Theocrites the Archer

I have been asked, by someone highly respected, to explain just what is going on with the "Knights and Ladies" social group. Here is what I wrote to answer the question....


A long time has gone on with no one making any secret of Knights and Ladies, and no Mod has vetoed it; so I concluded that it was enough that it was a set-apart phenomenon as an invitational social group, albeit existing within TDL.

The intent is clean. We imagine a parallel dimension like that of Narnia; humans found their way into it at some past time, and retained much more memory of Earth than inhabitants of Narnia did. Civilization is like medieval Europe, and explicitly Christian churches exist. I myself am the king of a kingdom, and SusanII is the princess who is to inherit my throne.

The real point of this is like being in Society for Creative Anachronism--to act as a medieval character for the fun of the persona. In order to allow a sense of adventure without an adversarial competition, I am urging everyone to play multiple characters, with everyone ready to let one or two of their characters die as it advances the story. I have already "expended" one character of my own, and I contemplate having another character die in a Gandalf-on-the-bridge type of sacrifice. It is very much like co-authoring a novel. My Writing Club thread "Theocrites the Archer" is designed as a lead-in for Knights and Ladies.
 
Since we're still hoping to persuade some more players to join us, let me fill in a little more. The following is courtesy of Sir Tom; what he imagined in the course of creating an important secondary character, will give a peek at what happens _between_ the "Archer" story and the start of the roleplay...

Cuthbert O'Henley is the son of a silversmith, and a very close friend to King Theocrites. When he was a boy, Cuthbert desperately wanted to be a knight, but his father for a long time believed him not ready for such a dangerous task. One day when he was 15, Cuthbert proved himself worthy by single-handedly rescuing King Theocrites from an assassin who was attempting to fire a poisoned blowdart from the crowd as they watched the royal procession.

When Theocrites saw the young man wrestling a cloaked figure to the ground, he and his knights immediately rushed in to see what had happened. Seeing the sincerity in Cuthbert's eyes as he told what had happened, the king ordered the assassin to be thrown into the dungeon, and asked Cuthbert if he would take training as a knight. Excited, Cuthbert couldn't refuse, and now that his father had seen that Cuthbert was a hero, he allowed him to enter training as a knight. As the years passed, King Theocrites saw fit to train Cuthbert personally, and so the two grew in friendship. Having known Cuthbert so well, Theocrites knew that Cuthbert would be an ideal steward of the kingdom if ever the need arose.
 
Unless the boatmen were leading the Tyrannosaurus onto a field of pressure mines which would be detonated by its great weight.
 
One more bit --

Weeks later, the King was giving a talk to thirty-eight boys who were going to begin training as longbowmen for the royal army:

"All of you lads have shot lightweight bows, to bring down rabbits and tree-lizards for the family cooking pot. So all of you have _some_ idea of the business of archery. But you may not be able to put in words what you have learned, so I shall do it for you.

"There are three very different skills involved in achieving accuracy as a bowman. One type is seen when you stalk prey in a heavy forest, where there is never a very long line of sight from your position, and the creature you hunt may only be visible for two or three heartbeats' time as it passes through a small opening. There, you need to form a sense for whether you can drive your shaft home before the quarry is shielded again. Another type is when you have to shoot across a much greater distance in open country; there, you have to judge how the wind will affect your shot, and how high an arc of arrow-flight is needed. Finally, there is the situation in which an armored enemy, or a Grendel, is charging straight at you; then, you have to know in your guts whether you can get more than one shot off before you _have_ to dodge, or use a hand weapon, to save your life.

"Those who use the bow only to hunt for food can perhaps afford to master only one of these skill areas. But the archers of my army must be _complete_ archers, able to operate in all settings, on every kind of ground. And complete archers is what I and my best bowmen will make of you..."

Theocrites was to remember this preparatory talk when, in old age, he would meet with a young girl archer named Carrissa, who was a woodland specialist.
 


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