ES - The Elfsea Defender Tournaments (long)

[Wainwright-Sims, Jewell]

I'm with you and will do my part to entice artisans to make this event a
heraldic display without equal!!

Julianna

> ----------
> From: 	baron at elfsea.ansteorra.org[SMTP:baron at elfsea.ansteorra.org]
> Sent: 	Thursday, June 15, 2000 1:02 PM
> To: 	elfsea at ansteorra.org
> Subject: 	ES - The Elfsea Defender Tournaments (long)
> 
> Galen here...
> 
> Let me try to get this thread back on track.
> 
> My original post was to get feedback on the structure of 
> the chivalric tourney to choose the next chivalric 
> Defender of Elfsea.  Perhaps my focus was too narrow in 
> that post.  I've posted elsewhere (specifically, on the 
> Archery list) about the archery tourney, and the Baroness 
> has been consulting with rapier fighters about the exact 
> format for the rapier list (anyone interested in having 
> input is welcome to contact her at <
> allessandre at hotmail.com>).  Clearly however, there is 
> interest to know how the whole thing fits together.  I'll 
> try to provide that in this note.
> 
> All three tournies are intended to be "high persona" 
> competitions, with much pageantry and pomp, hopefully fun 
> for participants and spectators alike.  Each is intended 
> to be sufficiently limited in duration to be able to fit 
> all three into the same day, without overlapping each 
> other on the schedule.  Her Excellency and I are very 
> interested to watch them all.
> 
> I don't believe it's a good idea to move the rapier 
> defender competition to SpringFaire.  I see the 
> advantages proposed, but I feel that the drawbacks, which 
> have been pretty well spelled out by others, outweigh 
> those advantages.  However, if someone feels strongly 
> about doing this, I don't consider the matter closed and 
> would cheerfully entertain further debate.  Moot seems 
> like an appropriate forum (but if you want to argue it on 
> this list, please start a new subject line).  However, my 
> preference would be to make that change _after_ this 
> fall's Elfsea Defender, if it is to be made.  I do note 
> with amusement that the proposal has been proposed and 
> advocated by light fighters, and opposed by heavy 
> fighters.
> 
> The tourney format I posted already has no breaks between 
> rounds for the listmistress to redraw the pairings 
> because there is no listmistress or pairings.  It's all 
> done by challenge; points are not kept, the winner is 
> chosen by judges, as in period.  This is a tourney 
> without 3x5 cards.  Certainly it will need a lot of 
> heralds.  Many more than 10, properly done.  That's why 
> I'm asking each fighter to provide his own herald.  A 
> fighter can bring a whole ground crew to support him: 
> herald, lady, pages, squires, and how these people add to 
> that fighter's presence could make the difference to the 
> judges on who put on the best performance.
> 
> As to what we are picturing and proposing for Elfsea 
> Defender, and what we've been discussing since it was 
> announced that Allessandra & I would be baron & baroness, 
> let me try to paint a picture ...
> 
> It's early in the morning.  Too early.  It seems the sun 
> is barely up, but the wake-up heralds, those heroes 
> without whom little would get done, are crying the site.  
> The heavy fighters groan, roll over and go back to sleep; 
> armor inspection isn't til noon, and they've been 
> partying.  The rapier fighters rise slowly, dress 
> leisurely and begin their morning routines.  There's time 
> for breakfast, because their armor inspection isn't till 
> 9:30.  The archers are up, dressed and armed in a trice.  
> There's coffee waiting at the archery range and the 
> greatest prize in Ansteorra that can be won with a bow is 
> waiting there too.  The competition starts at 9:00.
> 
> The baron and baroness are there, and a sizable crowd has 
> gathered as well, and the range is designed to accomdate 
> them.  The finest archers from all over Ansteorra have 
> come, and the field is festooned with banners, pennants 
> atop each target, and the heralds are ready.  Kerrick is 
> determined to keep the collar of Defender of Elfsea, his 
> home barony, but Lord Fearghus, the Royal Huntsman, 
> Archery Champion of the Steppes and Guardian of the Tor, 
> is set on adding to his titles today the championship of 
> what is also his home barony.  And former Defenders of 
> Elfsea are returning, too, including Don Sebastion, and 
> Lady Innes, as well as other great names of the firing 
> line like HL Gilli, Lord Aldwin, Lord Plachoya, and up-
> and-coming archers like Master Pug, Laird Sean, and many 
> more.  There is a golden arrow as a prize, as well as the 
> traditional collar and banner, but the big prize is that 
> the airline tickets donated by Lord Tarkus this year are 
> going to the new Archery Defender.  Nobles and spectators 
> are cheering for and wagering on their favorites.  By the 
