The Northern Empire (Article)

By Abiliegh Cross
The Duchy of Wolven Fang, once on the minds of many as the next north-eastern kingdom, has been picking up steam once again. In August 2007, at Battle of the Dens in Ontario, Canada, four Goldenvale parks joined their efforts together to form the Northern Empire, and also established their Northern Board of Directors. “[The NBoD] was created so that the groups in the north would be more unified together with the hopes of having common corpora unique to our groups.” explains Sir Nathaniel Goldenleaf of Twilight Peak, the current president of the NBoD. And already, their work has begun to pay off; they are well on their way to becoming their own principality.

The groups; Wolven Fang (Sudbury, ON), Caradoc Hold (Rochester, NY), Twilight Peak (Toronto, ON), and RavenWing (Brantford, ON); have been working diligently on revising the Wolven Fang corpora to suit the needs of the four groups and the growth of the ever-changing Amt-world. With influence from the Goldenvale and Iron Mountains corporas, they have recently worked out a system for a floating crown, and expect to have their corpora finished by January 2009. With that completed as planned, they hope to gain principality status no later than Great Eastern XI, in May of 2009. According to Saint Count Ce’dar, Duke of Wolven Fang “… making a corpora is hard and time consuming, but things have gone pretty smooth so far on that front. It’s the ‘why’ people are getting mixed up in. It’s not so we can have higher level orders or become a kingdom as soon as possible. Those are all after benefits of the process. The ‘why’ is to spread Amtgard in the north and strengthen the groups we already have in the game. We want this game being played 20 years from now and are taking the steps to ensure it.”

With an eager populace, dedicated board members, and a lot of hard work, this project seems to be on the fast track to success. They haven’t yet had any major obstacles, however, they do intend to seek out legal advice in regards to setting up their not-for-profit status across national borders. The difficulty this poses certainly has to be addressed by someone, and they are more than ready to be the group to pave that road.

The Northern Empire has received vast amounts of support and advice from Goldenvale and the rest of the Amtgard community, and are confident as they move forward on their path to principality, and eventually, hopefully, to kingdom. “I think this is an incredible opportunity for us to get some experience while still having a safety net, kind of like a kingdom on training wheels, if you know what I mean. We have a lot of great players here in the north, and I really look forward to the chance to work with a lot of them in hashing out the nuts and bolts of how we’ll make this work for us in our ultimate goal of getting kingdom status.” states MaA Trik Bail, Caradoc Hold.

Their ground-breaking work is unprecedented, their leaders and players are experienced, and we will undoubtedly see great things coming from the north!

“We are trying to grow this game. Amtgard should know that groups are still pushing boundaries, and in this case, borders, to become the strongest LARP in North America. All of us are fiercely loyal to Amtgard and want to see the game as a whole prosper. I think creating an inter-border principality and, God along with the COM permitting, an inter-border kingdom will be a milestone in achieving that.” –Saint Count Ce’dar