Archive: History: Lyonnete

elcome to Lyonnete's cheap history, Cleftlands at a glance.

We were created, at some misty point in the past, by a loose confederation of people centered on Cleveland State University. [See Marixsa's Chronicle for more on our founding] One possible claim to fame is the First Kingdom A&S event

In the late seventies, the focus shifted to Case Western Reserve University. Early history is filled with humorous anctidotes, especially surrounding House Asgaard, a house near CWRU that was rented by members of the barony. [See Asgaard's Page]

In 1978, one member of the barony, Laurelen Darksbane, became a knight and a prince all in one afternoon and set the Cleftlands on the path of greatness. The baronial histories stop at this point, probably because the Cleftlanders were too busy running the kingdom to keep track of local happenings. (a quick succession of Cleftlanders became royalty and kingdom officers.) [See The Dynasty page.]

Today we still have many of those former royalty and former kingdom officers around, making us a peer-heavy group. Having so many notables among our ranks has made us a very rank-un-conscious group. Very few of our peers wear their rank insignia often, and there is a strong pressure to be humble.

We are a proud group, many members wear the Cleftlands blue and white. We have seen many fine seneschals, but still have our founding baron. He's not the only one who is still around. Our greatest strength is embodied in the veteren members, people who have been with us from the start, and show no sign of quitting any time soon. Duchess Emelyn is regularly seen serving our feasts or sitting at troll, Master Talan's distinctive voice is heard every Wednesday night at Mouldoon's tavern, Dame Alys-Katheryn still makes it to events and meetings, even with a busy schedule planning Pennsic's Arts and Sciences activities. And there are many, many others. (Of special note to history lovers, newly-Pelican-ed Marixsa of Crawfordmuir made the long journey to meeting recently, only to visit.)

A current tradition, mostly held by the members of the Cook's guild, has been to go to Muldoon's tavern after our weekly baronial meetings. The waitresses know us and are always prepared with pitchers of water and baskets of popcorn.

We are a diverse group, with much of our strength concentrated in various households and guilds, but somehow we manage to stick together as a whole, if only out of our shared experiences cutting out/ painting/ sewing/ agonizing over blue and white nebuly.