Coscuin | The Reefs of Earth

The Flame is Green

Antecedent Events

1830: Ifreann Chortovitch is born in a hayfield in the Free State of Kraków. His mother is an Irish governess, Katie Noonan; his father is listed on the certificate as The Devil. From birth, he is unnaturally large and precocious.

c. 1834-1839: The first Carlist War is fought and lost in Spain. The traditionalist, monarchial Carlist Thing becomes a dormant but potent force in the high hills.

1845: A mysterious Spanish man recruits Dana Coscuin from Bantry Bay, Ireland, for the service of an unknown employer. This marks the beginning of Dana's public adventures.

c. 1846: An organized Polish uprising, planned in Kraków, is betrayed and crushed. The Austrians annex the Free State of Kraków.

1847-1848: Dana fights in the Carlist Hills of Spain for nearly two years. During this time, he is instructed by the Black Pope, becomes a skilled irregular soldier, and forms a deep bond with Tancredi Cima. He has a fateful and complex series of encounters with Elena Prado (Muerte de Boscaje), which results in his fall from grace and a temporary alliance with her Red Revolution faction before Malandrino Brume rescues him.

Main Narrative Timeline

(1848-1849)

1848

February 21 (Monday Evening): Dana meets Catherine Dembinska in Paris on the eve of the Revolution. They attend the theater and note the growing unrest.

February 22-24: The three-day farce of the February Revolution in Paris. Dana and Catherine participate in and observe the events. The Select Company (Dana, Catherine, Tancredi, Mariella Cima, Kemper Gruenland, Charley Oceaan) assembles and confronts Ifreann Chortovitch.

February 25 (approx.): The Select Company engages in a metaphysical battle of wits with Ifreann in his otherworldly house in Paris. Over a period of a night and a day and another night, they succeed in a contest of will and drink, leaving him cracked and crazy and dispossessed in an event known as The Devil Under the Table.

Late February - June:

The Green Revolution spreads across Europe, paralleling the historical Springtime of the Peoples.

Catherine leaves for the Slav Congress in Prague, which begins on June 2. Malandrino and Magdelena Brume arrive in Paris at the beginning of June. Magdelena warns Dana of a fated duel in the dark with Jude Revanche.

June 23-26: The June Days Uprising in Paris.

Dana participates in the three days of bloody street fighting, marked as a prodigy who cannot be killed.
During this period, he is led to a dark pit to fight the now-blind Jude Revanche. He finds Revanche already dead by suicide or trickery. This event marks the first of Dana's encounters with the Third Man archetype.

June - November: Dana wanders across Europe (France, Spain, Italy, the Germanies, Vienna, Prague) in a daze, searching for the face of the third man.

November: Dana arrives in Kraków, Poland.

Last Saturday of November: Dana and Catherine Dembinska are married in Krakow at the Lady Church during a time of Austrian occupation and ongoing insurrectionist activity.

Late November - Early December (The Eleven Days of Marriage):

Dana and Catherine live a brief, intensely happy, and peripatetic life in Krakow, moving from safe house to safe house.
They engage in a fencing duel with rapiers, a blood sacrament where Catherine bestows her initials (a scar) upon Dana's chest.
On the eleventh day, they make plans to travel to Amsterdam to meet the rest of the Company on the first day of the new year.

The Eleventh Night/Following Day (c. December 10, 1848): Catherine Dembinska is brutally murdered in their last safe house by Ifreann Chortovitch. Dana finds her body and takes a splinter from her shattered skull as a relic.

Immediately Following Catherine's Death: Dana pursues Ifreann into the hills near Krakow. In a duel on a chalk ledge at sundown, Dana tricks Ifreann into a fatal misstep and kills him with a rapier thrust. He is given a copper penny as reward and wages from an agent of Count Cyril Prasinos.

1849

January 1: The Company has an intuitive appointment to meet in Amsterdam. This marks the beginning of the next phase of their mission, focused on the world that has only half a sky.

Half a Sky

Antecedent Events

c. 1748: According to Kemper Gruenland's Testament, The Devil Unchained, a new or better-organized evil, comes into the world and begins to rule for one hundred years.

1793: Juan Manuel de Rosas is born in Buenos Aires.

