On the Order- Knights of Garm

What year was your Knighthood formed?

Sir Gideon with Squire Killian
Photo by Jesse Gifford

The Knighthood was formed at Queen of Hearts in 1998

What does your knighthood stand for?

Making the choices, that might not be popular, to cause the outcome that keeps the balance.  This can be done through direct action or subtle manipulation.

What are your tenets?

Maintain the Balance

Kneel before no man or God

Prepare souls for their final destination

Safeguard the gates of Hell

Enforce the laws of the Pantheon of The Greater Gods

What is your symbol?

Did you have a traditional Knightly power, if so what was it?

Transfer wounds - ability to transfer the knight’s negative state unto another via touch.

Sir Nighthawk
Photo by Robyn Nielsen

What do you look for when selecting squires?

This is a knight’s personal criteria, although generally a discussion about the squire is brought before active knights.

What is your squiring process like?

This depends on many factors, such as, the individual personalities involved.  At a Basic level, the knight tries to instill their own understanding of balance  (through deeds or teachings) upon the squire.

Who is your current Knight Commander?

Sir Gideon

Who are your currently active Knights?

Active:

Gideon

Pawldo

Nighthawk

Duncan

Passive:

Blak

Da'oud

Rob Scarlet

Founding (also Ascension War Team):

Blak (Original Knight Commander)

Duncan

Nighthawk

Sir Duncan
Photo by Melissa Fitzgerald

Do you have any interesting stories from your Knighthoods past?

Probably...

Anything else?

Our Knights may have drastically different methodology and understandings of Balance, but that in itself promotes balance.

Why I Want To Go - Knights of the Eternal Flame Tourneys 2014

Knights of the Eternal Flame Tourneys 2014
February 15, 2014 (Saturday 12pm) - February 15, 2014 (Saturday 6pm)
Event Type: Tournaments

[Disclaimer: The author of this post is a member of the staff for this event.]

This is a full day of tournaments, both combat and non-combat. There will be Order of the List points available for participants. Some non-combats will include Bardic, Improv Ritual and Pickpocket tourneys. Note that characters are able to break their weapon restrictions for limited tournaments. There are some tourneys you may want to prep for such as the Crafting Challenge. Overall there is usually a lot to do at this event for everyone.

Question of the Week - 131

What location in New England do you wish we could hold an event at?

Fresh Faces- Nataliya "Shader" Kostenko

Photo by Jesse Gifford

How did you learn about Realms?
I joined UCONN’s fight practice club, SMAC. Someone ran up to me at the involvement fair and asked “Wanna hit people with sticks?!” Sure, who wouldn’t?  

How many events have you been to?
Four so far—Black and White, Order of the List, Uncle Cecil’s and Tournaments of Artemis.

Have you ever LARP’ed before?  If so tell us about it?
Nope, I hadn’t even heard of it.
 

What is your character like?  Where are they from? What is their race? What is important to them?
My character is, not coincidentally, a lot like me because I’m no good at role-playing. Shader is a regular human person from a poor family in the Southern Wastes. She traveled to Vinehaeven and joined the Oaken Guard, seeking a life of adventure and wanting to make a name for herself.

What do you remember most about your first event?
Wandering around confused with the other UCONN newbies until someone—usually Aeston—yelled “Oaken Guard! Do this thing,” at us. And then we failed to properly accomplish the thing. It was Black and White so the little team fighting tournaments and archery competitions were also really fun and memorable, along with the masquerade and dancing part at the end.

What things have helped to make you feel welcome in game?
All the veteran members of SMAC have been extremely friendly and helpful at every turn—I really appreciate their guidance and caring. I don’t even have to ask for help; when they see me inevitably messing up they take it upon themselves to give me pointers on my fighting technique. The greater Realms community is super welcoming as well. I don’t remember who it was, but someone at my first event said something like “Realms is family,” to all us newbies; it was a really cool sentiment.

What parts of the game do you find most challenging?

Photo by Jesse Gifford

Fighting is my absolute favorite, but I’m not very good at it yet—I think being aggressive enough is a big challenge for me. And as mentioned above, role-playing is also still a bit beyond me.

Do you have any game related goals (as either a player or character)?

I want to get better at fighting and maybe win a hand and a half tournament. I also want to try out the other weapons combos. As a character, hopefully join a nation eventually.

What advice would you give other new players?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or clarification—a lot of people seem terrifying but are actually very nice. Don’t forget to think about what you’re doing with your feet and legs, not just your arms and torso, while fighting.

What have you enjoyed most about the game so far?
Getting better at fighting and seeing slow but steady improvement in myself. I also like the people experience and the socializing.

Anything else you'd like to take the opportunity to put into print?

Nice to meet all you cool people. 

