The Wistric Saga

Wistric Oftun is a Master of Defense in Meridies, who was the subject of a dispute and sanctions over the last year. I have no personal knowledge of this case, but it makes for interesting reading, so I thought I would gather some relevant links here.

In most of the sections below, there are one or two primary documents listed first, followed by a series of Facebook links that to related discussion.

The dispute centers on an incident that took place at Gulf Wars in the spring of 2022; Wistric began posting publicly about it at the end of February.

• Wistric’s Gulf Wars Incident Report, March 20, 2022
• Wistric’s Appeal of Administrative Sanction, January 2023
  • Wistric on Facebook, February 28: “Who would’ve guessed doing your job and following the rules was a sanctionable offense”
  • Wistric on Facebook, March 1: “I’ve had some questions about the incident…”
  • Wistric on Facebook, March 3: “Thank you for the outpouring of support…”
  • Wistric on Facebook, March 8: “You’re only hearing half the story…”
  • Wistric on Facebook, March 14: “Baldarpologists seem to want to talk about my motives…”
  • Wistric on Facebook, March 23: “They need institutional reform.”

A number of others in the martial community addressed the perceived threat to the marshalate.

• Griffith Davion on East’s Facebook, March 1: “Marshals exist for safety not for politics…”
• Wilhelm von Ostenbrukeon East’s Facebook, March 1: “… I will have that marshals back.”
• Ian Raven on Outlands’ Facebook, March 2: “I have your back as KRM…”

In the wake of that drama, Iselda de Narbonne contacted the Board asking for information about the incident.

• Iselda’s Correspondence with the Board, March 6–22
  • Iselda on Facebook, March 6: “TIL, you can essentially FOIA the BOD!”
  • Iselda on Facebook, March 20: “Unsurprisingly, I have received no reply whatsoever…”
  • Iselda on Facebook, March 22: “I hope this is my last update for a while…”

Aeron Harper, Iselda’s husband, then weighed in to challenge the Society leadership’s handling of her request.

• Aeron’s Letter to the Board, March 26
  • Aeron on Facebook, March 26: “Operational manuals don’t overrule an organization’s governing documents…”

A few weeks later, Aeron followed up with a longer article, initially released in five parts.

• Aeron’s A Tale of Six Sanctions, April 17–21
  • Aeron on Facebook, April 17: “This part 1 is a quick legal primer on how rules are interpreted…”
  • Aeron on Facebook, April 18: “In this part 2 of my investigation, we will be looking into the sanction of Master Brian De Moray…”
  • Aeron on Facebook, April 19: “In this part 3 (of 5), we will be looking into the sanction of Master Wistric Oftun.”
  • Aeron on Facebook, April 20: “Today’s part 4 (of 5) is a continuation of the analysis of Wistric’s sanction and the events that followed…”
  • Aeron on Facebook, April 21: “Here’s the final installment.”
  • Aeron on Facebook, April 21: “Here’s the complete paper – all 42 pages and 150 footnotes of it.”

One section of Aeron’s paper digresses from the case of Wistric to review a sanction issued to Brian De Moray, who spoke up to provide additional details.

• Brian on Facebook, April 18: “I was sanctioned in January of 2020 by the BOD…”
• Brian on Facebook, April 18: “I am hopeful that the organization I’ve loved for 20 years can similarly improve…”

[Update, April 28:] During the April Board meeting the subject of Wistric’s sanctions came up, including a reference to “community standards,” which proved some further discussion.

• Iselda on Facebook, April 24: “… no one can learn anything from this sanction.”
• Wistric on Facebook, April 24: “For those wondering what a violation of SCA community standards is…”

[Update, April 28:] Another person with a legal background wrote an open letter to the Board and posted it on Reddit. In the comments, someone posted screenshots of a private conversation between Trimaran MoDs which had been part of the Society’s investigation file; when called out they deleted the screenshots and their account (but of course there are receipts).

• Kai Tseng on Reddit, April 25: Open Letter to the Board
• “DingleBerry_Darren” on Reddit, April 27: “… looks like the MoDs were discussing keeping this guy out…” [chat screenshots: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7]
• Wistric on Facebook, April 30: “… if you take anything away from this experience, it’s that you should always keep receipts…” [chat transcript]

[Update, May 21:] Aeron Harper follows up on the leaked screenshots.

• Aeron’s The “Smoking Gun” Addendum, Part 1, May 21
• Aeron on Facebook, May 21: “An addendum!”
• Aeron’s The “Smoking Gun” Addendum, Part 2, May 22
• Aeron on Facebook, May 22: “For all who are interested…”

What am I missing? If there are other significant chapters or diverging viewpoints on this situation not reflected here, please drop me a line or comment below — I’d love to get a more-rounded perspective.