Late 18th/Early 19th Century: Bernardo O'Higgins leads the Chilean independence movement but is eventually exiled in 1823, dying in Peru in 1842. Legends of his return persist.

1829 - 1852: The Age of Rosas in Argentina. Rosas, a Federalist, governs Buenos Aires and effectively rules Argentina, opposing the centralizing Unitarios and foreign interventionists.

c. 1844: In Amsterdam, Nehemias Jokkebrok performs a blood transfusion on a seemingly dead street girl, bringing her back to life. She becomes his daughter, Scheherazade Jokkebrok.

c. 1846-1848:

Dana travels with Malandrino Brume and is involved in the Green Revolution across Europe.
He meets and marries Catherine Dembinska. Their marriage lasts eleven days before she is murdered in Krakow by an entity Dana identifies as a projection of Ifreann Chortovitch.
Dana acquires a splinter of Catherine's shattered skull, which he carries with him.
Dana kills Ifreann Chortovitch in the foothills of Congress Poland.

Main Narrative Timeline

1848

December 31: Dana arrives in Amsterdam on the Old Year's Evening. He meets Scheherazade and Nehemias Jokkebrok at their undertaking establishment on Doodkiststraat. He experiences a mystical communion of souls called Ocean West, from which Ifreann is excluded.

1849

January 1: The Company of the Green Revolution convenes in Amsterdam. This includes Dana, Kemper Gruenland, Charley Oceaan, Mariella and Tancredi Cima, and Elaine Kingsberry. Scheherazade makes up a child's coffin filled with immense gold for Dana's mission. Dana and Charley Oceaan sail for Basse-Terre.

Shortly after January 1: Kemper Gruenland is murdered in a staged coach accident. The Cimas are ambushed, and Elaine Kingsberry is attacked on a steam-packet to England.

Early 1849:

Dana and Charley arrive in Paramaribo, Surinam. They meet Damisa the Leopard.
The group travels to Cayenne, French Guiana, where they are joined by American gold-miner Otis Ranker.
Approx. 3-4 weeks after leaving Paramaribo: The party of four arrives in Basse-Terre. Dana finds the gold in the coffin has mysteriously turned to dross and trash, though some coins remain.
Dana meets Angelene Domdaniel, learns of the island's mystical geography (House of Dana Cosquin, Porte d'Enfer), and is confronted by the spirit/memory of Ifreann.
One night during this period: Dana undertakes the ritual to break the ninth Stallion of Greenfields, succeeding in a brutal contest. He then confronts and subdues the successor stallion, ending the violent tradition. He is ambushed by four of Ifreann's flunkies, defeating them and killing one. He is instructed by a mysterious delegate to "Go to Guayaquil."
Dana, Otis, Damisa, and O'Boyle (a former flunky of Ifreann) depart Basse-Terre on the Gloucester Goose. After a 20-day voyage, they land at Chagres and cross the Isthmus to Panama City.

Mid-1849: The party arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Dana first sees the ship La Catalina and vows to own her. They meet the intellectual-playboy Milagroso Moreno. Otis and O'Boyle depart for the highlands to join the ongoing civil wars.

Three days later: Dana and Damisa travel into the Andean highlands. Visions of a resurrected Ifreann torment Dana. Dana and Damisa are sheltered at a tambo inn where they have a physical confrontation with Ifreann and O'Boyle.

Three days later: Dana and Damisa, guided by Dama Valiente Tirana, reach the Condor's Nest in a volcano crater. They meet the Condor, Gabriel Moreno. Over two nights, Dana and Damisa repel attacks from Ifreann and O'Boyle. Damisa reports killing O'Boyle.

Late 1849 - Early 1851

Dana remains in Ecuador, participating in 15-17 battles and over a hundred skirmishes in the civil wars. He makes six trips between the highlands and Guayaquil.

During this period, he marries the ship La Catalina by placing the bone splinter from Catherine's skull within her structure, legally and mystically binding them.

1851

Early 1851: On his final trip to Guayaquil, Dana receives a message: "Go to Valparaiso." Lady Valiente provides him with the funds to purchase and outfit La Catalina, which is renamed Catherine Dembinska and painted in ghost colors of green and blue. Serafino Tirana, Damisa, and the English ship-fitter Osborne join his crew. The ship sails for Chile with Ifreann as a stowaway.

