thegirlsclub

[Isabella E]

I am posting this in response to Tibbie from this thread:

[Tibbie Croser]

Thanks for replying, Isabella. I'm glad to hear that the Aten chivalry train women as seriously as they do men. Glad to hear that Aten also has female knights. In Atenveldt, are warfighting and tournaments considered equally prestigious (since you said that most of the female fighters you know fight mainly at wars)?

I was curious about your statements in the other thread because Jess (in the Midrealm) and Cunian (in Atlantia) have brought up the issue of women having to work very hard to consistently keep up with increasing calibration standards.

[Marithim]

From what I have seen in my brief time fighting in the West sounds similar to what Isabella was saying. Women can and do fight, although I am unsure about total numbers... I have only been in two areas since I started, but I have seen women on the field. And we have Sir Mari going around and doing Knights Errant too.

Only a few times have men taken me aside and said things about my size (I'm not that small, 5'7) saying that I was too small to really do well in the long term, so I should do a two handed pole weapon because I don't have the strength to do greatsword or sword and board correctly. Of course now I have been told repeatedly that I throw plenty hard. And the West isn't really a crazy calibration kingdom in my opinion. It's not light, but it's not usually calibrated so that a shot has to actually dent your helm or armor to be taken. But that's just my experience in Tarnmist and the Mists.

[Slaine]

Calontir's fighting theme is the all about the army and no heroes. There are plenty of women fighters including Sir Ariel. I just counted 5 women in our GoA fighting order. There's tons in the AoA order. I'm not sure where we sit on the calibration spectrum. I suspect somewhere in the middle because that's what being in the heartland is all about.

The just folks midwestern attitude seems pretty good about accepting anyone willing to pull their weight. I've seen people of a diminutive size discouraged from being on the shieldwall in specific scenarios at foreign wars but its done with apologies and finding something else useful for them to do that day.

[Isabella E]

I'm not really sure about the tourney vs war prestige factor. Since I am just stepping out of my mentality as a war fighter into single combat I will have to post an assessment at a later date when I'm more involved in that.

Culturally though Atenveldt is a Kingdom of heroes. I think it comes from the fact that as an old Kingdom, we have a lot of big name players from way back when who are known across Kingdom boundries. Individual prowess isn't scorned here and we often don't fight at wars like Calontir as an army all the same but rather many units and households. Our Kingdom actually has awards for fighting units and households even, so individual merit even at a group level is rewarded. As a result, many of our units are highly specialized and are used for their different strengths and weaknesses.

I think it's important to point out that the western Kingdoms from my knowledge just seem to function differently as war Kingdoms because our wars are not like Pennsic.

Like I said, since I'm new to fighting tourney style, I can't really speak as to the calibration issue and instruction for women specifically. But I think a lot of that would depend on where you're training and who with. I would imagine most of the good fighters that train regularly at the big practices would take any new fighter aside like they did with me and watch how the fighter incorporates their whole body into the shot. I even mentioned I had a hard time throwing with enough power when beginning in an offside position and one of the guys who was showing me some stuff helped me straighten it out.
_________________
It's not the most powerful animal that survives. It's the most efficient. -Georges St-Pierre
http://windyvalleybanners.blogspot.com/

[audax]

There are several female Centurions in Ansteorra. We've had a Queen by Right of Arms and a couple of female knights. Some are big, some are small. All hit hard and take themselves seriously as fighters. To me, this is the difference.

I'll probably at least be made a Centurion at some point. Knighthood is not out of my reach, power-wise. I intend to be Queen by Right of Arms at least once in my career. My main hindrance is eventing: I don't get to play as much as I'd prefer or need to. C'est la vie.
_________________
Martel le Hardi
squire to Meser Lyonel Oliver Grace, fostered to Sir Gaston de Clermont
-------------------------------------------------------

The Minstrel's Champion

[Dorothea]

In large, Drachenwald is "divided" into four different main areas: Frankmark (mainly Germany, but some other countries are more or less represented too), Nordmark (Sweden), Aarnimetsa (Finland) and Insulae Draconis (England, ireland, Iceland). The culture can be quite different in these areas, but most of the fighter community know and know of each other (and know of their differences, which is even more important)

The largest "community" is based in Sweden, I would say. I think Sweden might have up to 50% of all the active fighters. Sweden also have the largest % of the active knights. We don't have all that many knights in Drachenwald altogether - perhaps 35-40 all in all (imagine that on that amount of area). Of these perhaps 10 are fairly active, and another 10- 15 or so are active intermittent meaning one or two events per year perhaps. There are areas where there are no knights at all.

In general, we don't have many beginners, so the fighter base is are very mid-level heavy. In the last year however, I have seen a slight increase in new people which is awesome! Most people do both tourneys and war and we have a couple of very strong units that trained together for years - among them the Landsknecht unit that I am proud to be part of. (We've formed the core of the Drachenwald army at Pennsic, so you might have seen us there?)

We have a fair amount of female fighters, over 10% I would say. In my experience, no female fighter is treated any different from any guy in practice or on the field. It tend to be emphasize on community rather than competition which I personally find is a great "breeding ground" for all fighters - female and males. Some of us have of course aspiration for greater glory and whathaveyou, but most doesn't. That means that a lot of people don't have any interest for competing in Crown or coronet even if they would be more than capable of it.

I have been to Pennsic many times, and also Estrella, and can say from my experiences that the average Drachewald fighter can hold their ground very well both on the tourney field and in war. We might be "isolated" from the rest of the known world, and many of us are isolated also from eachother due to vast distances, but we have learned to capitalize on any influx we can - from people who travel, and from people who come over to teach so we are getting by.
_________________
Dorothea Weberin, KSCA
Dun in Mara, Insulae Draconis, Drachenwald