Belegarth

Hey Guys Squidpickles here. I moved to China in January of this year. For my job as a chef, and I got to thinking. Halloween is coming up and I decided to go as a Viking. I was going to make me a awesome axe and shield for the costume. I was going to make a Foam Smithed axe and shield. I was part of a Belegarth group in Iowa, at Iowa State U. about 2 years ago. I loved it and was really thinking about getting back into it but never had the time. Now that I got inspired by my Halloween costume I really want to get back into it. I have talked to a friend and showed him tons of pictures from the website. He finds it amazing and told me that no one in china does stuff like this. He asked me lots of questions about it and I happily answered them all... thanks to the website. His first thought was "hey, it is like really life World of Warcraft." Because WoW is HUGE here in china. Also for any of those Weebos out there Cosplay is also HUGE. So I got to talking to him about Belegarth more... after explaining that there is no magic casting in Belegarth and he is going to tell his friends about it. I figure about 5 people are going to be interested in getting a group together and having a couple of battles.
I just came here to talk to you guys about starting up a Belegarth group. and any good advise you have for me. I am still a noob foamsmither. I have made two swords, an axe, and a pretty bad * shield. All of which I left in the states. But great news, all the materials I need for foam smithing are dirt cheap here. YAY.
I do have some interesting ideas to bring to the battle field here in China. The first one is cross breeding European historical themes with Chinese historical themes. Like making weapons, and garb from Chinese's history. As well as writing up Chinese themed Scenario.
All I ask of you is for your help in establishing an amazing new opportunity for the Belegarth community. A Belegarth Realm in China.

That's just freakin awesome man. Cib's Realm starter on the Wiki is an excellent place to start when forming a new realm. Find a place to practice and be there consistently, every week same time. Be nice and courteous and you'll get people faster than you know. If you have any specific question, you can PM me anytime. Good luck and have fun!

Baaaaaallllllllinnnnnnnnn'.

100% approval. Definitely make use of the rich cultural background of the region. Make sure any foams you get to use are similar to what you're used to working with in terms of density, squish, and cell size. If you need specs in metric, I can get 'em for ya.

* cool, squid.

Squidpickles wrote:I was part of a Belegarth group in Iowa, at Iowa State U. about 2 years ago.

Who are you? What was your fighting name? I've been in TA for 4 years now and I'm trying to think of people who were around back then and left.

Here are some weapon ideas to get you started.

Nice SquidP! I am really excited for you man, and I hope everything takes off like crazy. I'll echo what Soo said. Pick a good place and time and then be there consistently, regardless of weather, personal illness, stress or your love life. The one week you miss, everyone you've invited will show up. Just put any questions you have up here or via PM and we'll be glad to help you out.

Additional advice from my own experience, when someone shows up acting like an idiot be inclusive and explain the rules; chances are they're interested and would enjoy trying it out. Remember that what we do is a sport -- don't try to bill it as a martial art.

Galya wrote:

Squidpickles wrote:I was part of a Belegarth group in Iowa, at Iowa State U. about 2 years ago.

Who are you? What was your fighting name? I've been in TA for 4 years now and I'm trying to think of people who were around back then and left.

Oh gosh... I can't remember my fighting name but I do believe that I ended up being a bugbear... or something like that... I can't really remember... Oh hey I went to the 07 October fest. It was awesome. The biggest memories I have of Belegarth when I played was the battles. I really only remember the feeling of fighting. oh how much I love the fighting...

Yeah, cause if you call it a martial art in China, you have entered Serious Business territory.

Lachlan wrote:Yeah, cause if you call it a martial art in China, you have entered Serious Business territory.

Exactly. Make sure that everyone that gets involved knows that it is not a martial art. Sure, some martial arts can be used to an extent. Belegarth is, above all else, a game.

I am no going to call it martial arts. Nobody that I have talked to has asked me yet but I will educate them about it. Most people are interested in it because they have never seen anything like this before. I show pictures and everyone is like "OMG I have never seen things like that before." or "I have never heard of people doing that stuff." No one has mentioned anything about martial arts yet. Oh on a side note, they call martial arts here kung fu. doesn't matter what style they use the words kung fu to represent martial arts. and kung fu is actually spelled gong fu with g sound not a k sound, and a long o sound. Just to let ya guys know.
But my main plan is to make a bunch of weapons and shields. I have talk to a couple of people and I think the best direction to go is to let people fight and see what it feels like. I am hoping to have 2 shields and at least 3 or 4 weapons finished by halloween because there is going to be a party at my work place. Great time to get people interested.
I do love the pictures of the Chinese weapons. I am going to try making as many different Chinese weapons that I can. as well as some European styled weapons.
If you guys have anymore Ideas or have any questions just let me know. I check this post daily. I will post pictures of everything that I am going to be doing so check back too.

