(bright medieval music) - Hi, I'm Robert Thorn, Barony of Illiton.

Are you interested in King Arthur and Robin Hood?

Then you should come out and experience the medieval ages.

(traditional medieval music) (arrow whooshes) - [Reader] "I hear swear fealty and do homage "to the crown of the Middle Kingdom "to prize justice above personal gain, "to labor for the common good, "to enrich the kingdom and the society, "so that they may flourish and grow."

- My name is Scott Heckathorn.

In the medieval world that is the Society of Creative Anachronism, I am known as his Excellency Baron Robert Thorn.

I am the baron of the local area of Peoria, Illinois.

Our actual local coverage goes from the corner of 39 and I80 to the Mississippi River.

- The Society for Creative Anachronism, it's a worldwide organization, and it is our intent to recreate the Middle Ages pre 17th century.

- We recreate the medieval ages as we feel they should have been.

So we don't do plague, we don't do the Viking raids, but we do embrace martial combat.

We do fencing, archery, thrown weapons.

We do so much arts and sciences, anything from singing and actually making your own fiber weaving to make the fabric that you wear, to basket weaving, blacksmithing.

We do leather work, lots of jewelry.

If you ever look at any of the old medieval movies, museum pieces or anything, we try to recreate everything you can find in a museum today.

And we try as hard as we can to recreate it as they would've recreated it with period actual methods and tools.

- The outfit, most of it was made by someone, not that I know directly, but someone who's also in this society.

I know friends who work with leather who make the belts and the shoes.

I have sewn the linen for tunics.

- I know the person who made my belt.

I know the person who made my boots.

I know the person who felted this hat.

- We have a lot of vendors that will actually make and sell their own clothes for others to buy that know their limitations.

We just wanted to do it, and we didn't necessarily care or mind what anybody else thought.

And we're just gonna go out, and we're gonna have our fun.

(traditional medieval music continues) (chain mail clanging) - The experience of fighting is awesome.

(laughs) The swords we use, the equipment is, they're training light.

So for heavy fighting, we use what's known as rattan, so it's like bamboo.

It's just a sword that we cover in duct tape and foam and have hand protection on so that it's safe.

- Are we ready?

- [Both] Yes.

- Lay on.

(bright music continues) (weapons whooshing and thwacking) - This is not a demonstration.

This is not choreographed.

What we do is an actual martial art where we are competing one against the other.

My favorite thing about the Society for Creative Anachronism is that it is a hobby of hobbies.

Once one gets involved in the society, the number of things that you can then get involved in beyond that just balloons outward.

When I started, I was just interested in learning about the fighting.

(axe thumps) And then I went into calligraphy and illumination.

And then I went into administrative aspects of the society, and I'm currently a kingdom officer.

- The best part for me generally is just the people, the connections, the friendships.

- I've always been interested in the Middle Ages, so this was honestly just a natural adaptation of my interests.

But it was friends who drew me in, and it's friends who keep me in.

- [Aidan] My favorite thing, I think still is people.

It's my job as a landed baronage to take care of the people that are in my area.

So, I really get to see them on their best days, on their worst days, I get to know them, and they get to do some really cool stuff, and I get to support them, which is probably my favorite thing out of all of it is seeing my friends do really cool stuff.

- [Participant] The best part about the society is the people that I've gotten to know, I've been privileged to meet some remarkable people in the society and to work with them very closely.

- [Aidan] If you just wanna come out to a local fight practice or see people who do sewing nights, that doesn't cost anything other than your time to just go and hang out with people.

And you can learn a lot and make a lot of really cool friends just by being who you are.

- It's not just a display and a show that everybody gets to watch.

If you're allowed, you can come in and partake in it, so it's not exclusive.

There's always far and wide or close by, you can get out and do stuff and still be connected with everybody that's in the group.

It is honestly a big family.

We don't just necessarily spend time on the weekends just doing this.

Throughout the course of the week, we have other practices, we do game nights.

We'll just sit there and go out to eat, and it's... I'd say it's like a brotherhood, but it's family.

If you're interested, get involved.

Embrace who you are.

You can still come out, and we will embrace you.

We will accept you.

Just go out and find your tribe.

(weapons clashing) (chain mail clanking)