#death eaters meta

[pangaeaseas]

Great meta! This does a good job of extrapolating a very different Hogwarts context than the familiar Trio Era one from what we see in the books. I've seen fics that try to depict the Death Eater recruitment at Hogwarts during the Marauders Era and it's good to see a meta reasoning out why that's plausible.

It's incredibly striking to me that in the two cases where we know when a character received the Dark Mark, Regulus and Draco, they are both underage. With Draco you *could* claim special circumstances and Voldemort wanting to punish Lucius, but we don't actually know concretely of any such circumstances around Regulus, besides Sirius running away (and we don't know if Sirius running away actually impacted when Regulus would join the Death Eaters, you can headcanon that but it's not canon), and even in Draco's case it really seems more of a presaging of what will happen the next year with Crabbe and Goyle supporting the Death Eaters, and I think the punishment for Luicus aspect isn't Draco joining so young, it's Draco having to kill Dumbledore, which is a suicide mission. I think the fact that we know two Death Eaters were marked at 16, in fact the only two cases where we know an age at marking I think, is an intentional one: we are meant to draw the conclusion that Voldemort recruits child soldiers. If you are shown an example in the text (a text which can only depict so much), it's reasonable to draw the conclusion that the examples are typical.

I also think it's poignant and says interesting things about Voldemort's psychology that he would have his followers recruited at the same place he called his home, and having them behaving similarly to how he did at their age (by committing crimes. Yaaay.) Voldemort is consistently obsessed with Hogwarts (and yeah, that's in part so that the school story is interesting, but it's also a deliberate character trait) and so it makes a lot of sense that he would further that obsession by making a shadow Hogwarts of sorts by creating a network of Death Eater recruiters working there and outside. (I've seen fics that have the recruited Death Eaters in Hogwarts having secret meeting spots in the castle, an idea I love.) Of course Voldemort would recruit followers from Hogwarts, the castle is central to his psychology. Voldemort creates the kind of community and attention he would have wanted as a Hogwarts student through his recruiting network--making talented students feel at home and giving them connections to the outside world through prominent people like Lucius Malfoy. Of course, the whole purpose of that community is to further his fascist political goals and recruit child soldiers.

I also think the 'prejudice' against Slytherin House we see in the canon era is the legacy of Voldemort using the house as a recruitment center. To be clear, I do think many members of the other houses were Death Eaters, but Slytherin specifically was the heart of the recruiting network, and most of the recruiters were likely Slytherins--this is supported by the fact that Lucius is shown as likely initiating Snape into the Death Eaters, and of course was a Slytherin. In fact, Lucius was a Slytherin prefect, and is shown doing his perfectly duty in welcoming Snape, but the fact that the scene of Lucius meeting Snape is immediately followed by a scene that emphasizes Snape's Death Eater ties driving him away from Lily implies a connection--that Lucius was the impetus for Snape joining the Death Eaters. Just like the younger Tom Riddle, Prefect Lucius was using his authority as a prefect to build the cult. It's very plausible that the Slytherin prefects during the 70s were Death Eaters who identified younger students for potential recruitment and used their prefect position to ingratiate themselves with administration and to gain the trust of younger students. In fact, canonically the future Death Eater Draco Malfoy, and likely Death Eater sympathizer Pansy Parkinson, are the Slytherin prefects the first year after Voldemort returns--a sign of a similar situation earlier in wizarding history? So the official institutions of Slytherin House, like the prefects, were twisted in the service of Voldemort. If in 1993 the common room password was pure-blood, it's not unreasonable to assume even more offensive and exclusionary passwords would have existed in a time when blood prejudice was even more mainstream due to Voldemort's war (and that password is strong evidence that people who warn others off Slytherin in canon era are reasonably concerned about bigotry!). The common room password is likely another legacy of Voldemort's dominance of Slytherin. I can also easily imagine the Slytherin Common Room being used to plan Death Eater attacks openly, with the knowledge that any anti-Voldemort Slytherins would feel outnumbered and unsafe in their own house. We know that Slughorn is adept at overlooking Voldemort's doings, or may have been too afraid to stop it, so it's plausible that Slytherin House was essentially an arm of the Death Eaters by the late 1970s. When characters complain about Slytherin being home to Dark Wizards, they mean that the Hogwarts House was used as a way to intiate Death Eaters during the war (and also that it's a reasonable assumption Slytherins are bigoted and so to stay away from them. Anti-Slytherin prejudice is in my opinion more like people on a college campus telling freshmen to stay away from a fraternity with a bad reputation.)

Death Eater Recruitment Age During The First War

In this meta I'll talk about Voldemort's strategy in recruiting underage Death Eaters. Fandom often portrays teenage Death Eaters like Snape, Evan Rosier, etc as officially joining Voldemort after they graduate or, at best, their 7th year.

But the most logical conclusion is that Death Eaters recruited as teenagers would have been required to take the Mark at 16 and no later - at earliest Christmas break of 5th year and at latest the summer after 5th year. Regulus joining at 16 wasn't an exception or an anomaly - it was the expectation and the norm.

Additionally, younger Death Eaters’ age during the First War is cited as reasons they couldn’t have committed violent war crimes in the short time they were Death Eaters, but this too is contradicted by canon. I’ll go through the evidence for these points below.

1.0 Voldemort’s strategy

Firstly, I really don't know why people think Voldemort would have qualms about making 16 year olds murder and torture - given that Tom Riddle himself had murdered 4 people by the time he was 16 (killing the Riddles summer after his 4th year at 15 years old) as well as tortured students ("nasty incidents") with his gang.

Yes, many characters in HBP claim that there’s no way Draco was marked because he’s only 16 and still in school - but the whole point is that they’re wrong, that Draco WAS Marked at 16, that Voldemort thought Hogwarts was a good recruiting ground, that he was creating child soldiers. The whole point is to recruit them young - when they're most vulnerable and malleable.

On the other hand, it's unlikely that they were allowed to be Marked younger than 16 - Regulus was eager to join years before he was Marked, so if there was a way for him to be initiated sooner, he would've taken it. From Voldemort's POV, he'd want the Black heir under his control, so he would've Marked Regulus as early as was possible under Death Eater protocol. (Sirius also runs away at 16, so it’s a possibility that this had to do with Voldemort recruiting him at that age.)

So presumably, Voldemort chose an age where they're young enough to be easily manipulated, but old enough to be competent as Death Eaters.

(While Tom killed his family a year earlier, his proto-Death Eater gang was involved in their first murder together at the same age - Myrtle end of their 5th year; which imo was accidental but fits the tradition).

But once they reach that age - there's no stalling. Future teenage Death Eaters would be trained for maybe months, maybe years, before finally taking the Mark at 16.

Voldemort wants his army and he wants it now. You don't get to wait around to take the mark. Even marking a Death Eater at 17 vs. 16 is a whole entire year of the war wasted where Voldemort could have them under his control and doing useful things for him. The exceptions would be if the Death Eater isn't politically useful enough (heirs from less powerful pureblood families etc) and if they weren't talented enough by 16 and would require more training.

(It's possible the recruiting pace was a bit slower pre-war, but once the war started Voldemort needed as many Death Eaters as he could get.)

Certainly no important pureblood heir would be marked later than 16. Marking an heir means Voldemort has solidified his control over that family’s wealth and political/magical resources (at least in future).

Despite being Hogwarts students, teenage Death Eaters still have substantial windows of time when they could be committing crimes for Voldemort - 2 months of summer; 1 month combining Christmas/Easter breaks; Hogsmeade weekends; maybe ways of sneaking out other weekends. (Even many adult Death Eaters do have day jobs and keep up appearances of normal lives.)

They could also get a lot done at Hogwarts itself - spywork (i.e. out muggleborns hiding their status, similarly gather info on political enemies via other students), magical research (esp. given they have access to the Hogwarts library which Voldemort doesn’t - presumably, this is a library as coveted as pureblood libraries), invent things and experiment (i.e. Snape inventing Levicorpus which we know the Death Eaters used), and most notably, commit war crimes on campus.

Examples include Mulciber and Avery torturing Mary Macdonald with Dark Magic - which clearly wasn’t an isolated incident - and Snape having used Sectumsempra so often at Hogwarts it became known as his specialty. This is the kind of terror junior Death Eaters would be expected to perform on campus during the war.

Then there's the Dark Mark itself. The way the Death Eaters are bound to Voldemort parallels house-elf enslavement contract, and the Dark Mark is the main way of enforcing it - it’s a tracking device (per Karkaroff), a communication device, a means of control, a way to make sure you don't escape. So of course Voldemort would want to brand his followers as soon as he could. (see also: this meta on the Dark Mark by @artemisia-black)

2.0 Examples

Regulus (waiting to join years earlier) took the Mark at 16. Draco, Marked the summer after his 5th year, only a month or two after he turned 16. Barty Jr. was 19 in 1982 during the Longbottom trial, so it's a reasonable extrapolation that he too was Marked at 16, particularly since he was very dedicated and loyal to Voldemort and would've been desperate to join ASAP. As Lucius was clearly instrumental in recruiting Snape (and logically there have to be Death Eaters on campus recruiting), I assume he was Marked by the time the Marauders entered Hogwarts, so likely Marked at 16 too.

Then there's the fact that the Death Eaters is a multigenerational cult and that Voldemort expects the kids of his Death Eaters to join - examples are Mulciber, Avery, Rosier. These kids were essentially born into the cult and inherited being a Death Eater, they've known since childhood that they would be expected to take the Mark, and perhaps were trained for it very early, so there's no reason they wouldn't be Marked at 16.

Of course, not all Death Eaters are recruited underage, there are plenty recruited as adults - when you're recruited matters when Voldemort actually notices you, or when he needs you (i.e. Peter was recruited much later on, purely as a spy).

Regarding Snape specifically, he became friends with Lucius Malfoy as soon as he entered Hogwarts, and stayed friends with the Malfoys long into his adult years. Lucius would've been the main one to bring him into Death Eater circles (particularly since Lucius would've graduated Snape's first or second year, and the rest of their contact had to be out of school, perhaps Lucius inviting him to events with Death Eaters, etc.)

His friendship with his gang - Mulciber, Avery, Rosier - would function likewise, especially because they're not just any junior Death Eaters, they're the children of Tom Riddle's original gang. So, Snape was pulled into the network of pretty high ranking Death Eaters from the very start.

