The Lost Colony

I apologize for my recent lack of posting; the scapegoat which I will be using to excuse myself this time is homework. Three research papers and a full length play=Not much free time. But that’s finally all done with, and now that I’m almost done with moving, I actually have time to write.
However, countering said time to write is a newfound addiction to Minecraft. So you’ll need to excuse the shortness of this post, as I need to quickly get back to trying to add a gigantic lava moat to the medieval palace I built.

The Lost Colony

Those amongst my readers who have studied American history have likely heard the name “Roanoke”, at least in passing. For those unfamiliar with it Roanoke was an English colony founded in North Carolina established in 1585. The colony did not have the easiest time being established, having to deal with hostile native tribes and supply shortages, although relative to many other colonies during the period, it was nothing too out of the ordinary.

What makes the colony famous has nothing to do with what they did, but how it ended. In 1590, a privateering expedition landed at Roanoke, to find the colony completely deserted. The only thing found which may have been a clue to the fate of the colonists was the word “Croatoan” carved into a post.

Since then, there have been many hypotheses regarding the fate of the colonists. The most well researched is the idea that the colonists assimilated with the native tribes, and there is currently a DNA study being performed to test the viability of the claim. Other hypotheses are claims that the colonists starved due to lack of supplies, or were killed (either by native tribes or Spanish raiders).

Within the Mythos

As such a mysterious site, it was only a matter of time before people started drawing it into the Mythos. Peering in From the Outside was the first blog to fully implicate the Lost Colony into the Mythos. The claim there was that good ol’ Slendy was the reason for the colonies disappearance, wiping out all 100+ people living in it. Vivere disce later expanded on this, when Jean discussed a journal from one of Roanoke’s colonist. It’s the same story as from PIFTO about Slendy taking away the colonists, but on a personal level.

In some stories, such actions by Slender Man may seem uncharacteristic (wiping out an entire colony instead of focusing only on a victim or two at a time), but for Vivere disce, Slendy wiping out a village on a whim isn’t totally unheard of. The implication of Slender Man in the Roanoke disappearance, as well as the idea that he can and has killed large numbers of people over a relatively short time, does open the possibility of including him in more historical events. There are dozens of mysterious disappearances over the course of human history; pick and choose one you like, and put the blame on Slendy. This does run the risk of overuse: if we reach the point where every single unexplained large scale disappearance in history is blamed on Slender Man, then things have gotten slightly ridiculous (to the point where the only possible explanation left would be to claim that Slender Man is almost completely omnipotent).

Beyond the original Roanoke colony, the name has popped up occasionally in the Mythos, usually concerning the modern city of Roanoke, Virginia. It was the sight of zerosage’s and Robert Sagel’s climactic confrontation, and the occasional runner group has passed through (such as Father of Light). However, beyond the name, the modern Roanoke has no connection to the Lost Colony. The name brings up the connotations associated with the mystery, but historically, Roanoke, Virginia has nothing to do with the old colony. There are several other Roanokes in the rest of the United States. I could hop into my car right now, and after only three houhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrs drive northwards, I’d be in Roanokehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif, Texas. A place which, I am sad to say, likely was not the location of any large scale Slender Man attahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcks. For now, at least.

Useful Links
Peering In From the Outside - //Vanished-Colonists: http://outsidepeeringin.blogspot.com/2011/02/vanished-colonists.html
Vivere disce - Flow My Tears, the Spider Said. (Tome 3): http://viveredisce-cogitamori.blogspot.com/2011/04/flow-my-tears-spider-said-tome-3.html
Roanoke Colony Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony