What is this blog?

Hello everyone!

I'm Lady Aritê gunê Akasa. I'm a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) residing in the Shire of Shadowdale in the Kingdom of Calontir. I've chosen a little-known culture for my persona- Sarmatian- and have decided to be rather serious about it. There's precious little information out there directly useful for someone who wants to recreate a Sarmatian persona without having prior experience combing academic literature or knowing some key words that filter out the junk and repeats on Google searches. There are, however, plenty of journal articles which haven't been transcribed into a medium more likely to be read by the general public.

And thus, the reason for this blog. Here, I will write down and discuss everything I learn about the Sarmatians from reading books and articles and perusing the more reputable-looking sites on the web. Unlike a lot of the sites I've found, I will be giving references whenever possible so you don't have to just take my word for it that I know what I'm talking about (and so you can go read the originals yourself, if you so desire).

 That being said, I'm not going to limit myself to only Sarmatian-related posts. It's the primary purpose  of this blog, but the secondary purpose is to discuss my overall experience in the SCA.

 So if you're interested in the Sarmatians (or even other steppe nomads), I'm making this blog for you. Given that this is the hobby of a busy grad student, I won't have an update schedule and posting will be sporadic (typically a couple times a month). I highly encourage you to subscribe to the feed,  e-mail updates, or Google Friend Connect so you don't need to check for them (or forget about this blog!). And if you know anyone who might be interested, please spread the word. If you're also a SCAdian with a Sarmatian persona, please let me know you exist! I'd love to discuss our findings with each other. :)