Greetings, Altavia!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Summer and are ready for the event season to start heating up again!

Since our last Council meeting, we have a new King and Queen! TRM Wilhelm and Tsyra’s coronation was a lovely event filled with theater and laughter. Thank you to everyone who joined us and especially to those that contributed items to the baskets for TRM and for Count Adam and Countess Staeina.

There was a break in Kingdom events while Pennsic took place. We loved seeing the photos of all the Caidans out east, especially our baronial parents, Cecilia and Christoph. We’re happy to hear that everyone returned home to Caid safely and look forward to hearing all of their tales from War.

Coming up at the end of the month, over Labor Day weekend, is Highland War. Her Excellency will be attending and hopes that you can join her at this fun and laid-back event. There is much silliness to be had throughout the weekend and especially at the Torchlight Tourney (The words “bouncy joust” were mentioned at coronation court in relation to this event ;))

Beyond Highland, September and both Angels Anniversary and Fall Crown Tournament will be here before you know it. If you are planning on fighting in Crown, Letters of Intent are due by Saturday, August 24.

As a parting thought, we are always looking for new ideas to mix things up in Altavia. If you have an idea, of any sort, to improve the Barony, please don’t hesitate to come talk to Us or our seneschal, Meliora. No idea is too big or too small!

Yours in Service, Always
Baroness Briana MacCabe
Baron Niko Phaistos

Greetings Altavia! It was a short month, but it was shaking! Queen’s Champion in Carreg Wen was so much fun and we want to thank all the Altavians who helped facilitate the competitions and helped set up and take down the dragon wing. It was warm, but beautiful.Lyondomere Anniversary was also warm and humid, but Altavia was represented in force. Thank you all who honored us with your appearance and especially those who brought pop-ups to this wonderful event. We had the most pop ups of any barony in attendance! Many thanks to Cecilia and Christoph for running a fun and popular “target arts” game as well. Altavia’s game was talked about in court.

This week is Coronation up in Wintermist and we hope to see as many of you there as possible. As always, we invite you to walk up with the Barony when we present to the courts.Finally, our thoughts go out to all of the people affected by the recent earthquakes. We hope people in need get the right help and we all give what we can. If you are looking for ways to help, please contact Mistress Aldgytha, Caid’s disaster response coordinator.Again, Altavians are great! Thank you so much for all your help and camaraderie

Summer is here and things are heating up in Altavia!

First of all, His Excellency and I want to thank all of the Altavians that joined us for war at Potrero. The weather may not have been ideal but the company sure was! There were many good times around the fire pit and in the dining hall (dragon wing) and look forward to camping with everyone again this fall at GWW. Just a reminder, if you haven’t pre-regged yet, please do so by Sunday, June 30 to get 125 extra sq. ft. of land!

We also want to thank everyone that joined us for Wintermist and Gyldenholt Anniversaries and encourage you to come out the rest of June’s events including Queen’s Champion in Carrag Wen and Lyondemere Anniversary at the end of the month. Without your presence and help at these events, our days wouldn’t be quite as shiny. Thank you!

In less happy news, Caid has lost two shining lights in the past month, Countess Amsha of Calafia and Lord Bryan Gard of Yale from Nordwache. The loss of Bryan, Caid’s Minister of Thrown Weapons, was especially hard for our barony as he was a previous TW champion of ours and a good friend to many here in Altavia. For all those grieving, our hearts are with you and we wish you peace.

As we enter summer, it’s not too early to start thinking about and planning for upcoming Altavia events. If you or someone you know might be interested in steward Agincourt or Agincourt feast, cooking for Agincourt feast, or co-stewarding Angels/Altavia Yule, please let Meliora and/or His Excellency and I know! We look forward to an exciting fall event season here in Altavia!

Finally, as His Excellency posted on the Book of Faces this week, it’s always a good time to recommend your fellow Altavians and Caidans for awards! If you need help writing a letter or figuring out what to recommend someone for, just give a holler!

