Animagi

Guidelines For Roleplaying an Animagus

This isn't a skill that you learn just like that. It is not something that you were born with. It takes a lot of work to learn how to transform yourself into an animal. It would take a lot of effort; it is powerful magic and not simply something you just can do. So if you are developing a character that has this ability you will need a plausible background story that explains why and how.

The animal type that you choose to transform into is one that you will have been familiar with and may have lived around. For example if you can transform into a lion then that means your character will have grown up in a region of the world where lions were a normal part of the environment. However, if your character is from London or New York and you want to roleplay your character transfiguring into a lion, you will have to develop a logical background history which will make sense in the Harry Potter universe.

Someone with this ability just doesn't transform at the drop a hat. They do so to hide their identity for some reason. They do not spend long periods of time in this form. For example, you get out of wand lore class and just feel like changing and going to your next class as your animal self. That isn't how it would work. This is a skill used to hide identity. Also if your animal form is of a wild animal then walking around in the public areas in this form would cause concern and not something that would be done - there would have to be a reason. A lion wouldn't just be hanging out in the town square sunning themselves, people would ask questions and want to know why. They may in fact decide the lion is dangerous, and move to kill it. If you then had to show yourself, your tool for hiding your identity would be gone. Revealing your form would be something you would only do with your most trusted friends and family. For the most part, Professor McGonagall used her ability to transform into a tabby cat to spy on her students and to spy on what was going on at Privet Drive.

When you are in your animal form, though you have your human cognition and thought capacity, you cannot speak in any human language. If your animal form is a cat or a dog then the sounds you make will fit those animals. You also would not be emoting your thoughts in roleplay; you wouldn't have telepathic powers in that form to magically transmit messages, and you could not call for an owl to write notes. Until you were able to transform back to your human form you would not be able to converse and obviously you would not transform back in the middle of a group of people.

Your animal form must look and act like an animal. The animal form cannot look like a SL furry that wears clothes or carries objects.

If you have any questions, please contact Vikkie Vuckovic or Armen Bingyi.

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