THE TWILIGHT ISLE
THE ISLE OF MAN IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

By Mitch Kelly (MK00NF@CSL.GOV.UK) and Al Stuart (ian@ialas.demon.co.uk)

Part 1: An overview

Disclaimer:
The World of Darkness is copyright to, and property of, White Wolf Game
Studio. No infringement is intended.

Geography
     The Isle of Man is an island lying in the Irish Sea between Northern
Ireland and Cumbria. The island is about equidistant between the two larger
land masses, about 60km from each. The island is about 52km long by 22km wide
at the longest points, running with the longer axis in the Northeast to
Southwest direction. The total land area is about 570 square kilometres. The
centre of the island is an elevated moorland plateau, rising to a height of
621m (at the highest point, Snaefell), whilst to the north and south of this
plateau are areas of fertile plainland. The coastline of the island is
generally rugged, with more cliffs and rocky shores than beaches. The island
has a temperate climate, kept mild by the Gulf Stream. It rains frequently
(about every other day on average) but frost or heavy snow is rare except on
the highest hills. The winds, blowing in off the Atlantic can be very strong
and chilling: most trees on the island are bent or stunted by the constant
blowing they receive.
     The island's population is about 73,000 with nearly half of these living
in or around the capital. The capital, Douglas, is on the east side of the
island. The other main towns are Castletown, Port Erin, Port St Mary and
Ramsey. The island has several large deep water harbours capable of taking
large ships, and a small airport. The island is divided into six "Sheadings"
for administrative purposes. These are further subdivided into seventeen
parishes.

Political Status
     The nation is correctly referred to as Mann, and the island as the Isle
of Man, but this is by no means generally followed. Indeed, the two are used
interchangeably. The term "Isle of Man" is an anglicised form of the term
Ellan Vannin, the name of the island in the original Celtic speech of the
people. The official language is English, and indeed Manx, the original
Gaelic or Celtic language has died out as a native speech. The last native
speaker died around twenty years ago, but the language is still spoken by
several hundred people, who maintain this link to the past zealously.
The Isle of Man, although part of the British Isles, is not part of either
the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. It enjoys the status of a
Crown Dependency. The sovereign's representative is the Lord Lieutenant, who
acts as an official governor. 
     In practice, the parliament, called the Tynwald, governs the island. This
parliament is the oldest constituted house of representation in the world,
having been started by the Norse settlers in AD900. If Westminster is
regarded as the "Mother of Parliaments", the Tynwald is the Great
Grandmother! The Tynwald comprises the House of Keys, the twenty-four person
elected council of the island, and the Legislative Council (The President of
the Tynwald, the Bishop of Sodor and Man, the Attorney-General and eight
representatives chosen by The House of Keys). The Isle of Man's status
allows it to expect help and protection from the British Government, and it
is tied to the British Government in matters of foreign affairs and defence.
However, the Isle of Man parliament and judiciary are free to pass laws and
to collect taxes according to their own requirements. It is this latter
power that has made the Isle of Man rich: the tax payable in the Isle of Man
is much less than in the UK, making it an attractive place to invest money
in order to receive a good return without having the UK government cream off
a significant amount of the interest. Although not as well known as the
banks of Switzerland or Grand Bahama, the Manx banking houses are quiet,
efficient and very discreet.

History
     The Isle of Man was quickly recolonised by plants and animals after the
last Ice Age, at which time it was still connected to Great Britain and
Ireland by land-bridges. These land bridges were severed around 10,000 years
ago. There is evidence of human habitation back to around 8,000 years ago,
farming well over 5,000 years ago and by around 1000BC the island was
inhabited by Celtic settlers. Christianity appears to have arrived by around
AD600, along with the division of farmland. During the ninth and tenth
centuries, the Vikings began to raid and settle the on the island, bringing
not only new blood, but also new ideas. The Manx kingdom, and the Tynwald,
were firmly established by AD1000 at the latest. Under Godren Crovan (King
Orry), the Kingdom of Man and the Isles was established, ruling over not
only the Isle of Man, but the Hebrides as well. By AD1100, Magnus of Norway
was the King of Man and the Isles, and by 1152, the Bishopric of Sodor was
established. The pattern of life continued until the Norwegian kings came to
an end: the last King, who died without issue, ceded the Kingdom to
Alexander III of Scotland in 1266. The exchange of rulers was not altogether
peaceful: a Norwegian claimant, Godred, rose up in rebellion against the
Scots, and a battle was fought at Ronaldsway, where the Scots were victorious. 
Scottish rule was short-lived. In 1333, Edward III of England, who continued
the work of his famous grandfather, Edward I "The Hammer of the Scots", took
Mann from Scotland and made it part of the English crown. The lordship of
Mann passed from the King, to the Earls of Salisbury, then back to the King.
Henry IV passed the lordship to the Earls of Northumberland, who codified
the law in The Acts of Tynwald. Later still, the Earls of Derby were granted
the Lordship. These worthies lost the Lordship temporarily as a result of
the Civil War in 1642-49, when the Parliamentarians appointed their own
Governor. Upon the Restoration in 1660, the Earls of Derby resumed their
Lordship.
     The Isle of Man changed little for the next few centuries. Farming,
fishing and a limited amount of mining provided the island's income. Lead,
tin, iron and silver were all mined to a greater or lesser degree, but the
island did not suffer the ecological damage that other parts of the British
Isles did, and mining all but ceased by the 1930's. The Tynwald, which had
never ceased to meet, was empowered in law in 1866, and the island became a
non-metropolitan territory in 1950.

THE AWAKENED
     The Gauntlet in the British Isles is considerably thinner than it is in
most places. Even the most hard-headed inhabitants of the Isles have heard
dozens of stories about ghosts, fairies, ghostly black dogs and the like. Even
if they do not believe in them, they are at least familiar with them. This has
the effect of weakening the Gauntlet somewhat. In places like the Isle of
Man, where the memory of the Mythic age is even less deeply buried, the
Gauntlet becomes very thin indeed. Treat all of the Isle of Man as being
wilderness for the purposes of the Gauntlet, except the towns, where the
Gauntlet is one point thinner than normal.
Another factor is than even if people do not believe fully in magic and
myth, their familiarity with it means that reality is less calcified in the
Isle of Man than elsewhere. In effect, any mage employing vulgar magick on
the isle receives less paradox: vulgar magick without witnesses gains no
paradox unless the caster botches, and even if there are witnesses, the mage
gains one fewer points of paradox than normal. This effect is less common
than the thinned Gauntlet: it is not universal to the British Isles, but
there are a good number of places in Wales, Ireland, Scotland Cornwall and
East Anglia where such effects occur. In these places, those who would anger
a mage, beware.