Drachenfest 2014
Aug. 26th, 2014 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzFor the second time on the road with Aurum to Drachenfest and this time a little more sensibly packed. The Ikea Samla boxes (moving box volume) provide a sturdy base for all the other shit we drag along, and five of those fit perfectly in my car as a bottom layer.
The drive was nice, with Eisirt driving half and me driving half, but when we arrived on the terrain I was immediately disgruntled as nobody knew where we could go. You leave the road to get onto the field and right away everyone is "you can't be here" and "I don't know where you can go, but you can't go this way."
Building up our camp was a smooth exercise this fourth year running, and boy, what a great group of people we are. The cars arrived one at a time, so every time people jumped up and started unloading a car while the people arriving drank water and put on sunscreen. Tents were nearly flying up as they were being pitched because everyone was just that motivated.
Two people made our kitchen ready and by the time it was five-thirty it was ready for my cooking duty. I had brought 2 kilo of Ikea Köttbullar to heat up and cauliflower to cook, so our first dinner was ready in a jiffy.
Tuesday
On Tuesday the camp was ready and running smoothly, but this is our crafts-day... the only day we get to relax before the game kicks off. I still had some minor sewing to do, as both![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mrtimmey and myself had new formal dress uniforms and we needed a place to pin our medals. (My character has received some for missions done on Omen, and we'd be handing out a couple of medals to the group as well.)
Scraps of leather were cut, "medals" (buttons, pins and assorted fun-looking metal bangles) were sewn to them and letters were written. I couldn't wait to get it all done and over with. It was the final Thing To Do before my holiday would start and I just couldn't wait. And then everything just takes too long, or seems to.
We also met up with Gílthir this day. He had been asked to leave the group last year with the suggestion if he knew how to run a group so well, he might as well form his own group.
Which is exactly what he did. We were surprised to see him at the Drachenfest, because we hadn't heard a whisper of them coming (his wife and another friend joined him). Furthermore, he explained he was still playing Gílthir, that they wouldn't return next year but the year afther that with a new group. They would lay the groundworks for that group, the Lonato, so that they would be welcomed back in 2016.
Fine. Let's agree to be cordial to one another, and have fun. We're not here to spoil your holiday and you're not here to spoil ours. The Drachenfest is large enough to be able to avoid one another.
In the evening we called everyone together IT, most already wearing parts of their costume and both Tegingûr and myself in full formal dress uniform. We handed out the medals: a "burned leaf" for those elves who were serving in the army at the time of the latest undead war, and the "sun of adare" for those who were on mission to Adare with the Anarquendor to strengthen the bond with the Adarans.
Shortly after this ceremony we were surprised and shocked to find a severed elven head was thrown into our encampment. The head was scalped (and someone went to great trouble to make this prop in the first place). We tried to pursue the culprits, but they were still half in OT clothes and Gûrron was a little confused if he needed to stop them. He had just come out of the light and it was very dark, so his confusion was to be understood.
It also provided us with a cold and chilling welcome to the game. My initial reaction was "not this again", but it provided an excellent excuse to go to the larger groups that we know are on our side to warn them. Promises of allegiance were renewed instantly, everyone was outraged and as far as diplomatic outreach goes, we couldn't have come up with a better ploy ourselves. Everyone was instantly on our side.
Wednesday
Wednesdaymorning the standard Toransprache and SL-talk, followed by the election of the councils. We had brought the head in a bag, and confronted the Avatar as soon as the official part was over. "Your camp is still as divided as ever."
She promised justice if we could find the culprits and promised we could decide what was to be done with them. We would have little chance to ever find them, with only Gûrron seeing a face and that only right after he had come from the light into the darkness.
There was some rain, but the weather was cool and dry by the time we enrolled for an archery course. The student of the best field-archer of Germany would give the workshop and we were very enthusiastic about it. Every one of the more experienced archers from our group signed up for it, which is a testament to the level of instruction we were expecting.
