Barad Duin split
Contents
Listed here are first hand accounts of the Barad Duin split written by the players themselves.
Roger Shrubstaff
"There are probably people who can tell this tale better than I, as I was definitely on the sidelines while it was going on and a newbie. However, I can tell what I remember, plus stuff I've heard from others as well. If anyone can tell the story better, please feel free to improve on it.
To begin with, Barad Duin was a large and propserous amtgard group in Austin, TX, a fertile place for Amtgard. They played in Pease Park. Their presence helped start the group Turris Lunae in San Antonio later, all the original San Antonio players had come to Austin first.
At some point around spring 1990 in Barad Duin there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the Burning Lands, the leadership people of both groups did not get along.
Apparently some of the strife had to do with the fact that some of the Barad Duin players were gay and one of the BL'ers had made some derogatory remarks about this at some event. This is all second to third hand, so take that for what its worth.
Whatever happened, the powers that be in Barad Duin decided they wanted to split off the group from Amtgard. They put it up to a vote of their populace.
Now... and this is a key event... sentiments in Barad Duin were towards voting for the split, but it was not unanimous. When the vote was put forth, one of the players from Turris Lunae, Michael Hammer of God who was one of the few people who had experienced Amtgard elsewhere and gone to Clan asked he could speak on the issue, and was told he could not. Maybe they were worried he would influence the vote to leave Amtgard. After this happened, Turris Lunae held their own vote and decided to remain in Amtgard instead of following Barad Duin. The fact that they were not allowed to speak played a role in that vote. If it had gone differently and they had allowed him to speak, and then voted to leave anyway, there is a good chance Turris might have followed them into the HFS, and who knows how the landscape might be today.
But this did not happen. Turris established contact directly with the Burning Lands, hooked up with Bifost in Kerrville (founded by former Burning Lander Theo and went on to become the Celestial Kingdom, which went on to become one the largest Amtgard kingdoms, and much larger than HFS. Some of the Amtgarders in Austin didn't want to leave amtgard and formed a splinter group there, first Brightlands (short-lived) and then Tori-Mar which became a major group."
Michael Hammer of God
"I will tell my story. Remember though that I wasn’t exactly close in the councils of Barad Duin so I only know what was public. Some time in late 1988 or more likely early Events in 1989, I went to my first Amtgard game. It was exactly one week after Roger first Amtgard game. We lived in San Antonio where we were at school and we made the 90 minute drive to Austin to play with BD. That first day I met Arthon and we have been friends almost ever since. Very quickly those of us in San Antonio were interested in starting a local park. I got into a discussion with the leadership of BD (Nithanalorn was the Grand Duke at the time). He explained that BD was functionally the third kingdom in Amtgard but that for role playing reasons they were called a Grand Duchy. We (San Antonio) were welcome to become a shire under them. I was the first Sheriff and swore fealty as a shire of BD at the mid-reign of Grand Duke Nithanalorn. I have no independent confirmation that the BL viewed BD as a kingdom-level entity and since I know there was friction between the two, it may be that the BL did not.
The BD Leadership had issues with the BL leadership. That was clear even to the populace but BD was relatively good to the San Antonio people. Our park was called Turris Lunae (tower of the moon) since we were south of and vassal to BD. (Minas Ithil and Minis Morgul were both deemed to crass an allusion to the LotR). The school semester ended and most of the members of Turris Lunae went home for the summer. I returned to Colorado and was present and the first few meetings of the Iron Mountains. Rift was an experienced player from the BL and he organized the IM and got it going. He also took five of us to Clan 1989. That was the best Amtgard so far for me. So many people made it so much fun. Very few of the BD people that I knew had made the trip. I explained this with distance but the friction between BD and the BL was part of it too.
While we were away for the summer we had left some of the townies in charge of Turris Lunae. With all the players gone though the shire had nearly died. We got back and got going with it again. I personally was very much energized to build a better game after my experience at Clan. We continued to play with BD and we had many friends there. Shortly after the summer holidays, however all that changed. There were two things that made this change real. First the BL leadership and the BD leadership continued to spat. This culminated in a letter to the Grand Duke (it was now Connor I believe) threatening to remove the BD contract. It is true that BD was making rules changes and experiments. The same week that the letter came, BD was invaded by a reasonably large contingent of Amtgarders from the Emerald Hills. Dallas to Austin is a reasonably short drive and the EH organized a good sized raid.
It was obvious that day that the EH Amtgarders didn’t have a high respect for BD. I don’t know the why’s or wherefores but the hard feelings between BD and the EH were evident. The EH were successful in the raid and celebrated with much crotch grabbing and name calling. The average members of BD many of whom were my friends were understandably offended. The next weekend the BD leadership called for a vote to leave Amtgard and make a new game. There were two main arguments advanced for this. First, some of the BD people wanted to try a points based leveling system where you could buy spells and abilities with attendance credits. My sense was that more of the leadership was interested in this. Second the BL was bullying BD. The letter was read in the allthing as proof. The real argument (which wasn’t made overtly), was that Amtgarders (as represented by the EH players from the week before) were assholes.
I wanted to speak in the allthing even though we from Turris as a shire didn’t have the right to vote in the BD allthing. The BD leadership didn’t allow me to. My experience at Clan made me want to recommend staying in Amtgard. The allthing voted solidly to leave Amtgard. The weekend after that in Turris, we chose to stay in Amtgard and to cut our association with BD. The fact that BD didn’t even give us a voice in leaving was a factor in our decision. Shortly thereafter, I heard about another old BLer starting a group in Kerrville (Bifost). Theo and I met and agreed to make a kingdom in South Texas combining Kerrville and San Antonio. The rest is CK history."
Aganar
"As far as the fealty thing goes. We certainly didn't feel that we had any say or control over the way other chapters ran their groups. The BL (and other lands) tried to control awards and other stuff -- I think some of us at BD tried to block a couple of your Knighthoods (man, we took those white belts so seriously -- I hope that's changed). One of the founding principles of HFS was that each group was completely autonomous -- I think it was the biggest strength and weakness of the club."
"If I remember correctly, I was Regent at the time (or just about to be -- the mind has grown fuzzy with time) and I remember the frantic nature of the Allthing. It was totally mass hysteria. I don't remember there being any discussion about letting Michael (or anyone from the other chapters) speak -- and if I had, I certainly would have argued to allow it. There's never any harm in letting someone has his or her say (as long as they agree with me)."
"It's a shame that it happened and it's a shame that it had such an effect on people."
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