Sangre del Sol Pas D'Armes 2014

Sangre del Sol, the shire directly north of Southkeep, has hosted a yearly Pas D’Armes for the last 6 years running. A Pas d’Armes is a particular type of event that is very indicative of the ideas of honour and chivalry the society holds to. The tournament is based on an old chivalric tradition where knights would set up a roadblock and challenge all knights that passed by, and any knight that declined the challenge had to leave his spurs behind to show his shame. With this in mind, the fighters are split into a Home Team and an Away Team. In addition, any lady that passed through unaccompanied had to leave a token that could be rescued by other passing knights to be returned. Towards this end, the tournament is fought for the pleasure of a Ladies’s Gallery. All the ladies at the event are gathered under one pavillion, and the fighters are presented to them. The Ladies' Gallery is an important part of the event, because some of the fights are done at their behest; the last round in particular allow the ladies to choose how many times a fighter can come back into the fight.

This year, the Pas was of particular importance to me since it is my anniversary as a fighter. Last year's Pas was the first time that I had ever fought in any kind of tourney. As I look over the videos and pictures, it is surprising to see how much my kit has improved in just a year’s time: I have replaced nearly my whole kit; the only pieces that are the same are my sword, helm, and arms. Even my garb has gotten an upgrade from a pair of pajama pants to some more period-accurate Rus style pants.

There was a new site for the event this year, Markham Park in Weston, and it was amazing. Sangre del Sol regularly goes above and beyond when it comes to bringing the dream to life, and this was no different. The lyst field with its beautiful fences and waving pennants really made it easy to be transported away. The smells of delicious food and the sound of music played by the band reached out over the entire site to complete the atmosphere.

Everything about the event was planned in such a way as to make the pageantry of the Pas stand out.

Heralds draped in the regalia of the hosting shire wandered the site announcing the times and keeping people informed about what was happening. Before the lyst itself began, each of the fighters were asked to place their helms on display in a Helmshau. This way, the populace could see the “faces” of their champions. Each of the helms were decorated by the fighters for the presentation. To decorate my helm my lady, Braenna Faelan, made me a torse in her colours with a wolf head pin in the back, and my man Nikola Spaten painted two shields: one with Braenna’s device and one with mine.

The fighting was organized a little bit differently than it was at my first Pas. After each of the fighters and teams had been introduced, the venans which this year included Lord William of Kent, myself, and Vikarr Bjornsson, were told to present our challenges to the tenans: Baroness Alda, Honourable Lord Robert de Cleftlands, and Lord Kenric Fitz Alan. The challenges were declared in reverse order of precedence and so Vikarr made the first challenge, axes to 5 blows against the giant of the tenans, THL Robert. My challenge was to Lord Kenric, bastard swords to 5 blows. The final challenge caught all present by surprise. Lord William challenged the entire opposing team to 7 blows with axes. The challenges were fought in the order that they were presented with Vikarr and Robert fighting first. The fight was rough, with each man bringing their strength and size to bear. In the end youth beat experience ,and Vikarr was the victor.  My fight was next, this was the first time I had ever used bastard swords and was looking forward to the experience. Lord Kenric is known for his speed, so I knew that my best bet was to maintain an aggressive stance with him

throughout the fight. This worked out well for me despite having the wings on my elbow cops catch on my tunic in my first two swings. The fight began 2 to 2, and then in a blink of an eye he was inside my defense and landed the last three blows ending it. The final fight of the challenge round was Lord William vs all. In this case, a lack of specificity hurt the challenger, as both the gallery and his lady assumed he meant all at once while he actually meant one at a time. William, being a good sport and always up to entertain the populace, accepted this change of plans and made ready to face the entirety of the tenans. Good sports that they are, the tenans at the suggestion of THL Robert decided to fight him each with a hand behind their back. This led to a frantic chase of a battle with William trying to avoid being cornered, but in the end he could not stem the tide of numbers.


