Welcome to Altavia
A Barony in the Kingdom of Caid,
in the Society for Creative Anachronism
On December 13th, Angels/Altavia Yule Feast is happening!
The Barony of Altavia is a local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts, skills, and traditions of pre-17th-century Europe. The Barony of Altavia includes the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, and Malibu, and is part of the Kingdom of Caid which includes Southern California, Greater Las Vegas Area, and Hawaii.
Members of the SCA study and take part in a variety of activities, including combat, archery, equestrian activities, costuming, cooking, metalwork, woodworking, music, dance, calligraphy, fiber arts, and much more. If it was done in the Middle Ages or Renaissance, odds are you’ll find someone in the SCA interested in recreating it. What makes the SCA different from a Humanities 101 class is the active participation in the learning process. To learn about the clothing of the period, you research it, then sew and wear it yourself. To learn about combat, you put on armor (which you may have built yourself) and learn how to defeat your opponent. To learn brewing, you make (and sample!) your own wines, meads and beers. You will frequently hear SCA participants describe the SCA as recreating the Middle Ages “as they ought to have been.” In some ways this is true – we choose to use indoor plumbing, heated halls, and sewing machines. In the dead of winter we have more to eat than King’s venison, salt pork and dried tubers. However, a better description is that we selectively recreate the culture, choosing elements of the culture that interest and attract us.
Altavia News From Their Excellencies
November 2025
Hello Altavia!
We started off the month since our last meeting with Fire and Ice, a wonderful new camping event up in Nordwache. It boasted a full slate of Thrown Weapons, Handbow and crossbow throughout the weekend. Nordwache hosted the first day of open shooting and throwing on Saturday, giving everyone ample time to practice throwing and shooting, as well as getting in some Royal Rounds both for crossbow and Handbow. We had his majesty Bjorn working on his archery marshal requirements, and he ran three royal rounds for us in the afternoon, and shot with us as well, improving his score and edging closer to Forester (spoiler, he achieved it later in the month at GWW!).
The Baron of Nordwache was a generous, amazing host, incredibly generous with extra food throughout the event, and some of the best fried rice I’ve ever had that fed probably 10 of us for dinner beyond their own camp. After dinner, we went back to the range for an amazing night shoot. Duncan put together glowing targets, lit by blacklights. They were stunning, and made for an incredible night shoot.
The second day was hosted by Wintermist, who held their Baronial championships for thrown weapons, Handbow and crossbow. Once again, the shoots were creative and fun, shooting a monster obscured by “fog” and 3 other novelty shoots. It was a wonderful weekend of ranged weapons and new and old friends.
The next weekend we had our own archery event with Agincourt, which was an amazing day of shooting with friends. This year we made the Forrester shoot into a round robin, with archers shooting head-to-head within pools, and the top 8 archers from the round robin pools progressed onto a single elimination tournament. We also had 4 archers competing in a crossbow round robin, with the top two progressing to finals. During all the round robins, his Majesty Bjorn and I battled it out each round against each other. It was a close battle, but Bjorn took the win in both handbow and crossbow.
In the middle of the day, we were able to sample the delicious offerings submitted for the Fretted Fork competition. The theme was mint and we saw a variety from delicious chocolate souffle cupcakes with mint cream topping to a mint tahini on flatbread. Caterina won the populace vote making her my Fretted Fork Champion!
After lunch, his Majesty and I took our duel into team shoots, with half the archers supporting each of us in the team novelty shoot. Bjorn led the French and I led the English. Each team took turns shooting at small marginalia snails and soldiers. In true Agincourt fashion, the English prevailed.
Alianora and Peter made it to the finals in handbow, each winning a dozen custom arrows generously gifted and made by Miguel. In finals, Alianora won at a harrowing 40m to become my Handbow Champion!
Ronan and Achillious faced off in the crossbow finals. Achillious adapted quickly to the 40m to become my Crossbow Champion. The day couldn’t have been as great a success as it was without all the help we received setting up, tearing down and running the range all day. A special thank you to my event stewards, Vivienne, who took this on as her first event to steward, and Merlin, who also acted as the Marshal of the day and came up with all of the adorable historical marginalia themed targets.
Great Western War the next weekend was wonderful, with a lively, full Altavia encampment, and friends camped all around us. A big thank you to Peter, who was the camp master and the camp cook for us this war, and who made sure that we were fed and ready to go each day for the adventures that awaited us. GWW is always such an amazing, varied event, with armored and rapier fighting, archery, volunteering, classes, vigils, parties and more. We were all at the same event, and we all came home with different experiences and memories, and I look forward to the joy of the event every year.
This last weekend, we went to Naevehjem Anniversary for Frost Dragon, and had a day of friends, happiness, memories, and far more rain than I was quite planning for. The armored and rapier tournaments were able to be brought inside to join the arts and food competitions. However, archery indoors wasn’t quite possible, so, we archers decided we wouldn’t melt, and shot in the rain all day. It was ridiculous, joyous and community building. I had a fantastic time scurrying through the rain with my fellow archers.
I’m looking forward to Medieval Marketplace, many different Yules, and Coronation in the next month.
In Service to the Dream,
Baroness Amabel