Snape's talent was also apparent to everyone from the get go (i.e. Sirius’s statement that Snape was famous for the Dark Arts at school, and as a first year knew more curses than half the kids in 7th year). Therefore, he would’ve been on the Death Eaters’ radar long before SWM, and there’s no reason for them to wait until then to recruit and train him. Most likely he was training under Voldemort as his student his 5th year, perhaps even 4th year, and then took the Mark summer after 5th year. (In this fic, he's already taken it by SWM, because teen Death Eaters take the Mark their first school holiday after turning 16, which was 5th year Christmas break for Snape, which is an interesting and believable scenario).

And no, his status as a poor halfblood wouldn't be an issue - canonically Voldemort makes poor Death Eaters high ranking (Snape, Amycus, Alecto), as well as female Death Eaters.

This, of course, conflicts with a certain narrative parts of fandom want to push about Snape being driven to the Death Eaters due to the Marauders’ bullying and Lily breaking off the friendship - because in any realistic scenario the Death Eaters would have recruited him long before this happened.

Regarding the level of violence teenage Death Eaters commit, it makes sense to me that you'd have to kill to be Marked - Voldemort is not going to have his Death Eaters hesitate before killing and mess up his missions (Additionally, once they’ve committed crimes for him he could use exposing them as a threat to keep them in line). I HC that you have to cast all three Unforgiveables on a victim to be Marked.

So, this means that all your faves like Regulus, Snape, Evan, Barty, that fandom often whitewashes, did in fact commit many violent war crimes while they were Death Eaters. Potentially Draco is the exception to this wrt actual murder (we know he's using the Imperius and Cruciatus 6th year), though it's always possible Voldemort made him murder someone off screen and we just didn't see it.

As more examples of this, even Crabbe and Goyle - who were not Marked or trained as official Death Eaters - are torturing first years with the Cruciatus their entire 7th year under the instruction of the Carrows, and presumably students in the years below them were also forced to do the same. (Crabbe also tries to cast an Avada Kedavra, so it's possible he murdered someone for the Death Eaters outside of campus.) This is further proof that Death Eaters have no issue making underage students commit violent war crimes.

3.0 Conclusion

We can extrapolate from the known numbers we have - Lucius Malfoy in his year, 3-5 Death Eaters in the Marauders' year (Mulciber, Avery, Snape, Rosier, Wilkes), Barty Jr. in the year below, Regulus in the year below that - that there were a few wannabe and/or actually Marked Death Eaters in every class year during the war.

So, Hogwarts during the first war wasn't just full of Wannabe Death Eaters - it was also full of actual Death Eaters who were already actively murdering and torturing others.

And this contextualizes the Marauders' actions in their Hogwarts years, and why they would've been pushed to that kind of violence to protect others on campus. (read more about that in this meta)

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

My niche HP theory is that Tom Riddle couldn't give less of a shit about blood purity. He grew up during WW2 and saw both the muggle world's and the Wizarding world's prejudices and since the wizards were even more old-fashioned and disconnected from the muggle world, he decided to use their snobbish views and purebloods' fear of dying out and losing power to Muggleborns. Tom Riddle was an angry young man who saw how blood supremacy and hatred of muggles destroyed his family and left him with nothing. And the uptight filthy rich pureblood pricks got to parade around in his house at Hogwarts acting as if they owned the world? Imagine his fury.

My theory is that Riddle planned the downfall of purebloods at muggleborns' expanse. He promised purebloods to make their wet dreams come true: muggleborns and half-bloods would serve them instead of overtaking their places. He was an extremely intelligent, cunning, talented wizard who had a huge (albeit destroyed) legacy to back him up. A war started, purebloods would never win without Lord Voldemort, but at the end of the day, the majority still knew they served a half-blood with a muggle last name. The irony. He let purebloods destroy themselves - the majority of them died fighting for blood supremacist cause. As for the muggleborns and half-bloods, well, he didn't really care about them. He wanted to rule the purebloods, as he believed was his right, but at the same time, he resented them. There is no way that the orphan who survived the Blitz didn't want to stab a pureblood next to him during lunch at Slytherin table who bragged about his papa's influence on the ministry and made fun of muggle wars. Tom Riddle has also worked in retail.

Additionally, we see on several occasions that Voldemort respects qualities in a person, not their status. He called James Potter brave, even though he thought he was a fool. But openly insulted and made fun of Malfoys during a Deatheaters meeting.

This theory of mine has another one attached to it, which is that after making so many horcruxes, his mind and sanity were severely fractured. That's why he never changed his plans, because at that point, starting a war for the second time made little sense. Voldemort is self-serving and that served no further purpose for him. He just needed to kill Harry to ensure his immortality and let the world know that a child handn't defeated him. The darkest of magic which psychically altered his appearance didn't have any negative effects on his mentality and judgment? Highly unlikely. Which would explain why he wasn't as terrifying and cunning when he came back. Voldemort was a mere shadow of Tom Riddle and couldn't accomplish what he did. If Tom Riddle had stopped at three horcruxes, realistically, he would've won.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

how many people do you think were in the order? what about death eaters? how did either group recruit?

Hello 👋

Okay, so the numbers are honestly pretty easy to track down as they are outright written in the books. The recruitment is, less clear, though not that different between the two organizations. The reason the recruitment process wasn't too different initially, is because they have a pretty small society where everyone kinda knows everyone, and all their systems are based on who knows who. So we see both Death Eaters and Order members operate on a sort of bring-a-friend system.

But let's start with some numbers:

How Many Members are in the Order of the Phoenix:

Moody gives us a very clear rundown of the first Order:

From an inner pocket of his robes Moody pulled a very tattered old Wizarding photograph. “Original Order of the Phoenix,” growled Moody. [...] Harry took the photograph. A small crowd of people, some waving at him, others lifting their glasses, looked back up at him. [...] “There’s me,” [...] “And there’s Dumbledore beside me, Dedalus Diggle on the other side . . . That’s Marlene McKinnon [...] That’s Frank and Alice Longbottom [...] and that’s Emmeline Vance, you’ve met her, and that there’s Lupin, obviously . . . Benjy Fenwick [...] That’s Edgar Bones [...] Sturgis Podmore, blimey, he looks young . . . Caradoc Dearborn [...] Hagrid, of course, [...] Elphias Doge, you’ve met him [...] Gideon Prewett, it took five Death Eaters to kill him and his brother Fabian [...] That’s Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth [...] That’s Dorcas Meadowes [...] Sirius, when he still had short hair . . . and . . . there you go, thought that would interest you!” Harry’s heart turned over. His mother and father were beaming up at him, sitting on either side of a small, watery-eyed man Harry recognized at once as Wormtail

(OotP, Ch9)

So the members of the first Order are:

Died or Otherwise out of action: Marlene McKinnon, Frank Longbottom, Alice Longbottom, Benjy Fenwick, Edgar Bones, Caradoc Dearborn, Gideon Prewett, Fabian Prewett, Dorcas Meadows, James Potter, Lily Potter -> 11 members

Still Alive: Alastor Moody*, Albus Dumbledore*, Dedalus Diggle*, Emmeline Vance*, Remus Lupin*, Sturgis Podmore*, Aberforth Dumbledore, Sirius Black*, Peter Pettigrew -> 8 members.

* Marks ones that are also in the second order.

So, that gives us 21 members in the first Order of the Phoenix. (23 if you count Arabella Fig and Hagrid who are not present in the picture).

And we get a pretty good rundown of the second one too:

We got the remaining members from the first order: Alastor Moody, Albus Dumbledore, Dedalus Diggle, Emmeline Vance, Remus Lupin, Sturgis Podmore, Sirius Black -> 7 members.

And new members: Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Hestia Jones, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley -> 7 members.

Reburs Hagrid and Arabella Figg are both involved with the Order but don't appear in the picture of the first Order, but we'll count them -> 2 members.

Placing the second Order in OotP at 16 members without the kids who are technically not members. Fred and George join upon leaving school, so we can up the number to 18 members.

That being said, we have periphery Order members or people who aren't quite members but are associated with the Order, which ups the numbers quite a bit. Because here we get Ted & Andromeda Tonks, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Slughorn, Fleur, Ginny and the entire D.A. who fought in the battle of Hogwarts, McGonagall, Flitwick, Srpout, Maxime, Augusta Longbottom (by book 7), Abeforth Dumbledore, etc. which will put their number closer to 60 members and semi-members.

(Periphery members like this also existed in the first Order probably. Like McGonagall, Mr. and Mrs. Bones (Edgar Bones' parents) who were both killed in the first war along with Edgar's wife, the McKinnons, etc.)

(The Order members are harder to give a solid number to since unlike Death Eaters, they don't have a mark that says "official Order Members" so some of the members I counted as "periphery members" are sometimes counted as "members proper")

How Many Members are in the Death Eaters:

As for the Death Eaters (marked and unmarked), we have about 20 times as many as the first Order of the Pheonix:

but we’re much better off than we were last time, you weren’t in the Order then, you don’t understand, last time we were outnumbered twenty to one by the Death Eaters and they were picking us off one by one. . . .”

(OotP, Ch9)

And that part about this number being both marked and unmarked I think is important to remember. Becouse while it seems there were about (23*20=) 460 Death Eaters and semi-Death Eaters, there were only about 45-50 actually marked Death Eaters:

All he had learned there was the Disarming Spell, “Expelliarmus” . . . and what use would it be to deprive Voldemort of his wand, even if he could, when he was surrounded by Death Eaters, outnumbered by at least thirty to one?

(GoF, Ch34)

30 arrive at the graveyard + Severus + Barty + Rosier + Wilkes + Karkaroff + 10 Azkaban inmates = 45 Death Eaters in the first war -> Harry says "at least" thirty so I estimate them more at about 50 members.

In the second war, we have the aforementioned 30 + 10 Azkaban Inmates + Severus + Draco + ~10 other new recruits = 62-ish.

So, who are the other 400 semi-Death Eaters? Well, you have all the Werewolves, people like Narcissa who definitely works with the Death Eaters willingly (at first) but isn't marked. You also have all the imperiosed Death Eaters who are likely unmarked, like Stan Shunpike. So I expect the second war also has 460-is Death Eaters and semi-Death Eaters running around.

How do they recruit?

Both the Order and the Death Eaters work from mouth to ear. Members go to the leader (Dumbledore or Voldemort respectively) and mention a family member/friend/colleague/person they know who'd be good for the organization. You need to know someone inside the Order of the Phoenix to join (or be willing to approach a member in public).

