Lt. Gay Ellis wrote:Ursula -- What years were you in the SCA, just out of curiosity? I noticed on the old boards that you're in upstate, which was where I lived when I was in the SCA. Heck, we might even know each other, although probably not. I moved away and got out of it quite a while ago.
But I fought, too. I still have my armor around somewhere. Nice 14th c. brigandine, with great helm AND gauntlets (Our group had a professional armoror). But my body armor got busted right around the time I left, so I never fixed it.
I have to admit, I look at the Mandalorian armor, and think that it's so wrong in so many ways. Too many open areas, for instance. And where's Boba's leg armor, dammit?
We were in it maybe 6 - 9 years ago. Bjorn was king of the East, and Lucan on either side of Bjorn. I can't remember the others, because I think Bjorn and Lucan kept trading every six months. Ice Falcon kept trying to beat them, but was always the 'next to last man standing', and not the 'last'. (though I heard he finally beat them all to make King a few years back.)
We first hooked up with a group called Snowhawk out of Saratoga. The head of household was bounced out of Pensic (Guy Rolandson), and had to invent a new persona, so they went viking, and Gunnar was born. We have two groups that kind of cover one another: Anglespur east of the Hudson, and Concordia, west of the Hudson. We were considering joining one or the other at one point, but Anglespur was mostly college age kids from RPI, and Concordia was later period and Samuri. They were both VERY cool groups, though. We ultimately split off from Snowhawk due to some lifestyle differences, and had a group called "Dravargr" for a few years. We usually made the Warrensburg events (Royal Progress) and did 2 Pensics. Nothing like going to war for three weeks.
I qualified in Ithica at this event where we fought in a gorge in water up to our knees. The marshall was Wolfstan the Unshod, known the realms over for creasing helms and fighting without shoes. I think he was with Ithica and later moved to our neck of the woods. I still can't believe I tagged him hard enough to get him to scream "Good head!".
We got out of it when I was working full time, and was running a metaphysical shop in town. Just didn't have the time.
My first suit was a combination of steel, and an upper body leather lorica segmantata (dyed oxeblood red) The lorica is a nice design, but not for a curvey lass, which I didn't discover until I put it on. I later switched to a Cherbourg harness, which had a bit less mobility in the waist, but protected what the lorica didn't. That suit was stainless, mounted on black leather, man was it sweet!
Since I've taken up the life of a beaurocrat, as opposed to a floor RN, I've sized well out of that rig. Our armor is in the basement of our house, and my husband keeps talking about cleaning it, and 'doing something with it'. Yikes! I'm old and ready for kids now, and do my fighting in board rooms.
I hear what you're saying about the armor. If you check out some of the other Mandalorian suits, they're not too far off the mark for good protection (though they lack articulation in key areas). I assume Fett wanted more mobility. Remember what it's like lugging around a set of steel legs, holy god, I couldn't bend down to get to my boots sometimes! Mandmetal is supposedly denser than most, the reason it can absorb saber strikes and blaster bolts. As a hunter, I think he covers select spots, and leaves the rest to his skill. Either that, or he willingly suffers for fashion.