Nel'Fray
Contents
House Nel'Fray
Heraldry
History
Founded in 1998 at Cuiviëdôr Amarth, House Nel'Fray began as a close-knit group of friends, but quickly became infamous. In 1999 there was a falling out within the house over lack of effective leadership, the direction the house was taking, and a conflict with the Corsairs. The resulting offshoot group became House Van D'Evic. The remaining members of House Nel'Fray slowly regrouped as the house became more millitant. Today, it is rare to see any Nel'Frays at all, as the members of this house are mostly on hiatus.
Beginning
Khraal, Tyriss, and Niles first formed the Nel’Fray Household with elven personas in RPG chatrooms on the internet. From there they moved their ideas into the realm of Amtgard. Their first Amtgard appearance was at the foundation of the Shire of Cuiviëdôr Amarth in January of 1998. Deitri Van D'Evic was the first person in Amtgard to be accepted into House Nel’Fray. The next to join the house was Gabriel (October 1998).
In late 1998, Khraal moved to Teague, leaving Tyriss, Niles, and Deitri to tend to the household locally. He expected them to be his eyes and ears giving him full reports as he emailed them instructions. It was at this point that Khraal instituted the rank structure, and set up unspoken policies to be extremely secretive. At the top of the hierarchy structure is Khraal. Below Khraal are the Gans, or inner circle. They are his closest advisors. Below the Gans are the Bars, or outer circle, and then the Kuls (or Hellions). The majority of the Nel’Fray are hellions. Acolytes (Initiates) are naturally at the bottom.
By February 1999, Taeryn had become an acolyte along with Riff Raff, Tormentaarii, Breca, Osgiliath Vesper, Finn, Tatter, and Pandora. Things were going well for the household. Nel’Fray had developed a reputation for intrigue, and it had achieved one of its main goals in the political conquest of the EH. It had achieved a major presence in the Barony of Ironcloud to match its presence in Cuiviëdôr Amarth. Pandora was at that time the Baroness of Ironcloud.
Conflict with the Corsairs
At Forest’s Coronation in December of 1998, the Nel’Fray had a rubber chicken hanging by its foot from the lattice work at their cabin, jokingly picking on the Corsairs. Fytakin got wind of this and took the chicken forcefully just before dawn, leaving its dismembered foot stuck in the lattice work. The Nel’Fray had to barter a twelve-pack of Dr. Pepper to get their now one-footed rubber chicken back. That chicken was property of Niles, who wore the rubber chicken foot on a necklace as a trophy.
At that same event, the Drunken Wyvern captured the Corsair banner, wrote “The Drunken Wyvern” on the back of it with electrical tape, and hung it up above the bar at their tavern backwards with a light behind it so the Corsair device could be seen plainly through the cloth. The Corsair Company felt it had something to do with House Nel’Fray because the Drunken Wyvern were not well known at the time, and there was already animosity over the rubber chicken.
At the March 1999 EH event, the banner of Cuiviëdôr Amarth went missing, but was eventually re-acquired by Larin and returned on the condition that no questions be asked. The populace of CA, who were mostly Nel’Fray, felt that the Corsairs were responsible.
In the summer of 1999, some of the Nel’Fray showed up at Ironcloud sporting a new rubber chicken dressed in a Corsair tabard hanging by a noose from their banner. On the back of the chicken’s tabard were written the words: “I’d rather be a Nel’Fray.” This was meant as a joke. Nevron however, took offense. He removed the tabard from the chicken, and refused to return it. His logic was that if it bore the Corsair device, it was property of the Corsairs.
The name Nel’Fray was on everyone’s lips, and the EH list was ablaze with heated discussion. Much of the kingdom was behind the Nel’Fray, if not in word than in spirit. Post upon post to the EH list continually proclaimed how many had a strong dislike for the Corsair Company. The Nel’Fray had wit, it had members, and it had a backbone. Off the list, the Corsairs and their sympathizers would see a Nel’Fray and say “Nel’Fray, run away!” or make it a point to kill any Nel’Fray they saw at Mourningwood Glen.
Things continued thus, until Empress Shaylen’s Midreign in September 1999. There had been a fund raiser that reign called “Pie in the face,” in which anyone could donate a penny per point to nominate someone to get pied in the face, and two cents per point to have the points removed. When the fundraiser closed, the top five people with the most points would get pied, and their pies were auctioned off to the highest bidder. One of the top five was Sir Falamar, a Corsair. House Nel’Fray won the bid for his pie and pied him. Later, at court, the kingdom Herald called all members of house Nel’Fray to approach. When they all kneeled, the Corsairs came at them from behind and pied them all. As it so happened, this attack didn’t hurt the inner-circle one bit. At that time they were safe at their campsite preparing for a night around the campfire. In the end, the Nel’Fray were embarrassed by a mass pieing in court. Yet the Lord and the Inner-Circle were conveniently absent. The rest of the house accepted the embarrassment for the upper levels lack of action. Only the Acolytes were pied.
After court, Fytakin began his “marker assassinations” on the Nel’Fray, in which he would use a permanent marker to draw a line across his victim’s throat, symbolic of cutting the throat. This was done by force or surprise, and was often painful for the victim. The practice of “marker assassinations” was ruled to be unsafe and illegal, and was banned by the kingdom. Fytakin was expelled from an event for this some years later.
After the attacks, all of Nel’Fray gathered around their campfire to discuss the matters at hand. The Acolytes felt that the inner circle somehow new the pieing was coming and skipped out on court because of this. Lack of leadership, betrayal, and injustice were the topics of the meeting. Finn, Draeven, Breca, Kyrie, and Riff Raff explained their problems to Khraal and the Inner-Circle who accepted and commended them. Deitri stepped forth to handle all of the problems that the whole of the house was facing. He quieted people’s fears and anxieties, and spoke well of the upper management’s positions and ability in the matter.
