St.Calenda's Wandering Pageant, Odeum & Lunar Fair

Anno Domini 1094

Quotes

"Another day in this carnival of souls"
"Another nights ends, end as quickly as it goes"
"The memories are shadows; ink on the page"
"And I can't seem to find my way home"

"All the places I've been and things I've seen"
"A million stories that made up a million shattered dreams"
"The faces of people I'll never see again"
"And I can't seem to find my way home"

-- Far From Home by Five Finger Death Punch

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The History of Saint Calenda's Wandering Pageant, Odeum & Lunar Fair

But when the amphitheatres became only empty shells, the old performers did not suddenly disappear. You would find them straggling over the highways of this old Roman world, stopping at a barbarian court, drawing a crowd at a fair: the weight-lifter, the acrobat, the daring horseback rider, the man leading a bear. As an after-image in the European mind, perhaps in the living linkage of the flesh, from generation to generation, handing on their arts from parents to children, sometimes greatly venturesome, but no longer committed to death, the old circus folk perhaps continued their play. The monks' chronicles would not notice them, nor, if aware of their existence, even be able to identify them. But as shadow or substance, the circus remained in existence and eventually came back to life in the modem city. Expunged of their Roman sins, the surviving circuses and menageries still recall the Roman way of life. They remind one, too, that Rome itself was once upon a time ‘the greatest show on earth’.

-- Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformation, and Its Prospects.

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Places of Interest and the Dwellers Within

St.Calenda's Wandering Pageant, Odeum & Lunar Fair is made up of numerous locations, great and small, that make up the warp and weft of not only the day-to-day entertainments, but of the behind the scenes pageant members lives, loves and tribulations. The pageant comprises seventy odd wagons and half as many tents, but only twenty or so seem to have enough significance to count as landmarks in the nebulous night-scape of this traveling circus. Many of the locales serve as focal points for pageant-goers and pageant-folk alike.

• The Wyrdling Wall -- That which divides the Pageant from the Outside World.
• Arcadia Minor -- Shard Realm of the Fae
• Athenaeum -- The Five Mystics
• Bestiarium -- A Medieval Zoo
• Brotherhood of the Blade -- '
• Canvas of the Mother -- The Grand Pavilion
• Grotesquery -- The Freak Show
• House of the Profligate -- The Houses of Pleasure
• Odeum -- '
• Pavilion of Asclepius -- '
• Shanty of Fools -- '
• Tent of Dionysus -- '
• Yellow Tents -- '
• Wagon of Impedimenta -- The Baggage Wagon

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Brotherhood of the Blade

For centuries uncounted, the Brotherhood of the Blade (only its latest name) have served the wandering pageant as security. The Brotherhood is currently about three dozen strong, but is made up of smaller groups like the Four Horsemen and the Sons of Hercules. Although the guardsmen make up the bulk of the Brotherhood, the other two groups are more prestigious as equestrians and strongmen and there is more than a little strife between individuals and cliques that can lead to occasional dust-ups. It is Vulo Vodach who currently leads the Brotherhood and it is he who is responsible for ending the regular brawls and occasional melees that take place between members over lost lovers, wounded pride and too much drink.

Sword Brethren

Arnviðr -- The Varagarian {Russian} []

Tariel -- The Knight in the Panther's Skin {Georgian} []

Æthelred -- The Hammer {Saxon Smith} [New Member]

Jamal Endymion -- Moorish Knight (Fáris) {North Africa} []

200px Quirium -- ' {Latinium}

The Four Horsemen

Obviously, the four horsemen are equestrians, and as such they stand well above the other pageant performers because they are warriors who ride, rather than walk.

Vulo Vodach -- The First Horseman {Bulgarian} [Vulo is an old member who has been with the pageant for centuries.]

Mercuzio Tiberus -- The Second Horseman {Turkish} [An Established Member who has been with the pageant for about 75 years.]

[[ |200px]] Gentius -- ' {} []

[[ |200px]] Jamaal -- ' {} []

Kriemhild -- The Carolinian {A Frankish Knight of Charlemagne} [New]

Sons of Hercules (strongmen)

[[ |200px]] Gianni -- Gianni as the Venetian Hercules prefers to be called, is the eldest of the strongmen, a first among equals and the mentor of all new strongmen; he is well liked by all. {Venetian} []

[[ |200px]] Praxiteles -- ' {Greek} []

The Mithraeum

[[]]

The Brotherhood carries with it an ancient tent and stone alter that they call the Mithraeum, where in they hold their solder's rites of passage and the occasional duel. When the pageant comes to a new place and remains over a fortnight, a long trench is dug and the ancient tent put over it, then the tent is covered with loose earth because the rites of Mithra are supposed to be practiced in underground temples.

