but chaos. What little Free Magic remained was dulled, it's edges no longer so sharp, it's power dimmed greatly from the time Before. Useable, yes, but still dangerous; eating away at the souls and bodies of those who wielded it, or even came into too close contact with it's power.
It was with the creation of the Charter that magic had begun to be shaped upon Earth, though none knew of the correlation. The Magic of Earth was Free Magic, yes, but used in such a way, and in such a magnitude, that none of the Charter-infused Old Kingdom could ever have imagined. It permeated the very air of Earth, seeping into the pores of every living thing.
None could escape it.