With such an opportunity to substantially humiliate one of the Nel’Fray’s greatest enemies, Khraal decided not to take the initiative, regardless of what the rest of the household said. Instead, Khraal decided that a truce was in order. (If there is one thing that the Nel’Fray love to do, it is to sign treaties. They had one with Ironcloud, one with House Redhawk, and several others.) Within the house, arguments raged out of control, accusations were made, and insults were sworn.
The Rift
After the mass pieing incident that will forever live in infamy, the primary governing members of the house seemed to be making improvement. After much haranguing from the household, they atoned for their fallacies and proclaimed amends. All of this ended in vain because later, the management’s actions spoke much louder than words. When the household demanded guidance from the upper levels, what they all too frequently received was silence. Much of what Khraal claimed to have taken as good advice, he shunned as pitiful drivel. It became obvious that Khraal and the inner-circle had no intention of standing by what was said.
The Nel’Fray email list was frequently ablaze with conjecture while the Inner-Circle was conspicuously silent. Khraal’s only appearance on the list was only to shut everyone up. Numerous meetings were held to discuss the problems dwelling within the upper levels of the Nel’Fray, all of which failed. All of the members loved being Nel’Fray; it was only the Inner-Circle and the Lord that gave them reason to hate the household.
Factions were divided, arguments raged, and leadership waned. Tormentaarii moved to Australia. She continued to claim Nel’Fray membership, but was too far away to be of any use to the Nel’Fray and vice versa. Pandora left the household because she didn’t like the treatment of women by Khraal. She felt that he was demeaning, insulting, and far too arrogant and egotistical. Tatter was not far behind her, for they are Amt-related. Osgiliath left the household because he felt the ideals that the Nel’Fray came to symbolize no longer suited his persona. Finn left the house as well for similar reasons.
Deitri saw the changes that Nel’Fray had undergone, didn’t like any of them, and voiced his opinion on every issue. He soon realized that this was an uphill battle. Several of the lower ranking Nel’Fray wanted him to assassinate Khraal and take over the House. Instead, Deitri decided to construct House Van D'Evic, which stood for the ideals that House Nel’Fray was originally founded upon; an atmosphere of friendship, like-mindedness, common goals, protection, and of course honor. House Nel’Fray no longer stood for any of these; instead, only loyalty to Khraal. With the level of ego that Khraal innately has, it was only a matter of time before he altered the purpose of the household to proclaim his wonderfulness and worship him.
Deitri planned to leave House Nel’Fray at the next meeting of the Gans. However, when they heard about his new house, they refused Deitri the right to leave of his own free will. They immediately expelled him from House Nel’Fray without so much as a “Thank you” for his years of support and leadership. He had hoped for a tribunal in which his case could be decided upon, but they didn’t even grant him something so minor. Such is how they treated long standing members, those who had given their all to the household. It was no matter. When Deitri left, Taeryn, Breca, and Riff Raff went with him. When the Nel’Fray exiled Deitri from the household, they lost half their numbers. As a last laugh, Riff Raff wrote a book entitled: “House Nel’Fray: Imbecility at its Acme,” from which most of this history is transcribed.
Conclusion
The cowardice of the Inner-Circle and Lord of House Nel’Fray was seen by the whole of the Household and the Kingdom at the challenge of Breca during court. Breca stood before the Kingdom court and issued a challenge to any Nel’Fray who had a problem with him. None of them responded. The Nel’Fray couldn’t care less how the rest of Amtgard feels about them. Advice was given but blatantly and quite loudly refused. Nel’Fray at one time had such intelligence it easily could have become a lasting organization if properly lead. Not anymore. No longer do they have their power base in CA, and they have long since lost their foot hold in Ironcloud. In fact, the name Nel’Fray is the punch line of many amtgard related jokes. Khraal and the current members of the Inner-Circle managed to bumble everything good that household had going for it. It doesn’t matter who you are or how big you are, you can only overcome an adversary with your only real weapon, your mind. That was the founding principal that Nel’Fray was created upon. As that changed, so did the household, which was never the same, nor will it ever be the same again.
Additional Images
Druss Nel'Fray and Deitri Van D'Evic at Cuiviëdôr Amarth in 2004
Tasks
The Tasks were a game that Khraal came up with in which each member of the house had their own task to fulfill. These tasks were assigned by Khraal mostly but could be assigned by the Gans with Khraal’s approval. The tasks had to remain secret even from other house members. They included things like "obtain a lock of Mouse’s hair," "steal the Drunken Wyvern’s banner," "find out what the other members’ tasks were," or "assassinate three highly reputable people each time leaving a calling card in the name of the Harlequin Church" (an anti-bard house).
Common Nel’Fray Joke
How many Nel'Fray does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. 30, One to do it, and 29 to plot out all the contingency plans.
B. Just one, but it takes all of them and half the morning to get the light bulb back from the Corsairs.
Current Leadership
Gans (Inner-Circle)
- Tyriss Nel'Fray
- Collin Grimrose
- Niles Nel'Fray
Hellions
- Druss
- Gazmack
- Token
Former Members
- Deitri Van D'Evic
- Brecca Van D'Evic
- Gabriel
- Osgiliath Vesper
- Riff Raff
Former Acolytes
- Tatter Demallion
- Pandora Demallion
- Larin Moonstar
- Taeryn
- Tormentaarii
- Einon Dupre
- Finn