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Odeum

[[]]

The Odeum serves as the locus of all dramatic and musical performances. But like many places within the domain of the pageant, it is amorphous, being made up of a dozen pageant-wagons that serve as a mobile stage upon which performances are streamed to the masses as the wagons pass through village or town. Alternatively, the pageant wagons can set up in a fixed location, in which case the wagons form up into a circle, cutting out sights and sounds of the greater pageant and delineating the circled wagons as a magical-mysterious place called the "Theater".

Mauritanus Vedastus -- Ringmaster & Master of Ceremonies {African}

Actors

[[ |200px]] Mervyn -- The Chief Narrator / Script Writer {Welsh}

[[ |200px]] Gennadi -- The Heroic Knight and fair brother of Semyon, the Blackguard {Russian}

[[ |200px]] Semyon -- The Blackguard, the dark brother of Gennadi, the Heroic Knight {Russian}

[[ |200px]] Martijn Drappoline -- The Pauper Prince

[[ |200px]] Egbert Appolonius -- The Mad Merchant

[[ |200px]] Sybilla Raimundte -- Empress Rosalind

[[ |200px]] Hannelore Goldschmidt -- Beautiful Princess

Storytellers

Theodoric -- The Storyteller among pageant goers, but the pageant players know him better as The Goth.

200px Aesther -- Lady of Worlds

Minstrels

[[ |200px]] Eleftherios -- First Castrato joined the pageant under the reign of the Byzantine empress Aelia Eudoxia. A strict taskmaster, he demands only the best of his castrati singers. {Byzantine} []

[[ |200px]] Körbl Achilles -- Lyre Player {} []

[[ |200px]] Okropir Friedhelm -- Drummer/percussionist {} []

[[ |200px]] Julian Fabel -- Pan Pipes/ Dancer/ Dancing Rat trainer {} []

Playwright

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- ' {} []

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Pavilion of Asclepius

[[]]

Therapeutae (healers)

Fedelmid -- Abortionist / Midwife {Celt} [Ancient member]

Blagoy -- Barbar-Surgeon {Bulgarian} [Junior member - 100 years]

Massimo Riva -- Exorcist {Italian} [20 years] -- Former Priest

Alban Barre -- The pageant's only plague doctor, he is a significant earner in times of plague, the rest of the time he is the principle coffin maker. {Frankish} [New member -- 5 years] -- Former physician to the Capetian king Philip I - the Amorous -- Banished by his king for some failure or other.

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Shanty of Fools

[[]]

'Description: The lodgings and performance venue of the pageant's collective of fools, the shanty is a ramshackle structure formed of spare sackcloth, rope, odds and ends and fallen logs. While distinctly unimpressive as seen from without, once inside the Shanty visitors and pageant-folk who are not fools themselves become lost in a maze of clothbound corridors whose dimensions far exceed normal expectations. But the Shanty is not a maze, so much as a labyrinth which leads the brave ever deeper towards a central chamber called the "Tabernacle". All along the corridors of the shanty-labyrinth are recesses in which scenes are played out for the paying visitors and for those who trespass within the private sanctum of the fools. These scenes are supposed to serve as a series of morality plays meant to remind the visitor-folk of their ethical and spiritual obligations and what might await them after death should they they fail to keep faith. But, all-too-often, these performances do the opposite, revealing the holes in medieval life and presenting the visitor with a distinct emotional or moral dilemma which they must solve if they wish to escape the Shanty by reaching the central "Tabernacle of Fools". All too often, however, visitors who enter are never seen again and it is assumed by those within their communities that they simply ran away with the pageant.

Background:

Contents:

Tabernacle of Fools

Fools

Nabil ibn Saqr -- The King Fool {Persian}

Wan Lady -- ' {Missing since October of 1094}

Hellequin -- ' {}

Bozho -- ' {}

Quote: "Three mages, a Cappadocian vampire and a whole slough of sad clowns." -- Rambert the Oneriomancer

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Tent of Dionysus

This tent is the central meeting point for pageant-folk and pageant-goers, a place of refuge that is both commissary and watering-hole, but it is also the axis around which the pageant community revolves.

