The end came fast. Around 6200 BCE, a submarine landslide off the coast of modern-day Norway—the Storegga Slide—sent a megatsunami racing toward Doggerland. Waves 20 meters high turned the remaining archipelago into a graveyard.
The defining characteristic of these figures is, of course, the mask. In the Mesolithic era, the creation of masks was a profound spiritual act. Masks were not mere disguises; they were vessels for transformation. By donning the face of an animal or a spirit, the wearer ceased to be human and became something Other.
No Mask Witch survived. But fishermen along the Dutch and English coasts still report, on certain foggy nights, seeing a line of figures in the waves wearing faces that are not their own.
To understand the Mask Witches, one must first understand the world they inhabited. Roughly 8,000 years ago, Doggerland was a paradise of biodiversity. It connected Great Britain to mainland Europe, a rich hunting ground for Mesolithic people. But as the last Ice Age retreated, the waters rose. The meltwater from disappearing glaciers turned low-lying valleys into treacherous swamps, and eventually, the ocean broke through, drowning the land in a series of catastrophic floods.
Dr. Helena Voss, a controversial German archaeologist banned from several academic journals for her “speculative methodologies,” acquired high-resolution scans of the mask. Her conclusion was radical: “This is not a religious idol. It is a muzzling device. Someone wanted to stop this face from speaking, or breathing, or seeing. This is a binding object.”
In speculative folklore, the Mask Witches are often depicted not as malevolent figures, but as tragic guardians. As Doggerland shrank to the island of Dogger Bank, the population was forced into a mass migration. The Mask Witches, according to some interpretations of the myth, refused to leave.
Forgotten Doggerland is a place of transition. In the game, the environment is a rich, alien landscape of birch forests, reed marshes, and shale gullies. It is a world where the sea is relentlessly rising, and the community is haunted by spirits that personify their fears and social problems.
Cut your net. Let it fall back.
, the vast territory that connected Great Britain to continental Europe roughly 10,000 years ago before it was submerged by rising tides and a massive tsunami. The Maskwitches
Unlike Siberian or Sami shamans (who journey upward or to the World Tree), Doggerland witches were . They:
But the skeptics cannot explain one thing: the consistency of the nightmare.