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The Founding (1584 – 1635)

The Equinox Institute wasn’t always called as such. Originally known as the “The School of Night”, the organisation was founded in the wake of the disappearance of every man, woman and child from the colony of Roanoke, England’s first permanent settlement in America, in 1590. 

The Lost Colony of Roanoke (1590)

The events of Roanoke were discovered by John White (“White”), the governor of the colony, who had returned to the island after three years abroad seeking supplies and manpower to assist the beleaguered colonies. He had expected a warm welcome, not least of all from his daughter and granddaughter who had been among the settlers. Instead he found the settlement abandoned and with no sign of a conflict or struggle. Confused and seeking answers, White’s investigation led him to the nearby Croatoan Island where the group, beset by unearthly storms, discovered a strange rune-covered monument and a stone sarcophagus that lay within. Opening the coffin, White found it lined with human fingernails and containing a mummified hand, clutching a bloodstained quill. 

Disturbed by his findings, White tore down the structure and returned to England with the mummified hand and quill, distraught at the loss of the colonist. Upon his return he met with the sponsor of the expedition, Sir Walter Raleigh (“Raleigh”) and shared his findings. Raleigh, fascinated by the discovery, asked White to keep his story a secret and in return he promised to discovered what had occurred to the lost colony of Roanoke. 

The Founding of the School of Night (1591 – 1593)

Over the course of 1591, Raleigh used his influence to bring together a group to assist him in this endeavour. This group consisted of:

  • George Chapman (“Chapman”) – dramatist, poet, classical scholar and translator;
  • Thomas Harriot (“Harriot”) astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and scientist; 
  • Christopher Marlowe (“Marlowe”) – publicly a prominent playwright, in a secret a spy working for the English Crown; and 
  • Matthew Roydon (“Roydon”) – a poet and purported “free thinker”.

By January 1592, the group had collected a significant amount of information on paranatural phenomena that was present throughout England and the rest of Europe. Worst of all, the men discovered they were not the first to have made these discoveries and that other groups, such as the Noblesse Oblige, were already using the paranatural to further their own unscrupulous goals. Certain the paranatural posed a threat to the Crown, the group met with Queen Elizabeth I (“Elizabeth”) in secret at the Tower of London under the pretence of Raleigh being arrested for a secret marriage to one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting. 

At the meeting, the group demonstrated that the mummified hand found on Croatoan Island was capable of transcribing the future when blood was spilled openly onto the quill. In their demonstration, the quill wrote out the location of the Madre De Dios, a large and wealthy Portuguese treasure ship, would be in two months time. Determined to see the value in the mens’ words, Elizabeth along with Raleigh organise a naval squadron to intercept the ship. Two months later, the squadron returns with good news – that the Madre had been found and captured, along with the valuable contents of its hold. 

Convinced of the value of the group’s work, Elizabeth established herself as the rightful leader of the group which she tasked with identifying paranatural phenomena and protecting England from the threats posed by it from within and without. She named the group, “The School of Night” and in doing so, the first iteration of Equinox was born. 

The First Nights (1593 – 1602)

In the years that followed, the School of Night worked tirelessly in the shadows to expand their knowledge of the paranatural even as one of their founding members, Marlowe, was assassinated in unknown circumstances. 

By the time 1603 arrived however, the School of Night had collected a small collection of paranatural phenomena and had identified several potential threats to the Crown that were either paranatural in nature or unafraid to use such phenomena to further their goals. Little did the group know that one such threat would soon come to sit on the throne of England.

A Change in Leadership – KING James I (1593 – 1603)

In March 1603, Elizabeth passed away and King James of Scotland (“James”) came to take the throne. A prominent witchhunter and writer of the “Daemonologie”, James firmly believed in the existence of the paranatural and had been identified by the School of Night as a threat to the English throne. 

Discovering the existence of the School of Night early into his reign, James arrested Raleigh for treason and gathered the group at the Tower of London, where he demanded they share with him their findings. The subsequent conversation convinced the King of the School of Night’s value and of the threat posed by the paranatural but James remained unconvinced as to the group’s loyalty. James agreed to take over the role of leader of the School of Knight, but refused to release Raleigh from the Tower until such time as the School of Night had earnt his trust. The group begrudgingly agreed and for 13 years the School of Night operated as the King’s personal investigators into the paranatural.

In 1616, Raleigh was released from prison on James’ command and was instructed to travel to America to continue his investigations into the paranatural abroad. The expedition however went disastrously wrong when Raleigh’s men attacked a Spanish outpost. Not only was this in breach of the tenuous peace agreement between England and Spain but, in the skirmish, Raleigh’s son was killed. Heart-broken, Raleigh returned to England with little to show for his endeavours. Infuriated and needing to secure peace with Spain, James ordered for Raleigh’s execution in what the surviving members saw as a cruel and unjust punishment for all Raleigh had done. 

To secure their loyalty, James arranged for the construction of Treowen House as a base of operation for the group and as a place to store the organisation’s growing number of artefacts and documentation. Design was overseen by Harriot who passed away shortly after its completion in July 1621. A year later, Roydon joined him, leaving Chapman as the sole survivor. 

The outcome of this period was that the School of Night not only faced greater scrutiny under King James I but also significantly more investment, not only in terms of money but also resources. James’ firm belief in the paranatural and the threat it posed gave the organisation the space it needed to grow and by the time of James’ death in 1624, the group was ultimately placed to survive what would be a difficult number of decades to follow. 

The Founding in Play

The exact details of the founders of Equinox and their subsequent adventures surrounding the Founding are somewhat of a mystery. While many records from the period have been lost or destroyed, Equinox’s research into the past has primarily focussed on specific paranatural objects or events rather than the people involved. These are topics which can be potentially investigated in play but research focussed on how the founders were involved in specific events or parts of history are more likely to be successful then more general research (which is likely to yield publicly known information about the group and its members).

I also feel it is important to note that Equinox’s founding is rooted in the real-world history of the period. We do not want to shy away from the problematic behaviours of that period – whether that is the societal limitations placed on people based on their gender, nationality or class or the growing desire for colonisation that began to appear at this time. These are not to be glorified or diminished but to be depicted honestly and tastefully throughout the narrative of the game. We would ask our attendees to treat this in the same way.