Noble Wizarding Houses of Britain

Description

A hefty, leather-bound tome with gold-embossed lettering on the spine and a crest featuring intertwined wands on the cover. The pages are thick parchment, yellowed with age but meticulously maintained with preservation charms. Genealogical trees unfold in elaborate ink diagrams, some spanning multiple fold-out pages, with names connected by fine lines that shimmer faintly when traced with a finger.

Found in Seylon's Tower. This copy is far older than the edition in the Hogwarts library — likely Seylon's own, annotated in his hand.

Excerpt: The Vane Family

Seylon Vane (b. 1571) and his sister Elara Vane (b. 1574). Seylon — professor of Hogwarts, master enchanter. Elara — married Cormac Keelan of County Kerry, 1596.

A handwritten family tree unfolds from this page, tracing the Keelan line forward through generations in increasingly cramped handwriting — as though Seylon kept updating it over years. The final legible entries are faded and difficult to read, but the Keelan name persists throughout.

A note in the margin, in Seylon's hand:

"Elara's line endures. If I should fail — if Lyra cannot be returned to me — then my blood lives on through hers. The work must not die with me."

Notes

This book establishes that the Keelan family carries Vane blood through Seylon's sister Elara.

The party should be able to connect the dots: Elara Vane married a Keelan, and Caoimhe Keelan is one of their own. If Callum Vane is present, his blood also works — but Caoimhe's connection is the bigger revelation.

A half-burned family portrait behind books on the south bookshelf reinforces the clue: it depicts young Seylon and Elara as children, and a DC 12 Investigation check reveals Elara has the same distinctive amber eyes as Callum.