Dumbledore in Hogwarts Legacy – A Theory
Welcome Magical Gamers. Could Dumbledore be part of the Hogwarts Legacy main story?
Join me as I delve into the realms of conspiracy theories!
The Theory
Here is the basic theory. Love it or hate it. To be honest, I’m not sure I love it.
Albus Dumbledore is a key part of the story and tied into the ancient magic storyline.
If you are still reading then thank you. I’m going to now go into the reasons that support this theory, some are more circumstantial than others.
The Time Period
Looking at the newspaper in the trailer we are starting our adverture in 1890. For reasons unknown we start in our 5th year, academic year 1890/91. This assumes that the paper is relativly current of course.
Why this date when you have the whole of history?
The date is two years before Albus Dumbledore attends Hogwarts in for his first year 1892/93. This makes him 9 when we start the academic year.
Ariana, Albus’s sister was born in 1884/85. When she was six years old she was attacked by muggles. Hp-lexicon.org states this is either at the end of 1890 or the first half of 1891. This is the academic year that the game is set in. After Ariana was attack her father Percival tracked down and savagely attacked the muggle boys. Percival was convicted and sent to Azkaban, where he would eventually die. The family moved from Mould-on-the-Wold to Godric’s Hollow.
This co-incidence of dates is rather compelling given the huge history of time Hogwarts has been around for. Although the development team may have been more constrained than it first appears.
The main sport of the Wizarding World is of course Gobstones. I’m joking of course, it’s Quidditch! Although we cannot play the game it’s sure to feature somehow.
Here lies the catch, according to ‘Quidditch through the Ages’ the familiar scoring hoops were originally baskets. The hoops were introduced in 1883. This sets the earliest our story can be if the developers want to include Quiddich in some sort of non playable form and also maintain the current form we know.
Iconography and Dumbledores Wand
Once you see the swirl of the ancient magic you see it everywhere. From the logo itself to the various areas found in the trailers.
Have another look at the trailers and you will see it everywhere. This is a design concept used by developers and film producers. In the music for the Harry Potter movies, Hedwig’s them was changed over the course of the films to show the darkness, it was also used in certain scenes to link back to Harry’s younger years.
In The Matrix they used a green hue to indicate scene within The Matrix as opposed to the real world which was blue.
In the context of Dumbledore we have to take a look at footage prior to him obtaining the Elder Wand. Albus won the Elder Wand in a duel against Gellert Grindelwald in 1945, well after when the game is set.
So what wand did Albus have? For this we turn to the Fantastic Beasts movies. The want pictured above is the one that belonged to Albus originally. What a lovely looking swirl. Looks remarkably like the Ancient Magic swirl.
Is “The Child” Dumbledore?
According to the trailers the Goblins are after control of the Ancient Magic. The Goblin Ranrok pictured above has even made an uneasy alliance with Dark Wizards such as Victor Rookwood.
In this exchange the dialogue goes as follows:
Ranrok: You said you could get to the child when they came to Hogsmeade. That all you needed was a distraction. I gave you a distraction.
Victor: I just watched a student take down your distraction. Who is this child? What are you not telling me?
This dialogue is heavily cut so there is more said. What I find interesting is the switch between the words Child and Student. The two could well be the same person but what if they are not?
Could Ranrok have made some sort of distraction in order for Victor to kidnap a child. Could our character (a student) have intervened in the distraction and prevented the kidnapping?
If they were one and the same would Victor have said: I just watched this child take down your distraction. Who are they?
Also shouldn’t a distraction be to draw people away from the child and not involve them directly?
So why would they go for Dumbledore as a child?
We know prophecies exist. Perhaps one is told about Dumbledore defeating Grindelwald or Voldemort? Perhaps Ranrok sees a better future with Dumbledore out of the way?
Chudley Cannons 21
This is a funny one. In the gameplay trailer there is a poster for Chudley Cannons playing in the 21st Cup. This was 1892 and not the 1890/91 year that we attend.
Troy Leavitt, who used to work on the game raises this as a potential mistake.
He later clarified that this was actually correct and was not a mistake.
This could mean that we are looking at a two year timespan or perhaps the game is set in the 1891/92 school year and the newspaper was a year old. This would mean that Dumbledore starts Hogwarts the year after we start, perhaps someone doesn’t want him to?
It could also mean this is a promotional poster but I feel this is very unlikely. The only team with a poster happens to be the winning team?
Pensieves
The Pensieve in the books is an interesting example. Typically a Pensieve is buried with the owner, however the one Dumbledore uses belongs to the school.
The Hogwarts Pensieve pre-dates the school itself. One legend states that the founders discovered the Pensieve half buried in the ground at the spot they erected the school.
This is sourced from JK Rowling’s Writings.
When we look at this screenshot from the trailers it sure looks like this wizard is looking into a Pensieve. It would have been fun to say that Dumbledore got his Pensieve from our character who finds it here, however the Hogwarts Pensieve has been handed down through the line of headmasters.
Of course this could be another Pensieve even with the memories from the person in the statue.
Many theories suggest this person is Merlin. However it looks like they are wearing a crown which would mean they are royalty and Merlin was meerly a servant to King Arthur. Could it be King Arthur? Would that mean he is a wizard too?
Conclusion
This is all fun and games and we have no proof, just a lot of circumstantial evidence.
Dumbledore is well learned in the powers of Ancient Magic. The protection Harry had from Voldemort when his mother stood in the way of the killing curse was ancient magic.
Perhaps he learns about ancient magic from our character. Even before attending school? Maybe his exceptional magic ability comes from what we show him about ancient magic?
I’m really hoping we make Dumbledores first wand using the wood in the picture and Ancient Magic. I think that would be a neat little touch.
The fact the game is set so close to Dumbledore’s enrolment does raise the question as to why. Even if it just a nod to Dumbledore at the end of the game as a teaser to a second game. That would be interesting.
Mark is a bit of an odd English chap. He used to run The Taskforce Times, a fictional online newspaper for the Wizards Unite mobile game, which was cancelled January 2022.
Mark also runs a YouTube channel dedicated to Magical Games while also enjoying life with his wife and daughter. Also he is an Archer.
