Historical Events

Points of interest in history, known to most in the betwixt.

17 Jan 1921

Consortium explicitly bans the creation, harboring, and existence of caliban

Over the next few years, all caliban are presumed to have been killed, and many makers were exiled. Knareswick was formally censured and several sorcerers were expelled for their research. All writing on the subject was destroyed or confiscated by the Oversight. There were several raids on covens and this event was collectively known as the Monday Burglary.

The Chancellor at the time was Brandeis Noth, and the Councilor who led the charge was the pioneering Louisa Forsythe, only the third woman to hold a councilor's seat.

Open - Any characters ancestors who were caught up in this.

February - May 1941

The coblynau of the Craeky Hob take in wix children to protect them from the Blitz.

This was considered a remarkable act of kindness on the part of the coblynau. Children who were sent to the Craeky Hob by their parents reported being blind-folded day and night and were sworn to secrecy about all they saw and heard. It was considered by many of them a mark of honor that they would never tell.

Open - Any characters who there among these children.

1 October 1964

The House Yarwood Fire or Yarwood Massacre

The escalating violence between House Yarwood and House [B] ends in tragedy when an apparent arson kills twelve people at a wedding. To great uproar, no arrests are made at the time. The event is considered by many to signify the beginning of a cultural movement away from the importance of houses and wix theatre star Magdalena de Rossi disavows House Yarwood. Several others follow suit. There was swath of people disavowing their Houses and claiming they belong to House Goodness. House Goodness has become a dismissive term for hippie-style idealism, a performative kumbaya.

Open - Characters could push to re-open this case

25 December 1975

Last prisoner released from Gatelock prison.

This marked the end of the Consortium using incarceration for punishment. Other forms of punishment replaced it. The prison was subsequently demolished.

Open - Characters who have connections to the councilors who pushed for this, or who were prisoners

31 October 1998

Innsbrook Revelry

Known by simply "Innsbrook", a massive Samhain celebration in a remote field near a town of that name, became legendary for its size and scale of the revelry. It was a reaction to the previous years' more stuffy traditional celebrations and was organized by a particularly popular wix musical group. Thousands of youth descended as night fell, eschewing returning to their covens as was typical. There are stories of elaborate costumes, massive bonfires, hours long band sets, drugs, nudity, sex, and violence. Attendees will claim that Watchers tried to break up the party but were repelled. Over the course of three days, two people died. After the second death, the party broke up. Cleaning up was the job of wix doing a community service sentence.

Open - anyone who went, anyone sent to clean up, people who witnessed the deaths, etc

May 2005

Capture and exile of serial killer Polonious Kinkaid

Kinkaid was a wix who had been murdering coblynau for a period spanning eleven years. He was captured on 18 May and sentenced to exile on 29 August. His memory was wiped entirely of all knowledge of the Betwixt and past life and was put out on the street in an undisclosed location. The coblynau were furious that the Consortium did not hand him over to their own courts. Additionally, this case tested the limits of the Consortium's ending of imprisonment. Some conspiracy theorists claim that Kinkaid was simply killed in secret by the Consortium. Others claim he was handed over to Craeky Hob as is imprisoned there.

Open - Anyone associated with the original case
Other theories
Copycat murders

6 July 2012

Murder of caoinì child at Seven Dials

An altercation broke out between the father of a caoinì child and a group of bigoted wixes who were campaigning to outlaw interspecies marriage, due to the murder of a witch by her bazzin lover earlier that year. Abraham Anozie and his caoinì daughter Rowena were killed. As was one of the campaigners. The incident was highly controversial. The banshee mother of the child, Dáirine, broke banshee tradition and travelled to London to speak to the dead and testify before the Consortium. This eventually led to the consolidation of caoinì and bazzin rights to exist in the Betwixt.

Open - Witnesses, Watchers who intervened (or failed to intervene), campaigners, judges who dealt with the backlash, etc. Many people may have opinions on this.

21 January 2021

Corpse Hunt riots

Knareswick archeologists unearthed an ancient coblyn tomb in Dinas Emyrs, Wales. Multiple councillors proposed bartering mummified coblyn remains for annual access to Craeky Hob’s sacred river, Kokytus, where the bodies of missing persons often turn up. Coblyn tradition only allows them to dredge the river every five to six years in something called a Corpse Hunt. Craeky Hob declared the so-called ‘exchange’ to be a form of cultural blackmail. Sympathetic protests from within Knareswick, led by disciple Victor Crowthers, seeped into Twixt media. Riots broke out on Candlestick Row. The death of a bazzin and two Watchers compelled the Consortium to curtail the bartering motion. To this day nobody is certain of the respective identities of those responsible for the three deaths.

Open - Anyone who was for or against the motion, Councillors, Knareswick folk, friends/family/colleagues of the bazzin or watchers