Funny Pictures

In this series, we're posting some unique pictures of us as we play in the Realms. The challenge we present to you is to provide us with funny captions for the pictures in the comments section. Try to keep 'em relatively clean and fun. (Photo by Jesse Gifford)

On the Order- Knights of the Red Branch

What is your Knighthood?

Photo by Jesse Gifford

The Order of the Red Branch

What year was your Knighthood formed?

First player knighted was on Oct. 18th, 2003 at the Black & White Masquerade

The result of a “one year” plot, that started at the Black & White in 1998, designed and developed to create a new knightly order within the game.

What does your knighthood stand for?

Promoting each individual to form their own opinion and act on it accordingly.

What are your tenants?

"To always do what YOU deem is right, regardless of what anyone else says or thinks."

What is your symbol?

A red rowan branch of 15 leaves on a black field.

Did you have a traditional Knightly power, if so what was it?

Not from the olden days, but we do have a recognized power when the Chimeronian "Trappings of Civilization" are in effect. It is called "Force of Will", and as the name sounds, it allows us to exert our will upon our surroundings to allow us to accomplish feats that might not otherwise be possible.

What do you look for when selecting squires?

Photo by Angela Gray

Each knight looks for something different, but it boils down to:

Having a good positive attitude towards the game and meshing well with at least one knight’s way of doing things.

What is your squiring process like? 

1. If a knight identifies someone they would like to squire, they talk to them about the order and about the possibility of working together.

If as potential squire approaches the order, the knights hold a meeting to discuss whether the candidate would be a good fit with one of them.

2. They are then either squired to the Order itself or to a specific knight and given a red belt with a black rowan branch on it.  Either way, as a squire of the Order, they can expect to be charged with tasks by any of the Knights.

3. The Squire will then spend years working with their Knight or other members of the Order growing and developing as an individual until one day they are recognized by the order as a whole.

Who is your current  Knight Commander?

Dame Brynn Colteor McKrye - Princess of Chimeron

Who are your currently active Knights?

Photo by Jesse Gifford

Dame Brynn Colteor McKrye

Sir Magnus Heavyhammer

Sir Rorin Akanar

Sir Laurante D'Rhian

Dame Makela DarkWillow

Sir Chan Ottokar

Away with the Fae Court:

Sir Ged

Duke Zula of the Fae Courts

King Owen ap Cuchulain of the Fae Courts

Leave of absence:

Sir BrightHammer IceBreaker

Do you have any interesting stories from your Knighthoods past?

Photo by Angela Gray

I think the single best knighting I have ever been to or done was the knighting of Sir BrightHammer.  It was when my character Owen was still a PC and he was leading a Realms wide war effort to re-take Fae from the false King Oberon.  BrightHammer had always been a great asset and friend to Owen in this and I had named him one of my lieutenants; however, he had decided to throw his lot in with Robin the Duke of Monstrosity who was leader of a third faction in the war.  I called him out on this in the middle of court at a Feast of Chimeron and took back the badge I’d given him as a lieutenant.  Bud (who played BrightHammer) was so dumbstruck and with shock/anger/frustration he couldn’t say anything….which was good in that it prevented him from interrupting when I then pulled out a knightly belt of our order and offered it to him in replacement.  Meanwhile, as this happened, the other Knights who of course knew what was going on had quietly come up from behind to be ready to welcome him into the Order.  To see the look on his face as his emotions did a complete 180…transitioned from shock of anger…all the way to stunned with joy…priceless.

Anything else?

Additional factoids:

Another name for the Order is “the Order of the Raven”.  This is due to a plot mis-que at the first event which launched the quest to found the new order.

The quest started at a Black & White Masquerade Ball in 1998 and as such the event holds a particular importance to the Order.  We now attempt to hold and annual meeting there each year IC & OOC.

The first person knighted to the Order was Owen Colteor McKrye, who later became known as Owen ap Cuchulain (aka Cuchulain).  He was knighted in silence by the spirit of the previous Knight Commander after finally being put to rest.

The “youngest” (ie. newest) squire of the Order is given the lineage squire belt, which bares the names of all the squires before them, until such time as another squire is taken in the order or they are knighted.  In each case they’re knight is responsible for providing their new belt.

Blast From the Past - View July 1992

Here we have July 1992. A lot of this follows up on one of the articles from the previous month (which you can read here - the article most of July is talking about is Tempest in a Pothole, the second to last scan). There sure was a lot of controversy back in the day. I haven't seen it as bad as it was back then in recent years and that is a good thing. There are also a bunch of other good Realms related articles including a View From Valehaven Best Article winner that introduced the concept of backed currency to the Realms. This issues is an excellent slice of life of how the Realms was working "back-in-the-day". [Thanks to Janna "Iawen" Oakfellow-Pushee for the scans.]