The Death Eaters in the first war were similar, with wizards and witches likely vouching for each other and family members bringing their families over. I mean, we see both the Death Eaters and the Order have whole families in their ranks. Even if the Tonks aren't really in the Order, they are involved due to their relation to Nymphadora. Only Marlane was an Order member, but her entire family was killed. The entire Weasley family (bar Percy) is heavily involved from the word "go" in the second war. The same goes for the semi-Death Eaters, Narcissa isn't marked, but she's right there with her marked husband, sister, and son. Crabbe and Goyle are likely unmarked, but by book 7 are involved and would be counted toward that 460-ish Death Eaters and associates. Both organizations are family businesses in that the whole family gets involved when one member is involved.

(Sirius is a unique exception to that rule. I mean, after all, everyone believed he was a Death Eater so easily because his brother and cousin were Death Eaters. In-universe people are aware these organizations recruit whole families)

I mentioned in the past, the ministry kinda works like this too. Their society is based on nepotism and who you know. It's why things like the Slug Club exist. So it makes sense the recruitment for any semi-political organization (which both Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix are) will work like this too.

But there is another element to it. Both Dumbledore and Voldemort may approach someone themselves.

According to JKR, Voldemort offered both James and Lily a place among his Death Eaters. It's possible someone vouched for them, but it's also possible he glimpsed information about them from his followers/other sources and decided to recruit them.

Dumbledore does the same thing. For example, he approaches Slughorn himself since he is useful to him and Dumbledore knows he doesn't think like Voldemort (even though Slughorn doesn't really become an Order member proper).

Both Voldemort and Dumbledore sent envoys to the giants and werewolves in the second war.

The real difference in recruitment tactics is that Voldemort is probably promising everyone things he isn't actually planning to do (especially in the first war), threatens people to comply, and employs the Imperius Curse for those who still don't comply but whom he needs. Dumbledore doesn't employ these methods to recruit. Yes, he threatens Slughorn a little and gets an oath from Snape, but these are unique circumstances and not his usual recruitment. The usual method is to recruit people who want to fight against Voldemort and uphold the ministry more or less as is at the moment. The Order is about protecting the status quo and stopping a terrorist organization (which is what the Death Eaters are).

Also, Voldemort clearly doesn't mind allowing underage students in his organization (Draco) when he feels like he has enough to gain from it. However, from the Order's reactions to Hary's suspicions about Draco, it seems this isn't common and not something he did in the first war. The Order does not allow underage members to join.

[changetheprophecy81]

I feel like Narcissa Malfoy is rather overhyped(when she isn't being forgotten completely) as a character. She is the perfect example of 'the aristocratic wife' until the real world hits her in the face (and even then it takes a while).

Coz in the books she doesn't do shit. We have no indication that she has any sort of job(not that she'd need one). You could say she raised Draco but I don't count that because she did such a bad job at it; Draco turned out to be a spoilt, entitled bully (tho ofc Lucius equally shares the blame for this). She was pretty, came from money and a respectable family, and had no real valuable contribution of her own (unlike bellatrix who had the first 2 things too but was voldemort's right hand DE). Lucius has a constant presence in the books, we see different ways in which he subtly exercises his power and influence (ranging from donations to cozy up to fudge to threatening the other board governors that he'll curse their families if the don't remove dumbledore from the position of headmaster), plus his whole arc from one of voldemort's most trusted DEs (he was entrusted with a horcrux) to the pathetic situation we see him in in DH. Narcissa, however, has nothing of this sort. She's briefly introduced during the Qudditch world cup, not mentioned at all in book 5, and is an absolute dumbass in book 6.

Ik tht last one is controversial, but i was with bellatrix the whole time, coming to snape was fucking stupid. I get tht she thought he was on their side, especially considering he was with the DEs during the first war too, but y tf would u trust a double agent? Him convincingly answering all of bellatrix's questions means nothing, its obvious that he'll hv similarly tailored answers for dumbledore. I get that she was terrified and desperate, but it always struck me as odd that she never volunteered to take her 16 y/o son's place to get the task done (or at least we don't get any mention of this, and at any rate i don't think voldy wud hv oblidged considering this was punishment for lucius's failures), or if she already knew that this wasn't a viable option, she doesn't even try to help him out herself. Instead she runs straight to snape and weeps on his floor. This is so unlike, say, lily, who stood in btw her baby boy and voldemort. Mind u, the whole thing worked out only because dumbledore put on the ring and was going to die in a yr, she got lucky( imo this is lyk remus getting lucky with keeping sirius being an animagus as a secret coz he didn't turn out to be a mass murderer after all). U couldn't even say she was using snape too because she's clearly too distraught in tht scene to be doing any kind of manipulation. It all falls on the shoulder of her 16 y/o son to keep his family safe from voldemort.

She doesn't do anything throughout book 7 until the very end, where she lies to voldemort just to know if her son's alive or not, which inadvertently leads to voldemort being defeated by harry. This is only thing of substance she does in the entire series(and likewise i ll give her the credit, it was ballsy asf). As much as i appreciate her for what she did in the end, i think the fact that it took her roughly 40 years to do something of value is heavily ignored.

[juniperpyre]

i think my key issue with the sanitization of death eater characters is that it feels like people do not see their stories as tragic or empathize with the characters until we have a hc that's like "actually they were morally good the whole time!"

regulus black and severus snape are tragic characters and child soldiers no matter what side they were "really" on. even barty crouch jr, who may not have been groomed into being a death eater, is tragic when you spend a second to consider his relationship with his father. there are plenty of death eaters who we know are taking after their fathers in joining the cult. lucius malfoy, who was a prefect when the marauders enter hogwarts, most likely spread the death eater ideology, since the ideology is just a more extreme version/logical endpoint of what already existed in the wizarding world.

to me, these ideas are not headcanons, because they are heavily implied by the text. when jkr mentions malfoy in the deathly hallows that is not for no reason.

mallfoy's acceptance of snape and position of power are both highlighted in this sentence. we can infer that snape felt a sense of community for the first time in Slytherin. with malfoy as a prefect we can infer that the culture of Slytherin house lifted up bigots and those with an important family name.

this is a culture that breeds more bigotry. we know that Dumbledore did not step in to stop this cultural development in the 90s, after already seeing what it could do!!! so we can infer that he did not in the 70s. so a bunch of children were left alone in an echo chamber of hate. of course some of them became fanatics!!!

this doesn't mean they shouldn't be held accountable. but we cannot expect children to overcome cultural and political hegemony all alone. like.... that's just not how the world works. and it's tragic that children are fodder for fascist's wars, especially when the fact that the children were abused or neglected makes them more vulnerable to be fodder.

regulus and severus weren't treated as people, their humanity was denied by the fascist they served, bc that's how fascism works. exploring their characters as they are in canon, with full humanity, without needing to change their stories to see that humanity, is much more interesting to me. it is much more in the spirit of redemption and restoration.

[myvaginacalledmehomo-blog]

Is it just me or does anyone else find it inappropriate, insensitive and uncomfortable to use the word 'NAZIS' for FUCKING FICTIONAL PEOPLE.

i agree they're bad. Use the terms bigot, fascist, racist. But i find it problematic that people have the actual audacity to use the name of an actual violent evil group that killed millions..

To hate on characters that are barely there in canon. And that they are hc'd by fanon as poc/trans/queer/disabled/abused. Says a lot on whom you're hating :)

(i don't want antis interacting with me this post is for the people who think like me. antis you are not wanted)

Edit: guys stop sending death threats to anyone, me or the people who had replied under the post. we all are humans, not your punching bag. Even if someone doesn't share your opinions, death threats are NOT the right way to voice yourself.

[seriousbrat]

minor death eaters active during the first wizarding war

I've created a list of my interpretations of the Death Eaters who we know participated in the First Wizarding War, specifically the ones we don’t have much canon info about because they’re very minor characters. For this reason I won’t include: Bellatrix, Lucius, Snape, Peter, Regulus, and Barty Crouch jr. (Reg and Barty are arguably minor but there’s soooo much meta on them, I can’t be fucked to add to it tbh lol)

This is loosely organised by rank or relevance to the story, which may be somewhat subjective. With each Death Eater I’ll start with what we do know or can infer from canon, then add my own personal headcanon and interpretations for each character— but I’ll still try to explain how these are based in canon. If you interpret them differently that's obviously fine haha, that's why it's an interpretation.

Quick note about Bellatrix and Lucius: I think it’s telling that they were both entrusted with Horcruxes, this points to them being very highly ranked among Death Eaters during the first war. So if they were included in this list they’d be at the top over Travers and Dolohov, for the record. I’ve also written about the fact that I think Bellatrix’s rank was unusual among female Death Eaters here.

DEATH EATER LIST -----------------------------------------

(If a first name is small and unbolded, it’s the name I’ve given them and not canon.)

JAGO TRAVERS:

I think since I just ended up liking his character, I’ve given Travers more importance than he may have actually had haha, but it is true that he addresses Bellatrix (or Hermione as Bellatrix) with familiarity and fearlessness, as an equal rather than a subordinate. He's even affronted when Hermione is rude to him, suggesting that this isn’t their typical dynamic— interesting since Bellatrix usually has no qualms being rude and impatient with other DEs.

We know he was responsible for the murders of the McKinnon family. Karkaroff names him as an important Death Eater, and he was sent to Azkaban at the end of the war.

My version of Travers is first and foremost a pragmatist. In canon he comes across as more composed, more rational than other Death Eaters. He has a "cool" "sharp" voice, he's much less emotional and more practical than Selwyn at the Lovegood house, and he displays moments of ironic, callous humour with 'Bellatrix.'

The way I see him he’s strategically-minded, cold, calculating, and intelligent; and unlike the sadistic Mulciber or self-interested Lucius, he is all about the mission, which he puts strictly before his own personal pleasure or status. He’s not motivated by passion like Bellatrix either, he simply believes Voldemort’s way is the correct way and seeks the most efficient way to achieve it.

This quality is what leads to his advancement in the ranks and makes him a very competent general. However, this also causes a rift among the higher-ranking Death Eaters; Travers and Rosier believe in a straightforward, warlike approach, whereas Lucius and Mulciber are more partial to subtlety and manipulation.

ANTONIN DOLOHOV:

Dolohov was among those sent to Azkaban after the end of the first war, a loyal supporter who didn't renounce Voldemort. Karkaroff tells the Wizengamot that he witnessed Dolohov torturing “countless Muggles and non-supporters” of Voldemort. He was involved in the murders of the Prewett brothers, along with four other Death Eaters. He's the first name given by Karkaroff.

