Event

Kingdom Arts and Sciences 2018

Swearing in the competitors

This past weekend was Avacal’s Kingdom A&S Championship and The University of Avacal. It’s the first time the Championship has been done at its own event, and based on how many people I saw there, the event was a massive success. There were a ton of classes in 12 tracks, an A&S display area, and of course the Kingdom Arts & Sciences Championship.

Champion of Arts and Sciences

There were two full entrants for the Championship, Her Ladyship Niesa Abdelmessah, and myself. It’s a difficult and stressful competition, but at the end, I felt very accomplished just for getting through the creation, documentation, display, presentation, and questioning. HL Niessa had an amazing display, and entered bone carving and hide tanning and I am in awe of her skills in that area. I entered a research paper on the history of bacon, and a beef stew that could have been prepared on board a Tudor naval ship. At court that evening it was announced that I had won both the highest single entry and the championship, and I swore fealty to Their Royal Majesties Kvigr Ivarsson and Svava Suanhuita.

 

I never have a problem getting rid of the leftovers

Here are links to my documentation:

Pre 17th Century Bacon PDF: Pre-17c Bacon

Stew On Board Ship PDF: Stew on Ship

The rest of the post is fairly photo heavy.
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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

Samhain Shuffle

The Culinary Group is going to be busy in the next few months! While we’re on break for July and August to make room for summer camping events (and maintain the sanity of our members,) many of us are still in high gear! Caterina’s vigil and elevation to the Order Read more…

By Alice Percy, ago

Sealion War

We had a great event this past weekend.

I was running the Arts and Sciences competition and competing in the rapier war.  Upon arriving I talked to a friend of mine, Lord Kerry, who is one of Baroness Caitrin’s Sergants.  We were talking about my heavy armour being almost done, and he offered to loan me the extra pieces.  So I agreed, picked up my armour and we were good to go.  The Heavy war was up first on the saturday.

I had a blast as a pikeman.  I have a few favorite moments from the heavy war.  The first one was when I hit a friend of mine in the stomach during the bridge battle; it was a friend of mine who is also a fencer.  My next great moment was fighting beside Baron while we fought another knight and a few more.  Another great moment was towards the end of the last battle.  We had essentially won victory and were mopping up the last of the Segirtians when I saw their Baron Ming.  He was legged and the only other fighters near us were archers.  I called out for single combat with him.  I managed to stay alive for about two minutes, which was more than I, or anyone else expected.  A knight took my place and slew the baron.

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

Practice and Eddies

Had a great time at practice.  We did some running and high energy exercises.  There were a number of new fighters there.  I got to do some slow work with Giuame, and that was very good for helping me settle some actions, like fighting close.  Then I got to work Read more…

By Tomas de Courcy, ago

Aquaterra Champions

Had a great tourney on Saturday.  I drove down with my Lady and Theign Oak.  We got through the border without issues and made it to the event just a bit before court, with enough time to get parked and set up and all.  We came forward to kneel and say that we would fulfill the duties of a champion if we succeeded.  After that we had the rest of the morning off, as the tourney was scheduled for one in the afternoon.

The event was outdoors with a few things in small halls.  And it was freezing.  Very freezing.  It tried to snow once.  So we spent most of the morning inside halls either watching the A&S or the Bardic competition and trying to stay warm.  Around noon Oak and I began practicing a little, and trying out the baton and cloak, as both were likely to come up in the competition, and Oak didn’t have much practice with either.

After lunch we armoured up and began practicing.  We got some fights in with some of the local dons and they gave us some good pointers, then we got ready for the procession.  We had the procession and setup for the tourney.  There were six entrants.

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

Investiture

I got to fight in my first investiture tourney this week.  It was my second tourney since I’ve been back.

I fought well, and placed better than I expected, defeating three people.  One of whom went on to win.

On the Sunday I fought in the Cadet Tourney, sponsored by Oberst Luther Magnus.  I did much better than I expected in this tourney, with 14 victories, which is almost 50/50.  Luther gave me some tips which helped a lot, bringing my dagger lower, and pulling my sword closer to me.

With the dagger lower, it needs to move a bit more to protect my head, but it needs to move less to protect the rest of me, which I found was useful in my parries, and kept me alive much better.

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago