#ooc

the populace (regular, non-royals) can wear the dragon, the pale, or the combination but not the laurel wreath or the crown

Those are roses? They look like daisies! (I know! Roses come in so many shapes!)

hee. they do!

Old-style European roses are simpler than modern ones

the most famous heraldic roses, of course, are the Tudors

the House of York had white roses, and Lancaster had Red, hence "The War of the Roses" which heavily inspired Game of Thrones

Henry Tudor had blood connections to one line, and married into the other

ok, I am now up to THREE stories for why the dragon

1: a pun on "The Middle Kingdom" - the original dragon was a chinese dragon

2: in old maps, unknown turf would be labeled "Here There Be Dragons" - hence the wilds of the middle had dragons

3: The first King of the Middle devised it as a reference to Smaug - "The MidRealm was first known as the Barony (or Principality) Under the Mountain" - so, Tolkein

I like it

Mmm Dragons are associated with power, and guardians of treasures? Maybe Mid realm's dragon is on guard against damned North Easterners, wild westerners, and , god forbid, Southern Savages 🙂

4) dragons are COOL

4: Dragons are COOL!

"Falcons are cooler" "No one believes that, Gwydion" "Damn"

Cariadoc is still around, I've met him a few times. And he has been quoted as saying "never let the facts get in the way of a good story"

Swear to god, the man is an actual ashu

*eshu

HA. I think I like Cariadoc already

Cariadoc was the 1st king of the middle, and is also known as "The Suicide King"

He's why Pennsic exists

Whoa

Ok - remember: East, Middle, West

3 kingdoms

Middle is Chicago-based, East is NYC

So, Pittsburgh wants a chapter.

They petition the East to Join, they are told to go to the Middle

Middle says to go to the East

(I mean, who wants Pittsburgh?)

What did Pittsburgh symbol become, a large gauntlet with a middle finger upraised?

Ha!

They are now called "The Barony-Marche of the Debatable Lands" for good reason

Ok, SO

After some back & forth, Cariadoc, King of the Middle, issued a formal challenge to the King of the East - lots of schtick, sent messengers with a scroll and a gauntlet to throw

The Middle and the East would go to war! The loser got Pittsburgh

Oh man!

Well, the King of the East dismissed the challenge, no war was fought. Pittsburgh continued to struggle in the wilds, unclaimed

As it goes, mundane life called Dave Friedman to relocate from Chicago to the eastern seaboard

and Dave - Cariadoc - in turn fought & won the Crown of the East in noble battle

Upon getting the Crown, he also received the giant trove of paperwork and records and like and sundry

Amongst those papers he found a challenge - from the King of the Middle.

He accepted it, to the current King of the Middle's dismay

HA

Exactly!

And thus, the East & the Middle went to war!

The Middle won the first war - meaning that Cariadoc challenged himself to a war and lost, hence "The Suicide King" moniker

Okay. So did East get 'stuck' with Pittsburgh?