A Dolohov is among the original Death Eaters mentioned as waiting in Hogsmeade when Voldemort interviews for the DADA post, I think it’s probable that this is the same Dolohov, so he was already serving Voldemort around the late 60s to early 70s.

His “twisted face,” proclivity for torture, glee after hurting Hermione, and particular hatred of Muggles all point to me towards a sadist who is nevertheless intelligent and competent.

‘Dolohov’ is a Russian name and it’s likely he was named after the character Dolokhov from War and Peace— which I’ve never read, but from some brief research, Tolstoy’s Dolokhov delights in causing misery in others, is clever, competent, ruthless, but reckless. I think this fits pretty well if we extrapolate these traits to Antonin Dolohov.

“…the very process of dominating another’s will was in itself a pleasure, a habit, and a necessity to Dolokhov.”

The way I’ve used Dolohov is that he’s responsible for bringing in supporters from abroad, one of these being Igor Karkaroff— in W&P Dolokhov manipulates young men into joining his gambling circle, so I see this as a fitting role for Antonin Dolohov, who I think was of Russian ancestry but born in Britain, though still able to use his connections abroad. Despite Dolohov’s sadistic nature, I also see him as strategic, pragmatic, and dedicated, and so he falls more into Travers’s camp than Lucius’s.

EVAN ROSIER:

Evan Rosier is among the younger generation of Death Eaters, because he’s mentioned by Sirius as having gone to school with Snape. However this could make him either closer to Bellatrix/Lucius in age, or closer to Snape/Avery/Mulciber. There’s also a Rosier who was one of the original Death Eaters (I’ll talk about him below) and it’s possible that this is Evan’s father. The Rosiers are part of the Sacred Twenty-eight.

As for Evan himself, he’s the second name given by Karkaroff as an “important Death Eater.” We also know that Evan Rosier “preferred to fight rather than coming quietly,” and managed to blast a chunk of Moody’s nose off in the struggle before being killed.

Building from the fact that he fought to the death rather than being imprisoned, managing to permanently injure Moody, my version of Rosier is a proud, skilled, merciless fighter. He has a single-minded commitment to his cause— the supremacy of pureblood wizards. He will stop at nothing to achieve this and is fiercely loyal to the Death Eater cause and Lord Voldemort, even over himself. He is traditionalist and reserved, but violent and remorseless.

Being that Karkaroff names him as important, I think he rose quickly through the ranks after leaving school because of his skill and dedication. His impatience with what he sees as “frivolity and mind games,” as well as his preference for straightforward violence and direct action put him at odds with Lucius Malfoy, and in allegiance with Travers.

EVELYN MULCIBER (MULCIBER JR.):

My personal favourite Death Eater after Snape, though for very different reasons lol. We know he went to school with and was friends with Snape and Avery. Curiously he’s not named by Sirius in GoF, but I think this can just be put down to Sirius listing names as they occur to him rather than being wholly accurate. Mulciber and Avery’s sense of humour is described by Lily as ‘evil,’ and she describes Mulciber himself as ‘creepy.’ He attacked Gryffindor Mary MacDonald with unknown dark magic, for “a laugh,” according to Sev.

Personally, I think this is implied to be an attempted Imperius Curse, since Karkaroff tells the Wizengamot that the Imperius Curse was Mulciber’s speciality and that he “forced countless people to do horrific things.” Mulciber is sent to Azkaban at the end of the war.

From this we can conclude that he was either notorious enough not to be given the benefit of the doubt like Avery, or that he was loyal enough to not renounce Voldemort. We also have my favourite quote of all time— jkr said in an interview that Snape “wanted Lily, but he also wanted Mulciber.”

The Mulcibers are not part of the Sacred Twenty-eight, but as I’ve said previously, there could be various explanations for this. A Mulciber is part of Voldemort’s original Death Eaters, this is possibly Mulciber jr.’s father.

I think it’s pretty easy to deduce that Mulciber was sadistic and manipulative. I’ve written a lot about my interpretation of Mulciber on here— I see him as a narcissist, an opportunist, very skilled at identifying potential assets and manipulating people to his advantage. I think that Mulciber spotted Snape’s ability and put considerable effort into securing his friendship and loyalty, positioning himself as a sympathetic, understanding figure that Snape would admire and want to be friends with. The Imperius is just a literal form of manipulation, so the fact that this is Mulciber’s speciality leads me to think that he himself was a natural manipulator. He sees people as tools but is nevertheless very adept at preying on their desires and insecurities, he’s clever and has well-developed social skills.

His proclivity for the Imperius was no doubt incredibly useful for the Death Eaters, which is why he was given importance despite his youth, and he would have been more aligned with Lucius’s subtle, diplomatic approach rather than Travers and Rosier.

PRESTON AVERY (AVERY JR.)

My other detestable fave. Along with Mulciber, we know that Avery was friends with Snape in school, and that his sense of humour was ‘evil.’ There are a few things that distinguish Avery from Mulciber: for instance Mulciber was the instigator of the attack on Mary, not Avery, and also Avery escaped Azkaban by saying he was under the Imperius curse and did not attempt to seek Voldemort out.

In the graveyard, Avery flings himself at Voldemort’s feet and begs his forgiveness, specifically in a ‘shriek,’ before Voldemort tortures him. In OotP Avery gives Voldemort incorrect information about the prophecy in the Dept. of Mysteries, and is tortured for this mistake. Haha poor Avery never catches a break (he deserves it tho.)

An Avery is mentioned as being part of Riddle's gang in Slughorn's memory, this is possibly Avery's father. Karkaroff does not name him, meaning he was either unimportant or unknown to Karkaroff, or both.

Sirius says that Avery ‘wormed’ his way out of Azkaban, and given that Sirius knew him at school I think this is indicative of Avery’s character, as is his shrieking and flinging for Voldemort’s forgiveness. So in my mind he’s sly, devious, and self-serving, since unlike his fellows Mulciber and Rosier, he isn’t willing to die or be sent to Azkaban for Voldemort.

It's unclear why he would have told Voldemort that Bode could steal the prophecy-- perhaps he worked for the Ministry after the war.

I’ve leant quite heavily into the ‘evil sense of humour’ for Avery, and given him a very twisted, specifically misogynistic humour, as this is common in teenage boys (and I think it's a vague possibility that Mary’s attack might have been sexual in nature.) For Lily to mention him, Avery had to have pulled his own weight in the evil sense of humour department.

There’s a pathetic element to him too, he’s not quite as clever nor talented as Mulciber and Snape, though still conniving enough to avoid Azkaban. His begging for forgiveness in the graveyard suggests to me that he thought speaking up would be a strategic way to avoid Voldemort’s displeasure, and he was sadly mistaken. I think his claiming Bode could remove the prophecy was a similar, and similarly misjudged, attempt to gain favour.

AUGUSTUS ROOKWOOD

I actually think Rookwood should go above Avery, but Avery in my heart is a more relevant character, so there you are. But Rookwood is named by Karkaroff, right after Travers and Mulciber, and we know he was a spy based in the Department of Mysteries, a fact which was unknown to the Ministry until Karkaroff’s trial.

Ludo Bagman also describes “old Rookwood” as a friend of his dad’s, meaning he was probably an older gent, and Bagman also says “Rookwood kept talking about getting me a job in the Ministry later on.”

According to Karkaroff, Rookwood had a network of informants inside the Ministry and out— since we know one of these was the unwitting Bagman, it’s likely other informants were also unaware of what they were doing. Rookwood uses the promise of a Ministry job to wheedle info from Bagman, meaning he was presumably well-placed enough in the Ministry to be able to offer a job, and also clever and conniving enough to know how to manipulate people into giving him intel. (tbf Bagman was probably an easy mark, but Rookwood was able to spot that.)

Since Rookwood’s identity was unknown for so long and only given up by Karkaroff post-war, I think it’s safe to assume he was very competent as a spy, intelligent and careful. It’s likely that not many Death Eaters knew about him (as Karkaroff states, many of them didn’t know about each other) and I doubt the Order would have, either. It probably was just bad luck for Rookwood that Karkaroff somehow did find out at some point, since I think it’s most likely that Snape didn’t know— or else Dumbledore and the Wizengamot would have already been aware.

This for me means I can’t really include him much in my fic in anything other than hints and cameos. Since Bagman and his father both like him, I think his outward persona at least was probably charming and friendly. In his mugshot he's leaning against the frame and looking bored, which I think is indicative of his true personality: ruthless, cold, indifferent. The charming persona is a carefully and cleverly constructed mask.

RODOLPHUS LESTRANGE

The reason Rodolphus and his brother aren’t higher up is that I don’t think they were as nearly as important/relevant as Bellatrix. Outside of the Pensieve trial they’re barely ever mentioned, they’re present at a few battles but never given any protagonism. Tellingly, Bellatrix herself doesn’t mention or interact with her husband once. We know he was ‘tall and thickset,’ that he and his brother participated in the torture of the Longbottoms, and were among Voldemort’s loyal supporters who didn’t renounce him after the war.

A Lestrange is in Riddle's group at school- this is either the father/other relative of Rabastan and Rodolphus, since Sirius implying Rodolphus was in school with Bellatrix means it can't be Rodolphus himself.

My view of Rodolphus is that he followed his wife’s lead, as she was the dominant partner. I don’t think he was clever or talented or ambitious enough to distinguish himself as a leader in his own right, and that he was primarily useful to Bellatrix for his wealth and pureblood name. In my opinion Bellatrix didn’t really like her husband, in fact she almost just tolerated him while having affairs not only with Voldemort but other men (when Voldemort didn’t pay her attention) and Rodolphus was largely oblivious to this lol. The Lestrange brothers were decently ranked, but this is owing more to their wealth and pureblood name (and association with Bellatrix) rather than their ability.  

RABASTAN LESTRANGE

A lot of what I’ve said for Rodolphus goes for Rabastan, but I'll add a few things. First is that I think Rabastan provides an explanation for why Sirius names Bellatrix and Rodolphus as part of Snape’s group in school, even though this is unlikely given their ages. Rabastan was almost certainly the younger brother since Bellatrix would have married the Lestrange heir, he’s described as thinner and more nervous than his brother in the Pensieve, which also fits with him being younger.

