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By Mark D, October 6, 2012 2:12 am

The Masquerade Ball in 2006, a Markland Event run by the Order of the Lost Boys

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By Mark D, July 31, 2012 7:37 pm

[This is for a friend of mine, I believe this is a press release he put out that I'm reposting. If it's an actual news story from somewhere, my apologies.]

Eagle Scout Sean Vannoy of troop 1 Sellersville is an Aspirant, Registered member of team USA battle of the nations over the next few months Sean will travel the country competing for one of 42 spots on the team of Americans that will travel to Europe in the spring. Members of the team are only allowed to wear the eagle of America once they have been to an international competition as part team USA.

European nations have centuries of glorious medieval history in which their best armoured Knights raised their swords to take the field of combat against those from other nations in noble tournaments for the honor of their homeland – but as a younger country, the United States lacks the history for such a tradition of glorious armoured tournament.

The time has finally come for the USA to have its chance to rewrite history and take its rightful place amid the tales of armoured national warriors earning great victories against competing Knights from foreign lands.
A national team from the United States will join national teams comprising the most professional and experienced medieval swordfighters from across Europe in a full-contact contest of arms, just like the Knights of old. Teams from the Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Quebec, Germany, Italy, and the United States will engage in single combat, small unit engagements, and mass combat to determine which nation will prove victorious at the end of nearly a week of competition.

Combining the patriotism and team spirit generated by the Olympics and World Cup, with the full-contact excitement of Ultimate Fighting and MMA – all while wrapped in the romance and drama of Renaissance Faires and Medieval Times, the Batle of the Nations matches top competitors from national teams across the globe competing against each other in all-out Chivalric combat in authentic full medieval armour. Steel swords clash against wooden shields. Giant poleaxes crash down upon metal helms. Victorious national teams celebrate hard-won victories against those they just vanquished on the field of battle.

Even as they fiercely compete on the field of battle, the national teams come together as brothers-in-arms off the field – engaging in a range of medieval cultural activities, arts, and crafts as they live and work together in an authentic re-enactment of a medieval festival.

The newly-formed TeamUSA comprises over thirty of the most renowned swordfighters from decades of competition across the United States, all of whom will take the field to fight for the American glory and honor.

Experiencing exponentially growing interest throughout Eastern and Western Europe, including a new television series airing on Russian television, the Battle of the Nations sits at the cusp of consumer interest in national sports teams, full-contact “mixed” martial arts, and the dramatic rise in interest in medieval re-enactment as evidenced by the spate of recent and forthcoming major motion pictures.

TeamUSA is actively seeking sponsors and media partners to help make their quest to cross the Atlantic and represented the United States at the Battle of the Nations a reality – and to bring this uniquely educational and entertaining sporting event to the North American audience.

To help Sean Vannoy with travel expenses go to http://igg.me/p/166341?a=842712 or for more information about the team, sponsorship and media opportunities, and how to make a donation to make TeamUSA’s involvement possible is available at www.USAknights.org.

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By Mark D, May 11, 2011 1:28 am

TNA was fun. My new and improved Axe is even more deadly then before. Its
faster and thus I’m faster. For the war part of it I ended up barking out
a lot of orders and got a big helping hand from Gerade. We really kicked
some ass for most of the day. I did re-learn a lesson I learn every start
of the season. I HATE our archers. They know enough to kill me because I
wear no plate and I’m usually out in the open. Plus I’ve learned that when
our archers aren’t aiming at their targets they are most likely aiming at
their target.

Hurrah for Brahm for hiding my Jack Daniels that I worked really hard to
get for free. The one ranger was fine, the other one was a pain in the
ass Super Cop Rookie. God Dam Bright Highlighter Orange MadDog.
Of course they saw that stuff when you hide it with your foot. The only
real problem I had was that my pinky toenail is curved upwards, and
towards the end of the fighting I managed to drive the steel toe down
into the toenail which went into my toe and made it tough for me to walk.

