ES - The Elfsea Defender Tournaments (long)

[Shelly Edwards]

Since I am new to the Dream, I haven't been to a Defender before, but this sounds like it would make for a glorious and exciting day.  You can count on me.

In service,
Rebekah of Newcastle


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: baron at elfsea.ansteorra.org
Reply-To: elfsea at ansteorra.org
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 13:02:24 -0500

>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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