So, my theory is that Sirius was just describing a specific ‘group of Slytherins’ as a whole throughout the years, and that there was some overlap and changing of members as people entered the school or graduated from it. Bellatrix was perhaps the leader of that group when she was at school, which would have included the younger Rabastan— then, if either Mulciber or Avery were slightly older than Sev, they’d have potentially been in Bellatrix’s group but almost certainly in Rabastan’s.

About Rabastan himself, the description of him being thin and his “eyes darting around the room” make me think he's slyer and more unassuming than his brother, easily overshadowed by Rodolphus and certainly Bellatrix. There’s something more calculating about him too, but his subservience to his brother and sister-in-law means he stays somewhat in the background.

WALDEN MACNAIR

We’re introduced to Macnair as an executioner working in the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures— however, it’s mentioned in the graveyard that Macnair wasn’t doing this job during the first war, and Voldemort then offers him “better victims.” It’s possible to interpret that Macnair was younger, since he wasn’t yet established in his career during the first war. This isn’t necessarily the case but Macnair is also described as muscular in PoA which gives the impression of a younger, fitter man.

Macnair is one of the Death Eaters who was sent to liaise with the giants. He didn’t search for Voldemort after the downfall, and the other thing to note is that Macnair is genuinely frustrated about not being able to execute Buckbeak.

So I think we can infer that Macnair is violent and bloodthirsty, with a particular penchant for cruelty towards animals/magical creatures. A connection can be made between Macnair being an animal executioner and the fact that he was sent to the giants. Personally I’ve used Macnair in a similar way, involving him in the recruitment of Fenrir Greyback and other werewolves.

The fact he uses an axe instead of magic to execute Buckbeak is odd; either this is a very outdated, inhumane practice of the Committee itself, or Macnair's choice because idk he just loves violence. I tend to think it's the first, though I'm sure Macnair has no complaints about it.

I’ve characterised Macnair as being generally smooth and swaggering, kind of debonair and very full of himself, literally just because of his muscles and moustache lol. But he has a cruel sense of humour, liking for violence and deep disdain for non-humans especially but also Muggles and Muggleborns.

FULGENCE NOTT

Not(t) much is known about Theodore Nott’s father, who is described as a ‘stooped man,’ and this plus his single line of dialogue (‘My Lord, I prostrate myself before you, I am your most faithful –’) paint a picture of a sycophantic, obsequious, pretentious but fairly pathetic man haha. He was likely decently ranked, like the Lestrange brothers, due to his family name. He escaped Azkaban.

Not only are the Notts part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, their ancestor Cantakerus Nott is also believed to be the author of that list. We also know that Nott Sr. was friendly with Slughorn and an old favourite of his, and that he’s a widower, having lost his wife when Theodore was young (this is probably supposed to be the death that Theodore witnessed.)

A Nott is also one of the Death Eaters waiting for Voldemort during his interview with Dumbledore, and in this case it’s likely the same Nott, meaning he was already serving Voldemort by the early 70s.

I don’t have much to add about Nott, his being an old favourite of Slughorn fits with his sycophantic personality, and with the idea that he was in Voldemort’s gang at school and part of the original Death Eaters. I've given him the unfortunate name Fulgence because he's so pathetic in such a pretentious way lol.

CORBAN YAXLEY:

I don’t think Yaxley was particularly high-ranking until around DH, when the power vacuum left by Lucius’s fall from grace provided him an opportunity. Snape names Yaxley in HBP as one of the Death Eaters who avoided Azkaban and never attempted to seek Voldemort out, and he wasn’t at the battle of the Dept. of Mysteries, but he was arrested at Hogwarts after Dumbledore’s death.

He has a 'heavy, brutal face' and 'blunt' features which I think gives a clue to his personality, but of the DEs in the Astronomy Tower he also seems to be the most sensible and focused on the mission. He also comes across as confident and self-assured when he speaks at Malfoy Manor in DH, while 'determined' to gain Voldemort's approval.

In the Astronomy Tower, he appears to be the senior Death Eater as he gives Greyback orders— however, I think it’s worth noting that the Death Eaters present on the Astronomy tower (except Snape) were not high-ranking in general. I think this is purposeful; Voldemort sent in expendable soldiers whose job it was to keep the Order busy while Draco or Snape assassinated Dumbledore, and it's also true that many high-ranking DEs were arrested at the Ministry at the end of OotP.

So, I think during the first war Yaxley was really a foot soldier, though one of the more competent ones. I think he was probably ambitious and sought to rise in the ranks, but it was the fact that he was lower-profile than someone like Mulciber or Bellatrix that allowed him to get close enough to Thicknesse to Imperiuse him in DH, then later become Head of Magical Law Enforcement.

Because of her notoriety the general public might have had a harder time accepting Bellatrix in that post, but since Yaxley was a relative unknown he was a good choice, even more so because he proved himself by Imperiusing Thicknesse. I think the same mostly holds true of the Carrows teaching at Hogwarts but I’ll get to that.

IGOR KARKAROFF

I almost didn’t include Karkaroff in this list because we do see quite a lot of him as a character, but I think there are a few things worth pointing out. First is that Karkaroff flees when the Dark Mark burns in GoF, and he gives up fellow Death Eaters to avoid Azkaban— inherently he is cowardly and disloyal, and also not wise enough to realise that he would certainly be tracked down in the end.

Second is the fact that Karkaroff is foreign. In DH before the Gringotts break-in, Travers treats ‘Dragomir Despard’ with distaste and obvious xenophobia, so I think the same would have applied to Karkaroff. On the other hand, Travers quite easily accepts the idea that they’d recruit a foreign wizard, so this is probably something they’d done in the past.

Like I said in Dolohov’s section, I think Karkaroff was recruited by Dolohov, since both names seem to be Russian. This personal connection also explains for me why Karkaroff would name Dolohov first.

Draco claims that Lucius knows Karkaroff, but this is likely Draco exaggerating his father’s importance, plus the fact that as Headmaster of Durmstrang Karkaroff would be of more relevance to Lucius than during the war.

Karkaroff doesn't name Lucius at his hearing; I think we can infer that the Death Eaters that he does name are those that he worked with, or else he would have named more people when he started getting desperate. In fact the order Karkaroff names them in (Dolohov > Rosier > Travers > Mulciber > Rookwood > Snape) might be somewhat indicative of who he knew best and considered most important. Karkaroff's testimony has been much more useful to me than it was to the Ministry haha, thanks Igor.

DEVEREUX WILKES

Pretty much nothing is known about Wilkes, other than the fact that they were a contemporary of Snape and died in the first war. Not even their gender is known.

So we’re free to do literally anything with Wilkes. I’ve chosen to interpret the fact that he died (my version is male, since there are very few female Death Eaters) as being due to incompetence rather than nobly going out fighting the way Rosier did. He’s sycophantic, entitled, and ambitious but all around rather pathetic, and not as skilled nor clever as he thinks he is. I don’t think he’d ever be more than a foot soldier. Again though, there’s no canon info to base anything off other than the fact that Wilkes was youngish and died— and also arguably the lack of information itself might imply Wilkes just wasn’t ever very important haha.

ALECTO AND AMYCUS CARROW

Lumping these guys together. The Carrows are fairly established characters so I won’t talk much about Alecto and Amycus themselves. Their speech comes across as more working-class than other Death Eaters, they’re present in the group that infiltrates Hogwarts in HBP (see Yaxley’s section for more on this) and they’re not mentioned in the graveyard despite avoiding Azkaban, so I tend to think that they were very low-ranked during the first war, basically expendable foot soldiers.

Like Yaxley, I think they were given their positions at Hogwarts because of their lack of notoriety, but unlike Yaxley I think they were relegated to a relatively easy job, under the guidance of Snape, because they weren’t useful or talented enough to be needed elsewhere.

It's also possible that Snape asked for the Carrows because they'd be easier to control than other Death Eaters.

Alecto Carrow is the only named female Death Eater apart from Bellatrix. Alecto is one of the Furies from Greek myth, vengeful goddesses who punish mortals, which I think is fitting.

JERVAISE CRABBE / TITUS GOYLE

I’m putting these together too because I’ve recently written an entire meta about Crabbe and Goyle and their dads and that’s already way too much for me. Also they’re basically indistinguishable from each other. Find that post here, the main thing is that I think they were also low-ranking foot soldiers. Beats me why Voldemort decided to specifically call them out in the graveyard.

Crabbe Sr. is present at the Department of Mysteries, Goyle Sr. is not, that's literally the only difference between them, so maybe Crabbe was a bit more important/talented/something than Goyle. Who cares, honestly.

FENRIR GREYBACK

Yes, Greyback is more relevant than many of the above. However, he’s almost certainly the lowest-ranking, as he never has a Dark Mark. In fact, I think that while he was aligned with the Death Eaters during the first war, he wasn’t actually formally recruited until around HBP, and he never had full Death Eater status. In Snape’s memory, Dumbledore comments that Voldemort has recruited Greyback, implying he hadn’t been recruited before that. Mainly I just wanted to point this out, because we do know quite a lot about Greyback as a character.

The other important thing is that Greyback is treated with contempt and revulsion by other Death Eaters, he’s generally subservient to them, even though some of them seem to fear him. My theory is that the Death Eaters were considering using Greyback during the first war but were not willing to afford him even informal Death Eater status-- they only did this later, when the reduction in ranks following the arrests at the Dept. of Mysteries necessitated more recruits. This is also why the Carrows and Yaxley would have become more important around this time.

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If you made it through all that I am very surprised. Obviously this is how these characters appear in my series The Darkest Days and in fact this list really started off as a way to organise my characters haha. But maybe it can be useful or interesting to someone, i don't know!

OTHER NOTES:

There are also Death Eaters known to have participated in the second wizarding war, but it’s never mentioned whether they participated in the first. Since I’ve already got way too many characters on my hands with the above, I’ve chosen to just not include them or bother fleshing them out lol. They may or may not have been there, in general I think it’s likely that they were.

These are: Thorfinn Rowle, Selwyn, Jugson, Gibbon. I think Jugson, given he was at the Dept. of Mysteries, and Rowle, given that characters recognise him from wanted posters, are the most likely to have participated in the first war. With the possible exception of Selwyn, all seem to be pretty low-ranking.

The Three Dads: so these are the fathers (or other relatives) of Avery, Mulciber, and Rosier, who are all part of Voldemort’s original Death Eaters. They are mentioned in Pensieve memories but never in the context of either war. My view is that in these cases (Rosier, Avery, Mulciber) the sons were more active as Death Eaters during the later years of the war, on the battlefield and otherwise, whereas the fathers acted more as shadowy benefactors/financial backers for Voldemort’s interests, using their money and social influence and sending their sons to fight for them, but also having plausible deniability if their sons got caught.

