ES - The Elfsea Defender Tournaments (long)
Duke, Wes
WDuke at healthaxis.com
Thu Jun 15 11:37:20 PDT 2000
Vivat Baron.
Wes Duke
Systems Analyst
wduke at HealthAxis.com
817-255-3240
Pager 817-418-2612
-----Original Message-----
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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