There was a lot of instruction on how to check arrows, which we applaud, but the instructor had no idea on how to check wooden arrows and mostly focused on IDV arrows -- which are most commonly used in Germany. After nearly an hour of theory on bows, arrows etc. we finally moved to the nearby field for some practical instruction. The group was split in two, and the more experienced archers went to find their bow's null-point. I was pleased to see all of our Anarquendor stood further back than the rest, indicating strong bows with a good transition of power onto the arrows.
And most of us shoot wooden Valyar/Forgotten Archery arrows.
Yava'in and Sylvitharion had prepared a totem ritual for several of our friends from the Green camp, and an hour before nightfall this ritual took place. Karthan, Limetion, Cahtros and Liri would all receive a totem. There were benches for the guests, including several of Karthan's ork friends and the prince of Elysien.
Thursday
We had the gate duty from 8 to 10 am, which overlapped the moment the first battles could be fought. As of 9 am on Thursday the armies are allowed to try and conquer the gate of another camp and capture their banner. We sent the Calennar, who had the gate duty before us, to have pancakes for breakfast in our encampment.
Gate duty is like the comic relief in our week of military duty. People without a shirt are heckled (in Dutch, usually) and everyone is searched to see if they're a spy. Not really a danger this early on in the week and the game, but still. You might as well set a good example. Our duty was uneventful, but cheerful. No armies tried to invade.
We got word later in the day (I believe this was on Thursday) that Gílthir was at the gate and wanted to talk to Tegingûr. Since Tegingûr was unavailable and I was dressed in my armour, I went up to the gate. However, Gílthir refused to talk to me at all, and waited for Tegingûr.
It was a slap in the face for me, because it really made me feel like I didn't matter. I really had nothing to say to Gílthir IT, except for "congratulations on your promotion" (since he was in charge of the Anarquendor in the Endslacht last year, we wrote him out of the group IT that he was promoted to select his own unit. Which is exactly how he spun it for himself by coming back to the Drachenfest as Gílthir with Ivrellith and another elf we didn't know). You can't force someone to be cordial or talk to you when he doesn't want to, so he just stood around trying to ignore me as we waited for Tegingûr.
When he arrived, Gílthir said he wanted to speak to Tegingûr alone, despite Tegingûr insisting that he could speak while I was present. I was quite finished with the whole thing, so I went back to our tents.
As it turns out, Gílthir had been known to be "the Anarquendor from Grey" and got access to our camp this way. We had told the Torwache (gate guards) that there were no Anarquendor in Grey and that anyone claiming they were Anarquendor (i.e. Gílthir and the other two) were not. The Torwache had insisted they leave their weapons behind and Gílthir took offense.
This was a whole hot mess I didn't even want to go near to, since I was there trying to have a good time, but it was clear our "don't bother us, we won't bother you" strategy wouldn't work if Gílthir would be the diplomat for Grey and would use his connections to the Green camp to his advantage.
There were several battles that day, and the Green camp captured the banner of Copper quite quickly and we escorted the banner back to our camp quite effectively, despite being attacked by a portion of the red army on the way back to our camp. I'm not very interested in the game the dragons play, but most people from the Green camp were very enthusiastic to capture banners and our strategy this year was to win hearts and minds by assisting the others from our camp, so capturing banners is what we did. Our diplomat had less luck, she tried forging alliances with the other camps, but heard that every camp was going for the victory, making it very hard to have friends. The fact that Green was 1200 souls strong didn't help our situation. Everyone viewed us as the big mean dog, while in truth we had just as many dedicated fighters as the other camps, and the rest of that number were gardeners and families having a holiday.
That night we were also invited to share the Torwache with Elysien and the MacMahoons. Two groups we haven't had any (good) relations with in previous years, but were slowly starting to warm up to us and get interested in us. Elysien insisted on a perimeter. MacMahoons took the high ground to the right of the gate, and several Anarquendor took the left flank. Elysien took the center. We spread out and everyone trying to get to our gate were interrogated. We sent several people with no business in our camp back and killed a couple of spies. In between our work, I got to know the Prince of Elysien a little better. He was very eager to start diplomatic relations and this was the start of our working side by side. It was a very enjoyable watch, although we went to bed on time.