En route to Valparaiso: Ifreann's presence terrorizes the ship. Dana lands at Tocopillo (then on the Bolivian coast) to search for him. During a three-day inland journey, an Indian sabia (wise-woman) gives Dana the ritual instructions for baiting and capturing the monster.

Upon arrival at Valparaiso Harbor (at night): Dana, Damisa, Serafino, and Osborne confront Ifreann in the hold. Now a gluttonous, demonic beast, he has taken the bait of a rotten hog and drugged rum.

Dana stabs him, and he is thrown overboard. That same night, the Catherine Dembinska single-handedly destroys the revolutionary fleet besieging Valparaiso, an event that is subsequently erased from history.

The following morning: Dana is hailed by the people as the reincarnation of the hero Bernardo O'Higgins. The Chilean revolution collapses. He spends a celebrated month in Valparaiso and Santiago.

In Santiago: Dana receives Kemper Gruenland's Testament from Elaine Kingsberry. He also engages in a series of psychic battles with Ifreann, who demonstrates the power to crumple reality. Serafino marries Carolina Olimpo.

Southern Winter, 1851: The Catherine Dembinska sails to round Cape Horn. They are hunted by Ifreann's new ship, the Brami Piekielne (The Gates of Hell). During a tense chase, the crew's memory of the Ifreann incident in the hold appears to have been magically expunged, with only Dana and Damisa retaining clear knowledge of it.

Rounding Cape Horn: The Catherine engages the Brami Piekielne in a naval battle. The Brami is revealed to be an iron-clad, but the Catherine damages it and escapes.

Late 1851: The Catherine arrives in Montevideo. The Brami arrives hours later, but conflict is prevented as both ships are absorbed into a neutral war fleet. Dana is hired by the Lord of the Flies to assassinate Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas. Several of his companions (Damisa, Serafino, Carolina) desert him to join Rosas.

1852

January: Dana sails to Buenos Aires and then upriver. He meets with Governor Urquiza of Entre Rios and convinces him to betray his friend Rosas, setting the stage for his downfall.

February 1: Dana meets Rosas at Monte Caceros. He is captured, subjected to the jerking drag, but frees himself and defeats his captor.

February 2 (night): Urquiza and Rosas secretly meet and agree to stage a mock battle, after which Rosas will go into exile.

February 3: The Battle of Monte Caceros is fought. The Rosas regime ends, and he is sent into exile in England.

The Missing Years

This two-year period is described as a scrappy abridgement of Dana's hidden years. He travels extensively in Mexico and the United States (New Orleans, up the Missouri River to Kanesville/Council Bluffs).

1854

Early 1854: Dana returns to Basse-Terre aboard the Catherine Dembinska, accompanied by Valiente, Serafino, Carolina, Elaine Kingsberry, and Charley Oceaan. They are met with signs celebrating Dana's impending nuptials.

Two days later: Dana marries Angelene Domdaniel, who is revealed to be the Bride of Dana Cosquin, the Green Spirit of the Island. They spend their first week at the Great Thermal Springs.

Following weeks: Angelene reveals she is pregnant, having absorbed the ghost bones from the child's coffin. Dana learns of the rise of the twelve Devil's Disciples (Marx, Mill, etc.) in Europe.

March 14: A major earthquake strikes Basse-Terre. In a trance, Angelene delivers the message, "Go to Carloforte." Dana understands his final task is to bury the Catherine Dembinska in the shoal named The Grave of Catherine, releasing her spirit.

That night: During the earthquake, volcanic eruption, and waterspouts, Dana and Jack Galopade take the ship into the passage between Basse-Terre and Marie-Galante. They engage in a final, apocalyptic battle with Ifreann on the Gates of Hell. Both ships are utterly destroyed. In the chaos, Dana and Jack, transformed into whale-like beings, pursue the monstrous form of Ifreann into the depths.

