What is the SCA? I almost like to call it a
club. A Medieval club. It's a club that gets together once a week to hold
regular meetings and conducts regular group business.
But really, it's more than that. You might also consider it to be a living
historical society. That's really a lot closer. But, I think of it as even more
than that. We are not just portraying history like some museum staff who is
dressing the part, talking the talk, and acting out the activities that the
actual time period would have been participating in.
I consider the SCA to be a more encompassing society. After all, it's a part of
the very name itself: the Society for Creative Anachronism. This society
focuses a lot of time and effort on research and re-creation, of course. Many
people refer to the SCA as a game we play, when participating in SCA
activities. It's because we set time aside for events where we completely
immerse ourselves in the lifestyle. The Creative part comes in from how
we weave the past into the present. That's what puts the Anachronism in the
society: it's a time that's out of place, because we completely insert the best
parts of the past right here into modern times! ;)
The Royalty among our ranks hold court sessions at our events where folks are
acknowledged with awards and recognition for their contributions to the
society. Classes are taught on a variety of topics, and battle tournaments are
held where fighters fight in medieval fashion both for recreation and to fight
for the Crown position. A feast fashioned after what any one of the many
medieval era localities would have presented are enjoyed at the end of the
events. All of this takes place while wearing period-specific attire, of
course, including the battle gear on the fighting fields.
But don't fear: the battle is safe. You won't see the heavy fighters wielding
real metal swords at you! We aim to re-create the battle, but not the actual
slaying of opponents. Rattan wood is used instead so that fighters can still
land what would have been the killing blow without yielding the same results!
Rapier fighters use safety guards on the end of their pointed weapons to
prevent running their opponents through. And thrown weapon and archer
participants only launch their projectiles at still targets. Of course,
everyone wears proper protection while doing these things. Fighters must also be
inspected and qualified before they can fight.
During Wars, archers actually do get the capability of assailing the opposing
side with arrows, but they are designed once again for safety. We'd like to
keep each other around to have fun with again later, after all! Yes,
that's right: we also re-enact battles. You may have previously seen or heard
of civil war re-enactors. This is somewhat similar, but of course instead is
medieval war. We do not aim to duplicate wars of the past, per say, but rather instead,
to re-create the style and maneuvers that would have been used.
But it's not all about fighting, even if that is a big area of interest,
particularly to, but not exclusively to, the guys! There are as many activities
to get into as you could find the time to participate in. You can learn about
ways to make things and do all sorts of interesting things by attending classes
or from talking to members of such groups (guilds), or perhaps from the
internet. (One excellent source of topics is Stefan's
Florilegium where emails about many things are archived.) http://www.florilegium.org/
One of the other ways we live the history is by creating a Persona to "play"
as. Some people prefer to keep this at a very simple level, while others delve
into it far deeper. It's up to each individual how they choose to go about it,
of course. The main thing that is required is to dress appropriately for
events, always making an attempt to wear medieval clothing and not mundane.
When at large events like wars you may find more specific rules in areas such
as campgrounds who will only place true period (in appearance) tents around the
front instead of "mundane" ones which are hidden in the middle.
One of the fun parts of persona in the SCA is heraldry. Each person is
encouraged to come up with a medieval name and device which is used to identify
themself throughout the society. A person might decide to model some or all of their
medieval attire and/or hobbies based on when the persona they've created would
actually have existed in time. For example, "what would this woman of
early Welsh origin have done in her life? What crafts can I do that would be
things maybe she would have done? What clothing would she have worn?"
Those are a few things I might look at when going this route. Or, I might just
decide to study whatever interests me right now, not necessarily creating a
full persona to follow, only using the name. It's really up to you how you
"play" the "game" and whatever you find appealing. But I
will say that it's highly encouraged to at least come up with a
"period" name to go by. If you don't, you might find yourself tagged
with a funny name based on some wacky event that occurs! ;)
Of course it is not ever required to pay in order to participate with the SCA;
coming to meetings and fighter practices is free of cost. There are costs for
each event (the calendar for each Kingdom's events can be found on each
Kingdom's website -- such as Meridies, right here http://www.meridies.org ). There is an annual membership fee which may be
registered in order to receive reduced cost to events and to participate in a
few additional things. But spectators are always welcome, of course! In fact we
frequently provide Demonstrations to share our interests with others who might
find participation to be of interest as well.
Because the SCA has become so large, it is broken down into regions. Please click here for an excellent Known World map! You can see that the SCA is world-wide.
This, for example, is a map of my kingdom, broken down into the various Shires and Baronies and such located within this Kingdom. But you can find your local group here.
This is a rendition of that Meridies kingdom map that I overlaid with the symbol for each group, based on an existing map:
This is a brief summary of what the SCA is all about, from my perspective! It's only very brief. There is so much more in-depth about each area, but this is a broad overview.
~Aranwen Ridhelic, Chatelaine for the Barony of
Iron Mountain
(Called Aranwen of Willow Ford)
A Welsh woman
from around 1200....
