The Daily Diviner - Issue 65

TABLE OF​	CONTENTS​
Feature​	Checking in with the Departments​
Editorial​	Seeing into the Past​
Student Spotlight​	TheVirgoKid101’s Broomalicious Collection​
Lifestyle​	What Time is it? Summertime!​
Original Works​	Don't Mess With Fire​
Miscellaneous​	Town Tours: London ​

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Checking in with the Departments
Feature
Written by Silquer
Edited by m1tskl
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Hello dear readers, and welcome to the sixty-fifth issue of the Daily Diviner! We are now more than halfway through 2022, and it is time to check in with our department leadership to see how each department has been doing this year. I had the pleasure of speaking with six of the department Heads and Leads to hear their opinions on the past six months and their plans for the future. Here is what they had to say:

We’re already halfway through 2022! How do you feel the year has gone for your department so far?

Head of Media & Public Relations, Sunnya: 2022 has been going pretty well for the Media & Public Relations department! Granted, there have been some changes that none of us anticipated at the start of the year, but all-in-all everything has gone well. All of our team members have continued to produce fantastic work within their teams, and we're so proud of the work we put out.​

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Lead Architect, trashdotcom: The year has been great! We opened build applications and welcomed many new faces to our team. Our team has also been working very hard on making wonderful builds, such as Iris Cove, Fairy Grove, and the Dark Follower Base.​

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Head of Academics, zachmath15: This has been a pretty good year for the Academics team! We've been working on a bunch of changes, and the team has taken everything really well. They have all been working so hard to make this department the best that it can be.​

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Head of Community Management, EricaEH: 2022 has been going great for CM so far! We’ve added some amazing new members to our team, released plenty of exciting content, and are getting ready for some interesting department changes.​

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Head of Game Design, Droobledore: Yes, time is flying by! I feel that so far we have made some good progress with our restructure of the GD department and made several strides in the Tech department to add much needed quality of life updates to our tech!​

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Head of Technology & Development, Alexstrasza14: Pretty great! In this first half of 2022, a lot of exciting things happened. We have launched our first ever development blog back in April (and since then two more), we released Guilds, we improved the Friends system, and many more awesome features.​

Lots of merges have been happening in departments. What is the overall plan for these merges, and how will they affect the department moving forward?

Sunnya: So in Media, our biggest change to the department has been the disbanding of the Potterwatch team & the changes made to the WizNetworker team. While Potterwatch held a great place in our hearts, the team wasn't performing as well as it used to in its peak. We all had also put a lot of time and effort into reviving the team in different ways with varying success. Ultimately, we felt that having a specific team like Potterwatch wasn't needed, but we still wanted to have video content being made. Making a shift within the WizNetworker team to also make video content felt like the right decision. The changes honestly won't have a massive or instant effect, but we anticipate that as time goes on, the changes to the WizNetworker team will allow us to up our social media presence and put our focus as a department on bigger & better projects.​

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zachmath15: The Academics team was only involved in the merge with Arena. We are hoping that this will help these two teams work together to create better content for our players; we feel that Academics and Arena can work really well together, and that this merge will allow these two teams to push their limits even more!​

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Droobledore: The overall plan for the merges is to bolster our internal project teams so that our high priority projects get the staff power they need whilst also giving much needed rest to other teams that were in need of some breaks. Overall, we did some refocusing and are aiming our sights on that!​

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Are there any specific changes or successes you were excited to see in the department?

Sunnya: One exciting change that is coming up is within the Daily Diviner team! We're making a shift to have the Writer & Editor now be Staff positions (instead of non-staff positions). We're still sorting things out with it, BUT we feel that this was a logical change and one that would really motivate the team as well.​

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trashdotcom: Within our department, we were excited to begin a mentorship system to bring our newer Builders together with some of our more experienced ones. We are very hopeful that this will build bonds within our team while also sharing building tips and advice.​

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zachmath15: The biggest success that I was excited to see was the aforementioned merge. Everything about it went really smoothly, and all of the Staff involved took it really well. I am really glad to know that everyone was able to adjust so well!​

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EricaEH: We were incredibly excited to release our official Potterworld wiki through our Scribe team in May! We’ve also had several successful store releases that we’ve loved seeing the positive reception from the community on. We were also super excited to release our new subscription rank through the store!​

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Droobledore: I am super excited with the new GD Lead structure within the Game Design department and have faith that with this new setup we can focus on the much needed content for the server!​

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Alexstrasza14: The most exciting success we had this year was the April 17 maintenance where we updated some of our infrastructure. This opened the door for us to finally bring Guilds and many other things. We also give more details on this in our April development blog!​

With another six months left in the year, what do you have planned for the future of the department? Can you give some hints towards any projects the teams are working on?

