Honor War

I want to say thank you to the College of Lyonsmarche for a wonderful event this last weekend. I would also like to thank the fine fencers there for allowing me to use my curved blades in the fighting.

The wonderful thing about out of kingdom events (especially when you're the only one from your kingdom) is that you don't have to worry about anything. You're not a threat. Since you're a foreigner, the other fencers aren't going to spend all of their time sizing you up and trying to tear apart your style so they can defeat you at the next tournament. What they are going to do (especially if you have any sort of scarf or are fighting with some oddball weapon) is try you out. This makes for a wonderful chance for you to fight against brand new, skilled fighters. And I discovered that, in An Tir, a Gold Scarf means you're a former kingdom champion. Which pretty much guaranteed that they were giving me their best fights.

It was wonderful. I spent at least three hours doing pick-ups, working with my short curved against a myriad of skill levels and styles. And I discovered something: my short curved was the equal of any long blade out there. Okay, maybe not the equal. It took some work to get inside their range, but I was able to do it. And I was able to do it in a way that I didn't have to worry about anyone figuring out my moves before the next tourney.

And that was before the tourney or the melees. I switched back to case for the tourney, so I didn't really learn too much, but when it came time for the melees, I switched back to short and dagger and that was a learning experience.

Boy was it. For starters, if you're in a battle that's eight guns to two, you want to be on the side with eight. The other thing was that my short is a lousy primary for open field battles, but it works pretty darn well in keep battles. The last thing I learned was that An Tiran fencers really aren't very good a melees. My guess is that they focus more on the tourney side of things.

All in all, it was a wonderful event. And, with a showing in the tourney of somewhere between 17 wins, 8 losses and 20 wins, 5 losses (with a 26-person round robin, it's kind of hard to keep track), I think I did our kingdom proud.

Well Hell

I got talked into going to Honor War this weekend. It wasn't that hard, really. New people to play with and a chance to blow the cobwebs off my melee skills? Oh, yeah. So I started getting my stuff together and figured I'd better check out the good old blade types list to make sure I was good to go. It's a good thing I did, too.

As you know, I've been working for the past couple of years with curved blades. About the only time I've used any of my straight blades in the last year was in warm-ups, and that was just so my opponents won't figure out my curved swords. Anyway, I'd planned on using my short curved this weekend just so I could work out the bugs with it but, when I looked at the blade types list for An Tir, they're not legal.

Okay, maybe it's not so bad. I know at a lot of the larger wars, out-of-kingdom visitors have to meet the weapon requirements for their own kingdom. So I go and check An Tir's rules. Nope. All visitors are expected to meet An Tir's weapon requirements.

I really wanted to play with my curved, but I figured it was okay. I still had 3 straight swords I could use. And then I read further. An Tir limits quillons to no more than 12 inches. I know my main straight sword meets that requirements, but my 40 for sure is more than 12 inches across and my back-up 36 is a bit on the long side too.

So I've got one sword I can definitely use. I'm still going to bring my curved swords, but I'm not holding much hope for that. At least on the plus-side, the sword I can use, I've been using for 10 years now.

We'll just have to see how the weekend goes.

What will I do?

As part of his ongoing project to prepare me for becoming a White Scarf, my knight has gotten me thinking about what I would require of my cadets if and when I am in a position to take some. After years of thinking about what to look for in a White Scarf, it's forcing me to think about what a White Scarf should look for in a cadet.

Some of the stuff still applies, though. I'd want someone who lives fairly close so I could stay in touch with them. I'd want someone whose sense of honor is compatible with mine. And I'd want someone who I respected, otherwise I'd wouldn't give them the attention they deserved. But beyond that?

I think I'd have to look at their goals. What do they want out of being a cadet, or is that their ultimate goal? I don't think I'd want someone as a cadet whose entire goal is to become a cadet. I'd want someone who is striving for more: someone who wants to be a White Scarf, or even just the best fencer they could possibly be. My goal as far as my students are concerned has always been for them to be the best they can be.

I'd also have to look at their persona. Not in that I'd only take 16th Century Lowlanders or 14th Century Highlanders, but rather that I want to be able to at least have an idea of when or where someone comes from by their garb. And this one isn't really a deal breaker, more a goal that I would set for my students: if they're a 10th Century Norman, I want them to look like a 10th Century Norman, both off and on the field.

And I think I'd also look at their blades. Is their sword what their persona would use? Do they think they're Duncan McLeoud and fight with a Katana, even though their persona is from Edinburough? Again like with the garb, this would be more of a process than a requirement. I'd want them to do the research and put together a blade that was appropriate for their persona, both in style and balance. Notice I said put together: I'd want them to actually start with a bare blade and either build or buy the hardware to give them a truly custom sword.

These are just my initial thoughts so far, and I'd be curious to know what the White Scarves out there are looking for in a prospective cadet.

Any thoughts?