Even though they’re not very relevant themselves, I actually have fleshed them out a bit just because their sons are important characters in my fic. None of this is really directly based in canon, since there’s no info, rather I’ve built their characters around their sons. So this isn't canon, just read if you're interested:

Aymeric Rosier (Rosier Sr.): I see Rosier Sr. as cold, distant, and domineering. He is cruel to his sons and inflicts harsh punishments on them, and is also an avid Nogtail hunting enthusiast. Their house is filled with hunting trophies, dead and stuffed animals— many of them exotic animals hunted on holidays abroad, mainly to India and Kenya, where he has business interests. You can see where I’m going with this— an imperialist, basically.

Erastus Mulciber (Mulciber Sr.): I mentioned that the Mulcibers aren't part of the Sacred 28, in my mind this isn't because the Mulcibers aren't a prestigious and wealthy pureblood family, but because a specific relative ruined it for them in recent history by marrying a Muggle-born. All members of this branch of the family mysteriously disappeared on holiday in 1942. Mulciber Sr. himself is for this reason very proud, haughty, defensive of his family's superiority, and he has passed down these traits to his son.

Enoch Avery (Avery Sr.): I mentioned that I characterise Avery jr. as a misogynist, and this comes from his father, who is a known rake and frequently conducts extramarital affairs. He is distant from his family and has high, unreachable expectations of his son, who is eternally trying to please him to no avail. Unlike his son, Avery Sr. is charming, charismatic, competent. Avery jr. simultaneously resents his father and seeks his approval.

There’s also a Lestrange mentioned in Slughorn's memory, but personally I think it’s quite possible that he’s dead since Rodolphus and Bellatrix are in possession of the Lestrange vault and fortune by the time Voldemort hides the Horcrux.

[maxdibert]

I really can’t take the “mudblood” insult that seriously. I see people in the fandom comparing it to racial slurs, but Wizard “blood status” isn’t the same as race, it’s a aristocratic class hierarchy. So calling someone a “mudblood” just sounds like a mean way of calling someone peasant or pleb.

In my country, Spain, many regions have their own languages and cultures, and there is a variety of nationalist movements regarding this. Some are more peaceful, while others have had armed terrorist groups that carried out attacks against civilians, and others simply opt for institutional approaches with the government.

Both of my parents are left-wing catalan nationalists because it was common among young people from families that spoke the language during the 1970s, at the end of the dictatorship (which heavily oppressed languages other than Spanish and promoted absolute centralism and repression of other internal cultures) and during the transition to democracy. My parents are quite different in terms of character and life perspectives, but they strongly agree on this point: our language and culture must be preserved above all else, and they see Spanish as a "threat."

My parents are leftist, very progressive, and people who, in their time, were way ahead of their era. They taught me from a young age to normalize many social issues that were considered rare at the time. But still, every time I’ve mentioned a guy I’m dating or have met, the questions are always the same: Does his family speak the language? Does he speak it at home? Do his parents speak it? And beyond that, they’ve even asked if the surnames are of Catalan origin. Because this is very common among families that prioritize the preservation of language and regional culture: knowing whether a surname is regional or not.

My father wouldn’t mind if his grandchildren had a Galician or Basque surname if it couldn’t be Catalan, but a Spanish surname? I know he wouldn’t oppose it, but he wouldn’t be thrilled about it. My mother wouldn’t oppose it either, of course, but I know that if I end up with a long-term partner whose family is not bilingual and doesn’t have our traditions, but instead comes from a "Castilianized" family, she wouldn’t be entirely happy. Because that’s how nationalist thinking works in a minority that wants to preserve its customs and way of life—even if there’s no conscious prejudice or discrimination, there’s a desire for one’s children to marry people with surnames from their culture, to speak their language, and to have families of the same background. Or, if not exactly from their language, at least from other regions with minority cultures, because that way, the culture is perpetuated, and it also feels like a way to push back against the dominant culture that tries to absorb the others.

What I mean by this is that the issue of blood purity in the HP universe has always felt very similar to the nationalist mindset I’m talking about: a social minority with its own customs and traditions that feels threatened by the increasing dominance of people who don’t belong to that same culture and who, moreover, pose a risk to their customs. These are very closed communities that want to preserve a certain "purity" in their descendants—not at a racial level but for an intrinsically cultural reason.

We’re not talking about a structure of economic and political oppression in which these communities have systematically oppressed others. There has been no plundering of their lands, no trafficking of people, no dehumanization that led to slavery. There has been no entire social, economic, and cultural framework that relegated Muggle-borns to being treated as less than animals. Muggle-borns have had rights from the very beginning: they could move freely in the magical world, enter the same shops, go to the same banks, and eat in the same places as pure-bloods. They could marry pure-bloods without issue. There have been no laws granting pure-bloods political authority over Muggle-borns. They have been equals under the law and have had the same rights. They have been able to study at the same school, share the same common room, dormitories, and dining hall. They have been able to access jobs, become professors, or work at the Ministry.

There is absolutely no racist-based country where, before civil rights movements, racialized people were on the same level as white people as political subjects. Therefore, comparing blood purity to racism is completely inaccurate. Doing so is simplistic, ignorant, and disrespectful. Blood purity has much more in common with European nationalist movements like the ones I’ve mentioned—those with an independence-based background in their own countries.

My mother and father probably have nothing in common with Lucius and Narcissa in terms of their worldview since the Malfoys are conservative aristocrats, but they do share one key trait: they clearly have their preferences. My mother would rather see me with a right-wing person from a Catalan-Valencian, Basque, or Galician family than with a "castizo" Spaniard—just as the Malfoys would likely prefer their son to be with Ginny Weasley rather than a Muggle-born.

This is why many people compare the Death Eaters to the IRA in the 90s. To me, they resemble the nationalist terrorist group ETA here in Spain far more.

I’m sorry, but no, they are not the KKK. That’s an entirely Americanized view that has nothing to do with the social and cultural context of 90s Britain or Europe in general. Americans who don’t understand the social and political dynamics of late-20th-century Europe should just keep their mouths shut—because not everything revolves around their sociocultural context. Libraries are free, and opening a history book doesn’t cost money.

[myimaginationplain]

do you ever think about how Ohkubo extremely casually dropped the fact that Spirit & Kami were teen parents & then proceeded to never expound upon that fact or bring it up ever again despite it explaining a whole lot about them & Maka

[the-south-north]

percy weasley and regulus black mirror each other

their families have high expectations of them, which they work hard to fulfill

percy and regulus are the "good" sibling, doing everything their mothers ask of them, never causing trouble, etc.

they idolize the ministry (especially crouch sr.) and the death eaters (voldemort), respectively

with familial approval/encouragement, they join the ministry and death eaters, respectively

each pursued their ends further than their parents were willing to go. percy trusted the ministry more than dumbledore and achieved a higher position than his father–which his family did not support. orion and walburga black eventually change their tune on voldemort as well (i believe they thought him too dangerous).

eventually, percy and regulus defect–while hoping to protect their families. percy reunites with the weasleys at the battle of hogwarts, while regulus dies alone, in secret, so that his parents don't suffer the consequences of his betrayal. both percy and regulus could have been sorted into the other's house, since familial pressure (the blacks are always slytherin, the weasleys are always gryffindor) played a major role in their sorting, rather than just their characters. au fodder.

[pangaeaseas]

Sirius Black: The Perfect Scapegoat

made a post like this once but it wasn't very good so i'm going to say again that Sirius being framed as Voldemort's right hand man, which seems obviously ridiculous on the face of it, actually makes sense.

Like yeah, anyone with any detailed knowledge of the war (so order members, probably ministry workers highly involved in the war effort', and death eaters) would know that Sirius's real crime wasn't being Voldemort's right hand man--that title would more accurately go to someone like Lucius Malfoy (poor imperius victim) or Bellatrix Lestrange (seems to have been captured after Sirius and sexism works against her)--Sirius's real crime was being a spy for Voldemort and betraying the Potters, then killing witnesses in an effort to cover this up. So on the face of it it seems odd that the popular imagination would call Sirius the right hand man of Voldemort. Especially considering that it seems unlikely someone who graduated Hogwarts in 1978 would have a prominent position in Death Eater hierarchy when you remember the war had been going on for eight years by then.

However, no one with knowledge of the 'real' situation would actually have any interest in correcting the narrative of right hand man Sirius once it emerged (and it's entirely possible the Ministry had a hand in this misconception emerging, because it's a very convenient misconception).

The Death Eaters would have known full well that Sirius wasn't a prominent member of Death Eater leadership, and might have even suspected he wasn't even the Order spy, but no Death Eater was going to stand up and say 'hey, as a Death Eater, I know Sirius Black wasn't one!" It's very convenient misdirection for them: Sirius's associates, which by the time of his arrest would be unlikely to include actual Death Eaters as he'd left his real Death Eater relatives behind years ago, would have public opprobrium and suspicion fall on them. Anyone investigating Death Eaters starting from the assumption that Sirius Black was a prominent member of the leadership will go barking straight up the wrong tree. Sirius the motorcycle-riding rebel against pureblood hierarchy is a useful person to accuse of being a Death Eater: the real problem is men with long hair who love Muggles and hate our family values. The problem is societal outcasts, not upstanding citizens. And Sirius is just believable enough as a Death Eater too: he has a history of doing dangerous things at school, his family is famous for its use of Dark Magic, and he looks pretty guilty because he was caught laughing in the blown up street. It's also helpful if you are a Death Eater using the Imperius Defense for there to be a 'real' Death Eater caught. You could blame Sirius for imperiusing you, and you can also point to him if anyone says 'hmm, seems awful strange all the accused Death Eaters got the Imperius Defense, maybe some of them are lying' because he's the exception that proves the rule, the one real Death Eater who can be used to deflect accusations of faking the Imperius Defense.

In the context of only a few people being found guilty of willingly being Death Eaters, it also makes a lot of sense that the public would see Sirius as a prominent Death Eater: there simply aren't many openly known Death Eaters to pick from! Sirius's accused crime seems to have made a strong impression on people. And the other Death Eaters we know were sent to Azkaban or publicly just weren't as exciting, I guess--Rookwood was boring, a spy within the Unspeakables, Bellatrix was a woman, Barty Crouch Jr was a poor innocent baby, Karkaroff was a foreigner and a spineless worm, Snape was a spy for Dumbledore, the Lestrange brothers are just boring I guess (and Sirius seems to have been arrested before BCJ and the Lestranges so he was first. Yay priority.)

