27/08/2026
🛡️ The Shield of the Great Deluge 🛡️
In the inaugural year of the Southern Realm Festival in 2025, our event was small and our village was humble, but the spirit behind it was already mighty.
After the one-day festival had drawn to a close, we ventured to the local pub to support a local business, fill our bellies and celebrate the victory of the day.
While we feasted, a fierce storm swept across the realm, even coming through the roof at the pub while we ate.
It flattened much of the village, flooded tents and soaked everyone’s bedding. By the time we returned, the mud was ankle-deep and the encampment lay in ruin.
We were exhausted, full of food and faced with an almighty mess, but everyone banded together.
Through the rain and mud, we cleared the site, dragged out the sodden bedding and built makeshift camps beneath the shelter of the Teviot Park Arena. What could have been a miserable end to the festival instead became one of our greatest stories of fellowship, resilience and community. Then we raised a cup of mead to show that we shall prevail.
To commemorate the legendary night, The Companie of Knights Bachelor gifted Southern Realm this magnificent shield, depicting two knights raising their cups while the storm rages and the waters rise around them.
It serves as a reminder of where Southern Realm began: a tiny village, a terrible storm and a group of people who refused to leave one another behind.
And so, the legend of The Great Deluge lives on.
Displayed in the The Drunken Farmhand Shop in Beaudesert.
