Greetings, Northshield!
When we first began thinking about fighting this Crown, we knew that, if we won, it would cause a bit of a stir. We were not quite prepared for the outpouring of support we’ve received, however. We’re not sure we can thank everyone enough for that!
While we’ve engaged a great deal with the online community via Facebook already, we do recognize that not everybody is ON Facebook, so here is a summary of our overall style and plans.
We represent the first time a same-gendered combatant and consort have been victorious in a Crown Tournament anywhere in the Known World since Inspirational Equality was enabled by the SCA's Board of Directors. As such, we recognize that we will be breaking entirely new ground, and deviating from patterns that are somewhat ingrained after 50 years of SCA tradition.
To help ground our heirship and, eventually, reign in historical practice, we have chosen to pattern our royal personae upon the culture and traditions of Khazaria, a Turkic kingdom that stretched between the Black to the Caspian Seas between roughly 650 and 1016 CE. Khazaria was an open, multicultural region whose leadership evolved into a dual-king model — a Khagan and a Bek. When one day we come to the Gryphon Thrones, these are the titles we will be adopting: Yehudah Khagan and Hrodir Bek.
In the meantime, as heirs to Rhys and Gwenhwyvar, we will be known as Hrodir Fyrste — a Norse title equating to "prince" and sorting well with Hrodir's name; and Yehudah Tarkhan, a Khazar title of nobility.
More details about our plans for our heirship and eventual reign can be found at <http://reign25.melm.org>. We will be updating this site pretty regularly.
By the time you read this, Yehudah will have already been to ARRG XV (where he will have held the Tarkhan’s Sleeve Tourney), and Mermaids, and Castle Fever will either be just behind us or just on the horizon. Hrodir and Yehudah each have commitments that keep us from traveling much in June, but Hrodir will be at MidSumar. And of course, we will both be at Warriors and Warlords in July.
We have exciting plans for the rest of the summer, as well, but we’ll save those for a later missive!
Once again, thank you to everyone who has supported us to this point, especially to our Royal Parents, Rhys and Gwenhwyvar!
In service to Northshield,
Hrodir Fyrste and
Yehudah Tarkhan