THE COMPANY OF THE BRONZE RING

Qualities of a Warder

Ask any 10 Warders what it takes to make someone a Warder and you're likely to get at least 10 answers. The best answers invariably sound like they are the least helpful, and to a great extent this is because being a Warder of the Company of the Bronze Ring isn't about checking off lines of a to-do list.

So obvious that we only notice its absence is honor. No amount of success can hide lack of honor.

Following that, a Bronze Ring should be a leader in the rapier community. They should have word fame beyond their corner of the Midrealm. Their absence should leave a noticable void, and their presence should be recongized both on and off the field. They should be passionate about rapier combat and the community of fighters. If you can not point to some thing the person has done to improve or "raise the bar" for rapier combat in the Midrealm, maybe they just are not a Bronze Ring, yet.

What is required is, in a word, passion. It is the one thing we all have in common. Passion for rapier combat (or just combat in general; fighting is fighting), passion for teaching, passion for LEARNING. Passion.

Beyond that, there are some broad categories and general ideals that we hope to see in ourselves and in our future members. These qualities cannot be completely defined, but here we take a stab at it:

1. Skill/Prowess
   We want them to be an outstanding fencer, but winning tournaments isn't the only way to show it. They should be a good fight.
2. Teaching/Service
   We want the person to serve and teach, but we can't say what type of service or how much they should teach. Teaching in large classes is good. Teaching individuals is good. Running tournaments is good. Being a local marshal is good. Other things are good too.
3. Participation
   We want the person to participate, but we can't define how much participation is enough. However, a recommendation for a candidate should not be the first time we have heard of the candidate.
4. Leadership
   We want them to be a leader, but that doesn't necessarily mean leading in a melee, nor functioning well in a rapier related office.

Looking at ourselves, we note that most of us are also recipients of the Cavendish Knot and are warranted rapier marshals. Neither of those elements is a requirement. A candidate may have less skill but greater participation, although we like to have some balance.

Making a New Warder

To make recommendations directly to Their Majesties, use the MidRealm Award Recommendation website. The Company does discuss candidates privately; to give us the name of the person you've recommended, email the Bronze Ring Liaison, currently Master Alexander de Seaton of Altavia. While Their Majesties and the Company will not always agree, we have found that it can be very helpful to Their Majesties to have us discuss candidates. Our Royalty cannot know everyone, and this is our only way to recognize those who we know are not only deserving of praise, but also to call on those who are ready to work on an ever larger scale.