Lyvyndyr el ra Darkmoon

Duchess Sir Master Lyvyndyr el ra Darkmoon, formerly of Dragonspine

If you know me, you will always a safe place to stay, a warm meal to eat, a caring heart that listens and a kind voice of truth. Never doubt that, and never doubt your value. You are worth kingdoms, and I am honored to have you home.

Biography

Lyvyndyr started playing in Dragonspine in early 1993. On her first day, she mistakenly signed in as 'Lady', not knowing any better. After being chastised somewhat forcefully by a few older players for her faux paus, she participated in a Quest and battlegame, finally deciding to give it a chance. She was first commonly known for wearing a purple spandex bodysuit. In years later, she would be recognized by her trademark purple cap. She served as Dragonspine's Regent twice, both times with Phocion as King and Tristan as Champion.

Played Druid and fought sword & shield almost exclusively. When Jugging, often assigned as Chain (double flail) even though she never used flails during normal field play. While she enjoyed fighting very much and took the field religiously, she was never an 'A'-class player and was usually only valuable to her team as a Master Druid and Journeyman Speed-Bump.

Her skills off the field, however, were regarded more highly. Bringing years of amateur experience in sales and donation solicitation to the park, she quickly expanded and honed those skills to levels which later allowed her to hold Kingdom-size Feasts/Events on shoestring budgets. She also established business relationships in order to promote Amtgard through public demonstrations, media and cooperative events. She also learned different A&S skills, consistently earning high marks for entries in all categories. Service was always her main goal, however: Nothing made Lyvyndyr happier than seeing her fellow Amtgarders happy.

A fairly vocal presence online at the beginning of the Amt-List, she was often referred to online as Lyv or Lyvy, especially by those in DS and BL. She eventually showed herself as being, while not as fierce as some of her cohorts, savvy of rules, regulations, inner workings and politics. It was not odd to see her stand up for what she thought was right or fair, regardless if it was a close friend or a Founder and uncaring of the cost. A favorite quote was 'No job is too dirty for a true noble!', often said while climbing in a dumpster or scrubbing dirty dishes after a Feast. She refused to ask anyone to do anything she would not do herself, strongly believed in "first to arrive, last to leave" when it came to her duties and was known to scold those who did the opposite. An idealist, she refused to compromise her personal code of honor for anyone or anything. This is not to say she didn't slip up on occasion or make apologies for her mistakes: she did both, but always tried to hold to her code. "Anything mean can do, nice can do better. Never do anything to anyone you'd hate having done to yourself. Do not fail the trust you have been given. Always a safe place to stay, a warm meal to eat, a caring heart to listen and a kind voice of truth."

Left Amtgard in late 2001 along with many others as part of a mass exodus from Dragonspine. The exodus was made up of experienced older players who were tired of lies, factions, innuendo and flat-out insults being flung around with impunity. At one Feast, Savaen's Knighting was boldly insulted and tainted by the handing out and wearing of 'Us' and 'Them' identifiers by some of the 'Us'-wearing group, with 'Them' being those who later left en mass. Members of this group were also falsely and hurtfully slandered with accusations of cheating, lying, favoritism and manipulation. Almost all of the 'Them' group left Dragonspine, with some leaving Amtgard entirely. The 'Us' group stayed, with some members eventually leaving, but to this day many of the 'Us' group reside in Dragonspine and it's sublands as knights, nobles and officials.

Affiliated Groups

Golden Lions

Belted Family

Former squire to Sir Jetara, who was Squire to Greywalker who was Squire to Andralaine, who was squire to Deth the Direhearted who was squire to Gilos Dawnhope, who was squire to Tawnee Darkfalcon. Lyvyndyr dropped Jetara's belt years before she was Knighted, but the two remained close and she turned down all offers from other Knights. When she was Knighted, her friend Tilion made her Belt, Egil made her chain, Raphael & Tilion made her knight-tunics, and Ahira presented her with a Chain from around his own neck.

Sir Jetara (resigned belt prior to being knighted)

• • Sir Lyvyndyr (inactive)
    • Squire Bear (inactive)
      • Our past Page Natasha_V has developed into an amazing artisan and tremendous servant to Amtgard. While she has left Lyvyndyr's beltline (and rightly so, with both her Squire and his Knight inactive), she will be an invaluable, honorable member of another beltline, and will no doubt one day start her own. Her skills have progressed miles beyond what any Page would have, and she is deserving of an attentive, challenging and passionate Knight who will walk alongside her and advocate for her. She is loved and well-remembered by both Lyvyndyr and Bear, and will always be part of the Darkmoon Lineage. She is on a knight's path and will make them proud on the day she rises a Knight.

• As a sidenote, Feral Lynn notes that knighting Lyvyndyr was the worst mistake he ever made. She was knighted Flame in 1999 by Feral Lynn. He later said he felt extremely pressured and knighted her only under protest. During a heated discussion, he yelled this fact loudly. Lyvyndyr responded by taking off her belt and handing it to him, telling him to take whatever action he felt proper to have the belt pulled or reconsidered. He threw the belt on the ground at her feet, in front of other knights and members of Dragonspine, then walked away.

