Roanoke Colony

The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, was established in 1585 on Roanoke Island in what is today's Dare County, North Carolina. It was a late 16th-century attempt by Queen Elizabeth I to establish a permanent English settlement in North America. The colony was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh.

In July of 1587, Walter Raleigh returned to Roanoke with more migrating colonists from Europe. Disembarking after the long voyage, his crew found nothing of the former colony but a skeleton. They left the new group of colonists behind, with instructions to rebuild the community.

They returned later in 1590 with a new shipment of supplies only to find that this group of colonists had likewise mysteriously disappeared. All of the homes had been dismantled and the only thing left behind of their presence was the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree. The disappearance of the colonists gave rise to the nickname "The Lost Colony". There is no conclusive evidence as to what happened to the colonists.

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The governor of Roanoke Colony was John White, who was married to a woman named Thomasin White. When John ventured off on a supply run, Thomasin was left in charge of the colonists, but rebellious insurgents, led by Mister Cage, wanted to relocate the village inland for the coming winter. Thomasin refused, so the rogue colonists — including her own son, Ambrose — placed her in a scold's bridle and banished her from the colony, leaving her in the forest to starve to death.

By luck, Thomasin encountered a powerful witch named Scáthach, offered her the raw pig heart in exchange for her soul. Thomasin ate the heart and regained her strength, returning to the camp with a vengeance. After slaughtering Mister Cage and the rest of the insurgents, she reluctantly spared her son, but reclaimed dominion over the colony, which then moved a hundred miles inland.

Over time, Ambrose objected to the sacrifices made by his mother in the name of Scáthach and her deities, horrified by the killing of children to "sanctify the land". He believed that his mother had turned her back on the Christian God, and soon after formed a rebellion against her. Scáthach detailed a plan to Thomasin as retribution for their betrayal: under the auspices of a special communion of repentance, the Butcher poisoned her fellow men and women and stabbed her son, killing the colony and tethering their souls to the land. Thomasin, the last living mortal in the colony, offered herself to Scáthach, who took Thomasin's blade and killed her, completing the dark sacrament.