Life has thrown us some serious challenges in the last three months, though many of us seem to be virtually fine. Virtually is a strange word. The dictionary definition is “most or nearly as described, but not completely or according to strict definition.” I have to disagree. We have turned virtually into a reality, with most of the same feelings and experiences of life. Circumstances have manifested and our populace has responded. We have adapted, improvised and overcome. We have used our imagination, creativity and innovation. We have turned circumstances on their heads and made them conform to us. Through the course of the last few months, Altavians have proven over and over again that we cannot be beaten. I am proud to call myself a member of the Kingdom of Caid and an Altavian.

Masters Laertes McBride and Beorn of the Northern Seas designed, produced and starred in the Kingdom’s first talk show, “Live from Caid”. It has brought interesting and talented figures from around the Knowne World and shared them with us all. We have been kept up to date on our current state of affairs by people we know and respect. We have learned of new rules coming down from the Board, and new offices being created. We have heard music, songs and stories from our dear, close friends and from people thousands of miles away. We were even given the opportunity of being guided on tour of a SCA castle, which has been a lifetime in the making. It has entertained and informed us every Monday evening at 7:00 p.m., since the beginning of our current situation.

We were challenged by having event after event being cancelled. Then it was our Anniversary that faced cancellation. Instead of sitting in despair, we decided not to call off our most precious of events, Altavia Anniversary. We met online and discussed it. We had help from Dun Or (THL Philippe) and others who had tried this new way of celebrating in our Society, the virtual event. It became our Altavia Alt-aversary!

What we came up with was nothing short of amazing. Our wonderful populace thought up an extravaganza. We had a challenging and fun scavenger hunt made by Countess Battista. We had collectable site token and champion frames by Lord Arioch (Lee). We had competitions thought up by Lord Griffith, Mistress Cecila, and Master Colwyn. Our Arts and Sciences competition was set up and run by Lady Allessandra. Our opening and closing court was handled on Zoom by the spectacular Mistress Meliora and Master Laertes. We had bards from all over the Knowne World share their talents with us. Our innovations have become a blueprint for the rest of the Kingdom and Society.

What we made was truly something new and amazing. It was a work of art. It was fun and engaging. It allowed our friends to be a part of our lives again and, it was REAL! Thank you Altavia for renewing our faith in humanity once again. We hope that you will all continue to keep Altavia, Caid and the SCA in your hearts. There is only one way through all of this…and that’s together.

Baron Niko Phaistos and Baroness Briana McCabe

This month has been full of events up in the great North of Caid. Newbie Knock About and Chiv in the Chest were wonderful, small events that no many of us went to. They were quaint and a great opportunity to get to know people better.Estrella War brought a few Altaivans into the fray. We had both fighters and no fighters attend. We were well represented on the field by Griffith and off by Amber. It was not as wet as in previous years, but it did end up a little damp.

Crown Tourney was Epic. We like to congratulate are new heirs, Lord Panza and Baroness Katherine. We know their reign will be fun. Again, Griffith represented us on the field and went up against three knights. He fought honorably and well and we are proud of his effort. In addition, we had many other Altavians in attendance and helping out. Thank you again to all who helped set up, take down and attend the Baroness. Thank you Mistress Meliora for being the kingdom’s eyes and ears by doing Media for the event. Baroness Cassandra and Dame Lynette attended the royals as well. We know we have forgotten other Altavian contributions of the day. We were so proud to be so well represented in service. You guys make the Barony look great!

Looking to the future, Altavia Anniversary planning is well in progress and we are very happy will what we have seen so far. We will be having a continuous discussion regarding Kingdom events that we are hosting as well as our Agincourt and Feast. A little birdy told us, we might have a guest chef for this year’s feast and it will be epic.

We are in need of filling some officer positions soon. We currently have or will have vacancies in the following offices: Constable, Webwright, Archery, Thrown Weapons, as well as Chronicler. There are also many deputy positions available as well. Please contact the Seneschal or one of us for more information. We thank everyone for all their hard work over years and we ask for your continued support.

