How much do non-wizard relatives of wizards know?

[Haru]

Pretty much what the title says. How much do relatives know?
Looking at the Carpenters, their only connection to the council is through Harry. Everything they know, they know through Harry. Granted, Michael did meet some of them, but only by mysterious ways. If he wore a normal guy, they would know hardly anything. As far as we know, nobody bothered to give them any information or contact numbers or anything.

How about when a wizard is married to a vanilla mortal? I am pretty sure it is hard to hide the fact that you are a wizard, and that is if you want to hide something like that in front of your spouse. And it is going to be even more difficult to hide once the offspring starts summoning slime demons in the kitchen or something.
How about both vanilla mortal parents with a gifted kid? Provided the kid doesn't go warlock, what is going to happen? Let's say the parents are less like Charities and accept the potential of their kid and want to support their child. Do they get to talk to the wizards, choose a mentor etc., or are they just told the kid has a mentor and is now going to live in the Ozarks (for example).

Do they know about the white council or Edinburgh? Are they welcome in Edinburgh or is it wizards only? Do they know of the accords?

What is your take on the issue? It is especially interesting, if you play a wizard whose parents are not the usual 6 feet under before the game starts.

[finnmckool]

They know what they tell them. Martha Liberty's family is well aware of her relation to them, while Luccio's is not. The Council generally frowns on public knowledge, and having a known family is like having a basket of leverage to manipulate you with. So it really depends on the wizard.

[devonapple]

A set of parents that happens to be aware of their child's special gifts will still be ignorant of any sort of governing body over such gifts.

In an ideal world, the White Council would investigate any rumors of magical talent when the news reaches them, send out a Wizard to assess them, and then respond according to the talent's potential. Alas, these days, with their numbers the way they are, their inability to rely on any helpful technology, and the population being so vast, the only news they really get wind of is when a previously unidentified talent goes warlock.

So, with a family that has a magical heritage, there could feasibly be someone in the White Council who is aware enough to investigate from time to time. In a family with no previous magical heritage, though, that chance is zero unless other circumstances come into play, such as a prophecy, or the Gatekeeper learning something pertinent.

Abstractly, all of these reasons are under the purview of Plot, so if one wants a story in which parents ignorant of the role of magic in the world now have to blindly navigate through the politics of the White Council and the dangers of the general supernatural world in order to save/serve their talented child, then that can happen.

Step One: magical child; step two: supernatural predator; step three: White Council Warden investigating supernatural predator; step four: Warden defeats predator as it fails to feed on talented child; step five: Warden sees magical talent in child; step six: White Council.

[Obsid]

There are only seven Laws of Magic. Theoretically, as long as you keep well clear of breaking them, the white council will let you do whatever you like. Despite that, the white council will still probably kill you if you do things like leak council secrets to their enemies, disobey orders (as a warden) and otherwise bring chaos to the council itself. Even though these things don't go against one of the seven laws, they're still explicit no-no's. Implicit no-no's include spreading information to vanilla mortals which the council doesn't want them to have, including the existence of the council. The White Council might not kill you for implicit no-no's, but it'll frown upon them.

So how much a Wizard shares with their family is a judgement call. I imagine a wizard parent might keep his or her children in the dark unless they think they have the talent. A wizard child might not tell his or her parents and siblings as well. On the other hand they are free to tell them these things as well.

A comfortable middle ground would be to tell their family of the existence of Magic, Wizards, and Monsters. To thoroughly instruct the children regarding the Seven Laws of Magic, and to warn them of their consequences, since breaking the Laws of Magic does quite a bit more to a person than just bringing the wrath of the wardens. Telling children about what sorts of defenses almost always work (thresholds for example) what sorts work sometimes (holy symbols), and what sorts work rarely (garlic) but not about the specifics about the different supernatural groups (maybe that they exist and abide by the accords, but not what sorts of groups they include). Knowledge about the accords should be basic.

[TheMouse]

I imagine that it's completely situational.

Like if a wizard came into their power relatively late in life and had moved out and had their own place, but wasn't dating anyone, I imagine their family and friends would know basically nothing. They make sure not to sit too close to the TV at Thanksgiving, work a low tech job, and basically try to save their family from having to worry about what goes bump.

On the other hand, a wizard marries their high school sweet heart and has kids, their family is going to know stuff is up. Every time Mommy moves Daddy's cell phone off the kitchen table, the thing bloody well explodes. Mommy sometimes needs to go off somewhere for days at a time, and people sometimes show up at the door late at night. Wizards know that knowledge is power, so they might give their family as much knowledge as they can so as to help them avoid being used as pawns.

