[Northkeep] They changed the mission statement again

[Etienne de St. Amaranth]

Damon wrote:
> On the other paw I think it was Thorgrim who introduced the speed round tourney.  

> 
The speed round format was adapted from an An Tir Squire's tourney.  I believe Thorgrim was knight marshal when we made the change in format and was in charge of implementing it when it first started.

My wife and I were going to attend the Known World 30 year celebration, which was being held in An Tir in June of 1995.  Before the event, registered attendees received regular newsletters on things being planned and one of the tournies planned at the event was based on the squires tourney.  I remember sitting in the troll/gate tent with Thorvald and Angus late at night on the Friday before a wInterkingdom and reading the description to them.  (I think that was the night the space heater almost caught the gate tent on fire and we started calling them the fire trolls.)  We thought it sounded fun.  I know Viggen, Alton, and Pioter got involved along with Thorvald, Angus, Thorgrim, and myself in later discussions on how it could be implemented.

Anyway when we started having the committee meetings to reformat Castellan that format was brought to the table for the chivalric tourney and got adopted. It got modified a bit from what they do in An Tir and the mechanics have tweaked over the years to make it manageable for the list mistresses but it remains fundamentally the same as when it was implemented.

Until my family moved from Northkeep to Wiesenfeuer, every year I helped herald that tourney.  One of my few regrets over the years is that I always helped set up and herald and I never personally fought in the tourney.

It is a lot of fun to watch.  And it remains the only tourney I know of where you can have 20 or more one on one fights in the tourney even if you are losing most fights.  You are not knocked out like a single or double elim tournament.

Etienne