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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