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The
First Tonopah Wars
Tonopah Wars I (1981)and II (1982). Held
at Peavine Creek in Tonopah, Nv against the Shire of Starkhafn (Las Vegas,
Nv) in Caid to decide the borders between the West and Caid. The loser got
to keep Tonopah.
At the first war we had 8 fighters and 9 archers and they had
8 fighters and 2 archers. They lost and got to keep it. At the second war,
Silver Desert encouraged Tribe Rot Mahne to show up (Rolf the Relentless
was Prince at the time). We had about 12 fighters (including the 7
mercenaries) and about 5 archers. They had about 13 fighters and no archers
and did not want to fight against our archers. Their mercenaries
(Heatherwine) came over to our side. They lost again. Many interesting
stories came out of that war.
Justin Bard wrote a song about it entitled The Ballad of
Tonopah." Location: Reno, Nevada
Source Page: The History of the Kingdom of The West; Branch Histories
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SUBJECT: Tonopah War, 1982. Some Recollections.
The majority of the folks who attended don't seem to be active these days,
though I recall Yaroslav, [now-Duke] Patrick, Ceridwen MacAoudhegain (the
autocrat)and (possibly?) Valgard Stonecleaver were there. (If
Herrel/Astriel of Smael Nest are active in Starkhafn, they'll also have
information, but I've not seen them in many years.)
The turnout was somewhat smaller than today's wars--I believe Starkhafn
fielded between 4-8 fighters total, some of whom declined to fight during
the archery scenaria, and Silver Desert's contingent was about half again
as big, with an additional 4-5 archers. Because combat archery was very
new, and each kingdom had its own rules, some of the Starkhafn fighters who
were prepared to participate in the ones with archery had to refit their
gear to make it safe/legal.
Starkhafn selected Philip of Meadhe as their commander, as none of the
local Starkhafn fighters had any experience in that. Yaroslav and his man
at arms Patrick also served on the Starkhafn side. At least in the morning
scenario--during an after-lunch battle it was discovered that Philip had
switched allegiance to the Silver Desert side (without my knowing about
it), and there were some issues raised about this later, largely by those
Starkhafner's he killed.
The Sunday battles, if I remember correctly, never took place; too many of
the Western fighters were hung over, and too many of the Caidan ones had
departed (or perhaps vice-verse), for it to have achieved a quorum.
That lead to some question about who, in fact, was stuck with Tonopah. The
official score was that Caid won Tonopah, because the West won the war. The
lines I remember best from Justin's song was "Ambling ferociously
across the field...", and "the 7 hour [6 hour?] journey took 11
hours to complete", both of which did accurately describe the
event--Tonopah is 90% towards Las Vegas heading from Reno, and 90% towards
Reno heading from Las Vegas, no matter what the maps say.
Questions would be helpful, as it's been so long I can't really recall the
event as a flow, but merely as some highlights.
Old Geezer Keradwc
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MESSAGE:
Check with Earl Guy de Coldrake for why they got Tonopah...
Well, I was a part of Guy's and Troy's Court-- I heard, though I didn't go
to that particular war, that the loser got Tonopah because nobody else
seemed to want it. The event was discussed as a Wonderful Time, even though
Silver Desert itself was such a desolate place. It was sort of the same
thing as The Debatable Lands out in the East/Middle, that formed the basis
of the Pennsic War-- the loser of Pennsic got to keep The Debatable Lands
for a year, which is a section of Pennsylvania, if I recall correctly. That
hasn't been the actual case for quite a number of Pennsics, but that hasn't
stopped Pennsic from being held year after year!
ciorstan
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Mail message
I heard Yari tell this story, it's very funny! (And know who's who
in the story too!) Gosh, amazing for me to actually know this. 8-) Honoree
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You really need to get Yaroslav to tell this story. He's turned it into a
pretty good two hour stand up routine.
Yes I was there. The truth of the matter is I don't remember any of
the fighting, really. That was kind of a wash. I know that the tribe had
six fighters--myself, Prince Rolf, Elrik Scapvarger, John Goling (who's
name SCA name is Johan something), our glorious chieftain Sir Alfrik
Favnesbane, and, I think Xaith Wolfshair.
The one mercenary archer was Wolf Peacemaker, whom we gave to Starkhaven
because they had no archers and he was easilly worth all the archers we had
put together. Others who were there are Sir Connor MacAuflie Fitzjames, Sir
Colin Dirge, Sir Vencenzo di Calabria, Mistress Regina Masquer and Mistress
Siobhan ni Seodh, all of whom are still active, as well as Talliessen the
Unpredictable, Regina's daughter Emilly, Hell the Horible (and her son),
Galen Flamebeard and probably Ivan Ivanovitch. I think Sir Khalid al Gerad
was there as well, but that was before he was captured by the servants of
Allah and converted to Islam, and he was still known as Ambrose of Barduin.
What I actually remember was a party which went on into the night, during
which one drunken fighter, who will not be named in this post, was so
enamoured of a certain lady fighter, and made such an ass of himself, that
we were forced to first tie him to a tree and then lock him in the
outhouse. We actually did much more to him, but someone from the law
enforcemnent community might read this, and even though the statute of
limitations has passed, I'd rather not press our luck.
I also remember that same party went on much longer then the people
sleeping next to it wanted to, which eventually resulted in guns being
drawn and people being chased away by a naked barbarian waving a .45 in the
air and screaming "Leave us alone or I swear to God I'll kill you
all!" as he chased them down the road. I could go on, but then names
would have to be named, which around a camp fire is ok but on the internet
I'd really rather not do :-)
But ask Yaroslav. He and I re-told the whole story at last Estrella, so I
know it's still getting around.
--Valgard Stonecleaver, Jarl ______
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