I have just read on Myspace that the author Bob Asprin, also known in the SCA as Yang The Nauseating, has died. This is shocking. He wasn't all that old.
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Cleveland
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Bob was 61 when he passed - quietly at home reading - at his home in the French Quarter in New Orleans. I happened upon the obituary quite accidently on NOLA.COM, the on-line version of the Times-Picayune. They did mention his SCA conections there as well as his fantasy and SF authorship.
As Yang the Nauseating, he more or less created the Dark Horde, in part as a response to some of the more excessive "Rah, Rah Jock Sport" mentality of the times (ca. early '70's?) in the Midrealm and the East. Using a flair for theatrics, subtlety, sarcasm and some of the Worst Puns in Recorded Human History, he was able to hold up a mirror to the SCA of the time and deflect or steer the course of his Kingdom (picture a small Mongol mounted on a Yak acting as a tugboat to a plate armoured knight mounted on a rhino!).
While I didn't know him all that well, in the 70's when the SCA was still small enough that we COULD know eachother somewhat across long distances (by reputation, if nothing else), I did work with him on a small project or two within the Society, as well as once at a Star Trek Convention in NYC on Security (a nightmare in and of itself!)
In his own way and time he was a force that shaped the Society and should be remembered for his contributions to it.
Geoffrey d'Ayr, Bishop of Montalban, East Kingdom
