The Free Kingdom of the Shrouded Isles

Once we founded Freehaven, inhabitants of neighboring islands began to pay us visits. All expressed a concern that the Faedwyr could escape from Ember Shoals and invade their lands. After hearing about the Ironheart Accord's efforts to end the Faedwyr blight, our neighbors asked about uniting for mutual defense.

After some discussion, we agreed to form a new kingdom. Considering that we are a conglomeration of islands in a mist-shrouded archipelago, we decided to call ourselves the Free Kingdom of the Shrouded Isles.

Although we shall have a monarch, all peoples will have a say in the governance of the kingdom. The individual islands will have a lot of leeway how they govern themselves. We then drafted and enacted our constitution. I, Rufus, was selected as Chancellor (essentially the prime minister of the kingdom). Our new kingdom had begun. Hail the Free Kingdom!

We have one task left; we need to choose our monarch. We felt that the crown should go to the most capable combatant and leader in the Isles. To that end, we decided to hold a tournament, a grand melee. The victor shall be declared the king or queen. I am in the process of organizing the Grand Melee.

OOC Notes

• After some frustration with existing organizations, I began to consider creating my own game. Then Robb told me about the High Fantasy Society. HFS split from Amtgard in the 1990s. They use a clone of the Amtgard rules but each park is completely independent. It sounded exactly like what I wanted all along. Robb and I then decided to form our own chapter. We will use Amtgard v8 rules (perhaps with some tweaks) but will not be subject to the Amtgard corpora.
• We envision the lore for the kingdom as a spin-off of Caligo and Ember Shoals, which is how we came up with the idea of a mist-shrouded archipelago (hence the name). We use the term "Free Kingdom" to emphasize that we are independent.
• Our kingdom will be ruled by a Council, with the Chancellor acted as chief executive. Units (and free fighters) will have representation on the Council, The monarch is merely a figurehead, added for medieval ambiance and because it's fun. Once we get our practices going I'll schedule the Grand Melee.
• I made a comment about the islands governing themselves. This is a veiled reference to units. Each unit will have a lot of freedom about their own ranks, etc. We will have a kingdom-level system of knighthood and other ranks, but they won't be exclusive. If a unit wants to knight their members, we won't stop them. They just won't be part of the kingdom-sponsored order of knights. This philosophy also solves the problem of foreign knights (those knighted under other systems but are now members of the Isles). They can retain their titles. Our lore is very flexible with the units. They can actually created their own island which will be part of the archipelago. Thus, there is a lore justification for different ranks and titles.
• If you are interested in the Free Kingdom of the Shrouded Isles, check out our Facebook page.