Sonora Fact Sheet

History | IC Rules | School and Grounds | Other Random Facts


History

  • The academy was established in the mid 1800's by Leith Clurican and Curtius Tribble, two Irish wizard immigrants with the vision to bring formal education to the western United States.
  • The school was built in the painted desert in Arizona. Protection spells were used to create an illusion of a hill of sand where the school is located. Any muggles that roam near the site will also experience terrifying mirages.
  • As the Heads of the school were never very fond of the desert, they filled the castle with a variety of green plants. Some of these plants have a mind of their own.
  • Tavarius Mims was once an Arithmancy professor when Sonora was first established. During his lifetime, he recorded point totals for each house and in the present day he still holds this duty. His painting is located just outside the Cascade Hall where Tavarius sits behind his desk flipping point books which are labeled for each house.
  • Each house was named after a wizarding village in the west in an attempt to increase enrollment by honoring the towns. Only one of these towns, Aladren, still exists today in Oregon. The closest wizarding village is Tumbleweed, a ghost town of sorts that moves around Arizona to avoid muggle detection.
  • Quidditch is the sport of choice at Sonora for historical reasons. Despite quodpot's popularity in the US, the founders chose to build a quidditch field because of their love for the game. In fact, they detested quodpot and for a time banned it entirely from the academy. Though quodpot is no longer banned today, quidditch is still played each year in house competitions.


In Character Rules

  • Students must be in the dorm rooms by ten o'clock at night.
  • The standard uniform for classes is a dark, forest green robe with the house emblem embroidered on the right front.
  • The class schedule may be found here.


The School and Grounds

  • The school building itself is a Spanish style colonial mansion with beige stucco walls and a brownish-red terra cotta tile roof. It is three stories at its tallest and has a bell tower at either end of front building. Balconies jutt out of the top floor at various locations. The entrance way includes three, large arches which lead to the front door shaded by the covered walkway they create. Ornate decorations wind their way around these front arches.
  • The Headmaster's office can be found at the end of the Hall of Plants on the first floor and can be accessed only by the Headmaster. Any visitors must pull the branch of a tree to the right side of the door which acts as a door bell.
  • The Teppenpaw common room is located halfway up a staircase and can be accessed by performing a precise jig on a specific step. The entrance to the Pecari common room is in a hedge at the beginning of the labyrinth. It can be found by giving the password to a suit of armor. Aladren's common room entrance is in the library behind a bookcase in the far back. If a certain book is pulled from the shelf, the bookcase will recede back, revealing this entrance. Crotalus can be found behind the portrait of Gunter the Zombie.
  • Each common room is setup in a similar fashion. Both the dorms and common room are decorated in the house colors. There are couches, chairs, and tables placed around the room. Each one has a window, though depending on where the common room is located the view will be different. For example, Pecari's common room has a view of a courtyard in the Labyrinth Gardens while Teppenpaw's, being no where near the edge of the mansion, has magic windows that display a field of rolling hills very similar to the founders' home in Ireland. There is one stairway in each common room that leads a set of two halls, one for the boy's dorms and one for the girl's. Any boy that ventures down the girl's hall will be dropped into the common room once again. Girls who venture down the boy's hall will also meet a similar fate most of the time.
  • The Labyrinth Gardens consists of a large maze of hedges which covers most of the grounds. There is a section of the garden not touched by the magic allowing plants to survive and is therefore still in the original desert form. Grass covers the ground sparsely, allowing the red, clay-like dirt to peak through its green covering. Colorful rocks that were once a forest during the Triassic period are scattered in various locations around the paths. In the center of the garden is a fountain and a grassy area for students to relax.
  • Sonora Academy has two lounges, one for staff and one for prefects (and Head Students). These are password-protected to keep out the unauthorized.


Other Random Facts

  • Prairie Elves (the desert variety of the common House Elf) maintain the school's facilities and are under the authority of the school groundskeeper.
  • Students arrive at Sonora aboard an old, flying covered wagon, a rough ride that begins at a certified wizarding transportation center on September 1st.
  • Muggleborn students are visited by a representative of the school after their acceptance letters are sent out. The representative explains magic to the family, takes the family to a location to purchase their supplies, and answers any and all questions the students or their families may have. A Muggleborn does NOT come to the school with no knowledge of anything.