Okay, Richard Erickson was kind enough to get me the outdated membership manual for the unit and I have a few questions. I have already sent them to him but I wanted to get them out to the general populous so here they are.

1.) What is the difference between a "Templar Sword" and a "Templar Arming Sword."

2.) Will my local realm events count toward the increase in rank? If so I have already attended four events. The nationals are going to be a little difficult for me to attend at present.

3.) I presently have a LOT of black garb due to my previous unit. I realize that I have to get new garb for the Templars but everything that I presently have that is leather is black. That includes boots that need re-soled, belt, and leather helm that is a slight modification on a standard Norman spangenhelm.

4.) I understand about an "English" feel to armor, as such I'm having the chainmail I own mended, altered, and extended. However, my realm/chapter has provisions for paladins within our storyline which shares a lot of analogues to Lord of The Rings. I am also going to set a goal for all members of the small squad I have forming (my half-brother, my girlfriend, and two friends who have already expressed interest) to become paladins. One of the prerequisites to becoming a paladin is to hand craft your own leather Eryndor paladin armor. The armor design is what I am posting and there is to me no alterations to the white or gold parts. The other colored parts are completely up to the discretion of the maker. Is this acceptable due to it being a requirement from my local chapter? Is this acceptable due to it being a requirement from my local chapter?

Ignore everything in the manual that mentions swords. Here is what you need to know for weapons-
1. the weapon must have a red cover over its striking surface be it axe, club, spear, or sword.
2. the weapon must have a black cover over all of it's non striking portions, the haft of an axe or the guard of a sword.
3. Swords should have a "cross" type cross guard, no katanas for instance. (Find a crusades era weapon in a history book and your good)
4. It has to pass for Dag
5. No flails (except in practice)

Truthfully, We need to meet face to face before we can count you as a Templar, your prior experience while great for Dagorhir does little to show how well you will mesh with the rest of the group. We need to be sure that we can spend and enjoy a week (or more really) in a persons company because, let's face it, not everyone is fun to be around. From what I've read you seem to be pretty cool, but there's nothing like being able to actually offer a handshake to welcome a new member. If you need help getting to an event please explain what you need to get there, if possible, we can help.

Black is unacceptable for only the fabric portions of your garb, Belts, boots, and other accessories are more than welcome regardless of color. The helmet may or may not be acceptable, just depends on how it looks. Armor in general is not a requirement to fight so our standards can afford to be a bit picky.

I am not familiar with the Eryndor Chapter rules. My own opinion is that a unit is a separate entity from a chapter and a chapter has no place dictating what a player can or can't call themselves. Is there some sort of benefit to becoming a paladin in Eryndor? It says that you have to craft the armor, does it require that you wear it? Maybe if it's that important you could build it and shelve it for special occasions. We do allow some out of period armor types but leather is simply not allowed for torso armor. You could wear it over the chain mail but the surcoat would have to go on over the armor and would thus cover it completely. I'm sorry I don't have a better answer for this, like I said before armor isn't required to fight so we're pretty strict.

Also, I'll point this out just to be sure because it comes up alot. We run a dry and clean camp. While many of our members go to parties on a regular basis in their mundane lives it's not fun to have to be the one watching over the guy who doesn't know his limits. We try to hold to a image of respectable people and we don't want that damaged by drunken shenanigans. we do allow our members to go to the parties but prohibit wearing a cross while drinking. I hope this is not a problem, to us we come to dag for dag and go to parties for parties.

Sorry for this wall of text, I hope that clarifies things. I'm posting at 4am so it may be kinda blunt and rough around the edges, sorry.

Thanks Richard. The rules for armor in Eryndor that I'm speaking of really only apply to paladins. As far as that goes the only time I've seen paladins of Eryndor in armor has been either in pics from Ragnarok or from any of our big local events like what is coming up on the 21st of this month in Clyde, OH for a campout so I am thinking the Eryndor paladin armor would be used only during eryndor events or any group activity/event I do with my chapter at Ragnarok.

As far as black garb goes. The only thing fabric I have for black garb that is not getting replaced is a pair of pants with gold piping (I think I used the right term) on each leg running up the outer side and as such I usually only use that for ren faires or dress attire

As far as making it to national event goes that has more to do with work scheduling and money than anything else. Badon Hill is a possibility as it just a weekend event but Ragnarok is out of the question this year as I won't even have the funds to get the camping gear together before Ragnarok. Add to that the fact that I have a family to take care of.

I have no problem with a clean and dry camp as I've never been a big drinker. Dependent on the type I usually prefer a glass of wine to just about any other alcohol and that with a meal or on a special occasion.