Sunnya: Tricky question! In Media, things happen quite quickly. Once we have an idea of a change or improvement, we try to sort out all the details and begin implementing. Because of this, it's hard to know what will happen in the next month, let alone the rest of 2022. As for projects, while there aren't specifics, we have continued to increase how much we work with other departments and teams! We're excited to have our work presented through their releases.​

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trashdotcom: We are hoping to work more on the world map in collaboration with Game Design, like making more builds to fill up empty spaces and keep players interested when they explore!​

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zachmath15: We don't have much planned at the moment. We are currently still working on our Class Design projects. All Class Design members may now work on projects for Arena and Academics, and we hope that we will get some new ideas coming soon!​

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EricaEH: We’ve got some big changes planned for the CM department in the coming months involving our structure. We’re also working on more exciting store content for players and are looking forward to hearing more from our community and implementing their ideas!​

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Alexstrasza14: There's some exciting stuff on the horizon. We are working on improving quest navigation and also exploring what more we can do with the website map. We are also working on a project that will help to create a bridge between the community and the Tech & Dev department.​

What are you looking forward to within the department in the upcoming months?

Sunnya: Something we're looking forward to is collaborating more with one another in Media. When it comes to any release, there's so much that we can do by having all Media teams discuss and bounce ideas off of one another. Something we tested earlier in 2022 was the idea of "Media Visions." These are basically plans for what all Media teams would for a specific releases such as an event. We may do more of these in the coming months!​

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trashdotcom: We are most looking forward to seeing what the team comes up with for future events, especially Halloween and Winter Waltz! Both events have been known to be very creative and popular, and the builds have always been fantastic. The Build team has done a wonderful job in the first half of 2022, and we're hoping to keep up that pace and release some amazing builds to finish up the year ​

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zachmath15: I'm looking forward to blending the Academics and Arena teams more! We're getting used to working together, and I can't wait until we all settle into the new department layout.​

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EricaEH: We’re always looking forward to interacting with and hearing from players in-game and through the forums for their unique ideas for the server. We’re also looking forward to continuing to test events and gameplay updates for players in the coming months.​

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Alexstrasza14: More great content to create and test! We are also working on some department changes of our own we hope to announce soon!​

That concludes the interviews! Thank you to all of the Heads and Leads who took the time to answer these questions. Getting a firsthand look into each department has been enlightening, and I wish them all the best for the future. Here’s to another productive six months!

 

[The Daily Diviner]

Seeing into the Past
Editorial
Written by SnowyKitty
Edited by snotflower​

Hello, everybody! As you may have heard, the Game Design department recently rearranged itself in a significant way. The main change was that most of the previous teams merged into the greater Game Design team and became Game Designers. However, the Seer team wasn’t included in this. Instead the team, and with it, the official roleplay, have become a part of Potterworld’s past. Let’s keep their memory alive and dive into their history, shall we?

I decided to go to the one and only NSgaming (Noah) to unravel it all! Noah was the final Seer Lead and had been so for a year and a half, but you may know him better as the previous Dark Lord. Now, he has joined the greater Game Design as one of its five leads.

We started at the root of it all: why was the Seer team created in the first place? While it was created at the end of 2019, I was surprised that the team wasn’t the original starting point for the official roleplay. “Roleplay had previously existed prior to 2017,” Noah told me, “so we were building on that previous model.”

The official storyline was first managed by the Unspeakable and Lore teams. When the Seer team came to be, they had two goals in mind: to determine the next Roleplay leaders and plot out the general storyline. “With Revelius coming by that upcoming summer, we were told we had to destroy the old roleplay bases.” With just this simple inconvenience, their entire plot began to unfold in front of them.

When the ball started rolling, it was almost impossible to stop. The Seer team hosted over twenty events, from gameplay events and social media posts to breaking news with our very own Daily Diviner team!

Their biggest project by far was The Hunt, one of their final events.

“It took over a year to develop, plan, build, test, and release,” he remarked. “It was a massive undertaking that took all of the teams working together, to the point that a lot of the things we designed actually weren't possible.”

The Seer team employed the help of the Development team to make their dream a reality. The Hunt included 15 puzzles spanning over seven months. From Noah’s experience, he believes that the technology used throughout was “the most complicated tech on the backend” that he’d ever seen. Considering the event had most of our heads spinning, I cannot fathom what the nitty-gritty of it looked like.

