[Steppes] From Lord and Lady Steppes

[Kellie Hardy]

Greetings unto all nobles and gentles from Lord and Lady Steppes,

We hope you are all well recovered from the glorious weekend that was
Steppes Warlord XXIX.   We are still basking in the glow of the great
weather, excellent tournaments, challenging competitions, admirable A&S
displays and the astonishing might of the volunteers who made that
enormous event possible.

We have many to congratulate.  Your new Steppes Warlord and Steppes
Champion are Sir Miguel de O'porto and Don Modius von Mergenteim,
respectively, and your Queens of Love and Beauty, and Grace and Honor
are HL Conal O'Riordan and Countess Sara Penrose.   Our new Steppes
Archer is Ulrich of Carolingia, and the new Steppes Bard is HL Eleanor
O'Rourke.   Many congratulations to all of these worthy representatives
of the Steppes.  And our sincere thanks to the outgoing champions for
their faithful service to the Steppes during the past year.

Our grateful acknowlegements go to Lady Margarite McBridin and Lady
Liadan Bregh, the event stewards, who did a terrific job and kept their
wits and sense of humor about them the entire weekend.  Vivat!  They had
a fine staff all the way around, but we would especially like to thank
Ld. Iames Lochlainn, the security chief, and Ld. Patric Longcoeur, the
equestrian one-man ground crew, for their diligence, loyalty and great
effort in doing their jobs so well.   We enjoyed the luxury of terrific
heralds, marshalls, gatekeepers, waterbearers, list mistresses, scribes,
competition sponsors, teachers and cooks.  You really are what makes
this barony, this kingdom, and this game so special.  We appreciate and
respect every one of you.

On a personal note, we would like to thank the large number of
volunteers who took such good care of our persons at Warlord.  A special
thank you to Ld. Herries, and to Torrin, who were so dedicated,
cheerful, generous and calm.  You made our lives so much easier all
weekend.

What fun the pirate raid was!  Thanks to Ly. Medb Liath, Ly. Eleanor
Cleavely, and Ly. Maria de Vasquez, who turned the children of the
kingdom into dread and deadly marauders!  And many, many thanks to the
shipwrights of the Steppes Shipworks who turned golf carts into
magnificent sea vessels!  We had a blast!

There are many who were lauded by Their Majesties in several Courts over
the weekend.  Our space runs short, so we will leave the particulars to
the herald's report, to be seen later in this publication, or next
month.  Know all of you, that you are well deserving of your awards.
Vivats to all!  We will mention however, that you have a new and very
deserving Oak among you, Lord William Ironwyrm.  It has been said that
one must bleed for the Steppes to be considered an Oak, and this gentle
man certainly has done so, on many, many occasions.   It was clear from
the cheers he received when he was called to the Order that he has your
highest esteem.  Well done.

We remind you that there will be a populace meeting at our home on June
20th at 7:30.  We will be hosting another discourse on the State of the
Barony, sharing the progress of the Barony toward the goals we set last
year, and setting new goals for the coming year.  Please join in this
important discussion about the life of your home lands.

As a final note, our congratulations go out to Mistress Serena
Lascelles, a new graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington!
Vivat!

Godspeed and gentle rest,

Fritz and Catrin
Steppes