The mighty warrior pulls up atop his majestic steed, preparing to do battle on the grassy slopes of the river’s bank. Helmet gleaming in the afternoon sun, he steps down from his mount and draws a menacing sword from the bed of his green Dodge Ram.
Brady Farris, a member of the Shire of Okeborne Keep, the Tuscaloosa chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism, has arrived for the club’s fighter practice, held at 2 p.m. every Sunday at Manderson Landing.
His horses may be under the hood, but the remainder of Farris’s ensemble – dented helmet, sturdy armor, battle-worn shield and purple tunic – appears authentically medieval, which is exactly the point.
“Basically, we’re a living history recreation medieval group,” said Jessica Lawrence, the Seneschal, or president, of the Tuscaloosa chapter and a UA graduate student.
“It’s like the Middle Ages,” said UA alumna Sierra Rodgers, “except we have electricity and use deodorant.”
Farris quickly and deftly puts his sword, made of a dense bamboo-like material called rattan, to work against his foe, decked-out head-to-toe in an equally formidable array.
All fighters are required to protect their head, neck, elbows, knees and kidneys but are allowed free reign when it comes to additional covering, or the lack thereof.
“I use as little armor as we can get away with, because it gets heavy real quick, and I don’t want all that weighing me down,” Farris said.
In what the SCA deems “heavy combat,” participants battle at full speed and intensity. The fighting is regularly punctuated with the assertive “thwhack” of rattan on metal or, sometimes, rattan on human. Fighters determine for themselves whether or not a strike should count as a “hit.”
“The fights operate on an honor system. It’s up to you to decide whether the blow was hard enough to be lethal,” said Price Lawrence, a senior majoring in anthropology. “You’re better off being honest, though. If you get a reputation for not calling your hits, they’ll start hitting you harder.”
He said fighter safety is serious business in the SCA, citing the organization’s contracts with multiple insurance companies and the 150-page fighter’s manual, with which combatants must be familiar to compete in official events.
“SCA is about so much more than just fighting, though,” said Jessica Lawrence.
At some places, they may play like it’s 1000 A.D., but at Okeborne Keep, they live it.
SCA, an international organization, is divided into 19 kingdoms by geographic regions. Okeborne Keep is under the Kingdom of Meridies, which is composed of Alabama and parts of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky. Kingdoms regularly hold multi-day events in which members come together to camp, feast and craft, in addition to the fighting.
“You don’t go to SCA events and just watch,” said Rodgers. “It’s interactive. And there’s something there for everyone.”
In fact, several members present at Sunday’s practice elect to sit on the sidelines, fully clothed in period garb and sewing or researching medieval recipes.
The club is preparing for its trek to Gulf Wars, a weeklong, multi-kingdom event in Mississippi from March 11-18. Approximately 4,000 people attended last year.
“You forget the real world exists for awhile,” said club member Michelangelo Rollf.
The event is truly an immersive experience. Participants dress the part, camp in tent compounds by kingdom and even adopt their SCA character and name for the duration of the week.
“When you join SCA, you come in with a time period or region you’re interested in, and you create a persona around that character,” Jessica Lawrence said. “You completely become that person at the events.”
For students looking to become members, the club is hosting an event at Kentuck on Saturday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program, which is free and open to the public, will include combat demonstrations and arts and sciences classes.
Jessica Lawrence, inspired by the “substantial untapped potential” of the college demographic, formed the student arm of the club two years ago. Okeborne Keep currently counts approximately 25 regular members, half of which Price Lawrence estimates to be University students. He encouraged anyone interested to give it a shot.
“There’s nothing like the rush of getting the crap beat out of you by a guy wearing a suit of armor,” he said.
