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

Anno Domini 1094

Quote

"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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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.

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Athenaeum

The Athenaeum, an ancient term that literally means the Temple of Athena, is used within the pageant to mean the collective wisdom of diviners and wonder workers. It is not so much a place, although there is a tent referred to as such, rather it is a title for the mystics, much like a cabal or coven. Of course, even within St.Calenda's Wandering Pageant, not all of the mystics are truly gifted, some are outright charlatans, while others who had no innate gift of their own chose to bargained with dark powers for otherwise unattainable abilities.

Mystics

Calixto

The Spanish Astrologer is a handsome, kindly seeming, fortuneteller whose true mystical gift lies in the speed with which he can establish trust and how well he can read the emotions of others. {Spaniard}

Bekhet

Lady "Beckett" has been with the pageant for as long as anyone can remember and is of Egyptian origin. She is the most senior and powerful of the mystics, often serving as a mentor to other will-workers and is the longtime companion of Bes the Dwarf.

Rambert

The Oneiromancer {Spaniard} [New Member]

Mordblund

Simon Magus or The Thaumturge {Danish} [New Member]

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Bestiarium

The Bestiarium is the medieval equivalent of a zoo, which is housed, fed, and cared for by beast handlers whose sole purpose it is to keep the animals alive and healthy for the wonder of the audience. The beasts and their handlers live side-by-side and are mutually dependent, indeed sometimes its difficult to know which of the animals within bestiarium are for spectacle and which are truly the handlers.

Beasts & Handlers

Arkadi This old, brown bear male, dances and performs tricks for the visitor's children. He possesses an uncanny knack for knowing what tricks the children want. While he is a brown bear, his fur is mostly gray and no one knows how old he is, except perhaps for Bogdan the Russian. Both Arkadi and Bogdan were recruited into the pageant by Vulo Vodach when the pageant last came to Veliky Novgorod in the lands of the Rus. -- {} -- See: Bogdan

Phython -- A serpent over twenty-five feet long, the pattern of its black and gold scales are unheard of in the known world. In the darkest hours of the night, it can sometimes be heard to speak with sibilant hissings in alien dead tongues. All those save its blind handlers must take care to avoid its hypnotic gaze and more than one pageant member has perished, swallowed whole by the dark serpent. Phython has been an exhibit of the pageant for as long as anyone can remember. -- {}

Nagendra -- The Serpent Handler {} []

Bogdan -- The Bear Trainer -- {A man of the Rus} -- See: Arkadi

Garsea -- Apprentice Bear Trainer {Northern Spain}

Joukahainen -- The Beast Healer, known by his diminutive Jouko, joined the pageant at the same time as his friend Sámi who was seduced into the Erotes of Venus. He possesses a gift for handling beasts. {Finland} [New Member]

[[ |200px]] Wilkin -- Fodder Boy {England}

The Grotesquery

Giulia -- The pageant's resident bearded lady and its primary gossip. {Roman woman}

|}

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

[[ |200px]] Spiuni -- A small carny, usually, but not always a child or dwarf, who spots and marks out those who have money to spend. {Romanii} []

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Canvas of the Mother

[[]]

Zhu Family of Acrobats

A family of Chinese acrobats.

[[ |200px]] Zhu Zan -- ()

[[ |200px]] Zhu An -- ()

[[ |200px]] Zhu Chen -- ()

[[ |200px]] Zhu Xia -- ()

Michelakos Family of Jugglers

A family of Byzantine performers.

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

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

Other Performers

[[ |200px]] Aref Shirazi -- Lord of Archers {} [Persia]

[[ |200px]] Dobroslav -- Sword Swallower {} []

[[ |200px]] Saskia -- The Knife Thrower {} []

• -- Stella Hoefler --
• -- Azat Abt --
• -- Hrothgar --
• -- Behnam Darzi -- The Tailor

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Arcadia Minor

[[]]

The court of the Erlking is the least definable structure in the pageant, it serves as both boundary and border with the outside world. A double wall of heavily stained canvas serves to delineate the pageant from its mundane physical location, and thus the court possesses an indistinct liminal character, it is also a distinct if ephemeral place where the fae who travel with the pageant gather together in imitation of their long lost Arcadia.

Fae Courtiers

Astarte -- The Autumn Queen

Arianrhod merch Dôn -- Daughter of the Moon

Cai Kirk -- ()

Anthea Ingríðr -- ()

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

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House of the Profligate

[[]]

Retinue of Venus

200px Polyphonte -- The Bestialite {A Greek woman who has traveled with the Pageant for some time.}

Sophia Árpád -- {} []

Ilaria -- {A young girl of Sicily, working as a prostitute in a brothel in Verona. Bedded by Rambert and lured into the Pageant.} [New]

200px [[]] -- ' {} Ernestine Liviana

The Erotes

Armen -- Armen is the youthful procurer of the Erotes and a inveterate flatterer. {} []

[[ |200px]] Mehdi -- An attractive young Persian boy recently acquired by the Erotes to replace two recently deceased sacred whores. {} [New Member]

[[ |200px]] Nahum -- A beautiful Syrian brother and sister fused together by the dark powers of the pageant after they attempted to escape, they now serve as the camp's hermaphroditic prostitute. {} []

[[ |200px]] Rasmus -- A Danish youth whose athletic body and sexual stamina make him the work-horse of the Erotes, but whose own love never seems to be fulfilled. {} [New Member]

Sámi -- A warrior of Finland whose love of sweet southern wines and lust for more refined pleasures drew him into the pageant and he now serves the retinue as both protector and jailer. {} []

Frater Eadweard -- The Saxon priest has only just joined the Erotes, but he has quickly come to fill the recently vacant role of "Hymenaeus", an ancient position long held by an older male, usually a priest of one sort or another who officiates the acts of "sacred prostitution" giving these pleasures a acceptability. {} [New Member]

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Lodge of the Dervishes

[[]]

Dancers

Salome -- Wife of the Serpent -- {} []

Sunngifu -- The Wolf-dancer -- {A young Saxon woman married to Eadwulf} [New Member]

Chanda -- The Fire Dancer {Indian} []

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Mithraeum

[[]]

Brotherhood of the Blade

Arnviðr -- The Varagarian {}

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 -- Leader {A Bulgarian man in his middle years.}

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

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

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

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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} []

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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".

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

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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

[[]]

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.

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 --

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} []

200px Tiberius Blæc -- Knight Ministerialis -- {Anglo-Saxon} [New Member]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yellow Tents

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

[[ |200px]] Shahriyar Attar -- Incense Seller {} []

[[ |200px]] 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 {} [] Stories of The Wanderers 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