Cassia Carataca
From EastKingdomWiki
| Photo |
|---|
 Carataca at the Æ A&S Faire/Queen's Prize Tourney in April AS 57. Photo by Elska Á Fjárfelli, used with permission. |
| Information |
| Resides: Barony of Settmour Swamp |
| Status: Active |
| Awards: Order of Precedence |
| Heraldry |
 Registered device: Per fess sable and argent, in chief a lotus blossom in profile Or. (AKA Corwin's colors: black, silver, and amnesiac.) |
| Award & Office Badges |
     File:IronsQuill.png  None |
Carataca
Hi I'm Carataca! (Pronunciations: Cah-rah-TAH-cah (Latin), Ca-RA-ta-ca (English) (I will answer to either. Or Caratacus. Or Caractacus if I get a flying boat car hahaha)).
My persona's very late Romano-British, so Carataca is the given name and Cassia is the family name. I've registered Cassius Caratacus as an alternate.
Pronouns are they/them with a side of whatever works; preferred title is The Honorable Armiger Cassia Carataca (or just The Honorable Carataca, because it would mean THC is from the year 420, detailed below in 'persona'... ... ...)
I first noodled around with the idea of joining in something like 2007 but didn't get involved, then went to Pennsic 39, and then occasionally played far far away from home (up in the Barony of the Rhydderich Hael in Æthelmearc) until fall of 2022, when I started getting involved locally (in Settmour Swamp and Ostgardr).
I'm mostly a scribe with some highly occasional bardic. I've been making scrolls for Æthelmearc, the East Kingdom, the Barony of Settmour Swamp, and the Crown Province of Ostgardr since October 2022, and I really like making tiny scrolls. I've been trying out different styles of illumination a bit at a time, as I think of myself mostly as a calligrapher and a combat scribe.
(combat scribal achievement unlocked: a simple bar-and-ivy 100-word promissory scroll made entirely in the 45 min before court.) (ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: ORDER OF THE IRONS QUILL!) (achievement unlocked omfg: doing a 300-word writ including designing an original (simple) gold Ottonian capital W for it, right, okay, in two and a half hours, FOR AN MOD FOR A DUKE.)
At Mudthaw 2025 I accepted Voevoda Lada Monguligin's offer to be her student in the scribal arts. <3
Persona
Carataca is a 5th century immediately post-Roman Romano-British subject of the burgeoning Kingdom of Dumnonia. Her area of Britain (modern Cornwall) -- well west of Isca Dumnoniorum (modern Exeter in Devon) -- was never spectacularly Romanized anyway, but it's the year 420 and Rome has officially left the island and the Britons aren't fighting off the Vikings (much) or the Saxons (at all) yet. She's thinking of moving to Tintagel and/or maybe becoming an early Christian saint, which seems at least somewhat adventurous and a great reason to know how to read and write, and hardly dangerous at all anymore probably.
The idea of a person living at the edge of the end of the world appeals to me.
Her given name is the Romanized and feminine version of what's now the Welsh name Caradoc/Caradog -- Caratacus -- who was an iron-age British king that resisted Rome, didn't get caught, sought sanctuary with Queen Cartimandua, got turned in and taken to Rome, then gave such a stirring oration in front of the Senate that he was allowed to live out his days with his family in Rome instead of being put to death. There's another legendary king by that name who lived in the fifth or sixth century, who's mentioned in the Matter of Britain, who is also absolutely not a relative of Carataca.
Offices & Positions
None.
Teaching/Modding/Staff/Etc Activities
- Imbolc Schola 2023: Taught an intermediate calligraphy class on developing your own scribal hand.
- Mudthaw XLII: Not actually staff, but I made the site map for it and ran a 'calligraph your name' table for the scavenger hunt!
- Nos Calan Gaeaf 2023: Taught an Uncial calligraphy class.
- Pennsic 50: Co-taught the 4-day Pennsic University scribal track on the Book of Durrow.
- vKWHSS 2024 zoomerator.
- virtual Winter AEcademy 2024 zoomerator.
- Made site maps for Kingdom A&S and Mudthaw 2025.
- Run Scribal Sandbox/Playtimes at kingdom events
Projects & Publications
- Prize Scroll for First Place: documentation and process description for a scroll based on a 10th century manuscript page, at Ice Dragon 2023 in the Barony of the Rhydderich Hael, Kingdom of AEthelmearc
- Handout for calligraphy lecture that was the first class I taught
- Ongoing: I'm gonna make a girdle book for Ice Dragon 2027!! Or 2028.
- Process description for Master Llewellyn Walsh's Maunch scroll
Scrolls On My Wall
- The Order of the Sycamore (AEthelmearc AoA-level arts award) 8/8/2023
- The Order of the Bronze Tower (Settmour Swamp baronial service award) 5/26/2024
- The Order of the Silver Brooch (East Kingdom AoA-level arts award) 9/20/2025
- The Order of the Maunche (East Kingdom grant-level arts award) 9/20/2025
- Populace's Choice at Ostgardr Bardic Champs, Barleycorn 10/25/2025
- The Order of the Irons Quill (AEthelmearc non-armigerous combat scribal award) 2/21/2026
- The Order of the Silver Wheel (East Kingdom AoA-level service award) 4/18/2026
In Case of Court
If you want to know if I'm going to any given event in AE or the EK, please email me at 197621 @ members.eastkingdom.org or DM me on Facebook (Gina Carataca Donahue). (Please do not tell me what award!) I would literally be delighted with anything anyone wanted to do for me for a scroll!
ICoP: I would like a writ and also a "Gingham Rite" elevation (where the majority of the speeches are at the vigil instead of in court). And talk to Lada Monguligin, my teacher, but definitely talk to Edith Winterton on facebook for literally everything else, she knows what I like and what overwhelms. I am... somewhat easily overwhelmed with social things and things with many moving parts.
Blog and Gallery
My scribal blog is at Shaky Hands Medieval Calligraphy and my scroll album on Facebook is public: Scribal Art