DC Narrative History
From Changeling Venue
The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.- Edward Rickenbacker
The Ivory Tower and The Diamond Path, just a few of the many names that the Freehold of Washington, DC has for it’s numerous sites of note. These monuments and memorials are to exploits both the realms of fairy as well as those of man. It’s inhabitant’s range from hobo’s to hob-nobbers, from society’s beggars to street corner princes.
The Diamond Path welcomes all with in its boundaries for a price. A bottle of rare wine, a piece of gossip from a neighboring city, a good laugh, there is no set currency. There is only the toll, and it must be paid.
Where the Diamond Path came from no one can say for certain. Some remember when the boundaries stones were set, and even have tales of the man who set them and where they lay today. It was the reason why that there is much debate over.
Some believe it is a giant ward, set to protect the area from invasion. There is a native legend some hold to, about a monstrous flying head that once terrorized the inhabitants of the area. This was long ago, back when the diamond was still mostly comprised of swampland. Perhaps it was during this time that the diamond path was created. There are those who say the path was made when a great chief sacrificed his life to keep the creature out; and still others say the sacrifice was made to keep the creature in.
Yet another belief is that the Diamond actually maintains the slumber of some ancient god, bound underneath the city. As long as the stones remain, his slumber continues, but if they were to ever disappear, he would awaken, and rain blood from the skies.
Others claim that it was set to mirror a particular arcane symbol that when the stars align in a very certain manner will reveal the location of a weapon that can slay the gentry. Oh there are many tales of why, both long and short, epic and not, but at the end of the night; when the mead is gone and the songs are all sung; they are just tales.
Many debate the why, but what is known about the how is this. In early 1791, Andrew Ellicott hired a man by the name of Benjamin Banneker to assist in a survey of the boundaries of the future 100 square-mile District of Columbia. Banneker, the child of an former indentured servant and a freed slave, had long impressed the Ellicott family. What the Ellicott surveyors did not know was that Benjamin Banneker was a changeling. Benjamin(or the Sable Astrologer as he came to be known) worked with the Ellicotts only a short time before he took ill and retired from the project. It was though his influence though, that the Diamond Path was made using 12x12 sandstone markers.
A century passed, and the markers went largely forgotten. The changelings of the Diamond Path, still unsure of what their intent was, let them fall into obscurity. It was not until the early 1900’s that someone took note of the markers. The Daughters of the American Revolution, for unknown reasons, took a decided interest in the foundry stones. Each of the stones was given a new iron fence. The Daughters were hailed for this “preservation effort”, and they maintain many of the boundary stones to this day. To assist in this goal, they have had most placed on the National register of Historic places.
Also during this time, Pierre L’Enfant, an architect of later notoriety, was planning the districts layout with a distinct Baroque Revival flare. Unfortunately for him he happened to attract the attention of a member of the gentry and was taken. It’s high folk lore amongst the changelings of the district today that L’Enfant’s fetch was perhaps a little too set on his building plans and a matter for public legend that the infamous architect lured out the owners of homes blocking his building schemes and then had them detonated to make way for new construction. The legacy of L’Enfant’s fetch did not totally sully his crowning achievement for the changelings however…the famous J street Market.
There are many theories, in the mortal world, as to why L’Enfant excluded J street from his city plans. Some say it was a snub directed at one of the supreme court justices, whose name began with the offending letter. The changelings of the Diamond Path know differently, however. There is (between streets I and K) a small alleyway. At precisely two PM, on the second Saturday of the month, it reveals a door. This door opens to the Districts famous Goblin Market, a spectacle not to be missed. Boisterous goblins hawk their wares with all the cunning of used car salesmen, before packing it all up and disappearing. No one ever thinks about how the goblins are able to get in and out, and those that do assume that the Diamond Path makes allowances for the traders, provided their behavior is good.
The civil war saw a great many acts of heroism amongst the changelings of the Diamond Path. After all, it was for a cause they could understand better then most. Due in part to changeling influence in the capital, DC was the first to ban slavery, and to give African American men the right to vote. As the war peaked the seasonal courts feasted off the abundant glamour. The desire for peace, the anger of battle, the fear of what was at stake and the sorrow of mourning all flooded in and the treasury of the Freehold grew, even as mortal food grew scarce.
