It was actually not until I was contacted by the View from Valehaven staff about writing this article that I realized how rare it is to have been playing for the number of years I have (twelve), be as active (thirty-plus events almost every year), and have never entered into a squireship or knighthood. My general unwillingness to enter into a squireship during my early years was due to the fact that Grimloch was still in its formative years and a squireship felt like it would distract me from the task at hand in helping to build the nation.
By the time I had been playing for five years (2007), I was promoted to Warmarke and my time was largely spent training new members coming into the group. These years gave me valuable mentoring experience as it was as though I had a new squire (sometimes upwards of four) to work with each year. Much of this work (as well as training new members of Grimloch to fight as part of a line) provided the genesis of information that eventually became the Fighter’s and Commander’s Manuals.
A major challenge of not having a traditional knight or mentor was often being unsure of the the next challenge or task at hand. Instead of having one assigned, I’ve normally had to endeavor to come up with something new. By 2009-2010 Grimloch had matured to the point where the direction and culture of the group was clear, and new leaders had emerged that lessened the training load I traditionally had. With a bit of a lack of work within the group to be done, I felt a bit lost for awhile. I knew combat was something I wanted to study further, so I started hitting practices and events for Amtgard (another combat focused game), as well as perusing their online resources to see what their fighter’s had to offer. It turned out I had a lot to learn even in the six months or so that I attended.
It was during this time that I began to write the first edition of the Fighter’s Manual, which also involved travelling to a large number of practices and taking notes. This was directly inspired by sheer amount of online materials that Amtgard had accumulated on combat over the years, and what I perceived as a relative lack of materials by comparison.
After the Fighter’s Manual was finished, I began to feel that same kind of lost feeling as before; and that was when conversations about creating a Fighter’s Guild began to get serious. It was a bit of a silly idea I had discussed with several people before, but by this time it seemed possible to actually pull something like this off. Bringing in Tucker Noyes and Josh Learned to help perfect and administer the system, we had the beginning of the Order of the List. Bringing in other people was an important lesson I learned early on with Grimloch. Individuals can accomplish good things, but getting people to work together towards a common goal we have the potential for something great. It has been great to see the Order of the List develop into a major force in the game as the years have gone by.
In future editions of the Fighter’s Manual (and Commander’s Manual) I have attempted to apply the same principles as with the Order of the List, trying to create a better product through collaboration. I brought Kevin Weeks on as a co-author to share his combat expertise. He is also probably the closest thing I have had to a true squire in terms of training and friendship so it only seemed natural to give him a platform to share his skills with others.
Fast forward to the current day and I have been the Warlord of Grimloch for three years, a huge position of responsibility and honor. I would characterize my career as having “Realms ADD” constantly coming up with new projects and working to execute them. Some projects only took a couple of weeks to accomplish, while others are still a work in progress years from their inception.
Looking back I do wonder what how not having a traditional squireship into knighthood relationship has affected my development. At times I think it could have helped keep me more focused, especially when I was unsure of “the next challenge” at varying times in my career. Ultimately if this route is something other player’s (especially newer ones) are pursuing I would offer these general points to consider:
● You will need to be self-motivated. There will not always be another person readily available to provide motivation and direction.
● Collaborative projects are a great way to accomplish big ideas while lessening the individual burden for each person.
● Do not be afraid to solicit feedback. This will be a critical way to fine tune ideas, especially without a more experienced mentor available.
● It is never too late to change paths and consider becoming a squire, all paths are respectable in their own right. By extension you are never too experienced to learn something from another
● There is a fine line between having plenty of work to do and being motivated, and having too much work and experiencing burnout. This is a lesson many of us learn the hard way.