Dumbledore doesn't have any reason to correct the idea that Sirius was a prominent figure in the Death Eater hierarchy either. He thought Sirius was a spy, so had no reason to intervene on his behalf. I also think it would have been embarrassing for him to have trusted the spy and gotten his Order members killed, so why would he publicize his own failure? It's a pride thing. Sirius the right hand man is way less embarrassing than Sirius the spy even Dumbledore missed.

And in the Ministry's effort to restore public order and avoid panic, Sirius was a very useful instrument. Here is a successfully caught Death Eater! No need to worry! Also he's just crazy and Not Like Us. He's not normal. Normal people aren't Death Eaters. Everything is under control. They also wouldn't want to publicize Dumbledore's vigilante movement either since that weakens their claim to be leaders of Magical Britain.

The public narrative of Voldemort's first defeat goes something like this: after years of war between Dumbledore and the Ministry against Voldemort, by mysterious unknown magical means, baby Harry Potter was able to defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort. This freed his many, many, MANY Imperius victims from their curses and allowed the Ministry to establish safety and security for the populace, after rounding up a few stragglers who in their madness committed isolated atrocities. Something like this broad idea is how people not heavily involved in the war would have understood it.

Every element of this narrative has a purpose. Open conflict between the Ministry and Dumbledore benefits neither of them, so the existence of Dumbledore's vigilante organization separated from the Ministry would not have been publicized, and many people who knew about it vaguely might well have assumed what Dumbledore was doing to gather fighters against Voldemort was under Ministry auspices. Harry inexplicably being able to defeat Voldemort discourages people from digging into dangerous magic to understand what happened and gives the public a nice feel-good story--and a baby is a more politically beneficial hero than young vigilantes Lily and James, who, to the Ministry's thinking, might be risky symbols especially given their mixed-blood marriage (if youbelieve that Lily intentionally sacrificed herself to kill Voldemort, the pureblood supremacy motive for this narrative is even more important). Prominent citizens accused of being Death Eaters were actually Imperius victims, which allows the Ministry to avoid reckoning with the depth of Death Eater penetration of British society. The Ministry had everything under control once Voldemort was dead, with Sirius and the Lestranges being isolated exceptions motivated by fanaticism and insanity.

Sirius's easy capture allows the Ministry to claim it had controlled Voldemort, and that he would never return. There was no ongoing war, and thus nothing to be dissatisfied with the Ministry about. The Ministry didn't fail to contain Voldemort, because it had successfully captured Sirius. Sirius may have committed an atrocity but capturing him (initially) wasn't difficult, allowing the Ministry to demonstrate its power and the correctness of its harsh anti-Death Eater policies.

And Sirius and the Lestranges are also ideal poster children for framing the Death Eaters as politically isolated crazy Dark wizards and not a movement with broad support. It's no accident that Sirius is called a madman, a Dark wizard without parallel. He's a mystery. He acted alone even though he was supposedly a prominent Death Eater--because there weren't many Death Eaters! No one supported Voldemort! Of course, there was actually far more sympathy for Voldemort's cause than anyone post-war would like to admit, and much of the upper class was heavily involved in the Death Eater movement. Using Sirius as the scapegoat allows for this to be ignored, because of instead of analyzing the ideological content of Voldemort's movement, which the Ministry absolutely wouldn't want to do because we know Voldemort was anti-Ministry, it can just claim that all of its opponents were crazy, like Sirius supposedly was. Instead of having to say that the call was coming from inside the house, Sirius the scapegoat allows deflection of any criticism of the Ministry, its response to the war, and Magical British society as a whole.

We can assume this is where the right-hand-man story came from, because the Ministry repeats this exact story--Sirius the madman acting alone--when it needs a scapegoat again, in the canon era. By GoF Dumbledore is no longer convinced Sirius was the spy, but we see both the Ministry and the Death Eaters, who don't want to act openly yet, using the idea of Sirius for their political advantage, making it easy to see why the false narrative of him as Voldemort's right hand man was so convenient earlier.

[littlebigmouse]

One worldbuilding detail Soul Eater really had going for it was the way they explained everyone having weird, unique and horror-movie inspired names such as Soul Eater, Black*Star, Franken Stein.

The school all these kids attend allows them to sign up with any name they want and to change their names once every six months.

You better believe if I were a thirteen year old with the ability to turn into a scythe and eat monster souls I'd call myself Soul Eater too. "But isn't his original name 'Soul Evans'? That's already a weird first name." He's from a family of musicians. He probably has a cousin called R'n'B.

It also made for the very nice touches in charaterisation where you'd see a character calling himself "Ox Ford" and knew immediately which brand of arrogant, insufferable child-prodigy this guy represented and you'd be absolutely right. Why is there a girl who can turn into a lantern who's name is "Jackie O'Lantern"? Because she's the funniest teenager on the squad.

Shoutout to Maka Albarn for taking her education so seriously she decided to not get herself a fun name, and to Justin Law, who let's say, subverted expectations.

It also just makes total sense for their wacky and non-conforming headmaster to not give a shit about names, or birth names, or gender norms. Death said trans rights, yo.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Did you ever write a meta about the First Wizarding War?

I am just so curious about it, although we know almost nothing of it. I know in fanfictions, people tend to make the war something very open, very active, with the Order fighting the Death Eaters in the streets but it feels... off to me?

Like, first of all, how would they know when the DE attack? By the time they would learn about the attack, it's most likely the DE would already have left. And overall, when you read about the 2nd Wizarding War, they never attack place like Diallon Alley or Hogsmeade, but rather kidnap people like Ollivander and Fortescue. Which make me wonder how Voldemort was able to ask teens James and Lily to join him (like said in JK's interview).

When you read what Arthur said about this war:

"You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed. The terror it inspired… you have no idea, you're too young. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you're about to find inside… Everyone's worst fear… the very worst."

Well, it sounds more like they would attack people at their home, so the DE are more likely to target people when they attack, while they would cause havrock in the Muggle world. Something that made sense since they don't want to destroy the Wizarding World and the wizards.

Although to be fair, it's not like they have much place to attack in the Wizarding world: the only place we know are Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and the Ministry.

I just have a hard time imagining how the war would be like, considering the Ministry was not taken by Voldemort. It's like this world is too small for a war of that kind.

Also, it makes me wonder what was really the role of the Order? Like what did they do? What kind of mission would they do? How would they know when to intervene? I know Remus had missions with werewolf during the 2nd war, but we don't know if he had the same during the 1st. Sirius was away busy with a mission during Harry's first birthday, but I wonder what he was doing. Was it a last minute battle?

"No, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the Wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having purebloods in charge. They weren’t alone either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things… They got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first.”

It's implied people actually thought Voldemort had the right ideas, which makes me wonder if back then, the muggleborns were less accepted. What was the climate that made it happen? Was it that a bit like with jews, which is how Hitler got to powers?

Also the line in bold always interested me because it didn't feel like the Blacks knew about the Horcruxes, so I wonder what else would give them cold feet.

Sorry for the long text, I just never found someone to talk about it. Nobody seems to get me when I try to think too much about how it was like lol

Hello 👋

Honestly, this is really interesting and I have written about the first war as part of my Voldemort analysis here and here and also here and here. And I'm honestly really curious about the timeline of the first war and what exactly the Order and the DE actually did.

I would say you're right about it not being a war. I mean, for a war, you need armies and countries, and there wasn't a single army involved in this war.

The DE are somewhere between a cult and a terrorist organization. In the first war (and in the second one while Voldemort manages them, tbh) their operations are limited to more targeted killings and in general spreading fear and chaos while keeping a not-super-high death tool (in the first war) and avoiding hurting muggles when possible. Like, up until 1979, basically no one died. We have less than 10 unnamed and named characters that might've died before that and the rest died afterwards. Like, almost all deaths happened in the final 3 years of the war.

Then you have the ministry, which doesn't have an army, it has law enforcement. The aurors and DMLE are not an army and don't really function as one. They are trained to catch criminals, not to fight large-scale battles (not that there were any battles in the first war).

The Order, which if we're generous we can call a paramilitary group (but realistically it's a vigilante armed civilian group).

So, it's hardly a war when it's small-scale attacks and skirmishes fought between a cult/terrorist organization, the police, and an armed civilian group. Its timeline and death tool and how it operates as a whole really doesn't fit a war. Well, it's a terror guerilla sort of war, but not your traditional kind of war. The second Voldemort war was more of a real war than the first one, and even that wasn't a traditional war in any sense and I would hardly call it one. But at least it had battles. Like 2.5 of them.

I outlined more of the timeline here with the evidence for it, but in general:

1967ish - Voldemort returns to the UK and has his interview with Dumbledore. At this point, he already has somewhat of a following. Unclear if these were his "friends" from school or their children, but they are likely the older "friends" from school:

“Then if I were to go to the Hog’s Head tonight, I would not find a group of them — Nott, Rosier, Mulciber, Dolohov — awaiting your return? Devoted friends indeed, to travel this far with you on a snowy night, merely to wish you luck as you attempted to secure a teaching post.”

(HBP)

1970 - the war starts.

“You can’t blame them,” said Dumbledore gently. “We’ve had precious little to celebrate for eleven years.”

(PS)

Since Dumbledore says this on November 1981, it means the DE started operating in late 1970. Arthur tells us Death Eaters outnumbered the Order 20 to 1, but I think the Order only started operating later in the decade.

I believe that in the early 70s, they weren't too violent yet. There were some attacks, some chaos similar to what we see in the World Cup perhaps:

I suppose they had a few drinks tonight and couldn’t resist reminding us all that lots of them are still at large. A nice little reunion for them,” he finished disgustedly.

(GoF)

Attacks that strawn fear and unrest and stretched the ministry and the DMLE thin with how many obliviations had to be done — but no one died, not yet. At least, no one important. We know all of the Order members that died were only killed after the infamous photo was taken much later, so it seems in these early days of the war, they didn't really kill anyone perhaps a few muggles here and there (but not as many as the fandom sometimes like to think!) but no wizards died, at least not at first.

I assume this period is mostly marked by small-ish riots and growing normalization of anti-muggle and anti-muggleborn propaganda.