The star of the show was Grux, the event’s villain. His character and backstory were flushed out by the end of Chapter One. In fact, they started to shadow his upcoming appearance before the community even knew his name. “We were able to sprinkle in teases for him ever since Shakti was killed by Joel,” Noah revealed. “We actually had a goblin hidden in the rafters for that event – if people had looked up they could have seen him.”

Unfortunately, while polishing Grux’s character allowed the team to write the remainder of the storyline, things didn’t go as planned. With Game Design merging and the Seer team needing to wrap up the official roleplay, Chapter Three had to be cut down, which took most of Grux’s backstory with it.

“He had a whole history, having been taken care of by Madam Janette and Madam Florence after the Battle of Grimlotts […] left him without a family,” he said, “eventually becoming [so] disillusioned with spellcasters that he wanted to make sure the whole system would crumble.”

While the story wasn’t presented as initially planned, the finale wrapped things up beautifully. The Seer team hosted a live event on June 18th, and it was clear they had done an excellent job with everything.

And, though the staff team won’t be managing roleplay anymore, the Seer team made sure to pass the torch on. The Roleplay Hub, a community-run Discord server, will be taking charge of all upcoming plotlines.

Recently, they formed the Roleplay Council, consisting of two former Seers and two community-elected players: Joel (Joelowo), Max (Maxymoos), Joshua (Scientin), and Stardust (The_Blue_Lady_). They are already working on major changes and have recently announced the new Roleplay Allegiance Leaders! If you want an invite to the server and to be more involved with the continuation of the server’s roleplay, feel free to ask for an invite in the roleplay channel on our main Discord.

While the Seer team gave us a wonderful three years, I’m excited to see how the server progresses from here. Thank you to Noah for providing us with excellent information for this article, and thank you to all the Seers of time’s past! The future is sure to hold great things, and I’m eagerly awaiting them. With that, have a magical day!

 

[The Daily Diviner]

TheVirgoKid101’s Broomalicious Collection
Student Spotlight
Written by Creme_de_Creme
Edited by m1tskl
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Hello, lovely readers! Welcome back to the Student Spotlight column of the Daily Diviner. In the past, we have talked about stellar student shops with unbeatable prices, intricate roleplay characters, stunning artwork, and more! This week, I had the honor of interviewing TheVirgoKid101 about their Broom Collection. To give you some backstory, this student joined Potterworld back in early 2021. They have been an active player on the server for over a year, giving them plenty of time to cultivate a fabulous broom collection.

What was your first broom?

My first broom was the Briskbranch, which I got from the 3rd year quest.​

What is your favorite broom and why?

I like the Apollo 500 the most because it is not too fast where you crash into things like buildings or trees, but also not too slow where it takes a long time to get places.​

What is your least favorite broom?

I dislike the Bluebranch. The broom is very slow, and I only own it for collecting purposes.​

What inspired you to start a broom collection?

I kept upgrading my broom a lot, and by the time I was in year 6, I had the Thunderflash. Then I got the idea of having a new broom for different speeds while traveling would be cool, so I got another Briskbranch, and upgraded it till it was a scarlet, and then I thought that I might as well try and get all 5 brooms. For a while I only had those 5, but sooner or later I got enough gold, and saved up to purchase the older 5, and I got some unique different speeds with those ones.​

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Do you collect broom recipes as well? Why or why not?

I don't collect broom recipes because I already have the broom, and I don't see the purpose of having the recipe if I already have the broom, but occasionally I obtain a broom recipe from a chest during my chest runs, and I sell them for gold in my shop.​

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Can you list the brooms in your collection from oldest to youngest in Potterworld’s history?

Old brooms: Bluebranch, Shinesweep One, Meteor 5000, Nimblemax 2000, Fireflash; New brooms: Briskbranch, Solarsweep 100, Apollo 5000, Scarlet Nebulas 2000, Thunderflash.​

Have you completed your collection? If so, how long did it take you to collect each broom? Why did it take that long? If not, what do you still need? How long have you been collecting for?

I might try and get some other ones. I heard there’s some older ones that you can’t ride, but it will be nice to have them for my collection. It took a couple of months to get the Thunderflash, but then the other 4 didn’t take that long, and then a few months later I decided to buy the older brooms, and I got 4 at first because the Nimblemax was very pricey, but then soon someone sold it for 20k, and I bought it. It took long because I had to find the right seller, and also get enough gold to buy the brooms. I have been collecting brooms for about a year.​

What is some advice you have for people wanting to start their own collection of items?

