ES - The Elfsea Defender Tournaments (long)
Shelly Edwards
Rebekah_of_Newcastle at pandora.org
Sun Jul 9 14:21:02 PDT 2017
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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