[Richard_Chilton]

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Once you know a little about X you might think you know everything you need to know.

Like if someone shows you some cute fairies you might think you know about fairies and be screwed when you meet some non-cute ones.
Or if the wrong person overhears you saying "We can't go to that club; my cousin says that's where the white power sex vampire live" and decides that you know enough about the white court to be a threat.
If you see <supernatural creature A> and assume it has something to do with <supernatural creature B>.  Wyld fae, summer court, and winter court are very different creatures and if someone thinks "Oh, that a fae" and treats it wrong...

Basically, there are all sorts of ways a few misunderstood facts can get mundanes in trouble and most wizards are drilled with that knowledge.  Think back to the early books where Murphy is kept in the dark "for her own protection".  Or Harry's sometimes student who died in Fool Moon because he wouldn't share information with her.  Slowly he changed a bit and told Murphy more, but he still has a lot of "Wizard knows best" in him - and Harry isn't one of the more arrogant wizards out there.

Then there's the Merlin / Julia problem from the Merlin cyclic of Amber books.  Merlin (a son of Amber and Chaos) is a very special dude with lots of magical powers.  Julia is a nice girl he gets involved with.  One night Merlin shows Julia a bit of magic and it poisons their relationship - she wants the power but he can't wave a magic wand and give her power.  She wants knowledge that would be dangerous to know.  She thinks that he's keeping things from her and he is - most of the magical side of his life.  After the predicable breakup, Julia goes looking for magic - and in the second chapter of Shadow Knight Merlin finds what's left of her body after a hellhound used it for a chew toy.

Just imagine:
Wizard: "Hi, I'm your Uncle Bob and I'm wizard.  Watch this!" <does cool magic>
Family Member: "That's great! Can you teach me to do that?"
Wizard: "Um, you don't really have enough magical talent for me to teach you, sorry."
Family Member: "Then can you help my friend? He broke his leg - can you fix it for him so he can go jugging today?"
Wizard: "Um, magical healing doesn't work that way, so no."
Family Member: "Then can you make me super strong so I can get on the wrestling team?"
Wizard: "Um, changing you that way would be wrong."
Family Member: "Then can you make Mary Beth Tailor fall in love with me?"
Wizard: "Um, doing something like is wrong.  There's free will and..."
Family Member: "So what the $&^# good are you?"

Or:
Family Member: "Vampires exist? Cool! Let's get Buffy on their ass!"
Wizard: "Well the protocols dictate that when dealing with the White Court..."
Family Member: "What, you mean you know about vampires and you don't do anything? You just let them wander around feeding? How can you be so uncaring?!"

In short, Dresden magic doesn't work like fairytale magic, but will your family and friends believe that? Can they understand how the White Council works and why you can't bend the law of magic just this once? Will they misuse any information they give in a way that comes back to haunt you (or endangers them)?


I think those reasons, rather than White Council policy, are the main reasons that most Wizards don't live as openly as Harry does.

Richard

[CottbusFiles]

"You're a Wizard Harry"

[Team8Mum]

so I guess the question is how bad does it have to get for a wizard of the white council BEFORE he starts doing children's parties...

No wait - that's the on going story ark for all the Dresden books isn't it.

Should I have put that in a spoiler tag 

Harrys last words are - "I've faced outsiders, how bad can a party fully of 7 year olds hyped up on cake really be...?"

[citadel97501]

Harrys last words are - "I've faced outsiders, how bad can a party fully of 7 year olds hyped up on cake really be...?"

Famous last words, and to quote another person in regards to kids, "On second thought take the gun."

[SunlessNick]

I think it would often come down to how likely the wizard thinks it is that their family is going to come into contact with the supernatural anyway.  If it's likely, then the family will be far more endangered than protected by being left in the dark.  (So will the wizard).

[Arcteryx]

The whole thread here reads like adventure & story potential Wouldn't it make a delicious side-story or subplot that builds up into an event all of its own?

[Richard_Chilton]

I agree

This would make a great setting for some feet in the water character who learn that "Uncle Frank" is really Great-Great-Great-Uncle Frank and a wizard.  Or just that he's a wizard.  Minor talents, maybe someone with an IoP, a pure mortal or two - it could make a great one shot or the start of a campaign.

Richard