Right now I feel like I am living just for the weekends, just for war. I
really feel alive when I’m fighting, when violence is being feed to me. I
want to fight as much as possible. I want to bring vengeance and wrath
upon my enemies, no matter who they are on the field. I am fighting for
the pure adrenalin from battle to battle. To know you can defeat your
enemies no matter who they are is the greatest feeling in the world.

Plus let me just say I got a great response from Blackcross about my Rise
and Fall story. That story was definitely inspired by his stories at last
years Masquerade Ball, so to get a response from him was great.

I’ve got something pissing me off really badly. I won’t definitely know
anything about it till after this weekend. I’m usually the last one to
catch on to some of the politics going on around me, and this seems to be
one of those times. Thankfully its got to know the lay of the law and to
have connections in all the right places. Those people have definitely
offered me a hand already. I’ll probably know more after this weekend. I
just can’t really say anything on this forum of speech. This is almost
like Reality TV. Is reality TV really reality once you introduce Cameras
to people. People naturally act and react differently when they do not
know they are being watched. Interesting thing to think about for this
Journal.

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By Mark D, April 15, 2011 6:08 am

Although this isn’t just limited to sword battles, it’s just about any non-gunpowder battle in Hollywood films. The problem is when you’ve seen real-ish combat, you understand that all combat basically breaks down to the same idea. It’s all Action Vs Re-Action. Unless you have super human reflexes, it’s almost impossible to parry. Most of the time you want to swing to kill with your first swing, not aim to parry anyway. Parrying will only save you for a short period of time, and is useless unless whoever your against does something to blatantly telegraph a move which will  leave him off balance.

You can see this in a one on one match between the two best fighters I know:

They obviously know each other too, but you can see what I’m saying. A battle is going to be an action and a re-action. if the action strikes, there is no re-action. If the action misses, the re-action should win. It is extremely rare you see long dragged out duels like you see in Hollywood. Sometimes you might see that between two pole arms, but that is mostly due to the length of the weapon allowing blocks to cover more of the body.

But for the most part you rarely see pole arms in Hollywood combat. As great a warrior as Gimli is, he would be at an extreme disadvantage against a 6 foot tall opponent with a 6 foot pole arm. I have fought people who had an obvious reach disadvantage, and had no problem dispatching them. Only the very best can make up anything more then a few inches in reach differential. But you will once again almost never see reach given any sort of importance, other then the Braveheart scene with the Spears and the horseman.

If you can act first, you will most likely win a fight. So if someone comes into your reach without you being in their reach, you’ll probably win. It kind of sucks though that this is almost always ignored. To me there is more to a fight then swinging the swords. There’s a certain psychology when two fighters are staring each other down. Who will move first? Does the fighter want to act or re-act? The closest you ever get to this is the end of Kill Bill Volume 1, but even that has too much parrying.

Battles can be a thing of beauty, even without a bunch of parrying back and forth because you somehow have to shoehorn a conversation into a fight. For that matter the lack of Pole arms tends to get on my nerves too. The Billhook was one of the most popular weapons of the period for foot soldiers because of it’s multiple uses. Most of them came with a thrusting tip, they would have a back blade for cleaving, and if the hook didn’t puncture the armor like an axe, it tended to hook between armor plates and you could drag horsemen to the ground.

Swords are overrated as weapons, especially Florentine (two swords) style. Unless you were fighting with a Sword and Shield you were a dead man walking with just a sword or two swords. For example you commonly see someone crossing their swords to block/catch a blade. This is actually the worst thing possible to do. You need to use one hand as an offensive sword and one as a defensive sword. If you are blocking one attack with both blades, you are unable to take advantage of the block. Which once again everything goes back to act and re-act. If you can’t immediately take advantage of the situation or opponents mistakes then  your just asking for your mistakes to be taken advantage of.

There’s a reason I don’t work in Hollywood, because I probably wouldn’t make a penny and my film would be a mish mash of everything. It wouldn’t make a lick of sense, and at some point I would probably cause it to make even less sense. But if I did have the money to produce a film, I’d probably get the rights to the Prophet Series by Duetscher and make an epic out of the Life of Trotsky, but that’s a story for another day.

