faganthepure - My weekend

Well here it is folks. My semi-annual posting when I feel like my life really is really interesting and worth reading. As many of you know Estrella War was this weekend in Florence, AZ. I have decided after going there for the 2nd time that is truly a fighters war. Over the course of two days there were 4 field battles (with subtle differences), and castle battle, a 1 hour resurrection town battle, an awesome one hour resurrection bridge battle, and a 45 minute resurrection battle which we have aptly named the "Death Star trench battle"

All the scenarios were fought hard by everyone, and our barony led the charge almost every time, providing some of the hardest fighting from anyone on the field. This however came at a cost. On Friday during the final battle, the town battle, the Barony of Starkhafn (my home and the newest part of my family) lost one of our newest fighters on the field of combat. His name was just simply Al, he had only been playing in the SCA for a few months and therefor had not picked out a name or persona, or anything really. He knew he liked to fight and that the SCA was a fun place to be. He was in his early 40s and unfortunately his body felt that it was his time to go. Al unfortunately passed from this earth after a heart attack, most likely caused by an unknown heart condition that was aggravated by the stress of SCA combat. It was great loss to us all, some felt it much more than others. I personally had just met him that day on the field, so while I was saddened by the loss I felt more pain for the hurt that was being felt by those that knew him.

In memory of him the entire Caidan army wore a black armband in his honor, and his Majesty Edric took the field in not only a shroud of black as a sign of mourning but also proudly wore the Starkhafn tabard into battle along side us. While we grieved our loss, we used that day to not feel sadness or dispair, but instead used it as a day of honor and commemoration. It was a honorable way to go for such a brave new warrior. So, do not let this post bring you a heavy heart for there were much more positive things that took place on the field.

As some of you know our roomate is also in the SCA, Sir Tearloch from Artemesia. He has a reputation as being one of the best spearman in this part of the known world, if not in the entire SCA. He also traditionally runs with one the best spear units in this half of the world. Since we have become great friends that trust each other greatly on the field I was honored to run spear next to him almost the entire day, and every time we took the field we were sent up against the best spearman at Estrella War. On my way to war I was told by Vargas that I was to kill a total of 45 people that day, 10 for him, 20 for his lady, and 5 for each of my squire brothers and sister, and on top of that one duke for his neice. This seemed like a lofty goal that as the battles progressed seemed out of reach. Coming into the last battle I was only at 12 kills, but I did have my one duke, His Grace Rothgar (sp?) from the Outlands. The last battle of the day we faced of the Spartan Warband that Sir Tearloch usually fights with, but because of this years treaty we fought against them.

This warband is comprised of several knights, counts, and dukes. 99% of everyone we saw that day was at least a knight or higher in rank. This battle was also filled the hardest and most brutal fighting of the war, and I found myself surrounded by various knights and at one time His Majesty of Atenveldt. This of course made me seem like a lesser target/threat to everyone at first. That is until I began picking off the enemies ranks one by one, working in tandem with Sir Tearloch. Several of my kills included those warriors of the Spartan Warband that I had been hearing such great stories of. Unfortunately at the end of the battle my total had only gone from 12 up to 40, leaving me 5 short of my given total. At first I felt that I had failed, and then I look back at the quality of fighters that I had been up against, and felt that 40 was an ample number considering that 75% were at least a member of the Chivalry.

That knight Sir Tearloch and myself went out to find these legends that we'd fought against, and it turns out that they were all highly impressed with my spear work. I had managed to get on the radar of about a dozen of the best spearman as an honest threat and became one of their top targets during the day, especially when Tearloch was off resurrecting. I felt overwhelmed and shocked that such great men had so many things to say about me,and I felt that I represented my knight, his lady, my household, and my kingdom well.

That night we celebrated our victories and we packed up to make the early trip home. We were on the road by 8:30AM and home by around 2:00PM or 2:30PM, just in enough time to unload, shower and get dressed for the pro-wrestling pay-per-view that was in town. Yes Tearloch and I went and watched a WWE pay-per-view live and in person. It was a very awesome experience and we got every pennies worth out of it. If any wrestling fans are out there and want to hear more, let me know and I will share. But for now my body is telling me its been a LONG weekend, and I should rest my aching body before work at 4:45AM tomorrow. Goodnight and much love to all.