Fresno City Renfaire Day 1 !
Today was a good day. I arrived early in the morning, already geared up(having added a mostly finished Ionar to my setup.) Everyone arrived in good order, although our guild leader was a little late(but still an hour and a half early). The encampment was setup and the weapons and repast items were placed. Faire notes proceeded on time and was hit with an amazing surprise: Ian, my long time friend and guildmate, actually had a good acting idea..and he asked permission to do it. (his last escapade had almost gotten our guild in serious trouble.) We agreed to try it out along with some other gigs throughout the day. We were all very eager to get geared up and start our first procession before the faire started so that everyone could be in position for the opening action. The problem with my slightly-overlarge helmet was solved with a chainmail coif and I borrowed our guild leaders old chainmail so all of the guild Galloglaich would be properly suited up. Between the chainmail and the rest of my equipment, I was carrying somewhere around 65-75 pounds of arms and armor. I wore most of it throughout the day, but it wears on you quickly.
Our procession lead out without a hitch and we edged the corner of the Fiare entrance in good cheer and read to kick off the faire properly. As part of an 'advance' guard, two of the Galloglaich and the Cean Ceatharneach (leader of the native Irish Ceartharn fighters ) went ahead to meet both the guild of St Magelleans and the Guild of St Johns, who would try to bar them from entering the Faire. This would start off a fight between Thurmond (a Gallogliach) and one of St Magellean's fighters that was awesome to watch, we could hear the clang of the gauntlets off of Thurmonds helm from our hiding place. Cean Ceatherneach's war horn blew and the whole guild ran out from the corner and formed a skirmish line against the English with an extra guard around our patron the great Shane O'Niall himself. After much threatning to lop each other's heads off, the English lord Darby and the great O'Niall would manage to put peace on us common soldiers, with the Queen's promise of safe conduct hanging over the English heads. We then walked to our encampment with enough arrogance to make any American proud. The whole faire had that attitude to it. Instead of being the troublesome irish who were invited on a whim as usual, we were under personal protection of the queen and the main players in this faire. Of course, we abused those rights at first oppritunity:)
The First day was very active, which several wonderful moments. Some highlights of the first day:
*Taking over the courthouse. The guild of St. Greogry is a courthouse that will capture, interrogate(with copious amounts of water torture), and sentance any criminal for a price. They teach a lot about medival law and interrogation while having a blast screwing with the justice process. Ian had come up with the idea of siezeing control of the courthouse and had gotten permisson from St. Gregory's to hold them at gunpoint. It was sucha great idea that we eagerly marched down there singing. (the Ceartharn did anyway, Hostages and theft are almost exclusivlsy their territoty as much as bodyguarding is ours, so we stayed behind). The audiance loved it, as the Irish 'Gun Law' was a nice change of pace. Ian's younger brother made the mistake of walking by.... poor kid was soaked thoroughly.
*Submission. The biggest event for us Irish. The entire guild line up into section, with the Tuath Bean(proper women) leading with song, the Ceartharn following with war cries, and the GalloGlaich following after them shoutting the fmaily names of U'Niall and MacAiogh as loudly as poosibly. The whole court, who had'nt experinced this up close, fell back a step and guinely looked frightned. No other guild would have such a warlike entrance. Lord Fews(our guild leader and nephew to the U'Niall) would follow with the standard, raising the standard to the chant of "U'niall!" until he dropped it down and we all quieted immediatly. Then the U'Niall himself walks up to the court and talks to the queen. The usual speech comes forth about who-needs-who and discussion about the previous fights between them(that the irish have been winning for 15 years). The best part is when the U'Niall cuts off the queen but suddenly falling to his knees, wailing and beating his chest and shouting in Gaelic. After throwing off the English court again, Queen Elizibeth dimisses him. It was as much fun as we hoped it would be and we defintly stood out.
Otherwise, I did'nt do as well in the swordfighting as I had hoped, Tim won the pschological edge and domintated me. I don't think I won a fight today. I'm having a problem in that the chainmail pushes me from slowest fighter in the guild to defintly the slowest memebr of the guild. I'm gonna need weight training or soemthing if I want to be able to get an edge on these guys.
Our procession lead out without a hitch and we edged the corner of the Fiare entrance in good cheer and read to kick off the faire properly. As part of an 'advance' guard, two of the Galloglaich and the Cean Ceatharneach (leader of the native Irish Ceartharn fighters ) went ahead to meet both the guild of St Magelleans and the Guild of St Johns, who would try to bar them from entering the Faire. This would start off a fight between Thurmond (a Gallogliach) and one of St Magellean's fighters that was awesome to watch, we could hear the clang of the gauntlets off of Thurmonds helm from our hiding place. Cean Ceatherneach's war horn blew and the whole guild ran out from the corner and formed a skirmish line against the English with an extra guard around our patron the great Shane O'Niall himself. After much threatning to lop each other's heads off, the English lord Darby and the great O'Niall would manage to put peace on us common soldiers, with the Queen's promise of safe conduct hanging over the English heads. We then walked to our encampment with enough arrogance to make any American proud. The whole faire had that attitude to it. Instead of being the troublesome irish who were invited on a whim as usual, we were under personal protection of the queen and the main players in this faire. Of course, we abused those rights at first oppritunity:)
The First day was very active, which several wonderful moments. Some highlights of the first day:
*Taking over the courthouse. The guild of St. Greogry is a courthouse that will capture, interrogate(with copious amounts of water torture), and sentance any criminal for a price. They teach a lot about medival law and interrogation while having a blast screwing with the justice process. Ian had come up with the idea of siezeing control of the courthouse and had gotten permisson from St. Gregory's to hold them at gunpoint. It was sucha great idea that we eagerly marched down there singing. (the Ceartharn did anyway, Hostages and theft are almost exclusivlsy their territoty as much as bodyguarding is ours, so we stayed behind). The audiance loved it, as the Irish 'Gun Law' was a nice change of pace. Ian's younger brother made the mistake of walking by.... poor kid was soaked thoroughly.
*Submission. The biggest event for us Irish. The entire guild line up into section, with the Tuath Bean(proper women) leading with song, the Ceartharn following with war cries, and the GalloGlaich following after them shoutting the fmaily names of U'Niall and MacAiogh as loudly as poosibly. The whole court, who had'nt experinced this up close, fell back a step and guinely looked frightned. No other guild would have such a warlike entrance. Lord Fews(our guild leader and nephew to the U'Niall) would follow with the standard, raising the standard to the chant of "U'niall!" until he dropped it down and we all quieted immediatly. Then the U'Niall himself walks up to the court and talks to the queen. The usual speech comes forth about who-needs-who and discussion about the previous fights between them(that the irish have been winning for 15 years). The best part is when the U'Niall cuts off the queen but suddenly falling to his knees, wailing and beating his chest and shouting in Gaelic. After throwing off the English court again, Queen Elizibeth dimisses him. It was as much fun as we hoped it would be and we defintly stood out.
Otherwise, I did'nt do as well in the swordfighting as I had hoped, Tim won the pschological edge and domintated me. I don't think I won a fight today. I'm having a problem in that the chainmail pushes me from slowest fighter in the guild to defintly the slowest memebr of the guild. I'm gonna need weight training or soemthing if I want to be able to get an edge on these guys.
posted by WanderSoul | 9:41 AM
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