The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

This year I am looking at 15 years in the SCA, 8 as a White Scarf, 4 as a Laurel, and 1 as a Master of Defense. In that time, I think I’ve figured a few things out, though mostly a lot later than I’d have preferred. More on that below!

I have been thinking about what I want to do from here, and I finally hit upon the last piece of the puzzle yesterday. I’ve been more than a bit dissatisfied with my neck of the woods, but rather than go into that too much, I want to mostly talk solutions and direction. I’m not sure if I can do that without contrasts, so we’ll see how well I manage. Some of this may seem a reversal from earlier positions I have had, but I am herein talking about what to do as a fencing peer: not what the White Scarf should be, or what a candidate for the Order of Defense should look like. I’ve also had to sort this out as I’ve gone, and attitudes are evolving.

Saturday was Kingdom Arts and Sciences Festival, and there was a Laurel meeting. In it, we had 40 members all poll positively for Kat Ferneley, and TRMs made the decision after some consulting and debate to elevate her after announcing her as the winner of the KASF competition. I volunteered my medallion to the cause, having been elevated at that very site and event 4 years prior. I thought it fitting.

On the way home, everything clicked into place for me. I described my goals as a now double peer to my wife:

Teach people to fence well.

This really seems as though it should be obvious, but all told, it’s an underrepresented goal in our community. When I say “well,” I not only mean fence well enough to win tournament bouts and perform well within our ruleset, but to have a deep enough technical knowledge that they can train other fencers to use sound fencing theory, applied in the manner of their choosing. One thing I am very happy about is how the Stierbach practice I initiated now has more or less uniform instruction in the fundamentals: not everyone is perfect, but everyone learns the same core concepts and uses the same lexicon so that all new people receive the same message. Fencing is a science as much as an art.

Moreover, someone who has the ability to instruct and is too old or injured to compete is still a vital, productive member of the Kingdom. I aspire to be an old, broken down fencing instructor some distant day!

Get newer fencers involved in the Kingdom.

It’s pretty well established here that the White Scarf has a substantial, mandatory service component to one degree or another. I have recently characterized it predominantly as having been a leadership award in the past more than anything. I think that’s a fair statement, and your mileage may vary. There are a variety of reasons for why that happened, and it was ultimately a good strategic decision.

I think that modernly, we have to look to a new model. The Masters of Defense are going to start taking personal students sooner or later (if not already), and those students are going to get direct guidance in a way that doesn’t exist much in our current model. I think we need to move away from “do service if you want this award” to “follow me; we’re doing this thing now.” That’s a bit of an unfair simplification, but not overly so. The Masters of Defense need to guide the newer people onward and upward and create a culture where good citizenship is present because that’s how the game is best played and everyone knows it.

We will probably lose some people by holding them to that expectation with no tangible reward (except, you know, those whole peerage paths for service and art!). Oh well.

Connect newer people with the Crown.

We do a lot of service, but struggle some with the idea of being a servant or subject. Getting direct contact with the Royals is a really good way to support the kingdom in general, and to also become invested in its health. Moreover, it reinforces the idea that fencing isn’t an isolated pocket activity happening on the periphery– we’re not physically off to the side, but we’re not fully integrated at the entry level, either.

The Crown is also where everything happens. It’s a polling, not a vote! We make suggestions, and the best way to have influence over the direction we head is to be someone the Crown wants to hear from. Awards do not give that. Awards are a suggestion of characteristics, with no guarantees. There is one table: it is called high table, and you get there with a crown, a coronet, or an invitation.

Essentially, if we do this right we become the people the Crowns ask; we don’t make demands of them. Not because we wear some regalia, but because we have built a genuine connection.

Help give people stories to tell.

This is the final piece that cemented in my head at KASF. This is the core of why I find the attitude that competition, performance, and tournament victories don’t matter to be loathsome and toxic: people get invested in the kingdom when they leave an event having participated in or witnessed something they thought was special and worth talking about later. Mistress Kat had no vigil, but she has an amazing narrative that is worth retelling a decade from now!

When we say tournaments aren’t important and that doing well in them doesn’t matter, we undermine everyone’s potential to have a special moment. I still remember my first tournament win back in 2003 because it felt good and was treated as a big deal. I was hooked, more so than ever before. When we denigrate those kinds of moments, we denigrate the experience of our rising stars– our possible future peers! If tournaments don’t matter, if the finals are just another fight, and if we don’t do our best to be our best, then we devalue all of it… and why even bother? Things matter because we decide to care about them; apathy is poison to our kingdom.

The atmosphere matters, and it’s fun and serious all at once if it’s treated as such.

What now?

A few things. First, I will continue to do the best I can as I leave my physical prime and as the next generation begins to take over as the fighting force I still try to be. My knowledge and experience are resources at their disposal, should they want it. I’ll also continue to participate in tournaments and do the best I can in them at all times, because people need the chance to defeat me legitimately, with no excuse to take away from their success. The next generation deserves its chance to build its renown partially off mine.

Since there is no new height for me to attain, I will try to be the best peer I can be. I intend to focus my energies on the lords and ladies who are still at the beginnings of their journies. I think the job of a peer is to ready the next generation for their future elevation.

The best possible outcome is that everyone look both above and below themselves on the Order of Precedence, and think about what they can do to help others reach their level, how to be the best example of their level possible, and how to be undeniable as a candidate for elevation to the next. This can never be about your own emotional needs: care first for the kingdom and the rest of it resolves. It’s not about you, but if you do it right, everyone’s success is your success.

If every fencer in the kingdom set their sights on becoming an undeniable Master of Defense, we would have the finest group in the world. Even if we cannot all achieve that end, to borrow from an older Order: a person can be knightly without being a knight.