Sardinian Summer

The Cataclysm and Its Immediate Aftermath

(1854)

March 14, 1854 (Night):

An unworldly ocean encounter occurs in the passage between Basse-Terre and Marie Galante Island. The event involves a naval battle between Dana Coscuin's ship, The Catherine Dembinska, and Ifreann Chortovitch's ship, The Gates of Hell.
Simultaneously, the volcano Soufrière on Basse-Terre erupts, and other prodigies of several sorts manifest. Both ships are destroyed in a preternatural cataclysm involving earthquakes, waterspouts, red and green fire, and the inversion of the world.
Dana Coscuin and Jack Galopade are the only two survivors of the Catherine Dembinska. They are transformed into cetaceous, ocean creatures and pursue the monstrous whale-form of Ifreann into the depths.

March 15-17, 1854:

Dana and Jack swim for three days and three nights, inexplicably moving away from the islands. They are eventually picked up over sixty miles out at sea.

c. March 18 - mid-April, 1854 (The Dislocated Ocean):

Dana and Jack experience a month-long period of surreal, free dream adventure in a state of ocean consciousness. During this time, they engage in a continuous underwater pursuit of Ifreann and his mutating minions across multiple levels of reality.
In a parallel, more real version of events fabricated by Scheherazade, they are picked up, serve as stokers on a ship to Dutch Honduras, and then take passage on another ship to Europe.

The Amsterdam Interlude and the Dead Man Gamble

(1854)

Mid-April, 1854:

Dana and Jack arrive in Amsterdam, regaining rational consciousness in Doodkisttaat (Coffin Street). They are met by Scheherazade Jokkebrok and her father, Nehemias.
At the Jokkebrok's establishment, Jack Galopade recounts their metaphysical sea battle. Scheherazade reveals her role in manipulating their journey and creating parallel realities.
During the night, Dana and Jack trap Ifreann Chortovitch, who has followed them and is hiding in the largest coffin, by spiking the lid shut with Norway rats and shrews inside.
The Dead Man Gamble is initiated: To ensure their safe passage to Carloforte, Scheherazade creates fetches of Dana and Jack from two mercenary soldiers. One is Joseph Dana O'Boyle, who becomes False Dana. The true pair and the false pair are to take separate routes (one by land, one by sea) to confuse their enemies.

Carloforte and the Fall of the Lions

(1854)

Early Summer, 1854:

Dana and Jack (it is ambiguous which Jack) arrive at Carloforte, on the island of San Pietro, Sardinia. They are met by twelve members of the Company, including the Tirana family, the Cimas, the Brumes, Elaine Kingsberry, Charley Oceaan, and the fetch of Dana (O'Boyle).
On the day of his arrival, Dana is appointed the Young Lion of Thorn Castle under a Leonine Patent from the absent Count Cyril Prasinos. Ifreann (or his spirit) simultaneously becomes the Lion of the opposing Gate Castle.
Dana confronts his double, "False Dana" O'Boyle, who claims to be a new and multiple man and demonstrates knowledge of their shared past, including the cliff-side duel in Ecuador.
The Company holds a reunion, including the ghosts of Catherine Dembinska, Elena Prado, and Judas Revanche.
Over the next few days, Dana engages in a series of five mystical trysts. He is then ambushed upon returning to Thorn Castle and is saved when False Dana shoots the guard holding him, using Dana's own rifle which was intentionally sighted to miss.
The Midnight Fall: Following a sudden and powerful seduction (the Green Thorn), Dana breaks his vows as a Holy Lion. Simultaneously, the bells of Thorn Castle toll his fall. In Gate Castle, Ifreann commits an anti-sin by saving Carolina Tirana from a collapsing roof he had engineered to kill her. The bells of Gate Castle toll his fall. Both are deposed from their roles.
Dana is met on the shore by the messenger Ercule Tirana, who instructs him: Go to Varna.

The Crimean War and Italian Intrigue

(1854-1859)

Summer, 1854: Dana, Ercule, False Jack, and Barbary Joe travel to Naples. They meet with King Ferdinando II (King Bomba) and visit the Prisoner of Naples, a mysterious red-haired man who is the rightful king in God's eyes.

August, 1854: The group arrives in Varna, Ottoman Bulgaria, at a French-British camp on the eve of the Crimean War.

October 25, 1854: Dana participates in the Battle of Balaclava with the French forces; False Jack fights with the Scotsmen of the 93rd Highlanders (the Thin Red Line).

November 5, 1854: The Battle of Inkerman is fought.

