Words from Their Excellencies

Unto the Mighty populace of the Citadel of the Southern Pass do we, Tariq and Elieth, Baron and Baroness, send greetings!

As first order of business, we wish to announce that the Outlands has Royal Heirs!  Al hale Hrorek and Slaine, Crown Prince and Princess of the Outlands!  We look forward to a long and prosperous reign!  We encourage our populace to make the journey to the Shire of Drygestan (Santa Fe, NM) to witness the Crowning of our new King and Queen on November 11, 2018.  Let us know if you are interested in attending and we will do what we can to help you get there.

As many of you know, The Barony recently hosted a series of grand tournaments up in the cool mountains near Cloudcroft, NM at the Citadel Hastilude event on August 24-26, 2018.  The event was very well attended and we have heard many reports of people having a fantastic time!  There were eight tournaments planned (four for Heavy and four for Rapier) with seven of them actually taking place.  We would like to once again thank Lady Melery and Herr Johan as well as their entire staff and volunteers who made the event such a great success.  We would also once again like to thank His Grace Duke Walrick de Blakeny and Sir Rowland du Grey of Lincolnshire for being our two competing champions.  As you know, His Grace won the day and we look forward to another worthy lord to challenge him next year for the title of Champion of Citadel Hastilude!

The summer is waning we look forward towards the cooler autumn months as we prepare for the celebration of the 35^th anniversary of our Barony’s founding at the Feast of Saint Edrik!  Domina Julia is the autocrat for this fine event and we anxiously await all of the great activities that she has in store for us.  If you would like to contribute to the running of the event, please contact Julia so she can let you know where she needs volunteers.  The Feast of Saint Edrik is the celebration of our Baronial Birthday but it is also the event where we choose our various Baronial Champions.  Tournaments for Heavy and Rapier combat will be held as well as the archery champion and Arts and Sciences competitions as well.  Don’t forget as well that the Citadel does have a Youth Archery and a Youth Arts and Sciences Champion and those competitions will also be held at the event.  The Feast of Saint Edrik is a camping event this year so we are looking forward an evening full of festivities in addition to the day’s events.  Finally, we will be holding a War Practice as our Kingdom begins gearing up to march off to Atenveldt in February to take the fields of Estrella War!  It will truly be an event not to miss!

The weekend following the Feast of Saint Edrik, the intrepid College of Saint Golias (Socorro, NM) with be celebrating 40 years at their Saint Golias Feast Day event.  We encourage you all to attend, especially you artisans as Her Royal Majesty has designated this event to hold her Queen’s Prize artisans event.  In addition, Saint Golias will also be hosting a War Practice as part of the Kingdom’s Estrella War preparations.  More details of this fine event are forthcoming so keep an eye out on the webpage as well as on the Facebook Pages.

Speaking of Estrella War and arts and sciences, Her Excellency and I have decided to try something new this year.  In conjunction with our Chatelain, Signore Bernardo’s Road to Estrella War program that he will soon be rolling out, we wish to announce Citadel’s A&S Road to Estrella War.  The official kick-off was done at Baronial Arts and Sciences Night last Friday, August 31^st and we will be following up with more A&S nights that are specifically geared towards preparing entries for St. Edrik, then Queen’s Prize, then culminating with the A&S competition at Estrella War.  With this in mind we are looking for members of our populace that are interested in preparing at least one entry that will eventually go to War, no experience necessary.  We will be walking through the process, step by step, tailored to your own artistic interests. Post here or reach out to Her Excellency and I or Lady Rita if you are interested in participating.  Let’s do our part to sweep the War Point for Arts for the Outlands!

Finally, we wish to take a quick look further ahead to the Holiday season.  Her Excellency and I will be hosting the annual Feast of Saint Stephan at our home in early December and although we have yet to establish the date, we thought that we would do something new for this year.  To that end, we bring you the Feast of Saint Stephen’s Gift exchange.  This exchange is in essence a “Secret Santa” exchange but with a bit of a twist.  Why is this different? Because the gift you give will be hand made by you (or someone else if you wish) and of medieval use in these Current Middle Ages.  We look forward to you all not only participating in the exchange but most importantly, attending the event.

In closing we would like to once again thank you all for your continued confidence in us and all of the support that you have given us over the last three and a half years.  We really could not have done this job without all of you.  It takes a village but we have a Barony, and we are so very grateful for it.

Hale Citadel!