Blackstone Raids 2009: A late review

To start, this was my third Blackstone Raids and I really had a great time at the ones before. I really had to think through my feelings about this years event. It was hot which has not been the case in my past two years there. Did this affect the way I felt about the event. I like the concept of the SCA but I hate the politics and the attitudes of the people that try be be important in the society because they have little outside of it. Was this an influence on how much disappointment I felt at the end of the event? I really had to consider these things and talk with the people I fought along side to see if I was seeing things in some kind of skewed way.

In the past two trips to Blackstone Raids it happened that I fought on the side of AEthelmearc. The fighting was great and people were taking their shots. The Middle was aggressive and and lines clashed and it was fun. AEthelmearc won most battles both years. I figured numbers were off because of home field advantage. I noticed very little rhino hide either of those first two years.

This year Atlantia split its forces due to numbers. Well since I was fighting with a mercenary group we were part of the force that went to the Middle Kingdom. Great I get to fight with the people I have fought against the past two years. Now I get to see the other side. I wonder if it is like this for them every year? Why do they continue to return to this event if it is? Like what you ask?

Let me start by saying that I may hit light for an Atlantian. I discussed this with a few of the people I regularly fight with and the say I hit hard enough and that some times I can hit harder than they would like. I understand that sometimes you are not sure in a melee if it was a shot or spear shaft that hit you. All that taken into account I have to question the honor of a large majority of the people we faced. One fighter left himself open while attacking a fighter to my right. I hit his helm and shoulder four times solid. I then hit his helm slightly to the back and he dropped to a knee. I figured he was dying until he tried to thrust at another fighter so I hit his sword arm and he looked up at me like he was wondering what I was doing. Was he clueless about melee fighting and thought he was only engaged with the person in front of him? Was the whole AEthelmearc army on that bridge that clueless? It was like that most of the time. Almost no one wanted to take a shot. The field battles were as bad. A fighter got around our line and hit my shield arm at the inside of the elbow really hard and said "You don't have to take that shot we were not engaged." Thanks, so you now want me to fight when my arm is numb and I can't use my shield? Honorable move Sir ShitHead.

So, a shield man closes on a spear man and they hold the spear vertical in front of them butt end on the ground and say nothing, have they yielded? No clue, so I put a light'ish rap to their helm. No response no defense. I put a second harder rap to their helm, no response. A third rap that moves their head and no response? I am confused people I am fighting with are confused. The rest of their group is dead. Suddenly I take a shot from a spear to my kidney from the back right side. Not engaged but I am pissed and walk off the field. The spear I was engaged with or what ever it was, joins the new line to continue fighting. I was told that they were hit several more times with no acknowledgment until another spear man chocked up on their spear and drove the person to the ground. I did not know we played immortals in the SCA.

Two of our guys were called dead for walking of the end of the world in a field battle. Next battle same marshal, a line of AEthelmearc fighters walks off the edge of the world to flank our group in front of the marshal; we yell to him and he says to them move back, they ignore him and he lets it go. Where is the honor?

That is how the fighting went. Why does the Middle bother to return year after year. Is it like that for them every year. Was this just a really odd and strange year? I had to take time away after that. Now, I plan to do three events then work on projects over the winter. I don't know if I will return to Blackstone Raids again.

Highlight - Had a nice Mexican dinner with friends at the Cozumel restaurant.