My advice is to be patient and learn a lot about the item(s) before you get straight into collecting them. Before you get into collecting; you should learn about the lore, or function of the item because you don’t want to end up getting it for no reason. Another thing is finding the item: sometimes you see an item you want badly selling in someone’s shop for a lot of gold, but you’re desperate in finding it, and end up overpaying. You should take the time to wait a couple of months for someone to sell it for a good price, and then you will have a lot more gold left over afterwards for buying even more collectables. ​

That is some amazing advice! I hope you all had fun learning more about Potterworld’s brooms like I did. A huge thanks to TheVirgoKid101 for interviewing with me! If you are interested in sharing your writing, art, or builds, I recommend that you take a look at the Potterworld Art Discord! Whether you want to share, view, or even commission a piece, it's certainly the place to look. In the meantime, have a wonderful day! This has been Creme_de_Creme reporting for the Daily Diviner.

Do you know anyone on the server that stands out (cool housing, a museum, active in RP, do something cool outside of PW, etc.)? Nominate them here for a chance to be our next Student Spotlight!​

 

[The Daily Diviner]

What Time is it? Summertime!
Lifestyle
Written by ivyronincheez
Edited by Compost__King
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Hello lovely readers and welcome back to the Lifestyle column of the Daily Diviner! Today we will be discussing some fun summertime activities you and some friends can do this season. With that being said, let’s get into our first summer activity!

The first summer activity we suggest is going with your friends to the pool for a day of swimming! To just be able to swim all day sounds like so much fun. There are some games that you could definitely play, one of the games being Marco Polo. If you don’t know how to play Marco Polo, here is a quick summary of the game. One person closes their eyes and they swim around saying “Marco” while everyone else in the pool swims around saying “Polo”, the game resets once someone has been tagged. This game is a fun one to play.

The second summer activity we suggest is having a BBQ with friends and family. This one I would suggest because this is a chance to just talk to people and enjoy really good food. I know that I would never say no to a BBQ style hotdog, while also spending time with my best friend. Since it will be summertime, make sure you have cool drinks with you to keep nice and refreshed. As stated before, this is just a good way to spend time with everyone and to catch up with old friends.

The final summer activity we suggest is camping! Camping gives you time to appreciate nature and everyone around you. Some things to do while camping is taking hikes along trails to see what new plants and animals you can find. Just be careful of bears! When the sun goes down, it gives you a great time to tell ghost stories and try to scare your friends. After hiking and ghost stories, it’s time to settle down and make s’mores with everyone. That is a wonderful way to end the night.

That’s all we have for summer activities, I hope you enjoy reading about them, and try a few of these activities. Which activity are you and your friends going to do this summer season? This has been x_Ivy reporting for the Daily Diviner!

 

[The Daily Diviner]

Don't Mess with Fire
Original Works
Written by ivyronincheez
Edited by Calliequeen
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It was a mellow afternoon. The Hogsworth hallways were empty, soundless, and timeless in their ancient glory. The freshly graduated students were making their way to the picturesque dark forest for the end-of-school bonfire.

While two students were aimlessly roaming the forest for firewood and other debris that could be ignited, another student was setting up the determined place for the fire.“ Hey Ella, do you think this is enough rocks to form a circle?” Esme asked Ella.

Ella had walked over to Esme, watching her curiously. “Yeah, that seems like a good amount. Now we just wait for Audrey and Ben to come back with the wood. Hey Angie, are you still good at lighting the fire?” Angie looked over at Ella and nodded her head.

After Audrey and Ben came back, they all added the sticks and leaves to the rock circle. Angie walked up to their woodsy creation and took out her wand. She pointed it at the disarray of leaves and said, “Incendo.” A spark of fire emitted from the tip of the wand, starting a bonfire.

The forest around them was quiet; all that filled the air was the sound of the students chatting. They talked on and on about school memories, from their favorite classes to their favorite meals. Angie spoke up, “Hey guys, I learned this really cool thing, mind if I show you guys?” She asked them.

Everyone agreed and allowed Angie to show them the trick. Angie walked over to the fire and took out her wand. She pointed it at the bonfire and started to move the fire in different ways, turning it into different shapes, eliciting amazed gasps from the students. Just then, Angie flicked her wand the wrong way, sending the fire into a blaze.

The fire promptly started to roar, catching everyone's attention. The simple bonfire had turned into a huge fire monster! Everybody moved from their seats to go behind a nearby boulder for coverage. Everyone was stunned into silence until Ben spoke up, “So what do we do about that thing?”

Audrey looked around at all the scared students, “We grab our wands, and we cast Aquamento all at the same time.” The students all nodded their heads in sync, moving around the rock to surround the fire monster. The monster looked at Angie and let out a nasty roar.

