Lizard Overlords

Background & Backstory

On Wednesday, August 21, 2024, Ansteorrans on social media began seeing people in the rapier community change their Facebook profile pictures to variations on the theme of well-dressed-lizardfolk, prompting much confusion and curiosity. Later that evening, Koia Karasova posted a challenge:

  "Hey! If you've seen the Lizard People profile pictures being uploaded and went, "What IS going on!?" Guess who has the answer!? That's right: Me. This is my fault (:laugh-until-you-cry emoji:). I'll tell the story if at least 10 people put in award recs tonight for Kingdom A&S and post a screenshot of the "you submitted" page of your award rec (:wink emoji:)  Trust me, it's worth the story!! YIS, Koia Karasova"  

...11 award recs later, she revealed the story:

Left Image text reads: Story Time With Honorable Lady Koia Karasova: "The Day she found out the truth about the President of the SCA." The image shows Koia in Kievan Rus garb sticking out her tongue next to an image of a lizard wearing the Coronet of the Barony of the Steppes, a purple doublet and the white collar of a Master of Defense.

Right Image text reads: My name is Koia Karasova and I have found out the truth. I continue to risk my safety of AC and dark rooms the more I tell people this news but it must not be kept secret! More and more of them reveal themselves as the day progresses!

President Bao Pham of the SCA is the supreme Reptile Overlord of all the reptile people! I had seen him remove his human mask at Accademia della Spada while he was sparring with Don Ulrich.

I uncovered his plot to take over the SCA and stop fighters from reusing blue plastic bins so that those bins will instead sit in landfills and make global warming worse!

As a Kievan Rus Persona, it is my duty to protect and reverse global warming so I may one day wear wool and fur accurately instead of just linen garments! So I did what I had to do! I searched and found an email that would notify the entire Board of Directors and other key members of our Society. I sent them a warning using a decades old email of mine so President Bao wouldn't know.

Only President Bao did know. He's so much smarter than I gave him credit! He intercepted my plea of help and warning and dismissed my email as a joke by his wife's apprentice!

Now he has corrupted my friends and they are all showing their true selves! Will I be safe? Am I too late? I am afraid....

"AKA: I thought I sent Bao (editor's note: Bao Pham, current President of the SCA) a private email after he jokingly gave me an official email address to complain so he didn't have to listen to me. So I jokingly sent a letter saying he was secretly a reptile person. However, Bao forgot to mention that the email he gave me also goes to the entire BoD (Board of Directors) until after I hit send. So yeah..... I'll never live this down until I die." 

Response

Much hilarity ensued, as well as a gentle and appropriate reminder from Elen Verch Phellip that "secret lizard people" started as an anti-Semetic conspiracy theory, providing a good teaching moment in the midst of silliness.