While the rest of the people in the Central Valley lived out their sleepy lives, members of the Society for Creative Anachronism came together to wage bloody war on the battlefields of Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area just outside of Taft on Oct. 6-11. The weekend-long event included a variety of different attractions themed around the Middle Ages, and, while those involved might have looked like the typical Renaissance fair attendees, their level of dedication and appreciation for detail far surpassed those yearly jaunts into “ye olden” days.
This Great Western War is not the typical weekend adventure. Members of the SCA come from all different parts of the United States, although primarily southern California, Nevada and Hawaii. They band together to re-create the period of old.
During events like this, members don their period clothing (which is not from any specific year in the medieval era but the broad time frame, ranging from the early middle ages to the late middle ages) and adopt their period pseudonyms.
All the typical royalty associated with a kingdom were present. The king and queen, who are so for a period of seven months and actually reign for six, resided over the battles and tournaments along with counts, countesses, barons, baronesses and others.
On Oct. 11, royalty and fighting members of the SCA came together to stage a tournament. Those fighting fought for a Lady of the Rose (a woman who was formally a queen or a princess and currently a countess or duchess); for each Lady of the Rose, one knight, one “unbelted” fighter, one low level rapier man and one high level rapier man fought.
While men and women prepared their weapons and their armor before combat, the Ladies of the Rose went around the battlefield chatting with old friends.
Countess Albra (Kaythryn Wolters) of Ventura, was queen back in 1996 and had her current title because of her former reign. She talked about how being queen affected her life.
“It was one of the scariest and most intense moments of my life, but it was also very rewarding, and it will always stay with me,” she said. “Everyone has an inner king or queen. You have to talk to the queen inside you.”
Being queen, she explained, made her a more gracious and stronger person.
The battles that occurred throughout the weekend-long event were organized by battle master Sechequr Qara (Sean Pennington). A medley of fighters, wearing armor and using weapons from all different time periods and regions, were able to fight due to his organizational skills.
There were people representing all different time periods.
A man by the name of Skalla (Matt Jepson) and his band of warriors wore armor based on the Myrmidons from the epic poem, The Iliad, which was written during the classical era of Greece. Not too far away on the field another group of men wore armor from a far more recent period of time, looking something like the stereotypical musketeer. Edward Willis (Brandon Willis) fought for Viscountess Jimena with a rapier, which are a much faster weapon than the huge broadswords that some of the knights were using.
He spoke about how he felt he would do in the tournament.
“They’ve got their swords in your face, in your chest before you can even think about what’s happened.”
As fighting, in both the battles and the tournaments, is all honor-based, a hit to the head or the chest in battle would mean defeat for the combatant.
For many, participating in the Great Western War with the SCA is a way to reach out to people with similar interests and ideas. It is a way to reach back to the pageantry of the past, as well as the savagery.