Every time dying to the ground comes up on the Atlantian Rapier Net or at events or wherever, I get cranky. Usually, everybody else gets cranky, too. In short, “dying to the ground” = “cranky”. So, naturally, I bring it up here, and apologize for the generation of crankiness.
The general concern I have is with getting kicked or landed on by somebody tripping during a battle.
I’ll quote a discussion I had with Dame Rosalind Delamere: “at the same time you should be aware of the terrain you are running on. Unless someone goes down right in front of you, you shouldn’t be surprised by a body on the ground.”
My concern is that people tend to die right in front of me. Generally the enemy, sometimes my friends. I’m rarely not aware of them. People tend to die behind me, too (hooray for backfield coverage preventing DFBs on me), and next to me. Also, I have pretty decent field awareness, not everybody does. There are unaware newbs on the field. Just about every provost and free scholar (including me) and general God of Death was once one of these unaware newbs. I spent a year of melee with my head up my ass.
But really, I’m not worried about twisting my ankles, I’m young, they’ll heal. I’m not worried about getting my ribs bruised, probably because I’ve never had a bruised rib and don’t know any better. I’m worried about the unfortunate soul who takes a Wistric boot to the gut in a chaotic scrum.
In only three instances has this ever come into my little world:
The first was at the Atlantian 5-Man Tourney, where we were told to die to the ground rather than hie our butts off the field. So we did, and ended up with lots of people lying on the ground far away from each other. In previous instances, where we have hied away, it’s not gone a whole lot different (occasionally you push people back onto their own ghosts walking off the field, and, well, I tend to view that as a fault internal to the enemy team: When walking off the field, pick the shortest path tangential to the fighting, and briskly move towards the exit).
The third (yes, yes) was at War of the Wings, where we were defending the castle and I took a crossbow bolt to the cup. I doubled over in pain, and limped away. It was only when I was at the exit of the castle that I heard the marshal yelling “DIE TO THE GROUND!” I looked back at the castle, almost empty, and my path out of the line which had in no way interfered with the combat. I looked at the marshal. Then I shrugged and sat down at the castle exit.
Something I noticed about both of these situations: There was no good reason to die to the ground. Okay, yes, in the 5-man there are ghosts who interfere with their own team, but again, that’s their own damn fault.
The second was at the wall battle at Pennsic. Here there was no order to die to the ground. There was just a great press of fighters moving forward down a limited front. Eventually I died (hey, happens to the best of… er… well… happens to all of us, right?). I realized that I was in the middle of the crush, with five ranks of fighters behind me, and ten feet of fighting to cross to get to the edges. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do, so I took a knee. I lowered my head, held my swords by the blade, point down in front of me, and I waited. The crush pushed past me, and once I was in the back ranks I was able to rotate and crawl out. Did I risk getting kicked? Nope. Did I risk getting my mask crushed under a tripping fencer? Nope. Did I risk getting jostled so that I would fall over and then run all of these risks? Yeah. But I had three points of contact and was fairly stable. And nobody risked tripping over me, and I didn’t disrupt anybody’s lines significantly.
The Valkyries of Windmasters Hill
Windmasters Hill is blessed with a small army of delicate flowers of Southern Atlantian Womanhood. Which is to say, they will crawl up your blade, stab you in the neck, and pick your pocket before your body hits the ground. Interestingly enough, they do not feel safe dying to the ground (two of them have said this directly, I’m kinda guessing on the others). They are wee and delicate, and the prospect of lying in the path of a falling or charging Wistric makes them decline to participate in a melee (to tell the truth, I don’t really feel safe lying in the way of a falling or charging Duke Ragnarr or a number of my fellow fencers. I know His Grace has the awareness and skill to jump right over me, but I don’t trust the newb behind him not to stumble at the wrong time and foul Ragnarr’s motion). They will sit out a melee if they are required to die to the ground.
This is the heart of my trouble with blanket orders to fall to the ground. I dislike being needlessly exclusive. I don’t really want to say to these excellent assets to fencing “Suck it up or go home”. That’s just stupid. It’s a great way to further cut off the trickle of fresh blood in fencing.
From a marshal’s perspective, is it safe? Well, yes, until we prove otherwise. But you can shout that till you’re blue in the face, it doesn’t change the real problem. Whether or not they are, in the end, safe doesn’t come into it. They don’t feel safe. They’ve seen all of the arguments presented on Atlantian Rapier Net, and they remain unconvinced. So what do we do with them? Tell them “thanks for playing, why don’t you stick to the tourney circuit”? Again, that’s just asinine.
Safety of our armor
Most of us wear masks. Some of us wear helms. Masks do an excellent job of stopping thrusts. It’s their job. It’s their purpose in life. Stop thrusts all day long. Doo-de-doo, here comes a point, oh look I’ve stopped it, and the guy who paid 80 bucks for me gets to live another day. Hell, they can even stop chops with a rapier (though it makes them sad). What they have a HARD time with is stopping falling knees, feet, elbows, or asses.
Two years ago at Buckston’s practice, Griffin was backing up during a fight, stumbled, and ended up sitting down on Wilhelm’s empty mask. Wilhelm’s head would have had to have been about three inches wide to be able to use it after that. Our masks are not designed to be squished. Other kingdoms have a standard practice of stomping on masks that fail inspection, to guarantee their non-usability. Quick show of hands: Have you ever tripped or stumbled during a melee? Is there a reasonable chance that you, like Griffin, could be backing up, stumble, and land on Wilhelm’s mask in, say, the woods? And if Wilhelm were not off getting water, but instead had just been killed and gone to the ground, would you be willing to trade places with him and receive the falling fighter on your mask? Any chance you might trip and shift your foot quickly to catch your balance, and, oops, there’s a fighter’s head there and you end up effectively stomping it like a failed mask?
Of course, helms could probably endure this sort of abuse. They’re built for it. They also cost three to five times as much. This goes back to the exclusivity: to be safe, you have to have a spare two to four hundred dollars extra. And again, I hates me some needless exclusivity.
Rez Battles
The last consideration is dying to the ground during resurrection scenarios.
If I die in a limited front scenario, and your line pushes past me, I can’t really pop up and go rez without running way to hell and gone, off the side of the field and back. If your teammate dies, he can pop right up and run straight back. It then takes longer for me to rez than for him, and your team gets an advantage by default. Die-and-run-straight-back-to-rez, on the other hand, means everybody’s running the shortest distance to their rez point, though again, not through your line in the process.
Take a Knee
In the most recent discussion of which I was a part, Master Aedan suggested taking a knee (as described above). It achieves the same goal, you become safe and non-disruptive, and achieves it better. I don’t teach my students to die to the ground, for all the reasons listed above and for the very important reason that it just is not done. Still, they get asked at their authorizations to demonstrate safe dying. I believe I may just be a bastard and teach them to take a knee, and if they get dinged for it, they can punt back to me, and I can invoke the name of Aedan.
Though I’m sure he’ll just LOVE me for doing that.
Screw it, I’ll man up and defend it on the merits. Dying to the ground is annoying and pointless, a carry-over from the traditions of heavy combat and the bearer of way too many dicks tied in delicate little bows around it. If there should come a day we never mention it again I’ll be a happier, less peeved Wistric.
Pingback: Girard
Pingback: Dante