Bright Ideas and True Confessions: How and What to Do and Why

Tournaments

Marshals

Whenever there are fighters, there should be a marshal. This is proven by the requirement that new shires must have three officers - seneschal, herald and marshal. If the group has no fighters at all, the third officer must be an arts officer. If there is one single fighter, that's the marshal.

The marshal at any level is the officer in charge of safety and education of those involved in any sort of SCA combat. They should have some first-aid training if possible, and are expected to know the kingdom's armor regulations and fighting conventions. They should encourage armor- and weapon-building. A kingdom-level marshal is called an Earl Marshal. A lower-level marshal may be called a "knight marshal" even if he isn't a knight. [1]

Marshals need to be trained and warranted carefully. If we ever have any fighting-related injuries which reach mundane law courts (which we haven't, and with care never will) we'll need to show that we had an officer on the scene. If this doesn't seem to be important to you, please don't run any events in the name of the corporation. Thanks.

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