Was Harry Potter Really Meant for Kids? Disturbing Azkaban Backstory Says Otherwise
In the world of Harry Potter, Voldemort is frequently referred to as the most powerful dark wizard of all time.
Certainly, he's the most feared, and at the time that Harry is attending Hogwarts, the most well-known. (This is pretty amazing when you realize that he was struck down by a baby and later defeated trying to take over a high school).
However, there's an even darker wizard in Harry Potter lore, and his influence on the world can be witnessed even five hundred years after his death.
That wizard's name was Ekrizdis, and little is known of him aside from the fact that he was completely nuts. He hunkered down on an island in the North Sea, where he lured Muggle sailors in like an insane mermaid.
Once they were on the island, Ekrizdis tortured them to death – apparently for no other reason than that he found it fun.
After he died, the concealment charms that he had used to hide the island faded away, and the place was discovered by the Ministry.
The wizards who first explored the island found evidence of Ekrizdis' deeds so dark that they refused to even talk about it after.
The island was infested with Dementors, which some believe were created by the Dark Wizard – they don't seem to appear anywhere else in nature.
After the death of Ekrizdis, nobody knew what to do with his fortress. It was feared that if they destroyed it, the Dementors would leave the island and wreak havoc.
It remained abandoned for years until Damocles Rowle became the Minister for Magic.
The wizarding community was struggling to come up with a solution to its prison issue (i.e. the fact that it's very hard to keep magical people captive), and Rowe's solution was to put prisoners in Azkaban, with Dementors as their jailkeepers.
Although many protested the treatment of prisoners at Azkaban (essentially captives were mentally tortured until their term was up, they went insane, or they died), the fact that the prison had no escapees made most of the wizarding world willing to overlook what took place there.
However, after Death Eaters caused mass outbreaks and the Dementors abandoned Azkaban to join Voldemort, the tide of public opinion turned.
According to Pottermore, Azkaban has since been purged of its Dementor masters and is patrolled by Aurors.
Voldemort might be the most famous Dark Wizard in the Harry Potter universe, but given his impact and his grotesque creations Ekrizdis should probably go down as the Darker one.