Friday
On Friday we heard there was an egg to be captured and the Anarquendor signed up to help transport it with the help of the drachenlade (a special chest to transport the eggs with). We marched up the field all the way to the mouth of the Limbus, next to which was a temple of Forbidden Knowledge. The egg was inscribed with some forbidden knowledge and could not be moved until the knowledge was wiped from it. The whole thing reeked of necromancy and high-elf politics, and Indilwen suspected a ritual was needed to transfer the writing from the egg onto something else before we could move the egg. She was not confident enough to do a ritual on the fly, so we decided to mull things over and return with the empty drachenlade.
The problem with this was that we were a tiny group and that moving on the field with a drachenlade that might or might not hold an egg is an invitation to be being attacked. Normally we would probably be able to sneak past the other camps but our scouts reported there were several opposing armies on the field and there was no way we could sneak past them. Instead, we first moved to the Dorf der Stämme to hide out. When the armies started returning to their own camps, we started to go towards the Green camp and we were able to return safely without anyone being attacked or killed.
When next the Green army went out to capture the banner, the Anarquendor held the gate. Nobody was allowed in our out while our army was on the field. Any troops still inside the camp would be our reserve force, should another camp want to conquer our banners while the army was out. Needless to say, this earned us disgruntled looks from those wanting to join in the fun on the field.
That evening, the Hairulf held a manhood ritual, where three younglings were declared to be Men. They had captured witches and would have to kill them in a ritualised hunt. All three prevailed, and we were invited to join in the celebrations in the camp. The Hairulf men shared proud stories on how the witches were captured and strong mead was poured. We excused ourselves from the celebration because we had to do another Torwache (gate duty) with Elysien.
The Hairulf Manhood Ritual, with prisoners standing by in the background.
Saturday
Around noon the hauptmänner gathered in the command tent of King Beo, where our general G'Hkar would divulge his plans for the endslacht. Our alliance was with black and blue, and our friendship with grey and the Tribes meant that they would fight on our side as well. The heavy infantry of blue and black would be flanked by our forces, and organised groups of the Green camp were placed, at least for the start of the battle, to eihter side of this heavy infantry. When G'Hkar spoke of a reserve force, I volunteered the Anarquendor, to which the general replied "I had hoped you would."
Part of the allied enemies: Triumvirat, Copper, Silver and Red (from left to right).
When the army marched out into the field, we took up station at the top of the hill near the ritual circle, but our allies would start on the other edge of the field. As soon as the battle would start, they would have to be maneuvering to get to us, and hopefully not get squashed by the opposing army (Gold, Red, Copper, Chaos) or any un-allied forces (Triumvirat, Orks).
Luckily, they managed this quite nicely, and the battle burst quickly. The opposing army chose to hold the high ground, but that also meant they had very little room to maneuver. The Green army soon moved in, and as a result the ranks of our enemy were slowly thinning. Very soon into the battle I was suddenly alerted to a banner-bearer, standing close by and trying to get my attention. "The general has fallen. He put you in command of the army."
Er... alright. I'm a general now. Go me!
The combined army of our enemies were slowly being pushed to the edge of the field. Moving beyond a certain line on the field meant you were out of the Endslacht. It's a very sucky way to get kicked out of the battle, so as soon as the Anarquendor moved into the fray I tried to command the flanks to push while the center stayed in place, giving the enemy at least some space, or so I hoped.
Suddenly the Red Avatar came bursting through our lines. He wielded his giant sword, and the battle seemed to explode. Soldiers from my side of the front line were thrown back like puppets. As the red Avatar saw me approaching him, he grabbed the bannerman carrying his banner from behind him.
I knew exactly how horrible the situation was for him and his army. Despite trying to give them the room to fight, the situation was hopeless. Green their allies were pushing the opposing army from the field and tempers were flaring. I called out to the red Avatar. "Can we resolve the situation?" hoping to give them a chance to a fair fight.
The Red threw his banner at my feet, with a disgusted look.
I called for soldiers to escort the banner to the Ritual Circle, where defeated avatars were placed, and the last Avatar to enter the circle would be the one winning the Endslacht. Several Anarquendor called soldiers from our army to surround the Red bannerbearer and soon enough the banner was moving off to the high ground where our army started.
