25 Years and Counting (part one)

So, if you didn't know the original name for our group was Shadow Clan Players (SCP) and was founded in March of 1995. That's right, this is our 25th season, albeit with a new brand name. Officially founded at Mill Creek Earthworks Park in Kent, WA. by Hall of Famer Savok. It was his way of participating in medieval combat reenactment since he wasn't old enough at the time to join the Society of Creative Anachronisms (SCA). Unbeknownst to him, the SCP would take a hard fantasy live-action roleplay (LARP) style turn due to many of the group's members having a love for tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons. This didn't stop the group from growing and likely even helped it boom in the mid and late 1990s, quickly growing which led to the City of Kent officials asking the group to move venues to a park with less foot traffic.

Clan Daemon on the left, and Dark Mist on the right, were two of the founding factions and each was lead by real-life siblings, Daemon (absent for the picture) and Skii (who is pictured at the forefront of Dark Mist). Other notable members pictured are Zamiel second from left, Dex who is below the great sword at the middle foreground, and Miste Wolfe in the red tabard. Picture circa 1997.

Shortly after the move, a schism split the founding factions of the SCP and their leaders and an offshoot group that was known as the Coalition of Fantasy Kinship (CFK) was created. This only lasted a short while due to the animosity from individuals in CFK leadership towards those who attended both the SCP and CFK, along with the in-depth nature of its game systems and faction requirements. Membership quickly dwindled and the CFK collapsed within a season. By this time membership in the SCP had tipped into extreme numbers, with the typical weekly event hosting 80-90 fighters and a recorded high of 120.