The Dutchmen

''Gradually the gloom seemed to clear away, and a lambent pale blaze to light up that part of the horizon. Not a breath of wind was on the water — the sea was like a mirror — more and more distinctly did the vessel appear, till her hull, masts and yards were clearly visible.''

— Captain Frederick Marryat, The Phantom Ship

For much of Stygia’s history the responsibility for retrieving relic ships lay with two Guilds: the Harbingers and the Oracles. Many of the tactics used to this day were developed by them during the 16th Century as Britain and Spain vied for naval supremacy, with the consequent loss of many vessels.

Their greatest challenge came in 1588 when around 60 ships from the Spanish Armada were wrecked all around the coasts of Scotland and Ireland by both the weather and Lord Howard of Efﬁ ngham and Lord Henry Seymour’s ﬂeets. The vast majority of ships were recovered as relics, but precious few made it into the possession of the Legions.

The reason became amply clear a decade later, when the ships were instrumental in the Guilds’ attempted coup d’etat, blockading the military wharves of Stygia. With the failure of the revolt and the Breaking of the Guilds, Charon made relic salvage the responsibility of the Legions. Many Legions, particularly the Emerald and Grim, swiftly recruited experienced wraiths from the Guilds into their own ranks to create dedicated salvage teams.

After the chaos that erupted in the Shadowlands following the Great War, Charon moved responsibility for salvage once more, this time from the Legions to a newly formed, independent order, answerable only to the Deathlords as a whole. Thus the Order of the Crested Wave was born.

In recent decades, younger wraiths in the Order have come to describe themselves as “Dutchmen” after the legendary Flying Dutchman, a phantom ship which is believed to appear to doomed vessels. Much to the chagrin of elder wraiths, the name has stuck.