Feanga

A defunct freehold shire once located in Santa Barbara, CA.

History

Genesis

Founded in September 2001 by Celedraug, who had recently discovered Amtgard by way of the Seven Sleeping Dragons, the Shire of Feanga originally met at the Santa Barbara Mission greens before moving to their permanent home at Oak Park. Feanga had little contact with the rest of the Amtgard world besides occasional visits to and from the Seven Sleeping Dragons to the north and the Crystalline Confederacy to the south. Over it's tenure this chapter had more than it's share of controversy, particularly regarding some of it's changes to rules and bylaws, due largely to the Amtgard naivety of its leadership and the isolated nature of the group. However, Feanga was also very forward thinking, Celedraug having created a proto ORK called the "Tome of Records" to keep their credit straight.

Mitosis

In the summer of 2002, political differences lead to a split in the group, most of the remaining founding members remaining Feanga in Oak Park, but the majority of newer members becoming the Shire of the Silver Sun and moving to an unnamed park in Goleta, just north of Santa Barbara. Feanga's membership remained very small for the remainder of 2002, but began to get regular attendance of around 20 players per meeting by February 2003.

Symphysis

Some time in 2003 Feanga toyed with the the idea of joining HFS, and also considered alliances with the Seven Sleeping Dragons and their parent chapter Wavehaven, but despite those ideas Feanga remained a rather isolated freehold for the entirety of its existence. They did however attend some joint events with Silver Sun and the Crystalline Confederacy, and paid occasional visits to the Seven Sleeping Dragons.

Synthesis

The Shire of Feanga no longer exists. By 2004, Feanga's membership had grown while Silver Sun's began to dwindle (whereas Silver Sun had been the larger group just after the split), and through some joint events they began to mend their differences. In October 2004, the two shires merged again and formed the new Shire of the Eternal Coast.

Feanga was active from September 2001 to October 2004.

Name

The name Feanga is from J.R.R. Tolkein's invented elven language called Sindarin. It is a combination of fea or "spirit" and anga or "iron", and as such means "iron spirit" or "spirit of iron". Several of the founding members also took Tolkein-elven Amtgard names, e.g. Celedraug, "silver wolf".

Heraldry

People

• Celedraug
• Tauron Xian
• Firgull
• Aoloebio
• Laelu
• evil Randy
• Melinda Silver Sun
• Nelle Silver Sun
• Taly
• Zhen Xiao
• Kelth
• Shinja
• Skulblaka
• Dak
• Petrucio
• Shenkrolan Faroxir
• and many others

Directions

Feanga met every Sunday at 1:00 PM in Oak Park. This location is still in use by the Eternal Coast.

From US 101 Southbound

To reach Oak Park from north of Santa Barbara, follow the 101 south to the Las Positas exit, then turn left on Las Positas. Turn right onto Tallant Road, and keep going till it seemingly dead-ends on Clinton Terrace. Turn left on Clinton, and almost immediately turn right again back onto Tallant. Tallant will soon appear to dead-end again, but it actually continues to the right. Turn right there, and then turn right on Alamar. Oak Park will be on your right; just look for swinging foam.

From US 101 Northbound

To reach Oak Park from south of Santa Barbara, follow the 101 north to the Pueblo exit, turn right on West Junipero Street, and then left on Alamar. Oak Park will be on your left; just look for swinging foam.

Further Information

Feanga had a rather advanced website for its day, which is still archived online, including photo galleries.