Pics from Clinton '99 I took 10 disks worth of pics and MPGs. Of course I'm not putting them all up, here. Check the Lost Vikings web page (it's linked from my main index, if you don't already have it bookmarked) for more coverage of the Clinton War (Iodi will have all my disks to select her pics from, soon.) For those of you who don't know, Clinton War is an SCA event (SCA being the Society for Creative Anachronism. But if you don't know that, why are you on my web site?) This year it attracted around 2000 people, out of which some 300 fought in the actual "war". The rest of the people came to soak up atmosphere, cheer on their comrades, hang out with friends, sell medievil stuff, buy medievil stuff (mmmm.. swords.. knotwork blankets.. silver pendants... cloaks... tunics... ale...), and generally enjoy themselves for a weekend while dressed up like people out of the middle ages. The war is between Lion's Gate (Vancouver) and RamsGuard (Kamloops), and people from other cities can come and be mercenaries. We sided with RamsGuard because they were the underdogs. We won. Anyways, we had lots of fun, and have the battle scars to prove it. Oh, and pics too. Right. Which brings me to the burble about the pics: silvertalons.jpg Our Household in the SCA is called the Silver Talons. We're primarily a household of fighters (meaning we actually go fight in wars, instead of just watching from the sidelines and cheering). Most of us fight with Bow & Arrows, but Hengist (aka Cas) and Iolar (aka Shades) fight with Sword & Shield. Their job (most of the time) is to protect the rest of us, so we can peg off the enemy from afar. In the pic are: Lady Bethany (aka Foxxglove) in green (which you can barely see because of the red & black cloak over top), me in dark blue, Bregon in tan, Fox (aka Fox) in red, Brother Hamish in brown, Hengist in olive (which you can't see 'cuz he's hiding behind a shield. But he's the shield on the left) and Iolar in grey and green (the hiding behind the shield on the right). Some of us are wearing feons (red arrows) on our armor to identify us as Lights. What are Lights? read on.. lights.jpg In the SCA, "Lights" are people who are lightly armored (as opposed to the heavily armored "Heavies". Lights use projectile weapons (arrows, javelins, throwing axes, etc) while heavies actually hit eachother with hand-held blunt instruments... repeatedly. Heavies are only allowed to hit eachother. When they encounter an enemy Light, they point their weapons and say "Light, You're Dead!" (Usually with some degree of enthusiasm). Lights, however, get to shoot anyone, whether they are Heavies or Lights. That's why Lights need at least a little armor - they do get hit by incoming projectiles. And, occasionally, by incoming Heavies. Some people just don't watch who they're mowing down in the heat of battle. This pic is of several Lights on our side of the battle. I'm in it, wearing dark blue. Brother Hamish is the guy in brown (in the background) readying an arrow. Bethany, in green, looks like she's just fired one. Various other people (including Valeria and Trifina) are in the pic, too. If you know them, you can pick them out yourself. ourgroup.jpg Our household provides Light support to a large household of heavy fighters, called the Lost Vikings (see the note (in the intro) about their webpage, if you want more info on them.) The Vikings are a pretty impressive group in the SCA. They aren't the sort of people you want to be on the opposite side of a battle field from. So, we like to side with them. And besides, they're family (well, to some of us). The Clansmen also like to side with the Vikings (the Clansmen are Teg & Rhys and friends, for those who know them. They have celtic knotwork dogs on their green shields). So, this Clinton war, we got together the three households and made a very impressive fighting group. Our group, in fact, managed to capture the Baroness of one of the other Baronies. She was a real sweetheart about posing for this "Victory Photo". (Yeah, she's the one up front with a sword near her throat) battle.jpg Since many of you haven't seen an SCA battle in progress, I thought I'd toss this pic in, too. (And besides, its a pretty decent pic). We're busy seiging a castle (to the right), and tryingto stay out of the way of incoming missile fire (yes, those are arrows streaking through the air above our heads). Most of the heavies are already at the castle walls, crouched down low so they won't be hit by misslie fire from within, or by the Heavies just on the other side of the castle wall. Some of the heavies, though, are further off on the left, waiting to get closer to the castle when they're needed. (I believe they ended up escorting a bit of seige equipment (portable steps) to the castle a little later on.) In the middle of this all is Iolar (aka Shades, aka James) who is obviously in a hurry to get from one place to another (woohoo! Nice action-shot, Fox!). I have no clue where he's going, though. I was hiding just off to the left and trying to peg off a few enemy lights inside the castle. Oooh, that was fun. I want to do it again.