Garlands of Deceit

I’m having an interesting time reading about John Dee and his role as an intelligence officer within the court of Queen Elizabeth, as referenced in the early sections of The Essential Enochian Grimoire: An Introduction to Angel Magick from Dr John Dee to the Golden Dawn. While I was mainly looking for more information about Dee’s exploits with Enochian lore, his mysteries don’t start with his pursuits of the supernatural. Even before Francis Walsingham stepped up to the plate as Elizabeth’s spymaster, it seems Dee may have been running secretive errands for the Queen.

In the setting of The Dee Sanction, it’s assumed that Dee and Walsingham are partners in their intelligence activities. One deals with the mundane, while the other handles threats that are less easily quantified.

Dee provided assistance and advice to the young Elizabeth long before her coronation; only later did his effort become, by any measure, public knowledge. In appending the Dee Sanction to the 1563 Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts, Elizabeth gave her backing to an official agency in the fight against dark powers. Whether powers in pursuit of their own ends or in league with the likes of the Holy Cee or the King of Spain, they all come within the remit of Dee and his agents.

In reality, it’s hard to see what was actually happening. Dee did serve Elizabeth in some intelligence-based capacity; however, the available information, scattered across diaries, journals, once-hidden papers, and other official sources, provides only a fragmentary view. When Dee set out on his travels across Europe with Edward Kelley, the actual purpose of the journey remains vague.

In the face of considerable opposition, from Catholics and others, the Queen had every need to seek support from both political allies and higher powers. The Dee Sanction follows the exploits of the player characters as agents of Dee, whether in 1570s England or deep in Eastern Europe during his travels in the 80s. Whether on the word of Dee, Kelley, Walsingham, or the Queen herself, the characters plumb the shadows for artefacts, hidden lore, and potential allies.

As if to create additional layers of uncertainty, Dee’s diaries contain several specific references to individuals by the name of Garland. At least four named persons share this name, and the fact that they do not appear in any corroborating records suggests Dee used the term as an alias for fellow agents, couriers, or supernatural contacts. Walsingham used a variety of travellers and personalities himself, including writers, poets, diplomats, and merchants. All intelligence was good intelligence in the war against the Catholics – and undoubtedly, Francis had a network scattered across Europe, gathering information, carrying messages, and spreading unrest from within.

Whether Garland was a codename isn’t clear – but it could be. The use of Garland could be a specific code for a type of agent, or a reference Dee alone used to identify his own allies or contacts. In some references, it seems like the Garlands might be brothers, which made me think of the Koenig Brothers from the Agents of SHIELD TV series. However, all the weight of evidence suggests that the name signifies something other than familial kinship. I certainly intend to add a Garland to the available character options for The Dee Sanction.

Delivering a garland to someone clearly involved more than just rocking up with a pretty arrangement of flowers. For those in the know, Mister Garland is a handy way to quickly generate a new Agent on-the-fly.