This is the point where Voldemort amassed his followers and purebloods like Walburga and Orion Black thought he had the right idea. Even during the time in the books, muggles are seen as beneath wizards, and muggleborns like Hermione are quietly pressured into not talking about their muggle families because no one cares. Muggleborns like Hermione and Ted Tonks clearly leave their muggle families behind and don't look back and that's accepted as the norm in the wizarding world.

Even in the 90s we see Slughorn is surprised Hermione, the muggleborn, is so talented. Bigotry is still very much present and as I calculated here, muggleborns are only around 5% of the population, with the majority being purebloods (or wizard-raised half-bloods). The blood purity agenda was always there, Voldemort didn't even believe in it himself, he just used it because it was an easily accessible platform that was just there. It was an easy way to gain followers and create unrest, so he took it. It was opportunistic.

So, in that way, yes, it is similar to Nazi Germany. Antisemitism was already there and prevalent in the culture for centuries, Hitler made use of the ideology already present and normalized it, and even made it righteous to believe in his horrid and bigoted ideology. He pushed the culture to more extremes, but the ideas and philosophies were already there, he didn't invent antisemitism in Germany. It was opportunistic. It didn't come out of nowhere and it wasn't just recent either. Antisemitism has a long history in Europe which I'm not going to go into in this post.

1975 - the war gets more violent and wizards are actually killed. We know from Pottermore that:

Eugenia Jenkins 1968 - 1975 Jenkins dealt competently with pure-blood riots during Squib Rights marches in the late sixties, but was soon confronted with the first rise of Lord Voldemort. Jenkins was soon ousted from office as inadequate to the challenge.

(From Pottermore)

It's said Jenkins was ousted from office "soon" after the rise of Voldemort, which again, suggests the more violent attacks only started mid-70s, around 1974 and 1975. From the list of deaths in the post I already linked throughout this post I posed the deaths that ousted her from office were Mr. and Mrs. Bones who we don't have a death date for and were likely important enough in the magical community to send the shockwaves of war that would get the minister kicked out of office. After all, you need something big to rock the wizarding community, a few muggle deaths aren't going to cut it.

(Also the mention of pure-blood riots earlier in the 60s show blood purity was nothing new, just something Voldemort took advantage of that was already there)

This is the point where Walburga and Orion probably got the cold feet Sirius mentioned. Because it's not just muggles and muggleborns anymore. Two pureblood wizards were killed — and that scared the shit out of purebloods who were a little smarter. The realization Voldemort would kill them too if he thought it necessary. It's not that they grew to care about muggleborns or blood traitors, it was self-interest. They realized that Voldemort didn't have any limits and that they weren't safe just because their blood was pure. That's at least, my take on it.

1976 - The Order of the Pheonix is founded

The Order of the Phoenix was likely founded around 1976-1977 after Voldemort and the DE got more violent and a few people actually died and it became clear to Dumbledore the ministry couldn't handle it on their own.

I believe the Order was kinda late to the party (considering how late Dumbledore was when dealing with Grindlewald). I think he advised the ministry on what to do and really hoped the ministry and the DMLE could resolve it at first. When it appeared they couldn't, that's when he founded the Order.

Now, you're right, the first war doesn't seem to have had any actual battles, my guess is that is was as I mentioned above — targeted attacks and skirmishes.

During the first war, Voldemort holds a pretty tight leash on his Death Eaters and who they kill. That's why they kill at homes and kill only specific ministry personnel and Order members for the most part. It's very targeted and specific. They aren't rounding up muggleborns as Lupin says these laws were new in the second war:

“People won’t let this happen,” said Ron. “It is happening, Ron,’; said Lupin. “Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak.”

(DH)

This is only in the second war. In the first one, there was no muggleborn registry or compulsive attendance at Hogwarts. The first war was all targeted terror attacks. The DE didn't have the ministry the way they did in the second one. Yes, they had quite a few members in the ministry who probably tried to pass various laws, but it wasn't the complete control they had in 1997-1998.

I assume, what the Order did in these years, was try to gain intelligence about where and when these attacks would happen so they could wait for the Death Eaters there. Again, sort of skirmish warfare and not quite open battles. Very few combatants were probably present for each of these fights.

Most of the Order missions would've been along the lines of:

Protecting expected DE targets

Recon missions and gaining intelligence through various means

Blocking DE in the ministry from getting the intel they are after or passing their laws.

Stuff that is more targeted and doesn't require a full-scale army.

1980 - The Prophecy and Potters going into hiding

(Edit: More notes regarding the timing of the photo and corrections to this section here. James and Lily went into hiding in the winter of 1980, but the Order's photo was taken while James and Lily were in hiding in July 1981, meaning all the Order members died in the 4 months between Harry's birthday and the end of the war)

The prophecy was made about two months before Harry was born:

He stepped forward. Not as tall as Ron, he had to crane his neck to read the yellowish label affixed to the shelf right beneath the dusty glass ball. In spidery writing was written a date of some sixteen years previously, and below that: S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D. Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter

(OotP)

We also know from Harry's birthdate that Lily would've gotten pregnant with him around late October 1979. Due to how the Fidelius Charm works I believe the Potters went into hiding before Harry was born, right after the Prophecy was made, so around May 1980. All this means the photo Moody shows Harry was taken at some point in 1979 or early 1980 before Lily's stomach was showing with the pregnancy, but I'm leaning towards late 1979.

This means that almost all deaths in the war (and all the deaths of the Order) happened after 1979. This was probably caused by two things:

Voldemort escalating for some reason (after 1980 the prophecy might've had a hand in the escalation of violence for various reasons I discussed in the linked posts)

Wormtail started spying mid-1980:

“DON’T LIE!” bellowed Black. “YOU’D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY!”

(PoA)

So it's possible Wormtail revealed exactly where and when the Order was waiting for the DE and the DE could get the jump on them with more wizards than the Order thought there would be.

These two combined factors practically wiped out most of the first Order.

But we're still talking about skirmishes, just larger ones with a higher death tool, but still no large-scale battles like the Battle of Hogwarts. Enlisting the giants wasn't really because Voldemort used them in the war, there were no battles to use them in. They were a threat, kinda like nukes. It was something you have so your enemies won't attack you. Werewolves were similar, although they were probably employed in some of the skirmishes.

This time period since 1979 is probably when this quote from Sirius becomes the case:

“Imagine that Voldemort’s powerful now. You don’t know who his supporters are, you don’t know who’s working for him and who isn’t; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You’re scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing . . . the Ministry of Magic’s in disarray, they don’t know what to do, they’re trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere . . . panic . . . confusion . . . that’s how it used to be.

(GoF)

More wizards are now being killed/targeted. Most of them probably get tortured/imprisoned rather than killed. Like Neville says about the Carrows:

“Doesn’t matter. They don’t want to spill too much pure blood, so they’ll torture us a bit if we’re mouthy but they won’t actually kill us.”

(DH)

These are terror attacks meant to create compliance. So most are tortured, kidnapped as ransom and assurance of loyalty, or imperious rather than killed. Those that are killed would only be those that really have no hope to turn them onside — like the Order, hence why Voldemort allowed them to be killed.

1980 - The added deaths and skirmishes caused another minister to be kicked out of office:

Harold Minchum 1975 - 1980 Seen as a hard-liner, he placed even more Dementors around Azkaban, but was unable to contain what looked like Voldemort’s unstoppable rise to power.

(From Pottermore)

As I mentioned, in the final years of the war, shit got way worse with more deaths happening in the span of these 3 years than all the 8 years of "war" before combined. So another minister who doesn't know how to crack down on the terror organization is kicked out.

October 1981 - Voldemort goes after the Potters and the war ends.

And we know what happens from here.

These are my thoughts about the timeline of the first war and how it went. We don't know as much about it as I would've liked to know, but this is my impression of how it went down more or less.

[changetheprophecy81]

Here's the thing. The main reason voldemort's circle is mostly male is not entirely because they're purposefully keeping it that way. Lyk I'm not saying they were feminists lol, but we barely get any evidence of the DEs being sexist. The only piece of evidence we get towards this is the old inheritance rule in the pureblood families that the property passes down to the male heir and his children, and only passes on to the female if there's no inheritor, but lyk i said, that's not the main reason for the DEs being exclusively male. Interestingly enough, we hear more misogynistic stuff from Rita Skeeter and Molly Weasley than any of the DEs, and from ron than draco (don't get me wrong, i actually like how rowling didn't shy away from representing ppl's views in a way that's, tho not acceptable ofc, appropriate to their age and time period, but it's interesting nonetheless)

The main reason the DEs are mostly male is because of Rowling's idea of what is and isn't acceptable behavior for a woman. She seems to have this belief that women are inherently 'purer' and more morally superior compared to men; even when they do morally questionable or downright criminal stuff, it's either not viewed as such or is justifiable according to her (like with hermione scarring marietta's face and merope essentially drugging and raping tom riddle sr). Yes, there are female villains, but they are very limited in number and don't have the nuance and complexity given to the male ones. Hell, most of the time they don't even have a proper backstory. The only complex female character who is not amongst the good guys is petunia. Umbridge imo is very interesting, and ik the fandom loves bellatrix, but personally I'm not that taken by her canon version, tho i love how she's written in the fandom as ppl make her way more fleshed out than she actually is. Alecto Carrow is mentioned a couple of times ig. Narcissa's beliefs and association with a terrorist organization are forgiven because she apparently redeemed herself through mother love (funny how harry's long list of father figures can remain interesting, flawed human beings with a well rounded personality and story, and still die for him. Almost as if they're allowed to exist without gender specific obligations).

So in Rowling's view, the women in question are not just villains because of their actions and beliefs (you'd think that would be enough), but also because of the added factor of not fitting into her idea of conventional womanhood, which is the actual reason why the ratio of female villains to the male ones is soo disproportionately low; it has little to do with Voldemort and his DEs or their ideology.

[iamnmbr3]

Given that the Malfoys disdain the Weaseleys not just for their politics (i.e. being "blood traitors") but also for their relative lack of wealth, I cannot imagine that penniless Tom Riddle would have been greeted too warmly by the monied purebloods in Slytherin even if they knew he could speak Parseltongue.

And I don't think that even if his Gaunt lineage had been known from the start it would actually have helped him that much. I doubt the Gaunts were viewed as too respectable given their state of utter poverty.

[velvet4510]

Ok but in no universe would Cedric Diggory EVER become a Death Eater under ANY circumstances. The Cursed Child can go curse itself into oblivion.