The Bridge at Ortucchio by Nina Lagasse
The Fucine Marshes is a region located in central Italy,[1] based on the areas around the real life Fucine Lake.
The Fushine Marshes is where the lost lake Fucino used to lie.[2] Lake Fucino is where "witch-twins" used to live,[3] who on full-moons rose from the lake and harrased the local population.[4]
Right next to where the lake used to be stands the city of San Benedetto dei Marsi, [4] home to a church dedicated to St Agnes the Serpent that houses an ancient Fucine inscription.[4]
The Fucine Marshes is also home to the town of Ortucchio,[2] where the Suppression Bureau conducted an infamous raid in 1902.[5] Ortucchio is also where Teresa Galmier spent her early years.[6]
History[]
During Roman times, the marshes were home to the Marsi (or Marruvii).[4] After Rome conquered the marshes, the Marsi led multiple rebellions against their overlords.[4] The Romans founded the city of Marruvium as a colony on the eastern shore of the lake after their final pacification of the Marsi.[4] Horace (65 BC - 8 BC)[7] identified the lands east of the lake as a land of witches.[8] The people (most likely the Marsi) who lived there spoke the language of Fucine.[8] Later, Emperor Cladius (10 BC - 54 AD)[9] identified Lake Fucino as a source of malaria.[4] In real life, this was when the drainage of the lake started.[9]
The Fucine speakers wrote their text mostly on tablets.[1] By the late Charlemagne-era, Fucine books had also appeared.[4]
By 1815, Marruvium had changed name to San Benedetto dei Marsi and Lake Fucino had been drained to the point of the city no longer being on the coast,[4] and by 1909 the lake had been completely lost.[2]
In 1902 the Fucine Marshes served as the scene of a major occult event when Nocturnal Branch inspector Lacombe took part in a raid on the castle at Ortucchio.[5] Later, under the influence of Robigo—a Name of the Crowned Growth—[10] Lacombe stole some of the items taken in the raid as well as funds intended for the branch in order to create a Skolekosophy Department at an Italian university.[5] This later became known as the Ortucchio Incident.[10]
Connection with the Hours[]
The marshes have notable connections with multiple Hours.
The most obvious of these are probably the Twins. The Marsi who lived by lake Fucino made idols in order to placate the "witch-twins" whom they feared.[3] Another connection the Twins have with the Fucine Marshes is the language of Fucine, being described as "the tounge of witches", which could be a reference to the aforementioned Hours.[8] The final link between the Twins and the marshes are the Fucine folk-dances, which the Sister used to sing to the Witch.[11]
The folk-dances were also performed by the Thunderskin, another Hour with a connection to the marshes.[11] This connection is amplified by the fact that listening to the folk-dances furthers one's understanding of Drums & Dances, a skill with heavy connections to the Thunderskin.[11][12]
The third Hour with a connection to the marshes is the Mother of Ants. She shares many similarities with the Marsi goddess Angitia, who according to legend lived in the area surrounding Fucine Lake.[13] The Mother of Ants also has the Principle of Knock, a Principle tied to the Fucine language, but not present with any of the above mentioned Hours.[14]
The final Hour and the one with the most vague connection to the marshes is the Crowned Growth, whose Name Robigo is blamed for the Ortucchio Incident, which took place close to the Fucine Marshes.[10]
Sources[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Journal of Alessandro LaCroce
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Perugian Diaries
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Marruvine Idol
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Addendum excised from Sir William Colt Hoare’s Hints to Travellers in Italy, 1815
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 To Superintendent Wynford, of Nocturnal Branch
- ↑ QnA with AK, last page
- ↑ Horace
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Scholar: Fucine
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Claudius
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 On the Friar's Tapestry
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Lake Fucino Recordings
- ↑ The Root
- ↑ Angitia
- ↑ Fucine