What is Belegarth?

Yeah, I've been thinking about it all day, so why not write about it? Today's rantriffic mood will tell all! And yes, this is kind of long, but I'm a writer what can I say?

That moment when the word "belegarth" crosses your vocabulary in a sentence among a bunch of "normal" people… such as your 40+ year old coworkers in your oh so lovely corporate office job. Obviously at first, they're going to be like a deer in headlights, but that's the reaction that most people have when they see what we do.

So what the heck is this "belegarth" thing anyways?

Pronounced just like bel-garth, it's basically a medieval foam sword fighting buffer combat sport. Long story short, you're playing some crazy awesome game, trying to kill people (in the game of course), whacking each other with these foam weapons while dressed in medieval garb and possibly some armor… yes, it is legit armor. The people MAKE THESE THINGS THEMSELVES for crying out loud. The craftsmanship that goes behind things such as leather tooling is absolutely insane! I wish I could do that, but you can of course buy your gear too! The most intricate thing about this game is completely based on the honor system (there is a referee though).

When someone asks "is this LARPing"? Technically, the answer is no (belegarth doesn't specifically LARP, but you can do it on your own or there are closely related games, such as amtgard and nero, which are more along the lines of LARPing). To make it easier on people who probably don't want to listen to a rant, I just answer "yes", and they pretty much get it to an extent after that.

Inn case you're wondering why belegarth isn't necessarily LARPing, LARPing has a story to it while you're playing the game and belegarth you can do it on your own, but the only object of the game is to hit people! And it's a ton of fun!

When someone asks "do you just beat the crap out of each other", same as above, I just answer yes while of course giggling after I say it. But this so called "sport" represents a lot more than beating each other with foam weapons and wearing garb.

I've only been in it for a little over a year now, I've been to several mini events and 3 camping events, going on 4 (Ocfest yaaaayyyy!!! :D) and I can honestly say it's the best thing that's ever happened to me. It's also pretty gnarly that martial arts translates very well (thanks Shotokan Karate), and I've been doing that for about 7.5 years total now… with that plus my contact sports background, it at least gives me a little bit of a heads up. Martial arts experience or not, stepping on the field for the first time was scary and stepping on the national event field for the first time was so scary that I basically almost cried, but was happy that I managed to kill someone!

When I mention the honor system, you "admit" when you get hit. Your reputation carries throughout the game, which teaches you about life. Yes, you learn all of these super handy life skills that you could never imagine, such as vanilla extract and water to ward gnats off. I wouldn't have even thought of that. Not only that, but I've been able to very well utilize my fruitful amount of leadership experience to a great degree. There's even a "guild" that promotes leadership and service (which I of course joined). There's so many ways to get involved! In my opinion, it's better than any college party I've ever been to because people know how to handle themselves and aren't total dumb idiots. People watch each other's backs to ensure all safety. People also craft their own Meade, beer, apple pie drank, and other tasty concoctions (food and drink) and it's soooooo good unlike anywhere else. If you don't choose to partake in "those types of activities", no one will ever force anything upon you and is very respectful of your decisions. The camaraderie is amazing as well! Oh, and you're camping for days! ;)

But life skills is the least of it… it's the PEOPLE that makes this such a special place for me and probably thousands of other people all over the world. And in case you're wondering if there's a party and nightlife, absolutely yes there is!

What types of people even do belegarth? The honest answer is that nerds do it because the game is a fair neighbor to Dungeons and Dragons, and I would even degree that it has a close relationship to chess. Am I a nerd? Yeah, of course I am. I'm a freeking web developer, was in band from 5th grade throughout all of college, and the list goes on for a pretty long while. But I'm also a sorority girl… and not your typical young lady either. People from all walks of life join in this awesomeness and everyone is welcomed with open arms. That alone blows me away because I've never walked into a place on day 1 and been treated so well. These people are seriously the most genuine people I've ever met. When you live in a world of people who try to fit a certain mold, it's nice to have people who are actually comfortable being themselves… as am I. I've always been a nerd… I've always been different… but it takes a fair amount of confidence to enter this newfound world because it's nothing like you've ever seen before… but as I've been told, everything happens for a reason, just like joining belegarth.

