| PREPARE FOR WAR! A Guide to Pennsic for the Complete Beginner |
War, War… What is War?
Pennsic Then: A Short History of the Event
Pennsic 20 site token
(1991)
(click to see enlarged view)
Descriptions never do this event justice. No matter how poetic people wax in describing Pennsic, you will not be prepared for the visual and visceral impact of seeing it with your own eyes. So I won’t really try here.
Basically, Pennsic War is a war event between the East and Middle Kingdoms. In its current form, Pennsic is a two-week event occurring every August in western Pennsylvania. People now travel from all over the world to attend and attendance has swelled to 10,000 gentles and more.
Here’s a short list of the major event highlights:
- A wide variety of heavy armor combat in various melee scenarios with lots of participants (we’re talking really big battles here, where binoculars are highly recommended!).
- Archery competitions in a wide variety of shoots.
- Arts and sciences competitions and displays.
- Demonstration “sports” (games, ballistic weapons, blackpowder, weapon styles, etc.).
- Huge (and lengthy) kingdom courts.
- An enormous masked ball.
- Lots of merchants (Ancient SCA Proverb: “If you can’t buy it at Pennsic, it can’t be bought!”).
- Tons of classes (you wouldn’t believe how many!).
- Parties, parties and more parties. Did I mention parties?
While Pennsic is not the only large war event in the SCA, it’s still the biggest and longest. Everything about the SCA is intensified during this event and occurs on a very large scale: camping, shopping, attending classes, participating in combat and competitions and, of course, partying. It’s a chance for people to visit with friends from all across the country and sometimes from around the world. It’s an almost unparalleled opportunity for members to experience The Dream and to forget, for a moment, that the modern world exists.
How It All Began
The first Pennsic was held in 1971 as a small war event between the East and Middle Kingdoms. It took place in Ohio, which was about halfway between the East (centered in New York City) and the Middle (centered in Chicago). There were about 350 fighters at Pennsic I. But how did it all come to be?
Cariadoc of the Bow (now Duke Cariadoc of the Bow, KSCA) had had to relocate from the Middle Kingdom to the East. The Midrealm king took advantage of the opportunity to ask Cariadoc to serve as His Majesty's ambassador in the East Kingdom. As ambassador, Cariadoc negotiated to create a war event between the two kingdoms. It was decided to name the war “Pennsic,” a combination of “Pennsylvania” and “Punic Wars”. The stakes were set to center around Pennsylvanians—the losing monarch would have to accept Pittsburgh as part of his kingdom.
Cariadoc returned to the Middle Kingdom to attend Twelfth Night. As Midrealm ambassador, he presented a report to Iriel, king of the Middle, on how the Middle Kingdom could defeat the forces of Rakkuri, king of the East, during the upcoming war.
Shortly after delivering his report at the Midrealm Twelfth Night event, Cariadoc won the crown tourney of the East.
He returned to the Middle Kingdom once more, this time as Prince of the East, to attend the coronation of Andrew of Seldom Rest (Cariadoc’s former squire). At the coronation, Cariadoc sought leave of his oath of fealty to the Middle—the better to wage bloody war upon it.
By the time the first Pennsic actually occurred, Cariadoc had become King of the East. Therefore, Cariadoc fought a war against Andrew—Cariadoc’s former squire and king of his former Kingdom—that Cariadoc helped start!
History reflects that ambassador Cariadoc’s analysis of how the Middle might defeat the East was very accurate and insightful—Cariadoc, king of the East, lost the first war to the Middle Kingdom.
In one sense, you could say that Cariadoc is the only person in SCA history to declare war upon himself—and lose!