The second event of the day was the grand melee. In this battle, teams are abandoned and each fighter represents the glory of his lady and his own honour. The gallery decided that there would be four passes. In the first pass, I crossed blades first with Lord William. He landed a solid blow on my helm, but to his credit and honour, told me the shot landed flat. In the next exchange, I was able to work a blow under his shield. Last year the fight happened almost the same way, but I didn’t have the strength to drive the shot home and he beat me. The pass ended with myself and Vikarr as the last ones standing. In a quick exchange he was able to land a blow to my head, leaving him the victor of the first pass. In the second pass, I was eliminated by my first opponent, Lord Kenric. He was armed with a hewing spear and we managed a double knockout. This round ended with Vikarr facing Robert, in which the latter was the winner. After a moment to reset and allow some fighters to change armaments at the behest of the gallery, the third pass began. Immediately I found myself facing Vikarr, and I made the mistake of not attacking agressively and staying in his preferred range, allowing him to defeat me. The pass was quick and fierce, ending with a charge from Lord Kenric into THL Robert which was thwarted leaving Robert the victor. That final blow of the third pass popped a rivet on Kenric’s helm leaving him unable to compete in the final pass of the grand melee. The fourth pass opened, finding myself opposite Robert and his deadly glaive. A quick thrust and I was eliminated from the round for the last time. The round ended with Lord William and Vikarr facing off in front of the gallery. Vikarr used his wrestling training to get inside his opponent's defense and deliver a punch cut that ended the grand melee.

The time had come to play to the mercy of the gallery. Each tenan was to present themselves before the gallery and receive a challenge. Then once those challenges were finished, the gallery could assign any other fights that they wished to see. During this round, I was placed in three fights. Axes to three strikes against her

Excellency Baroness Alda, bastard sword vs single sword to 5 strikes against Vikarr, and in the battle of venans with swords in inverse proportion to their height against Lord Kenric. The axes with her Excellency was a hard-fought match, but I managed to come out on top by one strike. The fight against Vikarr ended with a draw, but pleased the gallery with its aggression and tempo. In the fight with Kenric, I ended up with the great sword. He used his speed to great advantage avoiding the cluster of blades hunting him. I managed to land two blows on him before he ran in on me and landed 4 in return. He was unable to kill me because my teammates closed in and he was forced to retreat. Finally, he was caught in the corner and finished off.

After the gallery’s choice round, there was a break for lunch. The feast steward provided an excellent meal with pastries of cheese, chicken, or beef. They were accompanied by all manners of fresh fruits, as well as the most adorable looking hard boiled egg mousies. Mini quiches, olives, fresh rosemary bread, cheese dip, and a rich balaklava rounded out the splendid meal. When we had eaten our fill, we were greeted by the sweet smell of apples and cinnamon as fresh fritters were delivered to the feast area to end the meal. Truly they had outdone themselves.

With our spirits lifted with good food, the time had come to armour up and finish the day's events. The barrier was erected one final time and the teams divvied up: venans to one side, tenans to the other. THL

Robert was forced to leave the field as he was very tired from the morning's exertions. This left the tenans down by one fighter. After some discussion as to how to handle the disparity, it was decided that the tenans preferred to fight at the disadvantage. From the moment lay-on was called, the tenans were in a bad position the venans took no mercy on them cutting them down swiftly before they could regroup and form a plan of attack. It wasn’t until Lord Kenric came in sword swinging and single-handedly eliminated all three of the venans that the momentum was halted. This push lasted only a small while until the disparity overtook the tenans again. At this point it was decided it would be more fun for the fight to continue with fighters taking which ever side of the barrier needed a fighter. This lasted until there were no fighters remaining that could continue. The last two standing were Lord Kenric and Vikarr.

Thus ended the festivities of the 6th Pas D’Armes. Feast was about to begin and so the ceremony in which the gallery chooses their favourites began. Their third favourite fighter was Lord Kenric, praised for his speed and good sportsmanship. Their second favourite fighter was Lord William, praised for his good heart and

willingness to take part in any challenge. The crowd favourite for the day was Vikarr, he was praised for his joyous nature and his endurance. Every fighter that participated was given gifts showing the thanks of the gallery for the entertainment.

This was an amazingly good event. The fighting was entertaining, the challenges presented by the gallery gave us pause for thought and were a breath of fresh air when compared to more standard lysts. Above all of this was the amazing atmosphere and site that was provided by our hosts. A slew of thanks to our wonderful neighbors Sangre del Sol, I will be counting down the days until next year.

As a side note, this event also was the first event for some people very close to me. Grimauld, my friend of nearly two decades, was kind enough to make himself my herald for the event. He did a great job of introducing me and making sure that things were being filmed. My brother and his girlfriend also came out to watch the festivities. All three were made to feel welcome, and had a great time. Thank you guys for coming, and thank you to our hosts for proving me right that this a great group and a great hobby.

Photos by: Mildryth Eilesberie