Re: SCA History

[Tom Rettie <tom@his.com>]

Poster: Tom Rettie <tom@his.com>

At 03:40 PM 10/23/97 -0400, H L. Falls wrote:

>> >Black Diamond (geographic area of  western VA,  went from Barony
>> >to Shire during this time, but regained Baronial status in the early 80's,
>> >after Atlantia became a Kingdom)

>   I played quite a bit with Black Diamond in '84 and '85.  Derrick 
>Reeverson (or something that sounds like it should be spelled like
>that :-) was Baron at that time, and I'm fairly sure (not certain, 
>but...) that he succeeded Sir Ishmael as Baron; if so, that would 
>push it back a couple more years, making the early eighties the 
>more likely time frame for elevation.  If I'm wrong and Derrick 
>was the first Baron, that would put it as '83-'84...

Very close, but not quite.  The shire became a barony in 1983 if memory
serves.  Prior to that, Black Diamond proper had been only a shire (though
I can't say if it wasn't a subgroup of some larger pre-Atlantian barony in
the dim mists of antiquity).  The first Baron Black Diamond was Sir Ishmael
Ibn Murad (Murat?), al ben Muhammad nasal Hakim.  (I think I got that
right, at least for a semi-literate Scott).  Dirik Reverson (and his evil
twin Kirik) was the second baron, invested in late '84 or '85.  

In those days, the heart of Black Diamond was the group in Blacksburg
(Virginia Tech).  In fact, if you said "Black Diamond," everyone assumed
Blacksburg, as there was very little activity elsewhere in the barony at
that time.  The numbers were always highly variable though, and yes, there
was always concern whether a bunch of transient students could maintain a
barony. But to my firsthand knowledge (which largely ends in the mid-80s),
they never lost status.

Findlaech mac Alasdair
Black Diamond Class of '85


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Tom Rettie                                       tom@his.com
Heather Bryden                               bryden@hers.com
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