Notable Accomplishments

• Knight of the Flame 1999, though this was challenged, insulted, threatened and regretted by several other Dragonspine knights.
• Duchess Awarded after second reign as Regent, only Duke/Duchess at the time to become so without having been King/Queen.
• Countess Awarded after first reign as Regent.
• Lady Awarded after Duchess. Randall gave her the title of Lady as an inside joke. On her first day, she had signed in as Lady and was chastised for it by older players.
• Master Druid
• Master Rose
• Commonly associated with Phocion and Tristan, who were King and Champion respectively while she was Regent. The three of them had two reigns together, the Summer Reigns of 1996 and 1997. People often said that if Phocion was the 'face of Dragonspine', Lyvyndyr was the 'heart'. The old 'carrot and the stick' analogy could also apply.
• She insisted on being referred to as 'Regent' and not 'Consort', seeing the two positions of 'Monarch' and 'Regent' as differing responsibilities. While the King was the King, the Regent was not there to serve only the Monarch but the lands entire, and to be the voice of the unheard when required.
• Years after their reigns, Phocion stated that he was able to travel extensively in large part due to the trust he had in Lyvyndyr being able to handle the responsibility of leading DS in his and Tristan's absence.
• Invented safe, usable equipment for Jugging: actual padded, rebounding spikes and skull designs still used today. Cheshire, author of the first Amtgard Rules for Jugging and also a Golden Lion, lived next door to her at the time and was one of the first people to help test the new equipment.
• Assisted in Rulebook and Corpora re-writes and clarifications, some of which still exist today.
• Wrote several Quests, writing special rules, providing Quest-specific props and creating new NPCs & Monsters for each one.
• Her Events, Feasts, Demonstrations and general mediation/organizing skills are usually what people remember about her.
• She did not like or accept 'AST' (Amtgard Standard Time) and instead ran on-time.

Miscellaneous Information

• Never known for fighting skills even though her own Knight for a time was a Sword Knight (Jetara), and several of her Squire-brothers received Sword Belts (notably Phocion, Stefan), but was recognized by many as one of the best Druids ever to play the game, playing the Class to be a full combat participant instead of strictly a "backfield" magic user. Sir Naes, who helped write the Druid class, exclaimed upon seeing Lyvyndyr use a few well-placed spells to take out the majority of the BL forces during an invasion of DS, "If I had known someone like you would have ever played Druid, I would have never wrote the damn class!" She later repeated this same strategy at two other invasions/wars, to the same result. Bolt was her (un)willing weapon of choice, and many smacks were talked between them about it.
• Participated in women-only tourneys and games at the beginning of her time in Amtgard, finally stopping after seeing the strife and arguments it caused when winners or participants in the Women's Tourneys tried to receive awards or wins to carry over into their land's events or records. Having a no-award, fun-only 'tourney' for women only, or people under 21, or only people over 6 feet tall is not a problem if nothing is awarded or gained. It becomes a problem when people want or demand recognition for anything from a non-sanctioned, exclusionary, optional event. Amtgard was not supposed to be segregated. A men's-only tournament would have been loudly protested and closed, non-sanctioned games should not be used to circumvent game-wide standards.
• Refused to accept any Service orders (Rose, Lion, Flame) after receiving her Flame belt. As a Flame Knight, it was her responsibility, honour and duty to serve. Knighthood is the highest honour given, and she believed that any orders on the same path would have been superfluous. While she never asked or encouraged other knights to turn down awards from their own path, she was accused of hubris and making knights who accepted orders 'look bad or greedy'. To her, knighthood was a deep honor, not an expected reward to be flouted or rested upon.
• Would have also turned down any additional belts, as she was strongly supportive of a One Belt system, with Masterhoods not only being seen as one of the pre-requisites for a Belt, but also being respected as the award given for further, future accomplishments by Knights. This decision was based on the idea of a 'middle class' of players by Phocion and others in the mid-to-late 90s, who saw Masterhood as a honor in it's own right and strove to see it acknowledged as thus, but also because she saw too many knights putting their own greed for additional belts above accomplishments of qualified candidates.
• Frequently butted heads with people on the responsibilities and duties of knights. Saw knighthood as a 'shingle' to designate players as those who had skills, knowledge or experience in a certain area, were willing to share it by mentoring anyone who asked and as people entrusted with the future of the game as whole. Knights should guarantee that their land never lacks for volunteers, whether it be as Reeves, Servers, Judges, etc. As such, Knights should hold themselves to a high standard because it is the right thing to do, not because they are chastised.
• Her birthday parties were listed as Events on the Amtgard Calendar and highly attended. At one, the apartment was declared a land by BL as a joke, a sign-in was passed around, and another joke told that night turned into a problem when people thought Rabbit had actually been knighted at the party.
• Mentioned in the song 'We Didn't Make Up Amtgard' by Randall.
• Inactive since late 2001.
• Recent appearance: Attended the wedding of Dru-Kara and Shadow at Harvest War 2011.
• Recent appearance: Attended Clan 2012 (29th Year) to reconnect with her beloved Golden Lions.

Additional Images

• ORK