In the auditorium, Allen's review continued.
He looked through his notes on ancient runes, astonished that these ordinary symbols possessed such magical power! This left Allen in awe.
Other matters were too distant, not something he could address now. The most important thing was to check ancient runes in the library and confirm his findings. Perhaps he could even find the correct method for recording ancient runes in the library's collection. Allen pondered silently.
It would be great if he could ask Hermione to go to the library with him to research ancient runes, but judging by her behavior earlier, that was out of the question for today. The thought made Allen's head ache again.
Allen was always a man of action. After finishing his meal, he immediately got up and went to the library.
...
After finding a book titled 'The Origin of Ancient Runes' in the library, Allen found an unoccupied corner and began to read ravenously.
Only then did he realize that ancient runes had long since declined.
There was no detailed record of the specific time ancient runes appeared. In the earliest barbaric ages, humans were not the rulers of the world but were often regarded as delicious food by many magical races and creatures.
Later, people discovered some mysterious symbols in certain ruins, and these magical symbols, when combined, possessed extraordinary power. These symbols were called runes.
Talented individuals among humans observed the various miraculous effects of these rune combinations and invented the first magic spell. As the population base increased, more and more talented people emerged among humans, which further accelerated the development of magic, laying a solid foundation for the edifice of magic.
Through the efforts of countless individuals, spells were invented one by one. Especially after the invention of wands, the threshold for casting spells was significantly lowered, and the number of human wizards increased exponentially.
Eventually, human wizards, relying on their sufficient numbers, powerful spells, and flexible application of spells, defeated one magical race, magical animal, and magical plant after another.
Some of the defeated magical races vanished forever into the river of history; some hid in barren lands, struggling to survive and forever losing the ability to resist wizards; others were enslaved by wizards, forever trampled underfoot.
During this protracted war, some magical races became allies of human wizards. Some integrated into wizard society after the war and were assimilated by wizards, while others lived cautiously in areas designated by wizards.
Magical animals and plants also suffered greatly. They had vast numbers but very limited intelligence and no social organization. Before wizards, they were like scattered sand, and so they were put into cooking pots, medicine pots, cauldrons, and various other pots, becoming the nourishment for the rise of wizards. Ultimately, their once vast numbers were stewed to the point of endangerment by wizards.
Magical plants fared better; many were domesticated by wizards, allowing them to continue to exist.
Magical animals, however, suffered terribly. Eventually, wizards realized that if they did not intervene and impose restrictions, many magical animals would disappear forever, and there were no substitutes for the magical materials derived from magical animals. Therefore, the concept of protecting magical animals gained widespread consensus internationally.
Wizards specifically enacted laws to protect them, and to change the wizards' mindset, the decision-makers of the magical government had to start with children. All magical schools were required to offer Care of Magical Creatures class.
Yes, you read that right! The magical animals, once confined, were even stripped of the prefix 'magical' and became the less aggressive 'fantastic beasts.' It was truly tragic!
After these great conquests, human wizards absorbed various magical knowledge from the conquered, which led to the stability and glory of today's magical world.
Why would a book about the history of ancient runes discuss the history of human wizard conquests? Because humans grew powerful by studying runes, and runes, in turn, faded away as human wizards gradually conquered the world!
This war of human conquest was simply too long, and the protracted conflict caused immense damage to the transmission of knowledge! Moreover, runes were too abstruse and had too high a learning cost, which was not conducive to their spread.
Furthermore, the rise of human wizards was not smooth sailing. Especially when humans were just emerging and not yet powerful enough, the situation was often precarious. Wizards who mastered the most runic knowledge were often the strongest and had to rush to the front lines for the survival of humanity in every battle. Such individuals were often the focus of enemy attacks on the battlefield, so rune masters often suffered heavy losses, and the loss of even one such master would cause immense damage to the legacy of runes.
Later, far-sighted leaders sent rune masters to the rear, preventing them from participating in battles. However, the human rear was not very safe at the time, and hostile races often ran to the human rear to cause destruction, which again led to significant losses.
And the threshold for learning runes was very high; they were very abstract and abstruse. Learners often needed to study for a long time to achieve anything, so cultivating successors was also very difficult. Moreover, the war also destroyed many ruins where humans discovered original runes, which also brought difficulties to subsequent research.
Later, the invention of wands greatly increased the number of wizards and changed the balance of power between friend and foe, allowing wizards to blow the horn of conquest. However, it also firmly nailed shut the coffin lid of runes, which already had one foot in the grave.
Although the number of wizards increased due to the appearance of wands, this increase in numbers meant a need for more efficient means of disseminating magical knowledge, for which runes were inherently unsuitable. The pressure of the urgent war situation also required wizards to quickly form combat power, so runes were abandoned.
After wizards invented other languages and methods that could quickly spread magical knowledge and initiated a new system of magical research and teaching, runes completely fell into obscurity.
When wizards became the rulers of the world, they looked back and realized that the knowledge of runes was almost extinct. Although they made unremitting efforts to rescue and protect it, it was already too late.
Moreover, under the influence of the war, runes developed a large number of interchangeable characters, non-standard spellings, synonymous and heteronymous words, and mistranslations, which also brought a heavy burden to later protective research.
And humans are a lazy species; once they have a simple way to master magic, they are unwilling to use complex methods. So, even now, fewer and fewer people in the magical world are willing to study runes.
To this day, runes are collectively referred to as ancient runes, but their symbolic meaning has increasingly outweighed their practical significance. Wizards have gradually come to regard ancient runes as a remembrance and symbol of their ancestors' pioneering spirit and arduous efforts.
Therefore, ancient runes are now an elective course only available to third-year students at Hogwarts. It is said that not many young wizards choose it, as mastering ancient runes does not offer much help for future employment.
After reading the history of the origin, development, glory, and decline of ancient runes, Allen's heart could not calm down for a long time...
He never expected such a shocking history in the magical world, nor did he expect the characters he saw to have such a significant background, being so closely related to the origin of magic. This greatly excited him.
This seemed like a very difficult path, destined to be very challenging, but Allen vaguely felt that this path was the correct one.