The end of the war brought a tide of new changelings to DC, all prepared to seek their fortunes and make new lives. This influx of changelings did not stop with the Great Depression, or even the world wars. It wasn’t until 1950 that it actually reached its peak.
With the huge influxes to the courts, conflicts and disputes arose like mad. Something had to be done, and so each season was granted a large section of land to distribute and rule as it saw fit. These areas still exist today. Spring holds the territory in what is now Clarendon, Summer holds the South East, Autumn rules in PG County and Winter in the ten mile radius surrounding the Cemetery. The ten square miles that is the district remains free, and so is fair game for all.
That is not to say, however, that everyone is happy with the contentious ten miles being open to all. There have been various attempts at various times to claim them by one court or another. It is commonly held in DC that if there is some political scandal shaking the capital, then the Autumn court it making its move for power. The wise point out that such a statement is not simply court gossip. There were, after all, the race riots of 1968.
In 1968, the height of the civil rights movement, Dc was a hotbed of protests and demonstrations. The winter had been hard, not wanting to let up its grip, and with it surfaced rumors that the winter court would not cede it’s power to the smaller, less powerful spring. Within days the summer court was on the warpath, and those few days was all it took. On April 4th, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis was the spark that lit the fire. Using the race riots as a cover, a motley of summer court hotheads known as The Red Badges led an assault on the Winter Courts gathering places. They torched the home of its former Queen and broke the windows out of several Winter Court members businesses. To deal with the mortal rioters, who had gotten within two blocks of the White House, President Linden Johnson ordered 13,000 troops to occupy the city. In the years that followed, popular belief held that the Autumn Court, feeling that Winter had gotten too powerful, had started the rumors that lead to the assault. The rumormongering was simply an attempt to decimate the Winter Courts holdings and gain territory in the district. It worked. When the dust settled it took the city years to recover, downtown had been significantly damaged, and the Spring King was left to pick up the pieces. The district had become infused with fear, and the resulting glamour filled Autumn’s coffers. To this day Autumn denies it, maintaining that they simply took advantage of the results of a situation they had no control over.
It wasn’t until the building of the subway in March 0f 1976 that downtown began to recover. And with it, came the desire to gentrify the area. These endeavors can largely be attributed to Sarah Nguyen, a flowering fairest of the spring court that was married to the head architect of the area’s largest firm. With her subtle coaxing, condos and town houses went up in some of the worst areas of the city. N businesses and inhabitants soon followed. But not all dreams have happy endings. In 1990 Sarah tragically committed suicide. To this day, on the more melancholy nights, some claim she was murdered. The finger is usually pointed at George Smith, the winter court ogre who resides under the GW Bridge. His return from Faery was during the Great Escape of 1989, just a year prior to her suicide.
The Great Escape of 1989 is only one of many such escapes, but the changelings of the Diamond Path remember it with great joy regardless. It was a, contrary to popular opinion, not a dark and stormy night. The weather in Faery, being subjective to the mood of the Gentry, was bitterly cold as the ten lone figures made their way down the narrow cliff path. They were fleeing the chaos, and it only came about after years of planning. Two died before they reached the bottom, pushed over the edge by the remaining guard, they met their deaths on the jagged rocks below. One more drowned as they all clung helplessly to the raft, pulled under by the vicious current. The remaining seven, all very wet and frightened, ran the minute their feet hit bottom. They tore their way through the Hedge, appearing in a storm drain leading out to the Potomac. They were led by Vinnie the Red, and George Smith brought up the rear. George was burdened carrying Noemi Bandersnatch, who was near dead. Vincent Aquisto, Noemi Bandersnatch, Pat McRoche and George Smith were hailed as heroes and heroines, not for their daring escape, but for what they brought with them afterwards. Arriving back "home" they found the lives they dreamed of inhabited by others or long since forgotten. Squaring their shoulders, they did what their forefathers before them had done. They set about making themselves a home.
Bandersnatch Books, Noemi’s tiny little bookstore on the corner of 15th and G street, still remains a safe haven for those who are just escaping the hedge. In the early 2000’s, with some prodigious planning on the part of the cities freehold, they managed to implant sigils into the Extra Mile memorial. These bronze medallions not only celebrate great individuals who have given back, but following them leads to a back entrance into Noemi’s bookstore where they can get a warm meal and a nights rest before moving on to the local safe house.