I called out to the Silver Avatar. "Do you wish to surrender to me, like your Red brother did?" I asked. The Silver Avatar smiled arrogantly. "You will have to conquer it."
And so we did. Soon enough the other banners were also moving towards the Ritual Circle. We were triumphant.
Grey asked for a ceremonial battle between our armies, to show they would fight for victory. The call went out through the ranks not to kill any of the grey army (not my decision, but a friendly gesture from eslewhere). The fight was short and sweet, and the Grey army also fell to our swords.
Then we could finally report to the Green Avatar the battle was won. The Blue Avatar was already moving, in such good spirits that it could be considered a jolly mood. The Black and Green sisters moved regally. At their arrival at the ritual circle, the Green Avatar turned to the Black and told her: "Alles muss enden. Here our ways part. You must go in first."
Victorious and happy: Bronad'angren, Autherdir Beriadanwen and Limethion.
After the cannon sounded, signalling the end of the Endslacht and victory for the Green and its allies, I had a little chat with the Red Avatar. At first he looked furious, but he soon came to realise I was there to say that there are those in the Green camp willing to play fair. There were yet again a lot of problems between Green and Red, pointing fingers at one another and saying the other party wasn't playing out their hits or even taking their hits. We had a constructive chat, and by now a Green-Red exchange of ideas forum has been called into being, to allow us to share ideas on how to make next year better than this year.
At the evening campfire I had a lot of fun visiting the party at Elysien, but in previous years it had been pointed out to me that I was expected at our own campfire to celebrate the DF. Sadly, Silver had claimed the victory of the event because some eggs had apparantly been overlooked (and those count in the final score). Several of the Green camp who had been working so very hard to get the victory to Green this year were very disappointed, and came to our fire to sing songs, making the atmosphere in our camp on this last night bittersweet.
-----
Pictures thanks to Lady_Nieske andmrtimmey, who bravely carried my camera into the Endslacht!
The drive was nice, with Eisirt driving half and me driving half, but when we arrived on the terrain I was immediately disgruntled as nobody knew where we could go. You leave the road to get onto the field and right away everyone is "you can't be here" and "I don't know where you can go, but you can't go this way."
Building up our camp was a smooth exercise this fourth year running, and boy, what a great group of people we are. The cars arrived one at a time, so every time people jumped up and started unloading a car while the people arriving drank water and put on sunscreen. Tents were nearly flying up as they were being pitched because everyone was just that motivated.
Two people made our kitchen ready and by the time it was five-thirty it was ready for my cooking duty. I had brought 2 kilo of Ikea Köttbullar to heat up and cauliflower to cook, so our first dinner was ready in a jiffy.
Tuesday
On Tuesday the camp was ready and running smoothly, but this is our crafts-day... the only day we get to relax before the game kicks off. I still had some minor sewing to do, as both
mrtimmey and myself had new formal dress uniforms and we needed a place to pin our medals. (My character has received some for missions done on Omen, and we'd be handing out a couple of medals to the group as well.) Scraps of leather were cut, "medals" (buttons, pins and assorted fun-looking metal bangles) were sewn to them and letters were written. I couldn't wait to get it all done and over with. It was the final Thing To Do before my holiday would start and I just couldn't wait. And then everything just takes too long, or seems to.
We also met up with Gílthir this day. He had been asked to leave the group last year with the suggestion if he knew how to run a group so well, he might as well form his own group.
Which is exactly what he did. We were surprised to see him at the Drachenfest, because we hadn't heard a whisper of them coming (his wife and another friend joined him). Furthermore, he explained he was still playing Gílthir, that they wouldn't return next year but the year afther that with a new group. They would lay the groundworks for that group, the Lonato, so that they would be welcomed back in 2016.
Fine. Let's agree to be cordial to one another, and have fun. We're not here to spoil your holiday and you're not here to spoil ours. The Drachenfest is large enough to be able to avoid one another.
In the evening we called everyone together IT, most already wearing parts of their costume and both Tegingûr and myself in full formal dress uniform. We handed out the medals: a "burned leaf" for those elves who were serving in the army at the time of the latest undead war, and the "sun of adare" for those who were on mission to Adare with the Anarquendor to strengthen the bond with the Adarans.
