American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War is a turning point in the Croatoan’s history: rather than fight for either side, its operatives continue protecting people from supernatural dangers, and afterward the organization becomes a covert agency of the new United States government. The war leaves the Croatoan diminished, while its eventual absorption establishes both its place in the new political order and a restriction absent from the Checquy’s own system: it may not forcibly take powered children from their families.

The Croatoan before and during the war

The Croatoan’s ability to endure the revolution rested on cooperation among its colonies. When one was threatened, others could send reinforcements; the organization’s unity helped it weather the upheaval. Its mission was not simply allegiance to a throne: the Croatoan understood itself as protecting the people as well as serving the existing government.

During the war, Croatoan operatives did not fight for Britain or the revolutionaries. They dealt instead with supernatural consequences of the surrounding battles: the violence and disorder stirred local creatures, including gigantic mollusks that descended on isolated farmsteads and preyed on families. By the war’s end, the Croatoan had lost half its members, through both its dangerous operations and incidental violence connected with the conflict.

A covert organization in a new country

The end of the war left the surviving operatives in an uncertain position. They had served a government that had been expelled, and revealing themselves to the new American authorities risked rejection or punishment. Yet the Croatoan considered the country their home too, and believed that its new government could not recognize, much less confront, the supernatural dangers affecting the population. The exhausted remnants therefore continued protecting their neighbors and sent urgent, carefully worded requests to the Checquy for guidance.

The resulting transition was negotiated through Shadrach, a former slave and Croatoan Bishop. He went to George Washington’s home, but Washington was away inspecting troops. Shadrach’s arrival, accompanied by moths, and his courteous manner persuaded Martha Washington to receive him. In a conversation lasting several hours, he explained the Croatoan and its work; Martha judged that the fledgling nation would benefit from its protection.

Over untaxed tea, Martha and Shadrach worked out the terms of the Croatoan’s incorporation into the government. When Washington returned, the negotiations had left him with a covert supernatural agency. The arrangement gave the Croatoan a place in the new state rather than leaving it as an isolated remnant of the old one.

Institutional terms and consequences

In important respects, the Croatoan resembled the Checquy. It had a hierarchical structure and received a very large government budget, despite Martha’s objection that a ruling Court sat uneasily with the new nation’s ideals. Shadrach insisted on retaining that structure. The parallel did not make the two organizations identical, however: Washington refused to give the Croatoan authority to remove powered children from their families by force. Although Martha had supported granting that power, recruitment instead relied on appeals to duty and responsibility.

The agreement also confined the Croatoan to supernatural affairs. Like the Checquy, it was not to interfere in ordinary matters. The war thus produces a double outcome: it costs the Croatoan half its strength, but the postwar settlement secures its continuing work under a new government while placing a constitutional limit on one of its recruitment methods. Its survival depends on adapting its political allegiance without abandoning its protective mission.