A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROAMING CITY

Roaming City (Dutch: Dwalingen), city and municipality in Flemish Brabant, Flanders, Belgium, founded along the banks of the rivers Major Tamare and Minor Tamare.

Exact records of its founding have long since been lost to time, but remnants of a Roman bridge across the Major Tamare suggests the otherwise densely forested area had a settlement early in the history of would-be Belgium. In 1302 — unlike many from the Duchy of Brabant who remained either neutral or joined the side of the French King Philippe le Bel — a handful of Roaming infantry under Machteld van Dwalingen joined the Battle of the Golden Spurs on the Flemish side under Willem van Gulik as retaliation for the imprisonment of Gwijde van Dampierre; Machteld being a suspected though unconfirmed blood relative of Robrecht III van Béthune (The Lion of Flanders).

In 1896 Jean-Hendrik Sterckx travelled to the Congo Free State to join Leopold II’s administration. Though hailed for his humanitarian efforts at the time, his reputation sharply fell along with the rest of the colonial occupation after accounts of Leopold II’s atrocities on the native population became widespread. Sterckx died of illness in the Congo basin before ever returning to his home country.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Roaming became infamous once more for the mysterious and as-of-yet unsolved disappearance of local author Simon Victor Graves. His American contemporary and friend T. Irvin Jensen headed an investigation with aid from antiquarian August Baster without result. Among the local population it is believed the forest surrounding his house is haunted.