Gladiique Scoparum The Story In 1988 Boldo returned to school full time as a PHD student at SUNY Binghamton. While studying history Boldo became interested in the SCA and finally joined the fighting group at the school which was the Ragnesfolke. The Ragnesfolke were an independent household within the shire of Sterlyng Vayle. While the local group was fairly large and active they shunned fighters and the Ragnesfolke replaced the shire as the active group at the college. After a slow start this group exploded until it had 30 or so fighters. By making armor, training fighters, and providing a social outlet for its members, as well as took them to events, this group took off. Boldo became the warleader of this group and remained so even after returning to Rochester in 1991. In Rochester Boldo encountered the same fighting hostility which had created Ragnesfolke with the local group, Thescorre. For a few years Boldo fought the good fight alone but in 1993 Erherling of Ragnesfolk, sometimes called Bob, moved to Perinton. After six months of misserable fight practices, Bob and Boldo were hanging out after a little get together when they realized Thescorre would never support fighters. What they needed was a new household to support fighters. More alcohol later they were determined to form something with heraldry of a gold bird on a red background. Equiped with an idea they decided to form a group dedicated to fighting and service and so added the broom and sword to the device. Then came the hard part -- finding a name. With the idea of fighting and service in mind they tried to find an appropriate translation but nothing worked. Going into the summer event season of 1994 they figured they would just go with the latin for brooms and swords which is Gladiique Scoparum. Despite the stated idea of service and fighting the new groups main purpose was to make the SCA more fun. It wanted to make sure fighting remained a fun activity for all while reminding all that this is just a game. With such an attitude things moved fast as fighters flocked to the household. Crow, Kyndylan, and Cameo joined up almost immediately and were soon joined by several new fighters like Kurt, Scott, Paul and Debbie. Every member brought in new recruits despite the fact that no one could pronounce the name. The group attended several events together in the summer of 1994 and then made a big splash at Pennsic where the household fielded nine fighters. Camped in the Bog across from the Ragnesfolk they endured torental rainstorms, loss of qualification for a founding member (boldo), and some girlfriend stealing. Yet the biggest blow to the fledging household came when the co founder Erhling dropped out and moved to Boston early in 1995. Despite all this adversity the group continued to make fighting fun and its numbers continued to grow. Crow and Boldo ran fight practice and the Thescorre fight practice regularly had a dozen participants for the first time in over a decade. Pennsic of 1995 saw the group camp on the Serengehti with the Barony of Thescorre who treated the Gladique like second class citizens. Fielding eight fighters the Gladii surrounded their encampment with a sheet wall including stain glass windows and fought together with the locals in all the battles. Returning to Rochester the make up of the group continued to evolve with the ebb and flow of fighters. In 1996 Aethelmarc prepared to become a knigdom and so hoped to make a splash at war but forces aligned to bring a crushing defeat to the East and its allies. Despite this the young group of Gladiique Scoparum had a great Field battle being one of the last groups alive and killing more than 4 times its numbers. Besides being lots of fun the group received special mention from the Princess of Aethelmarc for our skill on the field. After pennsic the group faced a mass exodus of members as their mundane lives pulled them off to other places. For the first since its creation we did not comprise more than half of fight practice.