AS XII

AS XII - Growing apace

The Meridies soon became a Kingdom after only three princely reigns, John the Bearkiller taking the first crown, Kassandra NicKraken his queen. They are seated at the head of the table.

The Principality of the Outlands, (on the viewer's right of Meridies) the third of Atenveldt's royal progeny, was formed, Gunwald der Ostermachen (aka Gunwalt Gullbjorn) the first prince and Aislinn Tara O'Neal his princess.

At this time, there had been no age limits on those who wished to fight tourney nor for those for whom favor was fought for. Perhaps it had never been seriously considered, for what green teenager could possibly defeat seasoned warriors? Balin of Tor accomplished that, winning for the 10 yr old Lorissa du Griffin the princely coronet of Caid. As this provided some unexpected mundane legal issues as well as a minor having to suffer the unkind stresses that come with the crown, a group (led by Lorissa's parents) pushed to have a minimum age requirement. Balin and Lorissa are seated at the right hand of the King of Meridies (the viewer's left).

Being the most prolific kingdom, Atenveldt also gave rise to the Principality of Ansteorra with Sean McFflam of Ravenswaard it's prince and Katarina von Alyssin his princess. They are seated at the end of the table on the viewer's left.

The Pensic Wars turned into the Pennsic Wars when the location was moved to the current location at Cooper's Lake. Duke Dagan Du Darregonne had been given the task of finding a new location for the war, the previous war having gone so poorly. With the aid of Count Rolac and Master Shimitzu, they were able to negotiate the current permanent site of the largest annual inter-kingdom war. The man standing all in black, raising a toast is Duke Dagan, the man refreshing his wine for the toast is Mr. Cooper.

Due to the number of august personages needed to be included in a single image, I have taken a panel from the Bayeux Tapestry as inspiration in accommodating the cast list.

All the animals and object in the margins are taken randomly from the arms/badges of individual gentles and territories, saving two. The rabbit with a Shepard's crook in the top margin stands for the Shire of Shittimwoode, since re-named the Shire of Thornwood, who's history is too amusing to be left out of this work. Sitting next to the bunny is a black Aladdin's lamp. This if for Michael the Black, who received the Society's first Royal Augmentation of Arms.

A note on the heraldry. Because of the seated members, there was not space to portray the arms on the royals' clothing, so they are placed above all members in order to identify all participants. Having no arms for Mr. Cooper, I took some artistic license in crafting one. I thought a barrel would be to easy (a cooper is a barrel maker) and instead gave him "on azure an escutcheon voided argent". I though the design looked a little like the outline of a pocket you would occasionally find on a set of blue hospital scrubs, the "uniform" shirt of Pennsic's mundane staff.