Raven Qara ton
Raven Qara ton lives in the Barony of Adiantum. She first encountered the SCA in September 1985 when a poster (put up at South Eugene High School by Yseult of Broceliande, then a teacher at the school) led her to the Joan of Arc Demo at the University of Oregon campus. Though she was immediately captivated, she did not attend her first "full" event (with garb and instruction) until the Adiantum Midwinter's Feast in January 1986, around her fourteenth birthday, at which point she was completely hooked.
The first camping event Raven attended was the infamous Crown/Egil's (Cregil's) at Elijah Bristow Park. At that event she (under a different name), Marian Staarveld, and Seonaid Connsacheal were made wards of the household of Caer Lutris (House of the Otter, or "Funhouse").
After several name changes and persona variations, she settled on her current name and persona in 1987. "Qara ton" means "black cloak" in Turkish, and may have been a nomad tribal designation. Though this persona was originally Sarmatian nomad of the fifth century A. D., in the last decade or so her main focus has shifted to the Scythian-related Altai culture of the third century B. C.
Raven became a full member of Caer Lutris after receiving her Award of Arms.
To the best of her knowledge, she built the first yurt in An Tir, predating those of Sunjan Temujin by several years. Her yurt has gone through several incarnations and is still in occasional use. It is constructed in the style of the western steppes (Kazakh rather than Mongol) with natural willow roof-poles.
She was apprenticed to Lao Yu (then Lao tao-sheng), and she served as a lady-in-waiting during Queen Lao's second reign. She was offered membership in the Order of the Laurel by Barak and Lao at Twelfth Night in January 1993; after taking a vigil, she accepted and was made a Laurel at Egil's Tourney in May 1993.
She held the office of Summits Chronicler jointly with Marian Staarveld for several years.
She was active in the movement for Summits to become a full Principality. She worked on both the Crown Principality and full Principality petition supporting documents, and calligraphed and illuminated the formal petitions for both. In August 1996, about five months after Summits became a full Principality, she founded the office of Summits Principality Scribe, which she held for six years. She was also de facto Baronial Scribe for Adiantum (not an official office at that time) for many of those years.
She was a general retinue and support person for Ambrose and Marian during their tenure as Baron and Baroness of Adiantum and their two reigns as Prince and Princess of the Summits.
Current SCA art forms: painting and drawing, calligraphy, illumination, gilding, bookbinding, paper making; felting, embroidery (including goldwork and stumpwork), applique, sewing, costuming, fabric painting and dyeing, natural dyes, spinning, weaving, needle-lace, fingerweaving, knotting and braiding; herbalism and edible plants; cooking, subtleties.
Current research specialties: general textile and costume history; central asian and asian textiles, especially Scythian, Tarim basin, Pazyryk/ Altai, and early Chinese; medieval painting, pigment history, medieval book arts, medieval calligraphy and illumination, gilding; yurts; SCA period and camp cooking.
Award of Arms Oct 22 AS 23 / 1988 Jambe de Lion Sept 23 AS 24 / 1989 Baronial Brownie (Adiantum) May 26 AS 25 / 1990 Laurel May 30 AS 28 / 1993 Throne Favor (Summits) June 23 AS 36 / 2001 Grail of the Summits - Service (Summits) Jan 26 AS 36 / 2002 Order of the Summits (Summits) Dec 7 AS 37 / 2002 Grail of the Summits - Service (Summits) June 18 AS 40 / 2005 Grail of the Summits - A&S (Summits) June 18 AS 40 / 2005 Fern and Quill (Adiantum) Aug 12 AS 41 / 2006