Shortly after this ceremony we were surprised and shocked to find a severed elven head was thrown into our encampment. The head was scalped (and someone went to great trouble to make this prop in the first place). We tried to pursue the culprits, but they were still half in OT clothes and Gûrron was a little confused if he needed to stop them. He had just come out of the light and it was very dark, so his confusion was to be understood.
It also provided us with a cold and chilling welcome to the game. My initial reaction was "not this again", but it provided an excellent excuse to go to the larger groups that we know are on our side to warn them. Promises of allegiance were renewed instantly, everyone was outraged and as far as diplomatic outreach goes, we couldn't have come up with a better ploy ourselves. Everyone was instantly on our side.
Wednesday
Wednesdaymorning the standard Toransprache and SL-talk, followed by the election of the councils. We had brought the head in a bag, and confronted the Avatar as soon as the official part was over. "Your camp is still as divided as ever."
She promised justice if we could find the culprits and promised we could decide what was to be done with them. We would have little chance to ever find them, with only Gûrron seeing a face and that only right after he had come from the light into the darkness.
There was some rain, but the weather was cool and dry by the time we enrolled for an archery course. The student of the best field-archer of Germany would give the workshop and we were very enthusiastic about it. Every one of the more experienced archers from our group signed up for it, which is a testament to the level of instruction we were expecting.
There was a lot of instruction on how to check arrows, which we applaud, but the instructor had no idea on how to check wooden arrows and mostly focused on IDV arrows -- which are most commonly used in Germany. After nearly an hour of theory on bows, arrows etc. we finally moved to the nearby field for some practical instruction. The group was split in two, and the more experienced archers went to find their bow's null-point. I was pleased to see all of our Anarquendor stood further back than the rest, indicating strong bows with a good transition of power onto the arrows.
And most of us shoot wooden Valyar/Forgotten Archery arrows.
Yava'in and Sylvitharion had prepared a totem ritual for several of our friends from the Green camp, and an hour before nightfall this ritual took place. Karthan, Limetion, Cahtros and Liri would all receive a totem. There were benches for the guests, including several of Karthan's ork friends and the prince of Elysien.
Thursday
We had the gate duty from 8 to 10 am, which overlapped the moment the first battles could be fought. As of 9 am on Thursday the armies are allowed to try and conquer the gate of another camp and capture their banner. We sent the Calennar, who had the gate duty before us, to have pancakes for breakfast in our encampment.
Gate duty is like the comic relief in our week of military duty. People without a shirt are heckled (in Dutch, usually) and everyone is searched to see if they're a spy. Not really a danger this early on in the week and the game, but still. You might as well set a good example. Our duty was uneventful, but cheerful. No armies tried to invade.
We got word later in the day (I believe this was on Thursday) that Gílthir was at the gate and wanted to talk to Tegingûr. Since Tegingûr was unavailable and I was dressed in my armour, I went up to the gate. However, Gílthir refused to talk to me at all, and waited for Tegingûr.
It was a slap in the face for me, because it really made me feel like I didn't matter. I really had nothing to say to Gílthir IT, except for "congratulations on your promotion" (since he was in charge of the Anarquendor in the Endslacht last year, we wrote him out of the group IT that he was promoted to select his own unit. Which is exactly how he spun it for himself by coming back to the Drachenfest as Gílthir with Ivrellith and another elf we didn't know). You can't force someone to be cordial or talk to you when he doesn't want to, so he just stood around trying to ignore me as we waited for Tegingûr.
When he arrived, Gílthir said he wanted to speak to Tegingûr alone, despite Tegingûr insisting that he could speak while I was present. I was quite finished with the whole thing, so I went back to our tents.
As it turns out, Gílthir had been known to be "the Anarquendor from Grey" and got access to our camp this way. We had told the Torwache (gate guards) that there were no Anarquendor in Grey and that anyone claiming they were Anarquendor (i.e. Gílthir and the other two) were not. The Torwache had insisted they leave their weapons behind and Gílthir took offense.
