Following the break with Rome (1533) and the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-), we see Safety Lies in Fear territory, as a supernaturally defenceless England finds itself tested by entities pressing the unravelling boundaries between worlds. The slow collapse escalates with each new visitor and failing to find solutions to these incursions means that the GM can ramp up the threat in later adventures. This is “murder hobo” or “West Marches” territory, with lawless landscapes, vacated properties and ravaged monastic estates rapidly falling into ruin by local looting and supernatural sorties. Expect ghosts, carrion feeders, minor Fae, and similar.

In the 1560, with the Queen on the throne and unrest on all sides, All Along the Watchtowers sees peril probing every weakness in unprepared defences. By the middle of the decade, Dee has secured official powers through the Dee Sanction, but his friendship with the Queen is sufficiently solid that he might pay out of his own pocket to hire agents before 1564; after that, the standard material of The Dee Sanction core rules kick in, with efforts masterminded between Walsingham and Dee.

Gathering strength and enemies alike, Empire Under Siege sees the Pope declare open season upon the English with the excommunication of the Queen (1570) and the building frustrations of King Philip II of Spain. Spies, assassination attempts, intrigue, secret assignations — all an essential part of this period, as the esoteric spy network of he Sanction gathers potency and potential.

Whilst less obviously more of the same, the Pursuit of Angels is the portal to intrigue and espionage in Europe under the guise of the a quest of angelic enlightenment. Dee and Kelley take their wives and entourage on a complex tour of the kingdoms, during the early to mid-1580s, primarily in northern and eastern Europe, but with occasion to detour — certainly no reason for the Agents to be held back from going further afield.

However, by the time Dee returns, the intrigues within the Court at home has shifted, Spain has been defeated at sea, and the Great Library at Mortlake has been looted. Dee has fallen from favour and in place of the Sanction, the School of Night has risen to prominance under Henry Percy and Francis Drake. There’s nothing to be suspicious about here; certainly no possibility that the looting of Mortlake had anything to do with Percy and his ascendence to his role as the Queen’s new Archmage. Inter-agency action ensures seeking both the defence of the realm and a hint of the truth behind the School.

Potential aplenty and the possibility of jumping between eras to refine and deepen the story over many adventures means that stories of Elizabethan esoteric espionage needs never go stale.

Every day during August (and for a fair old while into September), I’ll be writing something new on The Dee Sanction and aim to connect the word prompt of the day with the development of the game. Check out the concept, the list and the graphics over at AUTOCRATIK.

Henry VIII enraged the Church of Rome and made himself an enemy of Catholicism. But worse, that collapse in solidarity of faith combined with the fanaticism that followed on all sides to root out unbelievers assaulted the strength of belief across Europe. That shift weakened the invisible barrier between worlds.

Opportunity knocked for supernatural entities and practitioners of magick to recover from centuries of passive resistance generated by a wall of blind faith. The mortal population had no way to know of the repercussions, seeing the resurgence of the bugs and Fae as a result of witchcraft, rather than the result of fading tradition.

In 1563, the Queen passed an Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts. It muddied the water a bit, making the punishment for particular acts of magic more severe than others, but in many cases drawing the line before a death sentence.

In 1564, John Dee and Francis Walsingham convinced the Queen to pass an amendment to the Act — The Dee Sanction — that permitted the practice of magic in defence of the realm. It supported the potential for those who used their heretical knowledge to work off their sentence in service to Her Majesty. That capacity for reprieve fell within the jurisdiction of Walsingham and Dee. They controlled those fortunate malefactors as Agents, bound to a covert intelligence service.

Throughout the decades that followed — despite both Dee and Walsingham’s apparent rollercoaster ride in and out of favour — this potential for absolution persists. The focus and mission might shift and change, but the goal remains; use magic for the good of the Queen, and you might earn your freedom.

You’re an Agent of Dee; not out of choice, but out of some twisted sense of self-preservation. Somewhere between conscription and penance, you work for Walsingham and Dee to make amends. You have a faint hope that you can use your talents to earn your pardon and absolution.

Those around you know something of your background. You’re not a good person. You have done bad things and been exposed to awful truths. But, you can see light at the end of the tunnel. If only you can outrun the shadows of your past and the horrors of the present…

This is The Dee Sanction.

At heart, the setting revolves around the travels of Doctor Dee and Edward Kelley in Eastern Europe. The good Doctor spent a lot of time out in the darkest depths of the Habsburg dominions, perhaps seeking support for Queen Elizabeth in the face of increasing Catholic pressures and feints, perhaps not. It seems that Dee and Kelley spent as much time getting in trouble as anything else.

In a time when witchcraft remained a serious issue with serious repercussions for the practitioners, Dee and Kelley trod a very dangerous path. Kelley, frankly, seems to have been a bit of a fruitcake, and Dee altogether too readily fell for his line. Dee, a man in whom Elizabeth had a great deal of trust, himself trusted in the esoteric prevarications and augurous protestations of a medium and sometime necromancer.

In The Dee Sanction, the player characters make up a team of investigators under the tutelage and mentorship of Dee. Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen’s spymaster, has a keen eye in matters of intelligence and espionage. However, even he cannot claim any great knowledge of matters supernatural. The only way to truly protect Elizabeth necessitates fighting fire with fire.

In spite of the laws of the realm laid down to punish users of magic – like the 1542 Act Against Conjurations and Witchcraft – Walsingham cannot promise true safety without magic of the light. Walsingham advises an adjustment to the legislation, the Dee Sanction, which allows the formation of an undercover unit tasked with seeking out witches, warlocks and demonologists intent on harming the Queen or his dominions.

The setting supports adventures in England, during the 1570s, and thence to Eastern Europe, in the 1580s. Originally, I had my eye on Bohemia and the city of Prague, but this now seems a little too close to the bright lights and riches of nobility. I have come to favour something a little off the ‘beaten track’ and set my Dragonmeet playtest adventure in northern Moravia, which lies to the east of Bohemia.

Now, I’m doing a little preparatory work for Seven Hills in April (just a little) and find my new adventure also set in Moravia, this time in the dark forest and ruined fortresses of eastern Moravia, on the border with Silesia.

In the summer of 1586, a body lies motionless in the grounds of St James’s Park. Servants and courtiers charge across the well tended grounds, the crack of gunfire still echoing in their ears. A crimson outline spreads from the torn and shattered body of Queen Elizabeth, and with the ragged gasp of her final breath the future of England dies with her.

Three years earlier, in the troubled east European border town of Kraznow, a young girl wracked with spasms and tortured by spirits tells of the bloody fall of England’s greatest Queen. Might her words, and the actions of the Dee Sanction, uncover a way to thwart this assassination before it even happens?

I’m personally very keen on this continued stretch in my understanding and appreciation of Europe during this period. I have, in the past, focussed heavily on socio-economic studies of Tudor England, so this goes some way out of my normal territory for reading. I’m always up for a challenge – and, I feel, setting the game in this area allows more leeway for game referees who might themselves have little grasp of the period. Distant corners of Europe, filled with dark forests and trackless mountains, might seem more ‘homely’ to those used to running more conventional fantasy games – and perhaps make the setting more accessible.