ES - The Elfsea Defender Tournaments (long)
Wainwright-Sims, Jewell
jwainwright at taylorpub.com
Thu Jun 15 11:08:12 PDT 2000
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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