ES - The Elfsea Defender Tournaments (long)

[baron at elfsea.ansteorra.org]

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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