this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
122 points (99.2% liked)
pics
28375 readers
828 users here now
Rules:
1.. Please mark original photos with [OC] in the title if you're the photographer
2..Pictures containing a politician from any country or planet are prohibited, this is a community voted on rule.
3.. Image must be a photograph, no AI or digital art.
4.. No NSFW/Cosplay/Spam/Trolling images.
5.. Be civil. No racism or bigotry.
Photo of the Week Rule(s):
1.. On Fridays, the most upvoted original, marked [OC], photo posted between Friday and Thursday will be the next week's banner and featured photo.
2.. The weekly photos will be saved for an end of the year run off.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://mastodon.world/about
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
So…LARPers?
Teeeechnically if there's no roleplay, NPCs, and/or Magic then it's not a LARP.
This is a type of medieval combat sport.
We called ours that too, "medieval combat sport", but most people's eyes glaze over unless you say LARP.
My friend used to say, "you know the Renaissance festival? It's like that, except we participate and fight competitive mock battles with rules and shit. I'm paraphrasing.
If you have to wear chainmail to avoid injuries and getting hit hard enough to lose your footing, it's not LARP.
It's historical European martial arts .
Like sparring in karate, it's full contact and not without injury. However the weapons are full and there's strict rules about where attacks are legal.
But it's not larping
The OP is from a (likely scripted) reenactment for entertainment. In other photos you can see one combatant throwing a tankard and the other spitting in the others' face both actions would get a DQ in most medieval martial arts competitions. Here's a list of other medieval fighting leagues.