They had a local realm (place to practice) where I went to college, but to me, and for most of society, they'd take a gander… just long enough for a short glance, and just continue walking. And that is exactly what I did for all 4 years of college. Most people see this as "weird" and would never even dare go in there. I was also pretty busy trying to graduate and get a job, but that's besides the point. My friend at school invited me to come practice a few times, but I was too busy with the over-involvement cycle I was already in, which meant that the timing wasn't right. With the strong desire for a new beginning and to get out of my post-graduation slump, another invite from the same friend was suddenly brought to my attention… my response this time? Sure, I'll give it a fair chance. I had never done it before and deemed that I had no right to prejudge this before actually trying it… and I have never looked back since.

I feel like most people find out about this sport through either word of mouth or being a passerby in the park where people are practicing, but someday I want this to be more widespread than that :)

Belegarth is the most family oriented group I've ever seen in my entire life (and I've been involved in plenty of groups and organizations). People view their unit-mates as their LEGITIMATE family. I am dead serious. It is that real. I was told in my sorority that "in order to receive much, you must give much" while all having a central focus on love being the highest pillar in life. All of that heavily translates to this sport, which is why people have been fighting for most of their lives and even bring their kids into fighting. I am literally happy EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to a practice, even when I'm in the worst possible mood. Everyone helps the new people get adjusted, tell them the rules, and make sure they're comfortable, while everyone immerses in a cycle of paying it forward.

Not only is this community more welcoming than anything I've ever seen, have the most genuine people I've ever met, and have a very heavy focus on family, honor, and moral values, everyone is always willing to help everyone. There's always a bad seed somewhere, so don't feel alarmed when you see some, but don't let those people turn you away. But for about 99.5% of the time, people have your back and will want to be there for you if you "seriously needed something" (the .5% accounts for people being people, but I'm of course being generous about it). After first joining, being overweight and such too from college, I was still in a pretty big slump and felt as horrible as can be… going to work was even difficult at that point (but I still managed to pull through regardless). At my first camping event, during line battles on that Saturday, I totally got full on nailed by a spear in the face. I didn't cry, but it felt bad enough to make me need to walk it off bracing pain while he felt pretty bad and took an "honor death" because face shots aren't legal shots. A series of events from the past coming back together means that belegarth is definitely a very small world (I had known him from high school fencing and ran into an unexpected person totally out of nowhere).

He introduces me to one of his realm leaders, who I encounter at one of my practices, ask him for advice totally out of the blue, and he tells me to come talk to him. Me being like, "um I did NOT expect this reaction", pauses for a second and nods. By "come talk to him", meaning that he's a holistic doctor and owns his own business. You definitely meet people from all different walks of life, but this oh so wonderful person helped me kick my poor mental health to the curb, lose over 35 pounds, and become far more motivated in general than ever. I have never been this happy, and it is in a large portion thanks to joining belegarth.

Now do you know what belegarth is? It's family, friendship, fun, and honor all wrapped up into some crazy fun nerd game. Yay for nerd bring the new cool!

I never introduced myself, but if you got this far, my name's Maron McNight (my fighting name of course), and you can find me up in the windy city (Chicago) and practice most commonly at the lovely realm of Nightfort, located in the northwest burbs.

Here's some Facebook groups of the surrounding area realms in case you're interested in joining this awesomeness :D

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nightfortbelegarth/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Dunharrow/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/261680253897125/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/morvachicago/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/belegarthbriarwood/

Here's the wiki page for the sport in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belegarth_Medieval_Combat_Society

Here's the most up to date map of active realms in the US (or close): https://maps.google.com/maps/u/0/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107125570793823288790.000452cfe9579612b42af&z=4&dg=feature

And here's the most up to date list of realms (on the main website, which is geddon.org): http://geddon.org/Category:Realms

If you're not from Chicago, have no fear, see above and you can find somewhere to go play. Now do you know what belegarth is? I hope to all who join find amazing pleasure and fun in this lovely land of play sword fighting for adults!

