The Church of Starry Wisdom

**The Church of Starry Wisdom** is both a physical location and an occult organisation, established by Abigail Fisher after she fled Innsmouth, Massachusetts in 1928. It is one of the secret societies connected to Obed Marsh whose goal was to nurture the Curse of the 20th Century through the development of fascism in Western Europe.

## The Church

> "*They say you can still hear the church bells ringing sometimes under the water.*" - Tania Radcliffe
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As an actual location, the Starry Wisdom cult established itself in a 13th-century church in Dunwich, Suffolk that was lost when a significant part of the town’s coastline slid into the sea. Despite having sunk into the ocean, the church became lodged in a breach which placed it outside of space and time. The breach, which Victoria Ness surmised was caused by a mysterious, magical stone, allowed the church to be visited and used as a base of operations for the Starry Wisdom cult.

Ahead of any use by the cult, the Marsh Refining Company of Innsmouth, Massachusetts bought the land above the breach, in Dunwich, Suffolk, in 1897. Marsh and his compatriots then set about building a house over the breach that would allow easy and hidden access to the church. Despite appearing to physically exist below the seabed, the church actually existed in a liminal space, sometimes referred to as the Dreamlands.

The breach allowed the church to be used as a retreat as well as a library for a large number of dangerous, occult texts including the *Necronomicon*, *Liber Ivonis*, *Cultes des Goules*, *Unaussprechlichen Kulten*, *De Vermis Mysteriis*, and the *Book of Dzyan*.

## The Organisation

The organisation known as the Church of Starry Wisdom was established by Abigail Fisher to further her goals as the embodiment of the Curse of the 20th Century. Having been born on January 1st 1900, she was preordained as a vessel into which the curse could be put. The Melusine ritual of 1914 successfully achieved this and, from this point onward, Fisher’s goal, with the support of Obed Marsh, was to destabilise the 20th century.

While originally based in New England, Fisher was forced to leave Innsmouth due to federal authorities raiding the town in 1928 based on Robert Olmstead’s suspicions. She relocated to England and made use of Obed Marsh’s house in Dunwich to build a new organisation - the Church of Starry Wisdom. Through this organisation, Fisher supported a variety of occultist, far-right groups including Himmler’s Ahnenerbe, the Nordic League, the Imperial Fascist League, the American National Socialists, the Ku Klux Klan, the British Union of Fascists, the British National Party and the National Front.

The organisation became less important approaching the end of the 20th Century but came to prominence again when Obed Marsh unsuccessfully attempted to place the Haunter of the Dark into a new vessel, Chloe Ashton-Heath, born 1st January 2000. This attempt, which took place in Pleasant Green, was foiled by members of the Department of Works along with Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher. However, having lost Obed Marsh, the Starry Wisdom cult went on the offensive and through their political connections, namely Wilberforce Ashton-Heath, they got the Department of Works shut down and attempted to find the physical church once again in order to make up for the loss of Obed Marsh.

The breach was finally closed by the removal of the magical stone by former Department agent, Victoria Ness, while colleagues Marcus Byron and Mary Lairre, fought against Wilberforce Ashton-Heath and his sister, the current head of the church, Caroline Morse.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 THoTD: "Episode 8"
2. ↑ TWiD: "Episode 3"
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 THoTD: "Episode 10"
4. ↑ THoTD: "Episode 9"
5. ↑ TSoI: "Haumea"
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 THoTD: "Episode 7"
7. ↑ TSoI: "Pleasant Green"
8. ↑ THoTD: "Episode 5"