Sounds like you've got a solid plan Squid. As far as those starter weapons go, i'd keep it simple. Make several basic 32" box blue swords and some shields to get everybody started. Focus on the function of the game and let fancy stylized weapons come later.

It occurs to me, and I really don't mean this to sound like all Chinese people do gong fu (see, learning), but it would be fascinating to see how many people you got interested who HAD trained with swords before. I think having some old guy who knows how to use the jian beat the living * out of a bunch of kids with a blue-green would be the best thing to watch ever, in the history of time.

Isk wrote:Sounds like you've got a solid plan Squid. As far as those starter weapons go, i'd keep it simple. Make several basic 32" box blue swords and some shields to get everybody started. Focus on the function of the game and let fancy stylized weapons come later.

Yea I was just really going to make a bunch of blue swords and shields... maybe more swords then shields... I don't know just yet about the shields yet. I was going to make a bunch of shields of different sizes. Only round shields. Just having to talk to somebody that has to talk to somebody about cutting the wood for me. I will be able to get some shields made. Oh and on the fancy weapons... Those are going to be my fun with foam smithy.

Lachlan wrote:It occurs to me, and I really don't mean this to sound like all Chinese people do gong fu (see, learning), but it would be fascinating to see how many people you got interested who HAD trained with swords before. I think having some old guy who knows how to use the jian beat the living * out of a bunch of kids with a blue-green would be the best thing to watch ever, in the history of time.

Yea I think it would be awesome to get some people who know how to fight with real Chinese weapons to have a go at Belegarth. Oh Oh Oh and I plan to have the first meeting at this part near where I live that has, and get this, lots and lots of people who do tai chi (in chinese it is 太极拳 and spelled tai ji chuan). I think it will be awesome to get some pictures of us fighting with people doing tai ji chuan in the background.

Man I can't wait to get started. Oh, hey I just got one of my friends to check and see if he can get me an industrial sized roll of closed cell foam... I am looking forward to never running out of closed cell foam. As of the other materials that are needed I walk buy a store every morning that sells PVC piping. And there is a district in town that is made up of hundreds and hundreds of stores that are for construction and house renovating and, and... well just imagine a large town sized home depot. there is DAP there and more PVC piping. Duct tape and Cloth Tape are everywhere too. The only thing that I have yet to find is fiberglass rods... But I am not going to give up on finding fiberglass rods here... They have to be somewhere...

Well as soon as I get materials and start making the weapons I am going to post lots and lots of pictures.

for the fiberglass rods, try a fencing store or a store that has stuff for pouring concrete - sometimes when poring concrete the rods are used instead of the rebar, especially for delicate stuff.

Awesome!

I always wondered if there was anything like this in China. I am going to study abroad in Shanghai this coming summer, I have no idea if that is close to you or not, I would love to come to China and show em how we do it in the states!

How would you translate Belegarth also? Or are you just going to stick with the english?

BE SURE TO TAKE TONS OF PICTURES!

We just had a TV Crew from the "Travel Channel China" come spend a day filming us fighting and interviewing us. They were impressed with the sport and we had them taking turns fighting with us on bridge battles. The guy's english name is Kyle Johnson and he has a facebook page. If you want me to give him some contact info for you over there, let me know. They promised to send us a copy of the shoot when they were finished.

Konradr of Barad'Dun (Dagorhir in Las Vegas, with many Bel friends, and now Chinese one's too)

Wow, how did you swing that? That's awesome!

I don't know how they heard of Dagorhir, but they are doing shoots while traveling from Alaska to South America. On Halloween they were going to be in Vegas and they must have found us on the Dag website and contacted us. We didn't have as good a turnout as we wanted for them, but we showed them some good fighting nonetheless.

Konradr

Wow that's so cool man way to spread this Sport over into China. It takes people like you to go other places and spread it around. Hope it starts to spread even more over there and then through the rest of the world would be great. Good luck to you man.

you should show them some of the asia-inspired garb some people wear too. just to show that it is applicable and accepted in bel. that might help encourage those who are more into cultural garb/fighting styles. there are pictures on teh boards soommeeewhere...

Kudos on this one... Just a thought, if Edhellen ships to Iraq, Afghanistan... Do they ship there? Sword fries FTW.

Keep us posted. Weapons made? Field? First practice?

Good luck!