The Society for Creative Anachronism
The Arms of the Society		The Arms of the Middle Kingdom

As seen by the eyes of your host

Andreas von Meissen

The Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA, is an organization dedicated to the study and recreation of pre-17th century European culture, and cultures that were known to have contact with the Europeans at that time. If someone did or studied it in the Middle Ages, you can probably dig up someone that does or studies it in the SCA. Everything from fighting, heraldry, brewing and vintning, to equestrian, the bardic and scribal arts, and even period fly fishing.

We hold events, which last from anywhere between one day or a weekend to Pennsic, which is two weeks long, where people get together to fight and show off what they have learned and made.

A big part of the society is period combat, which is divided up into two main areas: heavy and light. Heavy is what you would have seen in the Early and High Middle Ages: knights on foot, in armour, fighting with sword and shield, axe, spear, polearm, etc. Light, which goes by many other names (steel, rapier, fencing, rapier fencing, etc.), is fighting with rapiers and its various forms. There is also archery and thrown weapons, also. Fear the archers, for they can kill you from a long way away.

We are not a re-enactment group, and aren't required to go to huge lengths to be ridiculously accurate. Some people do. Some are just in it to fight. It's that variety that makes it so rewarding and varied an experience.

For more information, see the links at the bottom of the page

I am a proud resident of the Middle Kingdom (DRACO INVICTUS!), and split my time between the Baronies of the Fenix (Cincinnati, OH), and Rivenstar (West Lafayette, IN).

The Arms of the Barony of Fenix	The Arms of the Barony of Rivenstar

A bit about me in the Society:

I have no idea when I first heard about the Society, but I was about 14. I was living in Germany at the time, so I wasn't able to do much about that interest but read. It eventually fell out of my interest, and I forgot about it for a couple of years. Then, after having moved back to the United States, I once again became interested, but was still too young to be REALLY interesting (I was not yet old enough to fight), and then my Senior year of High School came up, and then I went off to college, and had other things to worry about.

Things changed after I got a co-op job the first semester of my sophmore year of college. I was living in my great-aunt and -uncle's basement, bored out of my mind, and the idea popped into my head while thinking about things I could get involved in: why not check out the SCA? That was on a Monday. It turned out that there was a meeting that Wednesday. I went, and was hooked. 

I joined a month and a half later, and authorized in rapier the weekend after that. 

During the spring semester of 2006, one of my favorite people in the Society, Warder Brighid MacCumhal asked me to be her Cadet, a formal student-teacher relationship for Rapier (similar to that of knight and squire). A couple of months after that, at an event I had never intended to attend, I recieved (in absentia) my Award of Arms, for fencing and contagious enthusiasm. It was presented to me (a complete surprise, too) at Baronial Court at a demo in Covington, Kentucky.

The rest is (ongoing) history.

Here is my persona story. It's always evolving. Personally, I think it sounds kinda cheesey, but I don't think anything can be done for that. 

Born during the dawning of the reign of the Emperor Maxililain I, Holy Roman Emperor, Andreas admired the mustering of the Landsknects in his hometown of Meissen in Sachsen, and joined them as soon as he was able. While campaigning in Italy, he met an short, blonde Scotswoman who invited him to be her Cadet in the Noble Arte of Defense. It is thus his honor to learn from her and serve the Middle Kingdom and Baronies of the Fenix and Rivenstar.

Rapier Fencing ("Pointy end goes in the other guy")	Heavy Fighting
Garb and Tailoring, ably demonstrated by Warder Udahlrich (and this isn't even the most scary stuff he's got!)	Heraldry (I will be submitting this device soon!)

Society for Creative Anachronism
The Society's webpage.

The Middle Kingdom
The kingdom in which I live, both at Purdue and in Cincinnati