Introducing Dottie Hitchcock: Historian to the Supernatural Races

I want to tell you about the historian, Dorothea, “Dottie”, Hitchcock. She’s the official Historian to the supernatural races. She’s the one that’s arranged for the stories of Redbower’s citizens to be published. Under the Arcane Guild’s direction, of course.

The role of Historian is traditionally passed down from mother to daughter through the

McLean bloodline and it has been for centuries, since before stories were written down. Each daughter in the family awakens on her sixteenth birthday, with all the memories of all the stories that have ever been told to the previous Historians.

Yeah, it’s a lot.

These girls are blessed, some say cursed, with an eidetic memory and a physical need for only three hours sleep per night. They’re still human, just…enhanced. Similar to those superheroes humans are so fond of telling stories about.

When one historian dies, her daughter assumes the role and this is how Dottie became historian. However, Dottie’s one and only daughter died before she reached the age of sixteen so Dottie doesn’t have a successor.

This has never happened before.

Dottie is now in her late seventies and knows that time is running out for her. She must choose a successor or the hereditary historian traits will be lost and there will be no more stories archived further than what we have now. And the Arcane Guild really does want those stories to be recorded. They think they’ll make it easier for the humans to accept the supernatural races, if they decide to proceed with the great revealment.

We’ve been waiting for the guild to make a decision about the great revealment for more years than even Dottie can remember. One minute it’s “yes, we’re ready to reveal ourselves to the humans” and then the next minute it’s “no, we don’t think the humans are ready to face our existence yet.”

Personally, I think there’s too many people involved in making the decision. The races don’t really get on well with each other as a rule, but when it comes to major decisions like this, they can’t stop arguing enough to come to a consensus.

But, I digress.

One of the elder witches has created a spell that he believes will allow Dottie to pass on her historian talents to a candidate of her choosing. They don’t really know if it will work but there is no other option as Dottie was not able to bear more children. This too, has never happened before. Usually, the Historian has several.

Dottie has lived a full life, and if you ask her, she will say a happy one. She has always remained neutral in her dealings with all the races and she is well respected by all. Apart from the vampires, of course, they tolerate her but still believe themselves to be superior to everyone. I’ve often thought it must be wonderful to have the confidence of a vampire!

Dottie has tales of her own, of course, but she’s the only one that can decide if she wants to share them or not. Her own stories will be passed to her successor and they can choose whether to honor her preferences or not. By her own admission, she’s lived a full life with lots of love and adventures in it.

Dottie does all the interviews personally, she records them and then transcribes them as well. As you can imagine, it doesn’t leave much time in Dottie’s life for other activities. She is human after all. It doesn’t seem to be a problem for her though, she insists the role is a calling not a job. That’s probably why she’s having so much trouble choosing a successor.

Whether she tells her story or not, Dottie is an integral part of Redbower and I’m sure you’ll come across her very soon.