Moria the Black

Persona

Viscountess Moria the Black is the daughter of an Irish lord and a Norman lady, who were not married and had arranged for her to be raised in a coastal villiage in Ireland, keeping the nature of her birth secret. When raiders came to the shores of her village one day, Moria stood in defense of her home. Her prowess so impressed the raiders that they chose to spare her life and offered her the opportunity to join them. Moria accepted, and soon learned the ways and customs of the Khazars, and joining the Khanate of the Fighters of the Freehold of Rozak, those very raiders who had first attacked her. Over the years, her and her Khanate travelled the lands, raiding and drinking, while also gaining new citizens for the Khazar Empire. She rose in the ranks of the Khazars, and eventually found herself a spiritual leader and advisor to the Great Khan, earning the right to travel freely as she chose.

Moria, along with other members of her Khanate, travelled to the lands of Ealdormere, where they established roots and began to bring to those lands their knowledge of other civilizations. Moria became known for her Middle Eastern dancing, and began to teach others in Ealdormere the beautiful art, including some Lords who would later become reknowned for their skill.

She also developed a love of scribal arts, becoming one of the original founders of the Scribal Arts Guild of Ealdormere, and producing many scrolls over the years for various recipients.

Whereabouts

Moria the Black lives in the Barony of Ben Dunfirth and has done so her entire life.

Current Office(s)

Past Offices

Moria's first official office in the SCA was chronicler for the Clarion, the newsletter for the Canton of Ben Dunfirth. She then became Chronicler for the Ursus, the Baronian newsletter for Septentria. She then became Seneschal for the Canton of Ben Dunfirth, followed up by becoming Seneschal for the Barony of Rising Waters. Moria also served as Minister of the Lists for the Canadian portions of the Middle Kingdom, and later became Minister of the Lists for the Principality of Ealdormere. After serving as Princess of Ealdormere with Prince Roak III, Moria took on the role of Principality Seneschal and set out to co-ordinate and spearhead the continuing drive to move Ealdormere from a Principality to a Kingdom. She continued in the role of Seneschal for 6 months after Ealdormere became a Kingdom.

Upon stepping down as Kingdom Seneschal, Moria then became Lawspeaker of the Kingdom of Ealdormere. Following up that role, Moria stepped in and took over the program King Sarnac had initiated to create a Youth Combat program in the Kingdom. Moria served in the role of Deputy for Minor Boffer Combat until 2005. Since then she has assisted various Kingdom Seneschal's in assistant and project roles, including stepping into the role of Interim Kingdom Seneschal from September of 2012 to April of 2013.

Throughout her years Moria has also served as autocrat and/or feastocrat for numerous events, as well as running the list table for Coronet tourneys, Crown Tourneys and various tourneys at numerous events. She has been a warranted marshal for heavy weapons combat, and marshalled many battles at the Pennsic Wars over 15 years.

SCA History

Moria was in on the ground floor with the original 4 founders of the Fighters of the Freehold of Rozak, more commonly known as the Rozakii. She was present at the original creation of the Household, and became an official full fledged member 2 months later at Pennsic XIV, along with a good friend from Æthelmearc, Baron Thorgrim Ulfson. Moria served the household in various roles until resigning her official member status, and accepting a 'Friend of the Household' status in June of 2004. Many of the original members of the Rozakii have gone on to become people of note within the Kingdom of Ealdormere, including King Roak V, Master Tarkataii Ba'hadur, Prince [[Trumbrand the Wanderer|Trumbrand[[ and Princess Kaylah.

Some of Moria's contributions include working with others to help establish the first Minister of the Lists position in Ealdormere, serving the Middle Kingdom as deputy to the Earl Marshal for Canadian provinces back before Ealdormere was a Principality. This position was created to not only run tourney lists, but also to keep records of authorized fighters and issue authorization cards.

