From: vader@meryl.csd.uu.se ("]ke Eldberg")
Subject: Drachenwald Kingdom ideas (long)
Organization: The Internet
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 19:02:57 GMT

Greetings from William de Corbie!

Thanks to Mikjal Annabjorn and Tibor (and others) for commenting on
my depressive Xmas moans.

DRACHENWALD LAW

Tibor is right that it is too late to do anything about the law
of the Kingdom of Drachenwald. This was one of the reasons for
my depression.

The situation here is complicated. Nordmark is the largest SCA
group in Europe; 250 sustaining, 50 associate and 11 family members
 according to my best information. Our census database contains 703
people who are all known to be active. I am uncertain about the
numbers for the rest of Drachenwald, but my general impression is
that all the groups in Germany, Britain, Ireland and Holland put
together would add up to about the same number of people as
Nordmark alone.

The new law for the Kingdom has been written by the Principality
officers, I believe just about the same people who make up
the Curia. (They have done a great job, and this is in no way a
wail against their law which is a good one, in terms of creating
a traditional, working SCA Kingdom loosely based on the East.)

The law writers are, however, nearly all Americans, and there is
not a single person from Nordmark among them -- as far as I know.
This is a result of the old traditional situation in Drachenwald,
where American military personnel made up the backbone. The demo-
graphical situation has changed drastically, but the administrative
side has not followed. This, in its turn, is the result of

a.) Unwillingness on the part of the Americans to part with major
    offices. Minor offices have been given to Nordmark on a couple
    of occasions, but none of the Great Offices of State. I know of
    at least one occasion when a Nordmarker applied for a Great
    office but was told that he lived "too far away".

b.) Unwillingness of Nordmarkers to accept major offices. There is
    a strong isolationist tendency in Sweden. People here feel that
    Drachenwald is "down there in Germany", not here. Few Swedes
    enter Coronet Tourney except when it is held in Sweden. Few of
    us can afford to travel to central Europe. Few members own cars.
    (Gasoline costs ca $4.90 per gallon.)

I have been invited via email to comment on the law draft, but could
not do so since I had not received the draft. I do not know if anyone
in Nordmark received a printout of the law draft. When I finally got
one, it was too late to change anything.

The populace of Nordmark seem intent on becoming a Principality ASAP
after Drachenwald goes Kingdom. This will permanent the present situa-
tion with the administrative center of Drachenwald in Germany. But it
will allow the Swedes to rule over themselves; I guess that is what
they want. Myself, I would prefer if Nordmark took an active hand in
the administration of the Kingdom; move the center *here*, because
this is where the people live. A Kingdom of Drachenwald where 50% of
the inhabitants belong to a Principality, and devote their efforts
to that and not to the Kingdom, does not make sense.

But I can also understand the isolationist tendencies. As it is
today, we have already been left completely outside the founding
of the Kingdom, except for the polling. Why should we feel part of
something that we were not given an opportunity to affect? We have
been given the role of outsiders, and we have accepted it with relish.

KINGDOM REFORM

(WARNING: People who feel that the SCA is "Love It As It Is Or Leave It"
 should skip the rest of this message as it may cause severe nausea and
 anger, and, in cases of extreme conservatism, even death by suffocation.)

I have given some thought to how we might change the Kingdom if we
got the opportunity. Or how we might design a future Principality of
Nordmark. These are my own ideas, and there is no guarantee that
they would meet with the approval of a majority here in Nordmark...

The suggestions below have been checked against Corpora. While they may
not always follow the intent of Corpora, they do not, as far as I can
see, violate its letter.

1. Fighting and archery. Make it law that any rewards for fighting or
   archery shall require the use of authentic equipment. No laws against
   plastic, but strong motivation for authenticity. Let authenticity
   weigh *heavier*E>than skill (skill is what wins you the competitions,
   authentic recreation is what brings you honor in the form of awards).

   We could stop participating in IKAC, stop shooting Royal Rounds
   and other competition forms which are post-period. We could invent
   our own archery tournament system based on medieval precedents.
   We could stop having elimination tournaments and act to design all our
   tournaments according to medieval precedents.
   Whether or not these changes need to be codified is an open question.

