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solipsist comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 22, chapter 93 - Less Wrong
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Comments (354)
If I had to guess, I'd say Quirrell. He's a person of very many identities; there's no reason that the first one necessarily was male. The only problem with that is that Dumbledore still seems to think Voldemort was Tom Riddle (see Chapter 79) but as Voldemort is said to have changed twice in his career as a Dark Lord (after murdering the House of Monroe, and after the last Monroe vanished) it's possible that he was replaced and Dumbledore didn't notice.
If Quirrell or Voldemort is female, Baba Yaga's a good candidate for her identity. Baba Yaga has been mentioned twice for no apparent reason.
By Quirrell:
And by Dumbledore:
Full disclosure: Upon first meeting Mr. Hat & Cloak I assumed he was Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga is pet theory, not a rational one.
Three times:
(Chapter 70)
That said, I think Baba Yaga's just a shout out like Harold Shea, not an actual character in this story.
Baba Yaga has "been dead for six hundred years," and a quick Wikipedia search suggests the historical myth is first recorded in 1755, nor can I find anything particularly relating her to being from around ~1400. Nicholas Flamel is six centuries old (canonically, he was born in 1327), which means the Philosopher's Stone, if it exists, is around the same age.
Not sure what kind of coherent theory you can come up with to put it all together, though... Voldemort = Baba Yaga seems a little... silly, especially given Quirrell talking about female wizard rapists, which, given that Canon!Voldemort is a rape baby and Quirrell is Voldemort, seems like pretty good evidence that HPMOR!Voldemort is a rape baby too.
Maybe Baba Yaga is Nicholas Flamel's true identity.
Yeah, Flamel/Crozier timeline aligns with Baba Yaga. A similar timeline and region alignment is the book The Massacre of Albania in the Fifteenth Century, mentioned offhandedly in Chapter 26.
Maybe some ritual required not a sacrifice of (whatever), but the sacrifice of the user's dignitiy? Though Baba Yaga COULD just be flamel's wife. He has one in cannon, I...think...
The actual historical Nicolas Flamel was married. According to Wikipedia his wife does indeed appear [EDIT: no, apparently just "is indeed mentioned"; thanks, solipsist] in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Not exactly. She is mentioned in a couple of references to Nicolas. If memory serves, these are a biography of Flamel, and at the end when Dumbledore mentions that Flamel and his wife have decided to destroy the Philosopher's Stone.
That guy is real? Wow.
Most everything about him in MoR, except for the part where he's immortal, lines up quite well with the historical figure: he published his findings regarding the Philosopher's stone, diagrams included. Of note is that the supposed real-world philosopher's stone did not immediately give Flammel the results he wanted; according to the book published in his name, some years passed between him getting it to transmute silver and getting it to transmute gold.
Historical Flammel also has an official grave site in France (Paris, if I remember correctly); I want to think he lived to his eighties, but it's been a few months since I last read about him.
The book-supposedly-by-Flammel mentions a mysterious old mage that helped him along the way; I would expect myself to go "SQUEEEE!" if it turned out Flammel's mysterious old wizard got mentioned in HPMoR.
I recall hearing that "grave" does not contain a body, although I'm not sure how the person who told me that knew. (They were suggesting using him in fiction, much as HPMOR did.)
For more on Quirrell as Baba Yaga:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/ibr/harry_potter_and_the_methods_of_rationality/9lq5