The palpable hype around the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy was recently bolstered due to the release of a brand-new trailer during Gamescom. Interestingly, the new trailer seemed to largely focus on the more sinister nature of Harry Potter magic and the chaos that it can easily bring.
Quite notably, the protagonist of Hogwarts Legacy is seen within the trailer wearing the robes of house Slytherin. With Slytherin being the house most closely associated and connected to the dark arts, it is important to contextualize the life and influence of the house founder, Salazar Slytherin.
The Basics of Hogwarts Legacy and Its New Trailer
Hogwarts Legacy is an upcoming open-world RPG set within the massively popular Harry Potter universe, set significantly before the events of the books and films. Set to release on February 10, 2023, many fans are looking forward to what promises to be a deeply rich and comprehensive Hogwarts experience.
It appears that Hogwarts Legacy is valuing player freedom above all else, allowing the player to fully customize the protagonist and decide what kind of moral approach they will take toward student life at Hogwarts. This level of customization is deeply tied to which Hogwarts house a player will sort their protagonist into, with the houses of Hogwarts being directly tied to the personality traits of their alumni.
The new trailer for Hogwarts Legacy that came with the recent Gamescom presentation seemed to reinforce this fact, with its focus on the dark arts and the portrayal of the main character as a Slytherin student. Although Slytherin has always been portrayed as the most morally skewed and nefarious of Hogwarts houses, it is important to contextualize how the house gained this reputation through the acts of its founding member.
The Life of Salazar Slytherin
Salazar Slytherin was one of the four founding members of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, alongside Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw. Each of the four founding members had namesake houses that the school's students would be sorted into, with Slytherin adorning the colors of green and silver.
Slytherin students are primarily sorted into the house due to possessing the traits of ambition, resourcefulness, determination, and cleverness. These traits were reflected within Salazar, who himself was widely regarded as one of the most prolific and powerful wizards of his time. Slytherin himself was an adept Parselmouth and mindreader, giving context as to why the house symbol of Slytherin is that of a snake.
Despite the respect Salazar commanded within the wizarding world, he was of the controversial opinion that no muggle-born students should be granted access to Hogwarts, much to the disapproval of his founding peers. The backlash of this opinion led to Salazar forever leaving the school, not before creating the Chamber of Secrets and sealing away the deadly basilisk, with the hope that his heir would use the beast to hunt down muggle students within Hogwarts.
The cruel and nefarious nature of Salazar Slytherin would forever tarnish the reputation of his house, which of course was not helped by the future additions of students such as Draco Malfoy and even Lord Voldemort's human form over the years. The unspoken malicious streak that appears to manifest more commonly within Slytherin students is only exacerbated by their intellect and ambition, meaning that the dark arts are often turned to in the name of progress. Given the recent trailer for Hogwarts Legacy, it appears that this fact may translate over to the massively anticipated title.
Hogwarts Legacy releases on February 10, 2023, on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with a Switch version also in development.