Gathering of Monarchs at Clan XXV

So this past week or so we have been in New Mexico for an Amtgard event called Clan XXV. It is where representatives from all the 12 Kingdoms of Amtgard, from across the US come to discuss and make rulings together in a democracy type manner. My group The Rivers End is a Duchy under the Desert Winds Principality. Well, this principality went to Clan last year and petitioned to become the 13th Kingdom. And since that time a year ago we have been working towards that goal. So 40 of the Principality members got on a Le Bus and traveled the 16 hours to New Mexico. We did fund raisers for a year to make it possible. For only $75 each Dave and I were able to attend. This was our bus pass as well as all of our food from Wednesday July 23rd, to Saturday July 26th. It was quite the adventure to say the least. We left Tuesday night at 10pm and arrived at Bonito Lake, NM at 3pm on Wednesday.

The event was filled with battle games, food, lots of heat and sun, fun and friends.

Then Friday night came. And the rains started. And they didn't stop.

Saturday morning at 10:00 AM was the Circle of Monarch meeting where the first ever unanimous vote occurred making our Principality the 13th Kingdom. The Kingdom of Desert Winds. It truly was amazing to see. Here our current Prince Matthias (soon to be King) is accepting the Kingdom Scroll from our current Kingdom Monarch Moss, that was hand drawn by Dame Linden, who is standing there in the picture.

We also had the chance to see the first ever Knight of The Rivers End get knighted. Dame Sindari Elfstone. (Women knights are Dame and men are Sir) Of course her real name is Michelle Neeshan. But we all have persona names in Amtgard. It makes it more fun. For example Dave is Ceowulf and I am Lireal. And we each hold titles. I am Baroness Lireal and Dave is Marquis Ceowulf. We both chose our own names and chose not to have last names. It is a lot of fun filled with a lot of great people who have become like second families. Well, onto Saturday, the rain didn't stop and by about 4 pm the road had become a small river. Hurricane Dolly had moved up to our campsite. We called the Le Bus people and arranged to have them come that night to pick us up opposed to Sunday morning at 6:00 AM. We left at 8:00 pm that night to arrive in Salt Lake at 12:00 on Sunday. Luckily it all worked out, because the campsite was evacuated at 4:30 AM Sunday morning and the campsite had flooded. These pictures were taken by a few of those left behind. Mind you when we were camping here, there was no water to be seen anywhere. In fact, it was rather dusty. Luckily no one was hurt. A lot of equipment had to be left behind, but no person was from the Amtgard group, that is. Police had to make a rope bridge to get people out that were stuck across the new river. I am so glad that we got out the day before. Divine intervention.

Yes, the site had no running water, and no electricity and I had to ride home on a stinky bus for 16 hours, but all in all Clan XXV was really cool and I would have been very sad to miss a few of the once in a lifetime events that occurred while there.