During the early days of the Kingdom drive, Moria served as secretary for Principality moots, and then secretary for the Kingdom Bid Committee, becoming a member of the various subcommittees. During this time, she noted some things that could be improved upon with a bit of procedure and policy, and became a policy geek. When she was invested as Princess of Ealdormere with Prince Roak III, the two of them began the process of creating the position of Lawspeaker for the Principality of Ealdormere. They inducted Mistress Etaoin O'Fearghal at Pennsic XXV. Upon stepping down as Princess, Moria became Principality Seneschal, and began to spearhead the various committees, creating even more with clear mandates to finish the process before her term as Seneschal was completed. During that time, Mistress Etaoin and Moria worked to ensure the role of Lawspeaker was carried on in the proposed Kingdom, and the laws were written to reflect the position and responsibilities that Moria and Roak had envisioned when creating the role.

In January of 1998, after working for a year and a half with various Royalty, committee members and volunteers, Moria proudly carried the Kingdom bid to California to present it at the Board of Directors meeting. Working tirelessly throughout the day with various members of the Board, the Society and the Royalty back home, many issues that stood as a barrier to the granting of the bid were smoothed out and concessions were made on all sides considering timelines, and extra work (such as the physical sorting of mailing labels from the Middle Kingdom listings) all objections were removed and the Board of Directors voted to approve the bid at the end of the meeting.

Other contributions included stepping in to the role of Deputy for Minor Boffer combat when the original founder and creator, Sarnac Kir, became Crown Prince of Ealdormere and asked if she would take over his 'baby'. Working with Sarnac, they created a program that would later be ratified by King Roak II and Queen Arlett I and became the Youth Combat program of Ealdormere. Serving as the Deputy to the Earl Marshal for this program, Moria established training programs for Marshals and Constables, a handbook with rules procedures and guidelines, and oversaw the first tourneys and practices for the youth of the program. Many of 'Moria's kids' have since graduated the program and gone on to become talented and valuable members of the Kingdom.

Interests

• Middle Eastern Dance
• Scribal Arts
• Cooking
• Chronicling
• Armoured Combat
• Singing

Awards

• Order of the Trillium, April 16th, 2005
• Order of the Crucible, November 20th, 2004
• Order of the Ivory Sabre, October 23rd, 2004
• Award of the Maiden's Heart, April 27th, 2002
• Order of the Golden Boar, June 17th, 2000
• Award of the Queen's Favour, March 20th, 1999
• Scroll of Honour, January 16th, 1999-01-16 (For the Kingdom Bid)
• Augmentation of Arms, October 24th, 1998 (Foreign Honours, Middle Kingdom; A Heart, vert, scaly argent, with a black wolf paw)
• Augmentation of Arms, March 28th, 1998 (Foreign Honours, Middle Kingdom; Middle Kingdom Arms)
• Order of the Pelican, September 13th, 1997 (Middle Kingdom)
• Viscountesses, September 21st, 1996 (Middle Kingdom)
• Order of the Golden Spider, June 17th, 1995
• Award of the Boar's Tusk, June 17th, 1995
• Award of the Chalice's Crystal, November 12th, 1994
• Court Baroness, October 1st, 1994 (Middle Kingdom)
• Order of the Golden Otter, April 30th, 1994 (Closed Principality Honours, Middle Kingdom)
• Order of the Bee, March 5th, 1994 (Closed Principality Honours, Middle Kingdom)
• Friendship of the Trillium, November 20th, 1993 (Closed Principality Honours, Middle Kingdom)
• Order of the Willow, June 20th, 1993 (Awards of Rank [Foreign], Middle Kingdom)
• Award of the Keeper of the Wolf's Heart, September 19th, 1992 (Closed Principality Honours, Middle Kingdom)
• Order of the Golden Chalice, June 24th, 1990
• Order of the Dragon's Heart, June 16th, 1990 (Grants of Rank [Foreign], Middle Kingdom)
• Award of the Chalice's Crystal, November 25th, 1989
• Order of the Bear's Heart, September 16th, 1989
• Award of the Bear Claw, August 20th, 1988
• Award of the Purple Fret, June 25th, 1988 (Award of Rank [Foreign], Middle Kingdom)
• Award of Arms, November 1st, 1986 (Middle Kingdom)