****Very much under construction, and subject to ST change...****
A few weeks ago, I wrote an e-mail with some thoughts on circle of the crones historical gubbins and how it relates to UK history. This is the main text of the e-mail, and as things get more defined I'll expand on this stuff. None of this is set in stone, or definite in any way, just it was a mixture of ideas I had that people may find useful (you never know!)...
This is version 1 :)
There's a bit of room for there to have been pre-longinian stuff for the circle of the crone, possibly more so than most given the nature of society back then, people were mostly tribal or lived in little villages which were very pagan in nature with various pantheons of gods/goddesses. I would have thought most vampires coming from these times would be crones, I don't think people were very open or learned so would stick to stuff they knew, depending how much they travelled.
The UK remained mostly the same (generalising a *lot* here!) until the Romans came, bringing with them different ideas and forms of rule. I would say there would be very little other covenants around in the UK before the Romans came really, and even the CotC would not have been a covenant as such, more random local vampires wandering around occasionally bumping into each other. I suppose I call it the CotC as that's the foundation that I guess the present covenant would draw its origins from, in the very hazy history of pre-roman times.
Even when the Vikings start pestering UK shores it's still the same sort of culture, pagan societies with a strong mystic and fighting element to them.
Different areas of the UK make for different flavours of crones I guess, e.g. various celtic and anglo saxon types, picts, norse, pagan romans.
There is evidence of mediterranean stuff influencing religion and beliefs eg. ancient egyptian religion parallels in druidism, but that may be a bit too specific, it's something to play around with though, and allows for even older vamps coming from other places to be the ones who transitted such information perhaps... There's a whole load of ancient wisdom/mysteries ideas you could fit in here, perhaps a crones group that preserves such knowledge...
Christianity has obviously a huge effect on the crones in the UK, I guess it's good old Constantine in the 4th century (around 314 ish, I think?) that's going to be a major upset to the CotC when he christianized the Roman Empire, although the UK isn't that good at following the lead and remains rather pagan for a while, I guess till St. Augustine and friends come along later on in 597. Even then, and for a good deal of time afterwards, there would have been big pockets of heathen religion especially in more remote areas.
Half of Britain is split into kingdoms such as Mercia and Wessex at this point so 'officially' religion depends on that of the rulers, but I expect that would not stop most people from carrying on as they have done, possibly with some kind of hybrid religion mishmashed from various stuff, especially if there has been a recent invasion in the area.
Specifics of this would be down to the DSTs writing whatever histories they want for their domains, as it is very hard to generalise here, for example in Scotland you have the Scots and the Picts fighting up until about 850 or sometime round then, and the North Sea costs in particular is plagued by scandinavian warbands with spiky helmets and longboats :)
When Christianity is more established, then there starts to be the conflict between that and the old ways, although things are a bit rickety until about 1066 when you get the Normans invading and sorting a lot of stuff out, then things are more stereotypically dark ages and Christian.
I can't help but have the Robin of Sherwood TV programme in my head as an example of pagan stuff going on beneath the surface (ok, that is set over 150 years later, but still), in the out of the way places where stubborn locals cling to their old traditions and legends. Never underestimate the power of superstition, ghosts in the woods etc. :)
During the Renaissance you start to get a lot of interest in the natural sciences, alchemy, astrology, philosophy etc. This could be where more 'scientifically minded' crones start to appear, perhaps later on with da Vinci style experiments or even frankenstein-esque things but that's a bit later again with the study of electricity and science closer to as we know it.
As there isn't any official inquisitorial gubbins going in in England, (although there is some I believe in Scotland), perhaps persecuted and scared crones from Europe flee over here?
The Tudor times sees the reformation in Europe (esp. Germany) and the establishment of the Church of England and the dissolution of the monasteries here in the UK, with the switches between denomination with various monarchs people are more concerned with burning protestants and catholics (whichever one they are not) rather than burninating non-christians, although pagan sorts are of course a group that both sides would agree is not to be encouraged, and I expect all sorts of people get burnt if local politics calls for it :)
The puritans of course in the 17th century (after the english civil war in 1642) did not like the icky heathens, and any crone would have to be pretty secretive to not attract attention (I can't help but think of the witchfinder general film here!). I guess it's when things are more stable around these times that people have the time and resources to focus on rooting out heresies and the like?
The Georgians and Victorians are much more open minded however, and later on theosophy, spiritualist and general occult societies as well as investigations into pre-christian religions, especially druidic stuff start to happen. More interest in philosophy and psychology as well.
In the times of the British Empire you start to get colonials exposed to more ancient/indigenous cultures, both alive in the form of native peoples and in the ground for archaeologists and adventurers to dig up, all of which are studied by anthropologists and explorers, there's a whole world (literally!!) of ideas here :) Crone researchers, or perhaps crones gone native, or even crones from these places?
Actually any immigrants to the UK from Commonweath countries are bound to bring all sorts of stuff with them...
In the 20th century you have a rise in popularity in eastern religion esp. buddhism and hinduism, also alternative religions, meditation, yoga, kabbalah, psychotropic/hallucinogenic substances. Research started in the Victorian times comes to fruition, occult societies grow, split off, and evolve.
The world wars are rumoured to have occult stuff going on in the background, whether the BNP and other fascist groups have occult interests like I believe the Nazis do I am not sure (20th century history is not my forte!), but even if there isn't much here it means players/STs can make stuff up :D
As you get to the 50s/60s/70s there's a neo-pagan movement emerging which in the 90s grows hugely in popularity. Crones don't have to hide as much any more, well apart from the fact that they're vampires, but you know what I mean :)
In the last decade, well, it's like it is now, really. Huge variety and potential for many things, and with invention of the internet and more people in education the capacity to find out about all sorts is incredible. Any culture, religion, philosophy can be looked up straight away, and with people looking at various spiritualities to bring more to their lives it is easy to get modern crones :)