2. Abolish the unmedieval system with lots of orders for different
   activities. Instead, increase the status of the Award of Arms so
   that it becomes a real "ennoblement". Put it on the same level as
   today's kingdom "orders of high merit". Make AoA required for the
   display (not the registration) of arms. Fill out the holes (left by
   the abolished orders) with awards and gifts of honour, as authentic
   as we can make them.

   This would be a problem in the USA because it differs a lot from the
   usual way these things are done, and people move between kingdoms.
   But the migration between Nordmark and the continental USA is almost
   nil, so it could work over here. 

3. Peerage. Corpora regulates the three peerage orders in detail, so
   we cannot get rid of them. My goal is a single peerage which is
   the same for all, regardless of the activities for which it is given,
   and making knighthood separate from the peerage system. This cannot
   be done without violating Corpora, but we could work in that direction.
   What we could do is e.g. 

   a. Decrease the specialization of the three orders, so that candi-
      dates are as free as possible in choosing which peerage they
      wish to belong to. For example, a person whose main contributions
      are A&S, but who is also a competent fighter, might be made a
      knight instead of a laurel if he so wishes, and vice versa.

   b. Organize the knights as an Order of Knighthood, and decrease the
      "order" nature of the other peerages. Organize the Laurel as a
      guild of masters, or a society of (guild) masters. Invent some
      other period-style form of organization for the Pelican (modelled
      on the Inquisition? :-))

   c. Tag down on the extreme elitism of EK peerage.

4. Rulers. One of the least good things about the SCA is that it concen-
   trates far too much on its internal system and particularly that of
   rulership. The constant change of rulers, and the very central role
   of rulers, makes it expensive and exhausting to be a ruler, and takes
   attention away from the real middle ages. 

   Corpora states that Kingdoms and Principalities have the right to
   select their rulers by combat. It does not say for how long, or how
   the combat shall be conducted.
   
   We could e.g. hold Crown tournament once every three years... or let
   the winner of the first Crown remain King until he chooses to step down,
   more or less like a territorial Baron. By delegating the powers and
   responsibilities of the Crown as far as possible, the burden of
   rulership could be diminished.

   This would counteract the sad tendency in SCA fighting to become a sport
   instead of a recreation of medieval combat. It would make our tourna-
   ments more authentic, and make our events in general less focused on
   the modern organization called the SCA, more focused on the real
   middle ages.

   As to the conduct of the Crown lists, we could make it Kingdom law that
   it shall be a war scenario. We can have a rule which limits entry to
   the Crown Lists in a direction we find desirable. To give you a picture
   of what I mean, we could e.g. have a system where every third Crown
   Tournament is for Knights only, every third is for all fighters,
   and every third is for Laurels and Pelicans who are not Knights, only.

   We could even have a Crown list where anyone who has participated in
   fighter practise or a tournament during the last 12 months, is banned;
   non-fighters could then receive a temporary authorization, borrow some
   weapons and armor, and fight it out. Thus we could have rulers selected
   by combat, making it Corpora legal, who are really not fighters...

5. Feudalism. Sadly, the inauthentic use of nearly all the historic feudal
   titles is regulated in Corpora, where they are used as personal merit
   badges and not in a feudal manner. However, there is nothing to stop us
   from creating a feudal system of our own, laid down in Kingdom law and
   superimposed on the administrative system required by Corpora -- as
   long as we do not call the rulers of our counties Counts, or the rulers
   of our duchies Dukes, and so on...

6. Theme events. Make it law that at least one or two Kingdom events
   per year shall be theme events where the internal SCA structure
   does not apply. For instance, we might have one Viking event per year,
   and one Celtic or Norman or renaissance -- fixed, or according to a
   rotation system. These would be events where everyone is expected to
   dress and behave in a manner compatible with the event, regardless
   of their personae, and where all SCA ranks and titles are temporarily
   suspended in favor of such that are part of the event scenario.

   This would occasionally liberate us from the tutti-frutti middle ages
   of regular SCA events, without actually changing the regular SCA
   structure.

7. We could counteract the drift away from the middle ages and toward
   the baroque by outlawing fencing, shinai and all other forms of combat
   other than heavy.

It remains to be seen whether any of these ideas will ever become reality.
Given my experience with American SCAdians, I think that one thing is
certain: they will only have that chance in an autonomous SCA branch
administered by Europeans. We will see what we can do if Nordmark does
become a Principality.

William de Corbie