6 Misconceptions People Have Towards LARPing

Before I say anything, first off, LARP means live action role play, and if you're wondering if I take part of any of this, yes, I absolutely do. I am a part of a group called "Belegarth Medieval Combat Society", which is actually more of a boffer combat sport with some optional LARPing aspects involved. Similar games to this include Dagorhir and Amtgard, but there are plenty of groups like this all over the world!

To those of you who are going to pre judge any sort of LARPing game or boffer combat sport before actually trying it, these are some comments I've heard from people when I'd go to tell them about these activities, as well as what I've heard from the grapevine in general:

1. "This is really stupid..."

If you haven't done any of this before and think you can sit there calling it stupid and go judging away, you have no right. If you genuinely dislike these types of things, so be it, but you have no right to judge anyone just for wanting to have fun in an extremely nerdy fashion. You also can't just assume something sucks based on rumors. To be honest, when I saw the club practicing at my college, I basically just glanced and walked away because I cared what other people would think about me because I'd be doing something as "different" as this. It looked kind of silly, and I thought all of the people were a bunch of weirdos, despite not knowing a single one of them. One day last summer, a dear friend of mine who was in the club at school invited me to a practice around where I live at home because he was in town for the summer and it decided to give it a fair chance. Little did I know that deciding to give this a fair chance would be one of the best decisions I've made to this day. Being a part of this sport, let alone massive community of awesomeness and nerds, has made an immensely positive impact  on me... in just a year! I have been meeting the most genuine people I've ever seen in my entire life and I am eternally thankful I was introduced to this. The moral of the story is that you never know until you try and you can't judge a book by its cover to assume that something is going to be totally weird (in a bad way) until you've picked up a sword or at least talked to someone who's in it to determine whether or not you're interested!

2. "Everyone who participates uses this as some kind of escape and does drugs"

This was mostly brought up by family members who are clearly unsupportive of me, but this is definitely false, especially the part about drugs. The sport I do is actually more of a boffer combat sport and not "LARPing" unless you do roleplaying on your own. I can see why people would think this is some kind of an escape because you dress up in medieval garb in the middle of the park and hit people with foam sticks. For me, going to practices and events are just "a trip to happy land" for me because I'm consistently surrounded by good people and am always happy every time I attend any kind of function for it. Also, with being in an organization that's on many college campuses, drinking and drugs do happen in college. Not only that, but hanging out with these people is much safer than going to fraternity parties because people legitimately care about your safety and everybody watches out for everybody. If you're new to the game as well, people keep an extra special eye on you (during the night life part of the game) to make sure that you're happy and want to continue coming back. Plus, good luck doing drugs and going on the fighting field... you'd be a useless blob!

3. "These people are all losers... go meet more 'professional people'"

As much as this awesomeness is not resume worthy (in most cases), I have learned more life skills by being in this sport than any of the other activities I did in college... yes, this includes being the president of the club for IT majors during my senior year of college. Luckily, any leadership experience you gain in school seems to translate very well for this. Being a part of a group like this has exposed me to people who come from all walks of life, ranging from male nurses to college students to web developers to teachers to iron workers to holistic doctors and everything in between. I'm sorry if you think that the only way to be successful is sitting in an office at your lovely 9-5 job doing whatever and climbing up the corporate ladder or working some white collar job in your field of study from school... because it's not. I'm also sorry if you think that people need to always be "normal" all the time and do "normal" activities, like volunteering, joining a group to meet new people and discuss the world, and being involved in professional organizations in your field, which I do anyways. Not only that, but just because I make one bad group of friends, realize it pretty quickly, and get rid of them doesn't mean I'm going to be foolish enough to make the same mistake again. These people who you may consider "losers" have real jobs, can support themselves, and some even are married and have families. Of course, you may find a couple worms in your giant basket of apples, but we are all the same people as everyone else with as much or more life ambition than you have. We just have different tastes in our hobbies than you do!

