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Living my best life, reenacting and being part of a Fiore HEMA demonstration with some besties 🙏

#HEMA #reenactment #history #The Exiles #Fiore #14th century #Battle of Evesham

Hey all,

Been away to York for the weekend, having been tired there by the Northumbrian League York event, which included a category for synthetic harnischfechten!

I won't bore you all with how well run the event was (very, for a first time event, despite schedule delays, a standard in HEMA) or how lovely everyone was (also very: might be one of the friendliest tournaments I've been to). Let's touch on how it went.

First, I arrived early to get locked in, and ultimately was convinced by everyone in the hall to doing Open Longsword. I haven't seriously trained for Bloßfechten for...about 4 months now, so I entered on a complete whim. I can absolutely say I am nowhere near as strong as I was circa 2019 for that category, but my expectations were to flop altogether. Instead, I defeated everyone in my pool, and then got beaten by Jack Fraser. Not bad at all!

After that, it was the long wait to harness. Things overran, as they do, and harness which was meant to start at 2:30pm ended up starting at 5pm. Pool 1 alone took an hour. It was only after some very pathetic pleading to try and do our pool in the remaining hour, that the judges took pity on me and let us run.

My first fight was the Academy of Steel's own Jordan Mock(!!!). He's big, he's tough, and right out the first exchange, he waffled my mask with a thrust to the visor, giving me a neat face wound. (He didn't mean to do that, and apologised right after the fight, bless him, good sport! 🙂‍↕️)

I also nearly passed out at the end due to lack of air, whoopsie. 😅

The waffling kind of set the tone and let me lock in, and the rest of the fight came down to both of us going neck and neck, somewhat literally as in close actions we went for the daggers and shanked the other in the neck. But in the final exchange, as I was trying to stab at the back of his neck, I ran out of air in the thick, went limp to avoid passing out, and Jordan stabbed me. Clear win! Bummed I lost, but losing to someone as highly trained as him, and going blow for blow? I can accept that! 🙂‍↕️

I had a bunch of other fights after, which we steamrolled through. I was conscious of time, and after getting a near even fight with Jordan, I was sort of locked in completely. My opponents largely were new to harness, so...I have to admit I didn't totally pay attention to the scores, but I can't remember them scoring any hits. Not that they made that easy! I had to focus on all of them, using misleading actions to get a clean thrust. And half of the time, I ended up close, frantically grabbing my dagger, and stabbing with that!

We finished with half an hour spare(!), and finals to take place Sunday morning. I thought I was only fighting for bronze after being beaten by Jordan, but we got a full semi-final with four fencers, including Jordan Mock, and David of the Exiles(!!!), a group I've followed online for a long time now.

My first match for the advancement to gold/silver was David. Friendly fellow, taller than me, from a club that does a lot of armoured work, but doesn't often compete. I tried a series of German armoured sword guards, but ultimately, after pulling ahead of him and him making a small comeback, it came to close grappling and the dagger. Knowing the Exiles are pretty comfortable with daggers, I frantically went for my dagger as he went for his, got there first, and got the stab, ending with 12 points (out of 10).

Which meant my final opponent was the same person I'd started against, the Welsh wolf himself, Jordan Mock.

This was the point I think I most understood Sir Duncan the Tall against Aerion Brightflame. Me, in synthetic harness, bright but worn. Jordan in steel harness, all blackened gear, full sallet and gorget, a black sash making him look like a black knight. And he'd already beaten me once.

I am pretty awkward at social interactions, and often worry I misread or put people off, so before our matches, I'd tried to be sociable with Jordan, help him with kit, and give him respect as the other person taking this almost deadly seriously. I hope that came out to him. I say this, because in the final match, I went for the kill right from the word go. He didn't hit me quite as hard as before, but he came hard and fast, and overwhelmed me with superior strength.

However, I think by now I knew that he knew how to beat me if I attempted to match his strength. So I gave ground, keeping the pressure on, but letting him overwhelm.

This tactic generally worked, and when he would give ground, I chased him down, not letting him get a moment to breathe. Even with this, Jordan is a strong and fitter man than I am. He matched me almost exchange for exchange, and the final round left us both on 9 points each. Either of us could win, again, just as our first fight. At one point, after resetting, I had to ask a moment to suck in air, as I was struggling to get enough again; the judges and Jordan were good enough to let me have a moment before we proceeded. By this point of the last exchange, we were both utterly exhausted.

According to Squire Jess, who was with me throughout all this (and the reason I didn't die of dehydration), the final exchange had me move in a way she has determined is the way I move before I win. I landed a thrust to his gorget, but this was not considered enough to end the fight. We both scrambled, exchanging points and stabs. At one point, he hooked my neck and drove the point along to stab me there. This would have ended the fight, if I had not driven my point into his armpit, and drawn my dagger to stab his throat, committed to forcing a mutual kill if I could not win against him. The judges called halt before my dagger was fully drawn. After separating, to my surprise and immense relief, my thrust with the sword had scored before he had got his sword to my neck.

Final score of the final fight and final exchange: 12-9, my victory.

I was too full of adrenaline to really register this evening after thanking Jordan for the most brutal fights I've had in a long time. After peeling out of my kit and laying on the floor for a good while, I still don't think it had really hit me either.

Squire Jess wanted to go explore York after this, and we got to visit the Minster...

...where I decided the only knightly thing to do was to pray God thanks for my victory over an opponent I considered superior. Seems to be the right thing to do in a proper Chivalric romance, right? 🙏

While there, we ended up making a left turn and found Anor Londo. No silver Knight archers though...

...after that, a dungeon crawl to visit a exhibit that mentioned the Saint I am named for...

(You can guess who they are)

...and then after Squire Jess got enrichment time at Dick Turpin's grave (Rogues really do flock together, huh?), we headed back for the awards and pack up.

And that was our adventure to York! Back on the roads again, from Northumbria to Dumnonia. I will absolutely be doing this again, and defending my title(?) as the Northumbrian League's harnischfechten champion.

This victory and deed of arms, I offer for love of them that have loved me well, giving me hands to grasp the sword, and armour no blade yet has pierced. These are the ladies @wearebeguiler and @gjallarfox, and it is to them the glory and honour of this deed of arms is dedicated.

#the knight himself #actual knightly adventure blog?#HEMA #competition #harnischfechten #longsword #Order of the Blade #The Exiles #Academy of Steel #fencing #photography #Squire Jess #Northumbrian League #York #adventures #(some Knight of the Seven Kingdoms shii)

I had a dream about these goofy goobers a few days ago. The universe was trying to tell me ahead of time who the best homestuck characters are.

Happy belated 4/13!

#my art #homestuck fanart #413 #the exiles #wayward vagabond #peregrine mendicant #aimless renegade #serenity the firefly