Mid-December, 1854: Dana, Elaine, True Jack, and others take leave and travel into the Crimean hills. They discover the Bear-People who guard an entrance to Hell. General Sabatelli and False Jack descend into it.

Late December, 1854 (In a dream): Dana is summoned by Count Cyril Prasinos to meet him in Paris at the New Church of Ste. Genevieve at 10:00 AM on January 3, 1855.

January 3, 1855: Dana's party arrives in Paris to discover that Count Cyril died on January 1. They attend his funeral Mass, where Dana receives a posthumous message from the Count. Afterward, he is accused of the murder by the Death Witch, Elena Prado, but is exonerated when her illusion of a bleeding corpse is exposed.

July, 1857: Dana and O'Boyle are in Sassari, Sardinia. After a duel, they are jailed for nine and ten days, respectively.

November, 1858: Dana and O'Boyle attempt to interview Giuseppe Garibaldi in Turin.

Early January, 1859: Dana visits the Dukes of Parma and Modena. In Modena, he is rescued from being hanged by O'Boyle in the guise of the Holy Ghost.

July, 1859: The Great Substitution. The central plot culminates.

July 3: Pope Pius IX is taken from the Vatican aboard Dana's ship, the Piccola Spinta.
July 13: King Victor Emanuele II visits Naples and the Prisoner.
July 23: Count Cavour visits Naples.
July 28: Garibaldi is taken from Sorrento to Gaeta aboard the Piccola Spinta. During a stop at Naples, the Prisoner is switched with one of the Four Men .

August 1859 - June 1861: The Glorious Unification of Italy proceeds almost bloodlessly, a direct result of the successful substitution. Key events include Garibaldi's conquest of Sicily (May 1860), the death of Serafino Tirana (September 1860), the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy (March 1861), and the death of Count Cavour (June 1861).

Post-July 1859: Dana and his companions travel from Naples to various locations, including Amsterdam and London, before Dana and False Jack (now John Andrew MacCobble) go to Ireland. Dana buys a farm for his cousin Aileen Dinneen, who marries MacCobble. The novel concludes with Dana receiving a raven's warning of their impending execution by Queen's soldiers.

First and Last Island

Antecedent Historical and Metaphysical Context

(Pre-1862)

Antiquity - 1845: Ireland is subjected to a series of escalating economic and cultural strangulations by England, beginning with the trade prohibitions of 1494 and culminating in the Penal Laws. The Great Famine (1845-1850) catastrophically reduces the population.

March 3, 1861: The Serfs are freed in Russia.

January 1, 1863: The Slaves are freed in the United States.

c. 1854 - 1861: Events from the preceding series:

The Crimean War (1854-1856), where Joseph O'Boyle served as a doctor, General Sabatelli was an officer, and Lord Joseph Barbary performed aerial surveillance.
The Unification of Italy, in which O'Boyle and General Sabatelli were involved.
The Fall of the Lions at Carloforte, which led to Dana and Ifreann being deposed from their roles as Lions of their respective castles.
Dana's marriage to Angelene Domdaniel in Basse-Terre and the birth of their first three sons.

Mythological Context: Irish indecencies such as the an gluin (knee-high cousins), Irish Giants, and ghost twins as part of the fabric of reality; the sea monster Hiodra and the metaphysical realm of Third Babylon.

Main Narrative Timeline

(1862 - 1872)

1862

June 21 (Midsummer Eve): Dana Coscuin and Joseph O'Boyle arrive at the Lynchy Farm in Bantry Bay to find Aileen and John MacCobble about to be hanged by British soldiers. General Sabatelli, Charlotta Paradiso, and Rosa Chastel intervene, defusing the situation and capturing the soldiers.

1863

Latter half of 1863: Dana spends six months in Basse-Terre with his wife Angelene and their children.

1864

Dana spends the latter half of the year in Basse-Terre. He notes the burgeoning signs of the Irish Resurrection during his time in Ireland.

1865

April 14: The assassination of Abraham Lincoln occurs, a metaphysical event described as reducing the number of Really Just Men in the world to the critical minimum of seven.

Dana spends the latter half of the year in Basse-Terre.