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By Mark D, January 30, 2011 8:57 pm

This is a story I wrote a few years ago based on two different crown wars (our major event of the year, the winner is King/Queen) and the reign of someone I knew. No one would probably get most of it without knowing the people involved, but I’ve always gotten a lot of compliments on it so I figured I’d save it for prosperity.

The Rise and Fall of King Thomas The Tall
This tale begins In the kingdom of Markland
On her throne was a Viking Lord Who ruled with an iron fist
He sent his people to die in distant lands
With his many alliances
That of the Black and White And of the Southern Alliance
No one dared to stand up to him
For they all remembered The Day the Abbot Died
Yet one day A lowly peasant raised his voice
And so did Thomas Messanger Challenged for the throne
People laughed and mocked the lowly peasant
But unknown to them He had collected a group of rich nobles
Of highly skilled artisans And the greatest of chefs
The goods he offered could not be countered
Slowly the old alliances snapped
And a new army rose up against the Viking
The day of the battle was quick
Outnumbered the loyalists fought bravely
They died quickly once the castle was pried open
With the flesh and blood of the Rebel Army
And so King Thomas the Tall was crowned
A great feast was held The celebrations went on and on
Throughout the whole kingdom
And yet the seeds were being sowed For a new rebellion
The many rats who jumped the sinking viking ship Suddenly made themselves known to the people
Men in black and white and blue and white
Spread rumors among the peasents
They told them that King Thomas was to blame
For the sudden droughts rocking the land
For the disappearances of peasant women
For anything despicable
During this time King Thomas carried on
The celebration never seemed to stop
What was going on outside never reached him
For there were many rats around him
Keeping him uninformed
They wished only for their “True” king back One day
King Thomas awoke to find his halls empty
His treasury had been emptied during the night
As he looked over the walls he saw A grand army of Rebels
Who only a fortnight before Had been enjoying the celebration
They had found a rallying force
The former crowned prince had survived
And Sir Kenneth of Brunswick was ready
Behind his walls only a few men stood ready
The most loyal of his personal guard
And a group of men in Black and Gold
Renowned for being the toughest
Most expensive mercenaries
They knew his coffers were empty
So they offered him a deal
Let us defeat this peasant scum
Growled their leader
And we shall put them all to the torch
Then you will have your throne
We will have whatever we want
King Thomas With no gold to pay them Happily took up their offer
So they charged out to break out of the siege
After two short intense battles
The loyalists were beaten back
Not without taking out large amounts of the rebels
The rebels charged and charged the castle
The loyalists fought like cornered animals
Bodies upon bodies of the rebels
Nearly blocked the entrance to the castle off
The arrows falling upon the armor Of the loyalists sounded like rain
After the last great thrust of the rebels Was fought off and countered
The rebels retreated up a hill To recover from their losses
King Thomas and his general decided To press on with everything they had left
They marched up the hill
Taking an unending rain of fire From the rebel archers
Yet the rebels Shaken from the previous battle
Retreated down the backside of the hill
King Thomas had the top of the hill fortified
Exhausted and outnumbered his men waited
For the final fight to sweep them to victory
Or to leave them lifeless on the field
Soon the rebels began their march
The rebels were ten men deep by five wide
The loyalists could barely cover the hilltop passage
As the rebels marched uphill
A yell pierced the din of the arrows
CHARGE!!!
Upon that call the loyalists charged downhill
A look of fear overtook the rebels
After two or three giant leaps
The loyalists met the rebels head on
The great crash of weapons
And a tidal wave of human flesh
In a great instant Three lines of human beings
Disappeared to the dustbin of history
Yet it was not enough
Outnumbered the last of the Kings men
Fought heroically against all odds
They fought after losing arms and legs
Swarms of rebels overran the last of the loyalists
Until all that was left
Was King Thomas the Tall
Fighting off seven men with
All the ferocity within his massive frame
From behind him came the final blow
A knife into his back
Left him thrashing all the way to the ground
Taking two or three men with him
As for your author
Who had fought on the loyalist side
I managed to survive cowering beneath a german shield
Whose only inscription
Was the word Betsy
And so King Kenneth was crowned
He gave an honorable funreal that night
To all who fought alongside Thomas The Tall