User:Lady Shannon

Persona

Unto all nobles and gentles to whom these present letters come, greetings! Tis I, Lady Shannon inghaen Bhriain ui Dhuilleain. I am a young noblewoman of fifteenth century Ireland. My father, Lord Bhrian O Dhuilleain, heads a small, prosperous household with my mother, Lady Anlaith ingen Taidc, in the earldom of Kildare.

The youngest of their seven children and the only girl, I was born on the seventeenth day of May in the year 1460. My father, a free man, was quite loyal to Thomas Fitzgerald Earl Kildare, who became Lord Deputy Thomas when I was eleven years of age. As a girl, I loved to ride the horses of the estate across the rolling green fields. I received a noble's education growing up - I am literate, and I can speak English in addition to my own native Gaelic. In addition, I learned many things a woman is supposed to know - sewing and embroidery, knitting, and cooking, running a household. Most of these lessons seemed superfluous to me, since the house was always abuzz with servants doing all but the last of these very tasks for us.

Lord Deputy Thomas' son Garret was only a few years my senior, and I fancied him greatly, despite knowledge that if he did marry, it would be for the good of the land and the advancement of his clan - neither of which he would achieve by choosing me. By the time Garret took his father's place, I was seventeen years old and I had all but forgotten my infatuation with him, as I had fallen head-over-heels for a mysterious fellow of eastern lineage who sporadically passed in and out of my life as his travels and my own caused us to cross paths many a time. This displeased my father, who wanted nothing more than to see me settled down and married to a good Irishman.

SCA Life

My very first SCA event was in July of 2000 in the East Kingdom -- I was eighteen, I was enamored with the "real-live roleplaying" going on around me, and I remember calling myself "Luhapenterke" for the event. Then I went away to Basic Training for the Army, and promptly lost track of the SCA for four years.

Once I was discharged from the Army, I was looking for something to fill all the free time I suddenly had and I thought to myself, "Hey! How about that SCA thing?" So I hopped on the internet and, without any real hope of finding a group in Hawaii, I began to search. Lo and behold, there was a barony there! I paid for my membership that night, without so much as talking to a single member or attending an event.

The rest, as they say, is history.

I received my AoA from Their Caidan Majesties less than a year later at the Barony of Western Seas' Twelfth Night event. It was completely unexpected. Someone had just finished making a presentation, and the herald called my name. "Oh no!" I panicked. "Am I supposed to be making a presentation? Did I forget about it entirely?!" Not at all, it turned out. Her Majesty had to remind me to breathe as they read the scroll and I became Lady Shannon.

I eventually moved to the Barony of Lochmere in Atlantia, which is the place I will forevermore call home.