1866

June 27 (Morning): Dana is at his Seven Heads Castle. O'Boyle and Charlotta Paradiso's wedding is revealed to have occurred four days prior. Aileen informs him that General Sabatelli is not a real English brigadier

June 27 (Afternoon): The Gentryman Coxley finds his ten-year-old son, William (secretly Robin Ledwich), hanged on a Carob tree near O'Boyle's Inn.

June 27 (Evening): A mob of gentrymen besieges and burns O'Boyle's Travelers Inn, which is revealed to be a facade for the ancient Skibbereen Castle.

June 27 (Night):

General Sabatelli is shot and killed by an unknown assassin. Colonel Ifreann Chortovitch appears and takes command of the mob.
Ifreann conducts a summary court-martial at the crossroads, forcing the spirit of the dead William Coxley to testify against the company at the Inn.
The executed Sabatelli is beheaded and quartered, his remains buried in a broken-down cross formation. The five guards are terrorized by visions of an gluin.
Dana, disguised as a scarecrow, along with the two nieces and Carolina, exhumes the body parts of Sabatelli from under the noses of the guards and brings them back to Skibbereen Castle just before gunpowder barrels destroy it.

June 28: Dana learns of the events and immediately dispatches his ship, the Piccola Spinta, to get the priest Monte Albani out of Ireland.

July: An article on Lord Joseph Peter Barbary, The Sunshine Man, appears in Parliamentary Parlance.

October 16: Charlotta O'Boyle legally adopts the Twelve Apostles using an old Neapolitan legal form.

October 29: Lion Mulville and James MacCotter locate Joseph O'Boyle in the Knockmealdown Mountains.

November 6: O'Boyle's plan to return by Christmas Eve is known at Seven Heads Castle.

December 24 (Christmas Eve):

The "Irish" Dana (Joseph O'Boyle in disguise) and the "real" Dana (William-of-Orange Waxing in disguise) confront Ifreann Chortovitch at Seven Heads Castle.
The sea monster Hiodra intervenes, performing his bone trick and unmasking Waxing.
Dana reveals his own identity and departs on his ship for Basse-Terre.

1867

February 2: Dana arrives home in Basse-Terre, bringing livestock and other goods. He learns he is considered seven months late for his return. A new son, Brandon Cosquin, is born that month.

February 3 (approx.): The Congress of the Animal convenes. An Irish weasel kills the Mongoose King of Darkness. Dana's eldest son, Tom Cosquin, is subsequently killed by the ghost of the Mongoose, inhabited by Prince Dorn. On the same day, Angelene gives birth to their fifth child.

February 4 (approx.): Dana pursues and mutilates the out-of-body Count Vantour in revenge.

1868

Late January/Early February: The Red Napoleon (Charles Cosmo) holds a meeting in Thieves' Town which culminates in a purge. Rex Randolf is hanged. This event is part of the terrorist scenario of the Paradoxes of History.

March 4, 1869: Inauguration of Crimsi Hunter as the 18th President of the United States, part of the alternate, fading timeline.

June 4, 1869: The execution of Pope Pius IX in St. Peter's Square, another key event of the alternate timeline.

August 15, 1869: The Professor dies at Greenfields Manor on his one-hundredth birthday.

1872

Mid-year: The paradoxical terrorist history has largely collapsed. Ex-Emperor Napoleon III is in Basse-Terre.

June 30: Joseph O'Boyle writes his final letter from Seven Heads Castle, appointing Dana as the Thirteenth Count Prasimos of Greenfields before dying.

Early July (approx.): Dana receives the letter. The events of the Great Appointment at Greenfields take place. Dana deposes the eight existing governors and appoints a new administration including Bruce Oliphant, Charley Ocean, Damiza the Leopard, and Carolina Tirana.

Eight days later: J. Moncrief McGinty arrives from Baltimore.

Following evening: Dana has his second encounter with "The Man with the Spanish Eyes," 27 years after their first meeting in 1845. He is sent on a new mission to find another young man in Bantry Bay.

That night: Mary Margaret McGinty dies. Her death marks the end of the seven-week-long Blue-Bird Summer.

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Diagram 1 separates the Coscuin Chronicles into four parallel timelines from 1830 to 1872. It tracks Dana's journey, the Iffrean Chortovitch's's manifestations, real historical events, and the "Metaphysical Stratum" of forces influencing the story.

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