Koldovstoretz AU
During the events of HL, the existence of wizards in the Russian Empire was not a secret to the Emperor and his highest generals. He assembled an elite unit of battle mages from among them, which served as the army’s secret weapon. By an official decree, he ordered that every child who showed magical ability must be sent to the special Koldovstoretz school. Upon graduation, the only path available to such a student led to the battlefield.
Compliance with the decree was enforced by other wizards who were regarded as the Emperor’s chained hounds. They had traded their gift for the illusion of freedom. Those who disobeyed were eliminated without delay.
In his HL origin story set in 1905, Svyatoslav lives in a coven with six witches who hide in the deep wilderness to escape persecution, since they refuse to use magic in service of warfare. The witches try to shield Svyatoslav from being sent to Koldovstoretz. Therefore, when Ms. Hall arrives with an invitation to take him to Hogwarts, they agree without hesitation.
Svyatoslav returns home only after the 1917 Revolution. He finds that the Muggles who overthrew the Emperor now hunt wizards as well, believing old rumors that wizards served him personally. Even if bullets are powerless against magic, one shot out of hundreds may still accidentally hit a distracted wizard surrounded by an enraged crowd.
I have a fanservice arc in which every suspicious person is searched for a wand. Svyatoslav and his wife, pretending to be Muggles, temporarily trade their wands for revolvers and move stylishly between secret cellars that shelter wizards, hiding from place to place.
It is not exactly an AU, rather a detail of his HL lore. I sometimes wondered what would have happened to Slavik if he had gone to Koldovstoretz instead of Hogwarts, so I created these screenshots to see what it could look like.
But I still wanted to develop this idea about another side of the wizarding world, so I assigned this small subplot to Vasilisa — one the forest witches. After Svyatoslav leaves for England, imperial hounds find the coven’s hut. To protect her family, she surrenders and, against her will and ideals, joins the army.
In my crack fantasies she eventually rises to the Emperor’s personal guard, steals his phoenix, and escapes by ship to England to find Svyatoslav. There she is suddenly detained by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and ends up in a holding cell. Through the bars of her cell she endures interrogations with an extremely pedantic ministry clerk who adjusts his glasses with his middle finger. The narrative gradually becomes my favorite love-hate dynamic between a rule-bound man and a wild woman.
Btw, a Pygmy Puff lives in his pocket. And it gets along perfectly well with the Emperor’s phoenix.
I have never drawn these two characters or visualized them in any way, but at least I have a board for Vasilisa, and I hope that one day I will have one for her tedious English gentleman as well.
And, of course, I already have a board for Koldovstoretz too.
References: “Shadow and Bone” and Russian folklore.
