I was wondering if we had any people out in the division who actually knows about some of the stuff we write about? One of the things I've always had a problem doing is describing things like riding a horse, or cleaning a sword, or even filling a pipe! I've tried to use google and other sites to build up my skill base and while I can learn the steps to doing something, I can never really understand what it feels like to do so.

 

Which is where you come in!

 

If you know how to ride horses, or fight with a sword, or shoot an arrow, or even dance, help your fellow Warders out and tell us what it's like! Anything you can add to our collective knowledge will greatly benefit the division and make everyone's rps that much better.

 

So if you've had some sort of experience that you think might help, post it below. Don't be shy, we won't make fun of you too badly!

Hello!

I am not exactly a teacher at anything, but I do study sword combat from some Medieval and Renaissance period European martial arts treatises. I'm not great at it yet, but can certainly describe a lot about it in writing and can point you to multiple images and texts available for free online; I'm sure they'll tell you a lot about the subject better than I could. It is very different than what you'd see on the stage or in movies depicting fencing and such. There are so many subtle intricacies, and yet at the heart of it it is very simple as well. Connected to this, I am familiar with but by no means expert with:

Several forms of sword fighting: single handed sword, long/two handed sword, sword and shield/buckler, whatever, and sword and dagger,

staff and polearms fighting,

how to defend against a dagger unarmed or use one armed in a battle or duel,

unarmed grappling techniques which can be applied to just about any kind of fighting, be it sword, spear, dagger, or bare handed.

 

I'm picking up traditional archery, and plan on learning how to shoot a longbow. My eventual goal is to be reasonably accurate from 50-100 yards/paces/meters what have you, and be able to land arrows in farther ranges with some consistency. I want to be able to use a powerful bow like they used in the middle ages and renaissance for war, perhaps from 80-100 lbs. (I don't think I'll ever be strong enough to shoot anything more powerful than that without severely damaging my spine lol), as well as shoot it rapidly, being able to fire 10-15 arrows per minute. But that's the end goal, at present I can only shoot about 8 arrows per minute (or 4 or 5 per half minute anyway) and am still working with close range shooting from 20-50 yards. I have researched some into archery and how it was practiced historically; should be just what you'd need to learn how a Two Rivers longbow works. There are plenty of articles and videos that I could point you to online if you ask. That said I am by no means an expert as I am just starting out learning to shoot and such.

 

I'm also a decent singer and know something of how to sing, though I have no great sense of making good poetry for songs, nor am I a practiced composer.

 

 

I have virtually no experience riding a horse or jousting or horse archery, though I'm interested in the subject and have read things here and there.

 

I'm also available to help with researching stuff that might be pertinent to "WoT period" (which I'd place somewhere around the 1500s as far as technology, with some things from earlier or later periods) activities.

 

I am interested in one day updating the armory to be more inclusive of different weapons from different cultures (like some chinese or middle eastern), as well as making sure the information is fairly accurate. The current armory is not to my liking as far as accuracy. That said, it's gonna take some time to do it, and so I think I'll only work on it when rps are stalled or if I have extra time.

 

Umm so yeah that's my $0.02

I know a bit about old military tactics for large scale battles as well as individual squad tactics, combat engineering, psychological warfare, etc. Just about everything you would need to train and run a successful army without the benefit of being a Taveren :P I also know a bit about how they ran their countries and why they ran them that way. While that is mostly useless to the individual character it is there if you need information none the less. The Creator is fortunate I am not leading the Dark One's armies with the tactics I have seen in WoT lol.

Excellent! I know I will be hitting the both of you up for help designing rps in the near future. I studied Roman history in school, but those sort of tactics don't really mesh up with the medieval world that the WoT is in. The Seanchan are the closest to a Roman mindset of any society in the books, but that is only behind the scenes, not on the front lines.

 

Anyone else have a little Warder in their every day lives?