4. "Everyone is really, really weird"

Weird... what even is weird? I feel like weird is the new cool and creepy is the new weird. And who cares if we're all weird anyways? We're having fun, and that's all that should matter! If you get to know these people on the inside instead of staring at the medieval garb they're wearing, you'll realize that you're meeting some pretty interesting people with nice stories to tell who are very far from fake! I'd also be kind of bored if all of my friends had "typical jobs" and did "typical, non-weird activities" because being different is fun and not being typical is and should be the new norm! This is a type of community you won't be able to find anywhere else and I am thankful to now be a part of something as wonderful as this! So think twice if you think these people are all "weird", because that's just a false generalization!

5. "Go do something better with your time"

...says the person who sits on the couch every waking moment watching TV. Hey, at least I'm doing something fun, spending time with some of the most wonderful people I've ever met, and in my case, am getting tons of exercise. Thanks to this awesomeness (and of course eating right, further exercise, etc.), I've been able to lose over 30 pounds so far. You're probably just jealous that I'm having so much fun all the time and found something I'm truly passionate about besides for my career, music, writing, and karate! Yeah, it's not an activity you'll hear your typical person say they do, but I work in an office and everyone I've told who I work with is super interested and fascinated by what I do. They always ask about it, especially when I return from a camping event (which I use vacation time to go). As long as you still manage to go to work every day, are doing something you love, and still have your eyes on the prize of success you're craving oh so much, just live your life and screw what other people think about how you spend your time!

Also, if you see some of the craftsmanship that's involved with making leather armor, making weapons, making garb, making chainmail, etc., all I have to say is HOLY CRAP! These people make beautiful works of art while putting hours and hours into what they do and I wish I can do that! Yes, people make their own stuff for this (and you can of course buy it too)!

6. "Go get real exercise because no one cares about being healthy"

With what I do (belegarth), running around and hitting people is actually a lot more difficult than it looks. In fact, you need a ton of coordination and endurance to stay fighting for a long time. Imagine being in the hot sun and running around hitting people for hours... if you don' t think "that" is exercise, then you go try! I've even hit a point where I'm trying to figure out how my karate skills can be used for this and vice versa! Water is always heavily promoted and people will always bring some (or sometimes bring giant coolers) to make sure you drink water! Worst case scenario, there will be a fountain or someone to share with you if you forget water because if you fight long enough, your body will tell you to drink water! Because of the possibility to obtain sports injuries, people will be on your butt if you complain about feeling injured, go fight full blast, and come off the field feeling worse... We want people to keep fighting, not be hurt!

Unfortunately, in terms of health consciousness, I have found that the population of people who want to be/eat healthy all the time seems to be a minority. I could be wrong, but that's what I've noticed... not just with this, but in general. Thankfully, everyone is extremely respectful of how you choose to eat. More importantly, if you have food allergies, especially at events, everyone is extremely wary and will not knowingly give you food that you're allergic to (but you need to tell them you're allergic of course). After practices, people like to go to McDonald's, a buffet, a burrito place, or anywhere that is seemingly unhealthy. If you don't choose to partake, your decision will not be made fun of at all. When I do go, it's a nice bonding experience and health conscious me over here just gets the least unhealthy thing on the menu that I can find so I can enjoy the company and not feel horrible about what I ate. Everyone is just very supportive in general. However, when you're at an event camping overnight for a few days and alcohol is involved, don't expect to have the best diet that weekend (and don't eat or drink too much either). I CAN say that because of doing this, I met the person who ended up inspiring me to reach my optimal health potential, so thank you belegarth for just helping me to become a better person in general (and healthier too of course)!

If your friends or even your family doesn't support you doing something like this, SO WHAT! It's their opinion, you're doing something that is SAFE, FUN, and MAKES YOU HAPPY. It may not be resume-worthy in most cases, but as long as you're HAPPY, that's all that should matter :)

For more information about what I do, be sure to check out http://www.geddon.org/Main_Page and like "Belegarth Medieval Combat Society" on Facebook :)