Lothar Duncan -- Lord Vintner

Drudges

Sender -- The Jew {Sender is a Alexandrian Jew and serves as the the pageant's treasurer. He serves directly beneath Vulo Vodach and publicly he is the second most important official of the pageant.}

Rais Ignatius --

[[ |200px]] Ramirus --

Rodolph -- The Mess sergeant of the pageant is a wide bodied Frank slowly going to flab. He joined the pageant during its sojourn in England after his discharge from the army of William the Conqueror. To his friends he is Rudy and his many lovers Rudy-Bear. {Frankish} []

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- Drover {} []

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- Hosteler {} []

Maurizio -- The pageant's main handyman and the lead roustabout. {Florentine} []

[[ |200px]] Inianus -- ' {} []

Argont -- The Hammer as Argont is called, is an elderly mass of muscle who serves as the pageant's smith. While there is no question of his skill at the forge, his origins lie in mystery, though some say he is from Crete or Cyprus. {} []

Divan -- The Finder {} []

Vítor -- The lead animal groom {Galician} []

[[ |200px]] Fermin -- The leader of the supply crew, who make trips into villages and towns, he supplements his earnings with petty theft. {Basque} []

Aegon Nightshade -- Errand Boy -- {Germanic Hungarian} [New Member]

[[ |200px]] Ratan Orell -- ' {Stock drudge} [Ancient member]

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- ' {} []

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- ' {} []

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- ' {} []

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- ' {} []

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- ' {} []

[[ |200px]] [[]] -- ' {} []

Yellow Tents

[[ |200px]] Ignatius -- The Pyromancer {} []

Shereen Attar -- Incense Seller {} []

Anush -- The Candy Maker {} []

Serafin Family of Fire Eaters

[[ |200px]] Benvenuto Serafin -- ()

[[ |200px]] Gemma Serafin -- ()

[[ |200px]] Bonaccorso Serafin -- ()

[[ |200px]] Francesca Serafin -- ()

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Ashes & Dust: - Dead Pageanteers

Sahak -- The Conjurer {Armenian vampire of the Ravnos} His Fate: Sahak had the misfortune to cross paths with a most disagreeable mage, a member of the Hermetic House of Tremere, named Lord Casmir in Nürnberg during the late days of April in 1094 A.D. Sadly, he played with fire and he got burned. Although he did not die the final death then and there, later during the day his body was consumed from within and he was no more. He left behind a few friends, several ghoul pets and a young protégé named Kesali.

Bes -- The Elder Dwarf -- {The Egyptian dwarf named Bes has been with the Pageant as long as anyone can remember.} His Fate: Bes' tryst with the witch Godiva ended, unexpectedly, when Godiva in an attempt to save him, teleported him five feet down beneath the earth of his tent after he was poisoned by a unknown assassin. While Bes is dead, he will not remain that way for more than a few decades for as a member of the Shem-su-Heru (Egyptian Mummy), he is immortal and will be reborn. How he will feel about Godiva when he returns is anyone's guess.

Kesali -- An orphaned Roma girl, who has been taken in by the pageant; she has recently taken shelter with Giulia the bearded-lady after the death of her friend Sahak. [Deceased]

Aldo -- The Retinue's latest acquisition, Aldo's child's body and adult attitude make him a valuable commodity and he also serves to control his more emotional brother Theo. {} [Deceased]

[[ |200px]] Theotleip -- The second of the Retinue's most recent additions, his athletic body, boyish ways and beauty serve to make him a jewel among the Erotes whose services do not come cheap. A favorite among homosexual pedophiles, he serves as the most recent honey-pot of the Erotes. {} [New Member]

Belenus -- The Erlking {Deceased: Killed in Rome by Frater Eadweard, October of 1094 A.D.}

Einarr -- The Giant {} [] Camps Within the Pageant Vulo's Camp Bekhet's Camp Mauritanus's Camp The Conspiracy While the "Conspiracy" sounds nefarious, the group primary goal is to learn more about the history, the underlying mystical ground rules, the political goals and makeup of the various camps within the greater Pageant. To date the group has met but once in secret at a Paris church to establish their cell's ground rules, meeting times and goals. Rambert has undertaken as thaumaturgic study of individual pageabteers starting with one of the new prostitutes. Artimiscia Rambert Aegon Stories of The Wanderers The City of Memory -- Alexandria 1096 New Abilities Associated with the Pageant Secrets: St. Calenda's Wandering Pageant Anyone who deals with the circus for a period of time gains some level of knowledge about its inhabitants and the magic around it. This knowledge reflects that. Websites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_theatre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pageant_wagon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Act_in_Palmyra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_play http://medievaltheatre13.blogspot.com/2010/05/movable-stage-pageant-wagon-by-lesley.html