Creating an Alter-Ego

Originally posted November 2, 2009

So, I’ve now been actively participating in SCA events since May, that’s seven months. I think its now safe to say that I’m completely hooked! There’s just one, small, itsy-bitsy problem – I have to form a name and persona…

I have to honestly say that coming up with a name and persona is one of the more difficult things I’ve ever had to do! I mean, its not like trying to design and launch a space rocket or even do brain surgery, but inventing an alter-ego for yourself is H…A…R…D!!! You can be anything or any one you want to be which I think is why it’s turning out to be so difficult!

I seem to have settled on a name though. People started bugging me about the fact I hadn’t chosen a name yet so I made a concerted effort – Isabel Chamberlaine. Isabel seems to have been a fairly common name for the period of time the SCA covers and I seemed to keep coming back to that as the weeks trotted by.

Chamberlaine is one of my ancestral lines and I’ve been told that it “shouldn’t” be a problem, even though its an official position as well as a documented surname. I think I might also register “Isabel of London” as an alternate name, but am still thinking on that.

Now, my persona on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish! I can’t even pick a friggin’ time period I want to settle in. Off course it doesn’t help that I have a husband that has settled into the later 14th century quite nicely, he says he likes the simplicity of it all. Me on the other hand, I seem to like looking at the more elaborate clothing of the 15th and 16th centuries, not to mention the fact that my rapier combat falls more into that time period. Then off course there is all the wonderful innovation of Renaissance Europe at that time….

And so the task continues!