If you search on Google for "sca photos" or "sca pictures", SCA photos will appear on the first page. Very nice!

About a person a day finds Thunder's Keep and your photos that way.

In the end, I hope that Thunder's Keep will show up in most of SCA-related searches.

The Meridian Army Marched on the field (100 fighters) to the cadence of 'Hooked on a Feeling" sung at the top of my lungs as I led the Cadence along with my Knight Baras. People were coming out of their tents and dancing, and the entire field was smiling and laughing as we showed up.. What fun! Got some leather and stuff to make more pouches and belts and misc. stuff for newbies.

Hail and Well met good populace of Thunders Keep. id like to introduce myself as im relativley new. My name is Lord Baldric Kessinger of The Incipient Canton of Westmere within the noble boundries of the Middle Kingdom.

Hi there, I am from Las Vegas and going to Estrella with a small group of SCA buddies. Would like to meet more new ppl, so message me if interested!

Just seeing who's going and what they have planned. Our household has been tapped to help with troll as much as needed. We generally have a handful that faithfully work waterbearing and heralds points also.

Otherwise, we're expecting about 30 people in our camp, we're busy working on projects including stuff to better our camp kitchen, more period-oid items (more wood, less plastic!), and the typical garb 'n' armor projects. Some members of our house are teaching classes, not sure what yet beyond a "Cooler Covers" class and some ME music classes. I'll probably host a "Brewers Roundtable" session at some point during the week.

We were camped beside Glynn Rhe last year (down past NOVA), hoping for the same spot this year. Drop by for a visit, bring an empty tankard, we'll have at least 4 kegs of homebrewed ale on hand.

Make something on SCA armour and send an alarm about that people should put their armour-photos there?

I guess not so many people do something serious SCA-related for Christmas, or?

All the stuff in the calendar on the Courtyard, is there anyone that are going to go there?

It would be nice to see a big bunch of photos. It's very convient to upload a big bunch of photos to Thunder's Keep on <URL:upload_zip.html> and you can also easily write image-comments on them.

Yesterday there was a news about Thunder's keep:

http://scatoday.net/node/7452

It seems to have attracted some new members already.

Way to go! More links to www.thunderskeep.org ! ;)

Unto the Keep,

I am curious to know your views on Households, and other formal relationships, within the SCA, both for their historic significance or their impact on SCA and modern life. I would like the views of both those who are household members and those who are not.

I am not a part of a household. My lord is, so I spend a great deal of my time, both at events, and on free weekends, with his household. 

All members of Ulf’s household swear an oath of fealty to one of the peers of the household ~ of which there are Three Knights, a Lady of the Rose who is also a Pelican, and a Laurel (who moved far away, and to my knowledge no longer plays).
(The actual group of peers and their individual households forms more a Clan than a single household, but for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to refer to the entire group as one household.)

Ulf is a squire in a fighting household. There are members of the household who do not fight, but primarily, all activity revolves around fighting, or is in some great way related to it (A&S projects of the heraldic tabard and banner sort, or armoring, for instance).  And those not on the field are usually on the side of it. 

I enjoy watching the tourneys and supporting my lord and his knight. I am friends with some of the household members. And at many events, I know there will be a comfortable and familiar group of people I can socialize with, and somewhere I can put my chair. But they are not my household. 

And sometimes I long for a group of my own where I can feel that I truly belong. But, if I wanted to join a household, I don't really know where I'd go. There is no one in my limited circles to whom I would swear fealty and no one I can imagine studying under.
· I have never seriously considered myself a potential squire. I never got very far in my heavy training, and to the best of my knowledge you can't be a squire if you have only ever fought rapier. 
· I don't know any Laurels who are knowledgeable of a topic I am interested in studying profusely, or who I like enough to become their apprentice. 
· I am not close enough to any Ladies of the Rose to become a companion.
· I am not suited to become a Pelican’s protégé.

For my lord, it is a matter of family, of belonging, of great instruction, and a true matter of pride being a member of his household, both as a part of his SCA experience and in his modern life. 

What other reasons do people have for joining households or creating Teacher-Student bonds, and other formal relationships? What traditions do you have or have you seen?

Are your educational relationships based on fealty? Or a simple comradeship and sense of family?
Are you simply a student and not a member of that peer’s household? 
Did you join a household for possibility of future advancement (to become a knight, a laurel or a pelican). 
To have a stronger voice to speak up for you?

It has been my observation in my area that people join only one household.  This may be due to a seriousness with which the members enter into their fealty. Or for simplicity's sake in terms of event activities or camping choices at large events or wars. I do not know for certain.

I have seen here in Thunder's Keep that people are members of multiple households. Does membership in several intensify your enjoyment of the SCA? Do your various household activities overlap in terms of interests or is each group for a seperate interest. Do you find yourself ever torn between the groups? How serious do you take your membership in any of them? How do the multiple memberships impact you and your experience in each? I notice some of you are members of the same multiple households. Does this help keep the groups together?


What connections do you see or long for between SCA households and the households of the Middle Ages? Are there historic elements missing? Does it matter if there are? Do you want the households you are part of to be more historically accurate, or are they already? Does the historic structure or significance matter to you? Are the SCAdian traditions more important than being completely true to the historic household? Equally important? And once again, what are those traditions?



I am very curious on these topics and I greatly anticipate myriad views and ideas. 


~Ginevra Isabetta del Dolce

Lets get some conversation started - another reason to come back - other than just to see who's signed on or to check email ;)

So Bastion, everyone else, lets talk about what Thunder's Keep is, what what various people would like to get from it and what we'd like for it to become.

I for one, would like to see a NON-YAHOO-EGROUP based online community for the SCA grow and flourish.

Yahoo groups are convenient and that's why the SCA seems to be stuck on it - I think the convenient aspect is too much a price to pay for all the spam and junk Yahoo invites to your computer. I could go on about that for pages, and I think that most on here already know what I'm talking about.

There are other sucessful non-yahoo medieval/SCA communities, such as Armour Archive, but it also appeals to a niche audience.

So, so cut to the chase, what would YOU like to see from TK?