Lake Charles
An Amtgard City
Lake Charles, Louisiana has been host to Crimson Moon since 1999. Originally named the "Shire of Amber Twilight", it was previously home to a local LARP called the "Brotherhood of Steel" and "LARFOR". But those are days gone and passed.
Crimson Moon reached Duchy status in 2001, but feuding and civil war eventually split the chapter into Crimson Moon, and a chapter called Colonial Mist across town. This was generically referred to as the "CM/CM Wars" throughout the kingdom.
In the Spring of 2003, Crimson Moon and Colonial Mist finally reconciled and joined their numbers once again. The chapter would meet on Colonial Mist grounds, but retain the name of Crimson Moon for historical sakes. The chapter flourished and were soon reaching average attendances of 75+
In the Summer of 2005, however, the great Duchy was split once again, only this time not under pretenses of war. Some of the membership who were driving from Sulphur, LA, which was a 20 minute drive across the river, set out to found the Shire of Crystal Caverns. This shire seemed to gain momentum for the first six months, but quickly dissolved when the founding members began feuding on what was best for the chapter.
Crimson Moon, known for it's Cajun feasts and intense RP battlegames, has produced an array of great Wetlanders and Amtgarders. From Morrigan McCru, the diligent book-worm and one of the original mothers of the province, to Sir Katzu (now of RW), who helped to found the chapter and guide it along it's path. Crimson Moon has provided the likes of companies such as Tyrson Fighting company, founded by Gunnar in 1998 or so, Four Winds Fighting Company, founded by myself and Alucard (not the Dragonspine Alucard), to the newest company, the Pirates of Crimson Moon, collectively called "The Roulette".
Crimson Moon remains today, meeting once again at it's original location in Drew Park, near the lake. It is still a vestibule of Amtgard in the Wetlands, with possible hopes of one day forming a new Kingdom within the realm of Amtgard.
Sebastian du Lac
Crimson Moon Historian
*The History of Crimson Moon as recalled by Sir Katzu Farquestor of the RW
== The history of Crimson Moon pt 1 - LARFOR ==
Many will speculate and even more will claim they know, but here lies the true story of the province known as Crimson Moon...
Back in 1996-97, myself (then Christian Starsinger), my cousin (Dlaeryn Starsinger), and a high school buddy of mine (The mighty Testicles, who battled foes with his monstrously huge Erection [7' polearm]) decided that we wanted to start playing Live-action games in Lake Charles. They started looking for people while I began to find up a decent rules system. I checked every group that didn't make you pay cash for the rulebooks, and after months of searching and playtesting we came upon this group called 'Amtgard'
Yes, in 1996 we were looking at Amtgard. But we decided these abilities were too low-powered and not simple enough, so we hacked teh rules to @#%$ and created a group originally called the Lake Area Fantasy Roleplay Organization, but inverted some letters once my then girlfriend (Kaneda Yukohime) noticed it spelled LAFROR. Not the best name to start a group under.
Mechanically it was very similar to the Amtgard we play now, but more skill-based and with only two spellcasting skills (light and dark magic.) It got to be 3 shires big, spanning LC, Dequincy, and Sulphur.
LARFOR saw nigh-constant revisions to suit the suddenly EXPLODING populations we were seeing. What killed LARFOR was that in its state of constant revision, many play balance decisions also seemed to look political (Lake Charles? Politic-whores? NEVER...) From LARFOR only myself, Galron, Gunnar, and Ashlynn remain.
LARFOR died sometime in late 1997 when Dlaeryn quit due to being embroiled in too much politics and Terran (my persona I created after Christian had been persona killed) left for the 'real world.' Gunnar and others took the helm and created what became known as the Brotherhood of Steel.
== The history of Crimson Moon pt 2 - BOS ==
Brotherhood of Steel started when the guys who liked teh RP over the fighting left the core group, having fallen out of favor with the stick-jock new officers ('cept we didn't call 'em stick jocks back then... We called then dirty political bastards... Sound familiar to anybody?)
