1580

 The first settlers arrive on the larger island of the Bleakwater Island.

1583

The colony on the main island was already showing signs of derision between the various families that had sailed across from France. Plague, famine and colder weather than they’d been prepared for made living on the island nearly impossible.

1585

A young girl from the Visage family began dreaming of a land of plenty. She told her father about these dreams, who in turn told the patriarch of the Shteynhoyz. It was then revealed that De la Poer had pulled a strange golden statue from the depths while fishing.

1586

Nine families had come together under the agreement they would strike out to find a better home for their colony. Samuel Visage led the party. Visage, Shteynhoyz, De la Poer, Grimland, Keane, Beaufort, Beaumont, Laurent and Potts. The families were given only meager supplies as the other settlers didn’t believe that they would find anything beyond the main island.

It took them six months to find the smaller island that would eventually be called Cresline Cay. They’d found several others, but Samuel Visage’s youngest daughter continued to say that this was not their home. In the six months they’d traveled together, the girl seemed to miraculously find fish in waters that had yielded nothing to them before, fresh water where others had already looked, and safe inlets to protect their ships from the raging storms that plagued the islands.

By the time they found the small island that she proclaimed was their home, the others in the party had come to trust the girl and the voices that she claimed told her where to go.

Samuel Visage’s youngest daughter discovers a small pool of unnaturally clear sweet water bubbling from the rock near the cliffs above the sea cavern. The girl insists the water is a gift from Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. The Founding Nine mark the site with stones.

After several settlers fall ill from drinking stagnant rainwater, the Visage girl leads them again to the pool of sweet water. Those who drink from it recover quickly.

The Founding Fathers declare the spring sacred. Not far from this pool of sacred water the Visage girl falls into a trance and there remains for nine days and nine nights. During the time she did not eat and she did not drink. But the eldest Grimland boy brought to her sips of sweet water and carefully moistened her lips with his own fingers. When the night was at it’s darkest the girl seemed to wake and proclaimed that here, in this place they would build their church.

1587

A circular stone basin is built around the sweet water spring, forming the first fountain. The Visage girl instructs the settlers that all who approach the gods must wash themselves with the water.

The first bell is cast by the Grimlands. It is cast from salvaged metal brought from the failing colony on the Mainland. It is mounted there behind the sacred fountain.  This is the bell that will later be rung by the Voice to summon the Island folk to the Black Church. 

Construction begins on the Black Church, deliberately placed above the cavern where the tide breathes through the stone and within sight of the sacred spring. This church is not to the Christian god that had failed their initial colony so spectacularly but rather to the gods the girl called Father Dagon and Mother Hydra.  She claimed that she heard their whispers and spoke their secrets to the fathers of the Founding Nine.  

They were gods beneath the waves and they served another.  In mighty R’lyeh, He dwelled, but He is a distant god who cares not for those who call his name.  Father Dagon and Mother Hydra lived beneath the waves and loved their children, the Deep Ones.  It was the Deep Ones who sent to them the fish from the depths and showed Shteynhoyz the face of Great Cthulhu, whom they must also pay homage to, else offend Father Dagon and Mother Hydra.  

The wooden statue of the Mother and Child of the Deep is carved by the Laurent craftsmen and placed upon the altar of the Black Church.

The Covenant was made between land and sea.  Each of the Nine Founding Families signed their name in blood to seal it.

1588

Homes were erected for each of the Founding Nine and scouts were sent back to retrieve the survivors who did not believe.  Only a few of the original colony remained and they were sickly and weak.  By the time they were brought to Cresline Cay, their illnesses had been miraculously cured by the eldest boy of Visage, though no other healer had been able to give them a remedy before, and they were given food in abundance.  They cast off their Christian god and became converts.

1596

Several enterprising young men of the Fontaine family begin running errands, hauling goods and providing raw manpower to construction projects on the island.  A much appreciated service they quickly become the family that others look to when they need a project done.

1598

Fishermen report hearing strange chanting beneath the cliffs during the lowest tides. The Voice declares the sound to be the Deep Ones answering the covenant. 1602: The first formal anointing ritual using the sweet water fountain becomes part of worship before entering the Black Church.