host an sca war

the SCA is a game played by hundreds of thousands of people world wide. It’s not a board game, not D&D, not acting or any such thing. It is medieval recreation and play. Players pick a personna, research it and develop a character around it. People often go with their own personal ancestory. Players make or purchase garb (clothing) that suits that personna. The game appeals at many levels to many people. One of the biggest draws is fighting. Not pretend fighting like the US civil war buffs who dress up and shoot blanks at each other, we fight. Out fighting is broken into various disciplines, heavy fighting, rapier and boffer. Heavy fighting now consists of combat archers, sword and shield, pikesman/ spearman, 2 handed weapons and seige weapons. COmbat archers where I am from primarily use crossbow replicas. We shoot blunted and padded bolts at one another and most happily at the other heavy fighters. Recurve bows, stonecasters, slings, darts, throwing hammers and javelins are a list of some of the other weapons an archer might use. Shieldmen use a sheild obviously either a heater (shaped like an uside down gothic arch) or a round shield. THe various weapons are rattan. Shieldmen may use anything from a sword, war hammer, axe, mace or short spear. Shieldmen exell when in a shield wall. Pikeman and spearman generally use a spear that may be about 6ft in length or a pike that may range from 9 – 12 ft in length. Heavy wars consist of a multitude of battles fought through different senarios. Senarios may include field battles, bridge battles, island battles, forest and castle battles. Picture if you can 2 or more armies taking a field. the banners of various groups fluttering silently in the breeze the sun gleaming of the metal helms and hardened leather. A great cheer rising forth from one side then the other. Swords thumping against sheild like a great intimidating heart beat. Pounding pulse shaking the ground until the Trebuchet lets fly grape shot and the first volley of arrows is let loose. THen the charge of one side or the other. Hundreds or warriors bearing down on their opponents. Men and women falling short of their mark as archers pick off as many as they can before the anticipated collision of the two forces become a physical reality. The commanders of each army ordering their forces to push on, flank right, change formation, punch through, hold the line. People dropping and wounded or dead where they were struck while the chaos and thrill of melee surrounds them. As the battle moves on the dead remove themselves from the field; walking to the sidelines they revel in their experience, share their deeds and their death with the other fallen, only to share it again and again through the rest of the day and well into the festivities of the evening. Can you picture it.

The rapier war is a later period type of fighting. Rapier fighters often fight in more elegant, flashy or refined garb. They fight with metal rapier swords, bucklers, daggers as well as muskets and pistols. The muskets and pistols fire a form of heavy sand filled surgical tubing. It can sting a little when you get hit. Their war senarios are often more creative and humourous than that of the heavy fighting wars. Many rapier fighters seem to be born with the a gift of lechery. Rapier fighting requires a bit more patience, control and precision than that of heavy fighting as fighting here is to the lightest possible touch. Here if the blow is felt it is taken it is by the honour of the warrior dealing the blow to call it invalid.
Now this is only a small part of a war as it is only the fighting. What else can their be? Non-combatants go to wars to enjoy classes in everything from playing various medieval instuments to textiles, costuming, personna development, lechery,target archery and thrown weapons competitions and classes to armour building, lapidary, falconry,equestrian, wood working, period dance, chivalry and so on and on.
During the evenings the songs flow from the various bardic fires filling the night air with music and laughter of stories of conquest and humous defeat. As the night lapses on the sounds of drumming begin to give new cadence to camps. Taverns or great bardic circles give birth to the fine arts of wenching. Many a warrior hath seen great victories and honours on the fields of battle only to be cut down by the wit and tongue of the tavern wench. The belly dancers entranced by the drumming in turn entrance the masses, fixated on their every move.

I could go on, but surly you can see the appeals of the SCA war. I live on my own quarter section in northern BC. My land sits on the borders of two great principalities. A border war is in need. The rebels of our land wish not to adhere to any rule. If we can foster tensions between the the might of our neighbours our lands will never truly be held sway by any occupier. As our rebels are also mercenaries, much profits can be had by the selling of our services to the highest bidder.

We have villages to build and a fight to pick and allies to forge.

FOr more information on the SCA visit our personal site that is still under construction www.pris.ca/sca or the society web page at www.sca.org