Royal Archers of Atlantia

Atlantia hosts a Royal Archery Competition each year to determine the next Royal Archer of Atlantia. This shoot has grown some traditions over the years which are detailed below.

The current Royal Archer is:

Royal Archer	Bow	Date	A.S.
Stephan Grimm	Recurve	October 28, 2023	LVIII

Below are all of the previous Royal Archers of Atlantia, what type of bow they used to win, and the date:

Royal Archer	Bow	Date	A.S.
Tnek the Ainissestor	Longbow	September 13th, 1997	XXXII
Lorenzo il Confuso	Recurve	March 21, 1998	XXXII
Henri la Grave	Longbow	October 17th, 1998	XXXIII
Muirghen Rhuadh	Recurve		XXXIV
Theodore Billingsley of Kittredge	Recurve		XXXV
Mika Longbow	Crossbow		XXXVI
Siegfried Sebastian Faust	Crossbow		XXXVII
Mika Longbow	Recurve		XXXVIII
Siegfried Sebastian Faust	Crossbow	June 26th, 2004	XXXIX
Seamus McRay	Recurve	July 16th, 2005	XL
Gregge the Archer	Crossbow	July 15th, 2006	XLI
Seamus McRay	Recurve	April 21th, 2007	XLII
Jonathas Reinisch	Crossbow	June 21th, 2008	XLIII
Samuel Calvert of Gidiehall	Crossbow	June 20th, 2009	XLIV
Miles de Locwode	Recurve	May 8th, 2010	XLV
Valgard av Mors	Crossbow	June 25th, 2011	XLVI
Karl von Konigsberg	Crossbow	May 12th, 2012	XLVII
Valgard av Mors	Crossbow	May 18th, 2013	XLVIII
Karl von Konigsberg	Crossbow	April 26th, 2014	XLIV
Aiden of Bright Hills	Crossbow	May 30th, 2015	XLV
Aeddan Ivor	Crossbow	April 9, 2016	L
Seamus McRay	Crossbow	May 13, 2017	LI
Janyn Fletcher	Crossbow	April 14, 2018	LII
Aidan of Kilkenny	Crossbow	September 14, 2019	LIV
Lewin de Partone	Crossbow	October 2 2021	LVI
Chris LaStrange	Recurve	September 10, 2022	LVII

Here the history of the Royal Archery Championship, as pieced together from various sources:

The first tourney, which Tnek won, was held on September 13th, 1997 at the Coronation of Logan and Arielle in the Barony of Sacred Stone. It was advertised in the Acorn as "An Archery Tournament from which Their Majesties will choose their Kingdom Archery Champion", and therefore the position only existed for the duration of their reign. It was essentially a tournament being held to chose part of his Majesties retinue.

Tnek, in his wisdom, thought it would be a good idea to continue this custom of choosing an Archery Champion. He talked to their Highnesses at the time (Michael and Seonaid), they stated that they weren't planning on having any royal champions during their reign, but that if he wanted to host a Kingdom Archery Champion Tourney, that he could do so.

Therefore, at their coronation on March 21st, 1998, Tnek ran the the first self-titled "Atlantian Kingdom Archery Champion Tournament", which Lorenzo then won. Tnek and Lorenzo talked, and decided that it should be held just once a year, but that it would be better to have it in the fall, near the end of the archery season, rather than in the spring when many of the archers are still rusty from the winter. To that end, Lorenzo then ran the next tournament at Kingdom Crusades on October 17th, 1998, which was won by Henri. This was also the first appearance of the Kingdom Archery Champion quiver, which Lorenzo procured for future champions to wear.

Henri chose to run the next championship at Sapphire Joust that next year, and created the medallion to pass on. This medallion and the quiver are still worn by the current Archery Champion to this day.

After that year, the Kingdom Target Archery Marshal at the time (Earl Mika), decreed that the Championship should be it's own event, as it's popularity was growing, and it was becoming an event in it's own right. Since that time, it has been held as it's own event, originally titled Flights of Fancy, and later just being called what it was, the Atlantian Kingdom Target Archery Championship. The traditions of it's format have grown from that year, and have been borrowed from other Kingdom's championships, especially those of the East.

Eventually after a few crossbowmen having won it, the Bolt Quiver was also created and added to the other pieces of regalia for the Champion to inherit.

The tournament itself has been held in a fashion similar to that of the Kingdom of the East, Atlantia's parent kingdom, where the scores from a full and challenging day of shooting determines the top eight individuals who wish to compete for the honor. These eight then compete in a target shoot-off in a single elimination format, where the winner advances until only one remains undefeated. This individual becomes the new Champion.

The one "Official" duty of the Champion is to run the Championship where the successor is choose approximately one year after winning the position. This duty is stated and asked of those entering the final shoot-off.

During the reign of Logan VI and Esa I (early 2008), the title of this position was changed to be brought in line with other kingdom notables and the position was formally chartered into kingdom law as the "Royal Archer". This change also freed up the title of "Archery Champion" to be the person chosen at the whim of the Crown to be their archery champion during their reign. Here you can find the list of Archery Champions to the Crowns.

With this charter in place, Royal Archery Competition is now the "right of arms" held yearly by the current Royal Archer to determine the successor to the title. A new quiver for the Royal Archer was produced by Christophe of Grey and a new medallion was produced by Grimm, to be passed on each year.