This was a whole hot mess I didn't even want to go near to, since I was there trying to have a good time, but it was clear our "don't bother us, we won't bother you" strategy wouldn't work if Gílthir would be the diplomat for Grey and would use his connections to the Green camp to his advantage.
There were several battles that day, and the Green camp captured the banner of Copper quite quickly and we escorted the banner back to our camp quite effectively, despite being attacked by a portion of the red army on the way back to our camp. I'm not very interested in the game the dragons play, but most people from the Green camp were very enthusiastic to capture banners and our strategy this year was to win hearts and minds by assisting the others from our camp, so capturing banners is what we did. Our diplomat had less luck, she tried forging alliances with the other camps, but heard that every camp was going for the victory, making it very hard to have friends. The fact that Green was 1200 souls strong didn't help our situation. Everyone viewed us as the big mean dog, while in truth we had just as many dedicated fighters as the other camps, and the rest of that number were gardeners and families having a holiday.
That night we were also invited to share the Torwache with Elysien and the MacMahoons. Two groups we haven't had any (good) relations with in previous years, but were slowly starting to warm up to us and get interested in us. Elysien insisted on a perimeter. MacMahoons took the high ground to the right of the gate, and several Anarquendor took the left flank. Elysien took the center. We spread out and everyone trying to get to our gate were interrogated. We sent several people with no business in our camp back and killed a couple of spies. In between our work, I got to know the Prince of Elysien a little better. He was very eager to start diplomatic relations and this was the start of our working side by side. It was a very enjoyable watch, although we went to bed on time.
Friday
On Friday we heard there was an egg to be captured and the Anarquendor signed up to help transport it with the help of the drachenlade (a special chest to transport the eggs with). We marched up the field all the way to the mouth of the Limbus, next to which was a temple of Forbidden Knowledge. The egg was inscribed with some forbidden knowledge and could not be moved until the knowledge was wiped from it. The whole thing reeked of necromancy and high-elf politics, and Indilwen suspected a ritual was needed to transfer the writing from the egg onto something else before we could move the egg. She was not confident enough to do a ritual on the fly, so we decided to mull things over and return with the empty drachenlade.
The problem with this was that we were a tiny group and that moving on the field with a drachenlade that might or might not hold an egg is an invitation to be being attacked. Normally we would probably be able to sneak past the other camps but our scouts reported there were several opposing armies on the field and there was no way we could sneak past them. Instead, we first moved to the Dorf der Stämme to hide out. When the armies started returning to their own camps, we started to go towards the Green camp and we were able to return safely without anyone being attacked or killed.
When next the Green army went out to capture the banner, the Anarquendor held the gate. Nobody was allowed in our out while our army was on the field. Any troops still inside the camp would be our reserve force, should another camp want to conquer our banners while the army was out. Needless to say, this earned us disgruntled looks from those wanting to join in the fun on the field.
That evening, the Hairulf held a manhood ritual, where three younglings were declared to be Men. They had captured witches and would have to kill them in a ritualised hunt. All three prevailed, and we were invited to join in the celebrations in the camp. The Hairulf men shared proud stories on how the witches were captured and strong mead was poured. We excused ourselves from the celebration because we had to do another Torwache (gate duty) with Elysien.
The Hairulf Manhood Ritual, with prisoners standing by in the background.
Saturday
Around noon the hauptmänner gathered in the command tent of King Beo, where our general G'Hkar would divulge his plans for the endslacht. Our alliance was with black and blue, and our friendship with grey and the Tribes meant that they would fight on our side as well. The heavy infantry of blue and black would be flanked by our forces, and organised groups of the Green camp were placed, at least for the start of the battle, to eihter side of this heavy infantry. When G'Hkar spoke of a reserve force, I volunteered the Anarquendor, to which the general replied "I had hoped you would."
Part of the allied enemies: Triumvirat, Copper, Silver and Red (from left to right).
When the army marched out into the field, we took up station at the top of the hill near the ritual circle, but our allies would start on the other edge of the field. As soon as the battle would start, they would have to be maneuvering to get to us, and hopefully not get squashed by the opposing army (Gold, Red, Copper, Chaos) or any un-allied forces (Triumvirat, Orks).