Yours in Service, Always
Baroness Briana MacCabe
Baron Niko Phaistos

Altavia Anniversary was an Arabian delight! We received so much positive feedback and we have many people to thank for its success!

First off, thank you to our event stewards, Mistress Cecilia Medici and Lady Amber MacRae, for a wonderful event with such a fun theme! Everyone had so much fun with the scavenger hunt (thank you, Pieter!), camel races, and all the other little touches you put together. Special thanks goes to Baron Christoph  and Brother D for the absolutely gorgeous site tokens!

Thank you to Baroness Tezar of Aeolis   for running an organized and efficient court (record time!) and congrats to THL Damian von Baden for becoming a capital “H” herald!

Thanks, as always, to THL Elle Wynn of Essex for running gate and Baroness Morgaine for wrangling merchants and selling so many raffle tickets we had to send Lord Eadric the Younger out to buy more!

Speaking of which, thank you to everyone that donated, assisted with, or bought tickets for the opportunity drawing to benefit the Barony, especially Dame Lynnette  and THL Juanica Montanez.  Special thanks to Don Nathaniel Longbow and his lovely lady Elspeth for allowing us to stage raffle items at their house and making sure it all got to site yesterday. Thank you to Sir Gui and Countess Troy for their massive donation of items to the sale and raffle. The Barony’s coffers are greatly replenished by all your generosity.

Many thanks go again to Cecilia and all her helpers for wrangling the garb/jewelry/book/what-have-you sale to benefit the Kingdom. There were some really beautiful things over there and I’m happy that they got good homes and we are able to send another sizable donation of funds to the Kingdom. Thank you to everyone who donated! Thanks also to Unicorn Fiber Arts for hosting the space for the sale.

Thank you to our marshals, Lord Griffith Von Bremen (armored) and Don Nathaniel Longbow (Rapier) for running our championships. Thank you to Matlens and Giovanni from running lists and all the marshals and heralds that helped run the fields. Congrats to our Armored Champion Duke Sven Örfhendur and our Rapier Champion, Master Eógan Ua Confraích!

Arts and Sciences was a happening place with coffee, sweets, and (my favorite!) performances. Thank you to THL Juanica Montanez, THL Delphine de Montallieu, Lord Avranos el-Hac bin Yusif Kazim (I have access to the OP and am not afraid to use it!) and all the other helpers and performers for making the coffee house such a special place during the event. Congrats to Rycharde the Bowemon for becoming Altavia’s Arts and Sciences champion and to Dame Gorandookht Mamigonian for winning the special Baroness Bardic prize!

While I didn’t get a chance to get over there myself, I hear the donation lunch was delightful. Thank you to Dame Selene Colfox Susan Fox, Mistress Asakura Machime, and all of their assistants for feeding our hungry guests.

We received so many lovely gifts throughout the day, both from our baronial cousins and from the populace of Altavia. The Barony received lovely travel thrones from Master Colwyn Stagghorn and House Valentine, tasty, tasty sausages from Baron Vlad Kegelyten and the newly formed Runnymede Manor, and food for our baronial table from so many people including Her Excellency of Angels, Baroness Sophia de la Roche. On the topic of food, many thanks to THL Edith of Abroath for ensuring Their Majesties and Their Highness had a repast fit for royalty!

Finally, I want to thank our Court and Guard, and especially our mighty Captain, Baroness Cassandra de Lorrain, and the Baroness Whisperer, THL Monique Marie Sauniere, for keeping both of us well-watered, fed, and where we needed to be throughout the day and for all your hard work with set-up and tear down. We could not do this without everyone’s your hard work, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

In non-Anniversary news, we wish to congratulate Don Nathaniel for becoming Darach’s champion at their Anniversary event on May the 4^th (we had so much fun with that theme!) and send a shoutout to all those that joined us at al Sahid and Darach Anniversaries. Please join us this weekend at Wintermist and next week at Potrero. Yay War!

Salaam and In Service to the Dream,
Baroness Briana MacCabe
Baron Nikolaos Phaistos
Barony of Altavia