> time the archers have gotten down to the timed shoot 
> round, though, the crowd is quiet and watching intently.
> 
> By 11:00, or 11:30 at the latest, the new archery 
> defender is known and it's time for the rapier list.  The 
> Dons, cadets and other fighters gather to impress the new 
> Baroness with their panache (the Baroness loves to be 
> impressed by panache) and to try their skills against 
> each other, and against such former Defenders of Elfsea 
> as Don Alexander, Don Brendan, Don Donald, Don Miguel, 
> Don Robin, and others.  Don Duncan, the Guardian of the 
> Tor, will no doubt be trying for this prize, and I'm sure 
> Don Llywelyn would like to try his hand for this title 
> for the first time since becoming a Don; he's had to sit 
> out four of these tournies as Baron.  Elfsea's favorite 
> cadets, Lord Daniel, Lord David and Lord Darius (the 3 
> D's ?) will turn out, and Her Excellency Dona Kayleigh, 
> back on the tourney circuit after her successful reign as 
> queen, will surely be there as well.  Like the chivalric 
> tourney this day, the rapier fighters will win not only 
> by skill but also by their appearance and conduct on the 
> field.
> 
> By 1:30 or 2:00, the chivalric list will begin.  As I 
> described before, this will be another exercise in 
> pageantry.  Knights, squires, centurions from all around 
> will come to test their mettle against such former 
> Defenders of Elfsea as Count Mahadi, Count Gunthar, Earl 
> Dafydd, and HRM Alaric Drake.  I happen to know that 
> Centurion Airaklee wants to win this tourney, and will 
> put on quite a show; so will Lord Virgil, and what might 
> the Baron's own squires pull off to draw the favor of the 
> crowd to themselves? (And if we're already behind 
> schedule when it starts, we'll just eliminate the 2nd 
> round).  With 3 rounds of 45 min. each, plus a melee, a 
> 4-hour tourney should be no problem.  We'll be done by 
> 6:00 or 6:30, for feast and/or court at 7:00 or 7:30 -- 
> dancing afterward, or even during.)
> 
> Elfsea has done a lot a special things in its time:  the 
> culture camps, the peasant tournies, the byzantine baths, 
> bardic events, themed events, kingdom events. I think 
> it's time once again to do something special, something 
> folks will talk about for years afterward, as they do the 
> Lions Tourney, and Nine Worthies.  This sort of tourney 
> has been done very successfully in Ansteorra, but never 
> attempted in a baronial championship.
> 
> To do this will require the whole barony.  My household 
> can't do it, neither could House Mac, Clan Rolling 
> Thunder, the Company of the Hunt, or Firefall.  But 
> Elfsea can do it.  With its great members and cantons, 
> Elfsea can make this happen well, _if_ we can all agree 
> and be on the same page with what we're doing.
> 
> But we don't have to do this.  We can do the traditional 
> swiss five with the precedence challenge and the four 
> fields.  We've always had fun with that, and gotten great 
> Defenders.  We could even do it with speed tournies and 
> have the whole thing done by lunch, leaving time for 
> other activities, as someone said.  Or we could run both 
> the heavy & light side by side with Allessandra & I 
> trying to watch both and succeeding at watching neither, 
> with the archery somewhere else and not watching that at 
> all.  It's much better to tell me "no" now, than to let 
> me go off and have us get to September, or even the day 
> itself, and discover that the whole barony isn't as 
> excited as I am, and isn't ready to do what's advertised.  
> It's just a question of how big a deal do we want to make 
> of Elfsea Defender.  
> 
> Without looking up his name on Armand's history page, 
> most of us couldn't tell you that the first Defender of 
> Elfsea was Lord Elder Frederickson.  I never met the guy, 
> never spoke to him, but I know this:  The Ansteorran 
> Order of Precedence lists an Elder Frederickson with an 
> AoA and a Sable Thistle.  Virtually no one remembers him.  
> Did he drop out?  Was he just some flash-in-the-pan 
> newbie who got lucky one day and never again?  No he 
> didn't, no he wasn't.  Elder Frederickson moved away.  
> And like a long list of other Ansteorrans who trained 
> here, he went on to reign there -- in his case in the 
> Principality of the Outlands, when it was still part of 
> Atenveldt, where he reigned as Prince and was dubbed a 
> knight.  Viscount Sir Elder Frederickson was the first 
> Defender of Elfsea, the first of a long line of 
> chivalrous and noble warriors.
> 
> The Baron & Baroness want to make Elfsea Defender a very 
> big deal indeed.  Elfsea is a magical place to live, and 
> I want us to make magic for Defender.  This tourney can 
> be a time for heroes to do what heroes do.  Who's with 
> me?
> 
> - Galen Elfsea
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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