Mechanically BOS was a pretty big departure from Amtgard. We fought with PVC/camp foam as with LARFOR, but we also had guys who played in what we called "heavy", which included shinai and boken and was heavily regulated like the SCA is. Also, limb shots didn't kill - It was torso or you just flailed around like a bloody stump till somebody came by and stabbed you in the torso.
Towards the end I had returned, and during that time we had welcomed in Calamar, Valdir (or was he LARFOR? I forget sometimes with him whether we knew each other that far back), Jadeth, Morrigan TYRSON, and Mirame/Bastet, the woman who was to be my in-game nemesis until she quit coming out in mid Amtgard.
Also during that time I had tried to start a second park for BOS, named Haven. It failed because I was a stick jock and everyone who attended haven were A&S mongers... grrr...
BOS ended when it was decided among the powers that be (The "War Council" - Gunnar, Ashlann, Katzu, Galron, Bondeuse, and Jadeth) that we needed to try something else and we needed a new idea. While business had returned to "as usual" in the LC, Katzu took Daelox (my cousin) and Maera (my then girlfriend) to a mythic and special place called "Granyte Spyre", a Duchy in a group called???
Amtgard. We returned with paperwork, all of our weapons deemed illegal, and loaned the park's first ultralight sword, courtesy of DAXON Goldmoon (not +DAXON at the time.) The weekend after that we had two copies of the rulebook for everybody to look over while we discussed it, and the weekend after THAT we officially voted to join Amtgard and to petition this kingdom we knew only as "Wetlands." And the weekend after THAT Jadeth had 14 ultralight swords and 5 new-tech arrows ready for field use... That dirty whore...
The last BOS gathering occurred in August of 1998 and saw the coming of the Four Horsemen to the park, the first noted appearance of chim-chim the Apocalyptic battle monkey, and the first (AND ONLY!) recorded use or pyrotechnics in our group (bananas with black cats/m80's stuffed inside... hehe.)
I have to be back at work in 4 hours, so tomorrow I will give the forming of Crimson Moon, WL revolution, and the CM/CM war story, and at that point my part of the tale of Crimson Moon will end with my leaving the Wetlands in 2001. The rest is for your peers to tell...
In the winter of 98/summer of 99 we started working towards shire status in Drew Park (where we had been since the beginning), learning these new rules with a fervor none of us had ever expressed over another system. Within 6 months most members could recite their class abilities like it was their phone number or name. Within a year we had 2 Lords, a squire, and barony status. The "War council" still met, and we also added Stryker, Orson, Alucard (my other nemesis), and a bit later also picked up Leif, Sebastian, Gremio, Ravenna, and the rest of the scooby gang out to this day. Looking back now Crimson Moon as Barony and Duchy was heaven.
Heaven, alas, cannot last forever. New Year's eve, 2001, a single night of partying and debauchery spelled the undoing of the mighty Duchy that was able to command the kingdom to its knees. From that night on two factions rose within Crimson Moon. There are tons of names for both of them and undoubtedly a good deal of hurt feelings on both sides, so I won't go into all that here. Within a year a third of the park had quit and another third had moved to a different park (Prejean) and formed a group called "Colonial Mist." Crimson Moon and Colonial Mist fought each other for another 6-9 months before both groups, stagnating and in need of new blood, sat down and talked, keeping the old group's name but the new group's park and SOGs. The Crimson Moon you all know was born.
In the midst of this (un)civil war, The Wetlands had granted second and third belts to its knights via newsletter with their consent, which infuriated the Burning Lands (then ruled by an uppity prick named Aramithris.) They blew up and in a series of escalation moves removed our kingdom status. The other Amtgard kingdoms responded by telling the BL to sit down and shut up. Then the WL compromised and everything returned to the status quo.
The rest is up to local memory and history to catch up on, for at that point I moved up here and formed the Shire of Phoenix Tears in the Kingdom of the Rising Winds.
Sir Katzu Farquestor of Phoenix Tears, RW, Founding Member of Crimson Moon, WL