Happy February, Altavia! This month has a bit of a slower pace in Caid but there is still plenty to love about our Kingdom :)His Excellency and I want to thank everyone that came out and participated in events that took place since our last council meeting. Angel’s Melee had perfect weather and even though it was a shorter day, plenty of fun and fighting was had by all. Gyldenholt Unbelted was also a beautiful day and we’re very proud of our Altavians, Amabel and Griffith, who fought well and honorably in a very large field. The fighting that day was spectacular, even to someone like me who knows very little about armored combat. Finally, Festival of the Rose down in Calafia was a fun art-filled day and saw two Altavians honored by their Majesties. Our dual citizen of Altavia and Calafia, Bex of (sigh) Calafia, was awarded arms at closing court and His Excellency Niko was “honored” with the title “Royal Namer of Clouds” by His Majesty at opening court. We enjoyed talking with all of the artisans and viewing their art. It was a lovely, relaxing day and there was even some time for shenanigans with the Calafian trident 😉

We hope that anyone heading out to Estrella next week has a lovely time; according to sources, it looks like the weather is going to be a whole lot better this year! Closer to home, this weekend is Knewbie Knockabout up in Wintermist, Chiv in the Chest at the end of the month in Nordwache. His Excellency is looking to travel to Wintermist but neither of us will be attending the event in Nordwache.

The first weekend in March sees Caid’s Crown Tournament in Naevehjem. We hope to see many of you out there to cheer on all the combatants and we would love to see Altavians on the Crown list!

That’s all the news for now. We hope that you have a lovely February and, if you celebrate, a great Valentine’s day! We love you, Altavia!

Yours in Service to the Dream,
Baron Niko
Baroness Briana

Welcome to 2020, Altavia! We’re off to a great and exciting start to the year with a spectacular Coronation event two weeks ago. Thank you to everyone from Altavia who attended and came up with us to present to the outgoing and incoming Majesties, especially to Master Colwyn who, as always, helped us live up to the baronial motto! Many congratulations to our cousins of Angels for a lovely event in a spectacular site (if you haven’t had a chance to look at the pictures in the Academy of St Veronica group on Facebook, go have a look…they are amazing!) and a hearty Huzzah to Baroness Sophia on her Laureling!

Of course, we would be remiss if we didn’t travel back to December and thank everyone for a wonderful Yule. Many thanks to Christof, Cecilia, and Tomaso for running a great event and for everyone that came early or stayed late to help decorate, set up, and clean. Congratulations to our new Bard of Altavia, Mistress Cecilia (and her able assistant, Natalya) and our Games champion, Baroness Tezar! I hope everyone had a great time and can I just say that the Captain Hook look quite suits my baron!

Moving back into January, thank you to everyone that joined Baron Niko at Queen’s Champion last Saturday and I apologize for having to miss it. I hear Altavia made a great showing and many congrats go out to Baron Christoph, the Queen’s Champion for Archery for this reign! Following quickly on the heels of this weekend’s event, we had a royal invasion of Horsemen at fighter practice last night as well as many friends from Dun Or, Isles, and other places around Caid. Niko and I hope everyone had a lot of fun and learning at last night’s practice. I received many compliments from our visitors on how welcoming and fun our practice is and we had quite a few newcomers drop by and fall in love! Good job, Altavia!

Coming up in the next couple of weeks are some really fun events including Angels Melee (this weekend), Gyldenholt Unbelted (next weekend), and Festival of the Rose (February 1). We hope to see many Altavians under the dragonwing for these events and look forward to hanging out and cheering folks on!

In closing, I wanted to put a challenge out there for all of you. Getting more people involved in volunteering has been a big topic of discussion on the Book of Faces this winter and that’s a topic near and dear to our hearts. I challenge us all to talk at least one newbie, at fighter practice or at an event, into volunteering in some way. It could be running list cards, it could be teaching a class, it could be taking on a deputy officer position. If they have interest in volunteering for something you aren’t familiar with, direct them to someone who is! We all know that the core group of people running any given barony is small and that can be tiring but we can and should do what we can to increase that pool of willing volunteers. We all have the ability to help grow our kingdom, our Caid, our family.

Yours, as always, in Service to the Dream,
Baron Niko
Baroness Briana