The Real Cmyst

The blog will be more SCA oriented, along with gaming stuff. To that end, the pictures I post will be either real SCA events that we've attended or screenshots from games. Towards the end of last year, I entered Second Life again. My avatar in Second Life is Cmyst Turbo, who lives in a castle in Inverness and also has a croft near Loch Ness. She mostly wanders around trying to find somewhat socially redeeming activities to engage in, which is not easy in Second Life, but IS possible. When bored, she pulls out the 'ol fiddle and busks at the side of the road.
I consider my mundane career a blessing, and a solemn responsibility, and often a joyful endeavor -- but it does not define me. It provides the financial support for my REAL life as a brewer, cheese-maker, silk painter, medieval hobbyist, archer, mother, grandmother, life partner, Shireling of Mountain's Gate, Hobbit Hunter and Warden, and Reaver of the Ettenmoors.

Settled

We got moved, but it was back-breaking and grueling. A lot of stuff piles up in three years. Most of it is now in our garage. We made one dump trip, and I've probably thrown out a few more boxes worth of stuff in our weekly garbage since the move. In general, the new place is a marked improvement over the old one. But we do miss the gardens. Our backyard here is a mess of dried up ceder/redwood "leaves" and weeds. It will require an entire weekend to fix it, and it's a low priority currently.
SCA stuff: The Court of Daniel and Aeschine is going pretty well. It's been an education for the likes of me. So much work to project a regal and bountiful principality! So little donated by the populace! Suffice it to say that I am making it my personal goal to try to contribute the tangible items that everyone takes for granted, the newcomer's gifts and largesse, from this point onwards to both Principality and Kingdom. I will pay my Brewer's Guild "taxes" with a much more generous heart, and will offer up quantities of small items for every Principality reign and twice yearly for Kingdom. I'm thinking, small painted cloth maps and either beaded necklaces or baubles of some sort. Maybe a "ring" made from the stretchy beading line, in appropriate colors. Maybe populace badges for the West, since they're pretty simple. I also need to replace the Herald's chair that I broke last year, which I keep forgetting to do. It is really awful the amount of money that our Royalty has to spend. My cheiftain, Morgan, was correct in his admonition to me all those years ago: the Royals really do spend a lot of time and money during Their reigns, which in itself is worthy of the respect of the populace aside from their feelings about individual Royalty or their persona's liklihood of cooperating with Royalty from a historical perspective. It has been an honor and privilege to serve on this Court, and to learn these lessons in a most personal way. I get so much from the SCA. The first and most basic level of SCA involvement for most of us is going to events, which are usually a mixture of mundane camping and SCA cultural camping. And at some time during that event, for most of us, there will be a moment of otherworldliness or a truly anachronistic experience. It is not, strictly speaking, historically accurate. But neither is it your average modern camping experience. My moments usually come after dark, when the drums and dancing begin, in a setting of firepits and twinkling lights.
There is just no way that any of us can experience that anywhere else but in the SCA, and even at a beginner's level this ambiance is truly a wonder. As one begins to settle in, one makes friends and probably begins to become interested in something. For many, it is heavy fighting. For some, it is archery. For others, it is garb or calligraphy or cooking or woodworking or brewing. For some of us, it is all of the above.
My Shire is the base of all of this, and my particular Shire is an excellent and supportive community. Having such a group is the glue that holds me fast to the SCA in general. Prior to finding ourselves in this Shire, it was our Household that kept us involved, but that didn't work as well since our Household is based out of Southern California. Finding a local community was the key to our happiness and involvement. Our Shire tries to at least have a presence and a meeting place at most Kingdom and Principality events, and that is important for newer members of the community who still feel a little out of place and lost. They can spend the entire event in the Shire Sunshade if they choose, and if they want to wander and explore they know they will have someplace to call home when they get hungry or thirsty or tired. Beyond that, they have friends who will introduce them to other people and encourage them to join in.
Believe me, it is hard to jump in to the SCA cold. Miach and I tried and tried and tried, because even though we were not finding it very welcoming beyond our Household, we realized that it was worth it to us to make the attempt due to our interests and eccentricities. We were "fringies" more from a lack of mentorship than anything else. We wanted to volunteer, and were told it wasn't needed. We wanted to belong, but we seemed to be forgotten from one event to the next. We didn't understand Court, or the process for the giving of awards. It was our interest in archery and geekery of a loosely Medieval nature that inspired us to keep trying, but it honestly felt for much of 4 years that we were banging our heads against a wall. Then we found ourselves in Mountain's Gate Shire, and it all rather quickly fell into place. We have a home. We belong. We have people to turn to in times of trouble, and to share in times of joy. We feast together, laugh together and sometimes cry together -- and that is what a community is about. And this is no closed group. When new people show up, they are welcomed in. Having been a part of many groups in my life, there are certain themes that I recognize as being common. For instance, in any group there are people who do most of the work, often because they can't say "no" and often because they truly like to stay busy. There are people who feel it is their role to set boundaries and limits to the behavior of others, which can be done in positive or negative ways. There are people who are very dramatic and flamboyant, and people who are shy and self-effacing. There are people with grand plans, and people with realistic expectations. Often, these different roles become unbalanced, and a group can become unhealthy -- usually this manifests as stronger personalities taking over more and more of a smaller and smaller community, and often wondering why they can't attract more members. Such has not been the case with Mountain's Gate since we arrived, and with luck and Grace it will continue so.
We have settled happily. Miach is now an authorized heavy combatant, an authorized missile range marshall, a Pursuivant Extroardinaire Herald, member of the Order of the Leaf of Merit, and the Order of the Friendly Castle. And I was given the Scutiferous Cynaguae recently, and intend to continue to merit it with my service.
Beyond that, we have tried to see to it that those members of our Shire that have shown their comitment and skill have been placed before the Royalty in consideration of whatever honors They feel are appropriate. Some of our Shire have gone far too many years without this recognition, and are so far beyond the honors that they are now receiving that I am humbled by their patience and continuing good will. Others have shown far more talent and generosity with their skills and time, with far less time spent in the SCA, than I had when I earned my AOA and are entirely deserving of being recognized for it. When I earned my AOA, I had really not internalized so much of what I "knew" about the SCA so the interwoven relationships between populace and Peers and contributions and enjoyment were not that clear to me. As time goes on, they are much more evident.