Luckily, they managed this quite nicely, and the battle burst quickly. The opposing army chose to hold the high ground, but that also meant they had very little room to maneuver. The Green army soon moved in, and as a result the ranks of our enemy were slowly thinning. Very soon into the battle I was suddenly alerted to a banner-bearer, standing close by and trying to get my attention. "The general has fallen. He put you in command of the army."
Er... alright. I'm a general now. Go me!
The combined army of our enemies were slowly being pushed to the edge of the field. Moving beyond a certain line on the field meant you were out of the Endslacht. It's a very sucky way to get kicked out of the battle, so as soon as the Anarquendor moved into the fray I tried to command the flanks to push while the center stayed in place, giving the enemy at least some space, or so I hoped.
Suddenly the Red Avatar came bursting through our lines. He wielded his giant sword, and the battle seemed to explode. Soldiers from my side of the front line were thrown back like puppets. As the red Avatar saw me approaching him, he grabbed the bannerman carrying his banner from behind him.
I knew exactly how horrible the situation was for him and his army. Despite trying to give them the room to fight, the situation was hopeless. Green their allies were pushing the opposing army from the field and tempers were flaring. I called out to the red Avatar. "Can we resolve the situation?" hoping to give them a chance to a fair fight.
The Red threw his banner at my feet, with a disgusted look.
I called for soldiers to escort the banner to the Ritual Circle, where defeated avatars were placed, and the last Avatar to enter the circle would be the one winning the Endslacht. Several Anarquendor called soldiers from our army to surround the Red bannerbearer and soon enough the banner was moving off to the high ground where our army started.
I called out to the Silver Avatar. "Do you wish to surrender to me, like your Red brother did?" I asked. The Silver Avatar smiled arrogantly. "You will have to conquer it."
And so we did. Soon enough the other banners were also moving towards the Ritual Circle. We were triumphant.
Grey asked for a ceremonial battle between our armies, to show they would fight for victory. The call went out through the ranks not to kill any of the grey army (not my decision, but a friendly gesture from eslewhere). The fight was short and sweet, and the Grey army also fell to our swords.
Then we could finally report to the Green Avatar the battle was won. The Blue Avatar was already moving, in such good spirits that it could be considered a jolly mood. The Black and Green sisters moved regally. At their arrival at the ritual circle, the Green Avatar turned to the Black and told her: "Alles muss enden. Here our ways part. You must go in first."
Victorious and happy: Bronad'angren, Autherdir Beriadanwen and Limethion.
After the cannon sounded, signalling the end of the Endslacht and victory for the Green and its allies, I had a little chat with the Red Avatar. At first he looked furious, but he soon came to realise I was there to say that there are those in the Green camp willing to play fair. There were yet again a lot of problems between Green and Red, pointing fingers at one another and saying the other party wasn't playing out their hits or even taking their hits. We had a constructive chat, and by now a Green-Red exchange of ideas forum has been called into being, to allow us to share ideas on how to make next year better than this year.
At the evening campfire I had a lot of fun visiting the party at Elysien, but in previous years it had been pointed out to me that I was expected at our own campfire to celebrate the DF. Sadly, Silver had claimed the victory of the event because some eggs had apparantly been overlooked (and those count in the final score). Several of the Green camp who had been working so very hard to get the victory to Green this year were very disappointed, and came to our fire to sing songs, making the atmosphere in our camp on this last night bittersweet.
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Pictures thanks to Lady_Nieske and
mrtimmey, who bravely carried my camera into the Endslacht!
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Date: 2014-08-27 08:51 am (UTC)You know, that's exactly how it felt in the Silver Camp, too. The atmosphere was bittersweet there as well, because many felt the victory for Silver was undeserved. It should have gone to Green, it was said by many - amongst them Helmbrecht, the Templari, the House of Kargath, and Clan Yoshida.
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Date: 2014-08-27 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-27 04:40 pm (UTC)Ahum.
I mean, we did. Sure, we did.
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Date: 2014-08-28 07:14 am (UTC)