The now-brave students surrounded the monster, wands raised. All in sync, they said “Aquamento!” Water began blasting at the monster, diminishing the flames. Once the fire was out everyone relaxed.

“Okay, that was a lot for today. Let’s pack up and get out of here,” Ella said to everyone. They all agreed and packed up their things. Everyone left their spot in the dark forest and headed back to the castle for their last night.

 

[The Daily Diviner]

Town Tours: London
Miscellaneous
Written by SnowyKitty
Edited by kvmw
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Hello readers, and welcome back to another town review! If you missed our last issue, the Daily Diviner has introduced a new column to introduce the wizarding towns around England. One of our reporters will go over important information you should know about each town! For this article, I’m reviewing London!

While London is home to one of the world's largest and most critical magical communities, the city's magical history is not as exciting as one might think. Despite being over 2,000 years old and the capital of England, wizards preferred to lay low and let unmagicals take centre stage. And while the city may have been founded then, there was already a much older wizarding community in the area. As it grew, it became beloved by both unmagicals and wizards alike.

To get a complete look at the city, I started my journey at King’s Cross Station. While it’s not too exciting and really just a crowded train station, I have fond memories of the station. It’s a significant destination for all young wizards to get to and from Hogsworth by taking platform 9 ½, which has become an iconic stop. However, it’s not normally visited since there isn't much traffic to Hogsend outside the start of the school year.

London became a major magical centre once Hogsworth was founded, just over a thousand years ago. As more wizards flocked to the capital, the rising threat of unmagicals witnessing magic needed to be squashed. To solve this issue, the Ministry of Magicians created magical passageways, such as Platform 9 ½.

The Ministry of Magicians is a few blocks from the station. It has been around since 1607, attracting more wizards to settle in London. Most witches and wizards won’t visit unless they’re needed in a case involving Auralocks, but people do tend to note the excess of green. Fortunately, I’ve never had a reason to visit as I’ve never had any legal mishaps, but from the stories I’ve heard, it’s quite the grand place.

Being in London gives you the luxury of taking the Knight Shuttle. While some get queasy on the bus, it has become a familiar mode of transport for me, a Londoner.

I hopped on the shuttle and got off at the Cauldron Inn, a popular destination for both wizards and unmagicals. Through the back, you can find what remains of the original foundation of the building, along with a mysterious brick wall. By simply tapping your wand against this barrier, you’ll find yourself in Diagonal Lane, the centrepiece of London.

Diagonal Lane is always bustling with friendly faces, and the storekeepers are lovely to talk to. One of these shops is Jollivander’s Wand Shop, the most iconic and essential stop for all young wizards. If you get a chance to wander in, enjoy the moment. The sense of exultation is incomparable to anything.

Another place you can’t ignore is Grimlotts. It stands proudly at the end of Diagonal Lane. The goblins who run the bank may come off as grumpy, but they warm up to you! (As much as they can, at least.) Many live in London due to the bank going hand in hand with their natural greed.

Before I could continue on, Officer Jenny stopped me. The broom vendor across from Grimlotts has been broken into, and the store owner is frantic. Officer Jenny can’t do it alone and is looking for anyone willing to help. Find her outside the vendor if you’re interested in a criminal case!

Once she let me go, I wandered to the streets connected to Diagonal Lane. To the right is the creative Carket Market, and across from it is Shade Alley, which houses shops especially for dark magicians. Do be wary if you take a visit, not least because of the dangerous wares sold there, as they also have imps roaming the streets.

Behind Grimlotts is Vertick Alley. It’s divided into three districts, each selling goods pertaining to cooking, herbology, and potions. You can find a man named Mr. Finnigan in the cooking district. He sells the best pumpkin punch around, but he has run out! He’s hoping for someone to run to the headquarters for him, as he is too busy with his stand. I hope someone can help him soon; his punch keeps me going through long work weeks.

As I returned to the office, I remembered that I dreamed of living in London as a kid. My parents are unmagicals who live in the countryside, so we never went to London except on holidays. After living here, though, my childhood fascination is gone. I’m not sure what I saw in the city. Don’t get me wrong, though; I would rather work here than anywhere else. I enjoy the community in Diagonal Lane, which is lucky since I’m there daily.

I’m not sure what to give when it comes to a rating. Admittedly, living here and being around other wizards is a remarkable experience, yet the unmagical fanfare can be a tad overboard. Because of this, I will be giving London an eight out of ten.

This has been Ozzie reporting for the Daily Diviner. Have a magical day!