Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Heraldic questions...
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 18:17:00 -0500

Greetings to all, and to Tadhg! Tadgh said a few things I disagree with;
to wit...

TI>> Would to God that the College's activities *were* "regulatory and
  >> required"; they are certainly less so in the SCA than they were in
  >> Period....
And monarchs could have people put to death or imprisoned for
disagreeing with them in Period. Ours can't, and I'm glad. Most people I
know don't want to take part in things that get increasingly more
regulated and required...

TI>> Well, to begin with, not everyone agrees with you that "To have fun and
  >> learn by re-creating selected parts of medieval culture" is the "real
  >> purpose" of the SCA; *I* certainly don't. (You're close, but still on the
  >> "we're just in a play" side of the line.) The "real purpose" of the SCA,
  >> as I see it, is "To have fun and learn by recreating as many aspects as
  >> feasible of medieval culture." A bit more comprehensive, as you may
  >> perceive.
So Who died and made you BoD? <grin>... "The Real Purpose"... The very
fact that you disagree with Arval's definition sheds light on this
phrase; "The Real Purpose" of the SCA, Inc., is whatever its members and
participants want it to be. Yours, Arval's, and mine all differ;
greatly, in some cases. The commonalities are what bring us together. It
is feasible to recreate things to a greater extent than they are now...
say, tell everyone in the East that they must adopt Baltic personae,
everyone in An Tir must become English and Irish, the West - Spanish,
Atenveldt - French/Frankish, and us Ansteorrans - Italian.
Geographically divided. So all of us are Italians and do Italian things,
and occasionally we interact with our neighbors. That's feasible; that's
also undesirable.

  >> JM> The evidence shows us that armigers did make some effort to
         maintain uniqueness locally, but it was done informally
         and it certainly was not done globally.  Even in the
         later Middle Ages, when royal officers regulated armory
         in a few kingdoms, no one attempted to enforce
         uniqueness even over the entire kingdom, let alone between
         kingdoms.
TI>> Inapposite analogy. The SCA is, in effect, one "locality", due to
  >> the modern propensity to (a) communicate at long distance, (b)
  >> travel long distances, and (c) move around during life. Most SCA
  >> people travel more in a year than even great nobles on crusade
Tadgh, most of us travel only in our area or kingdom, much like
those nobles. Only a small percentage travel outside their kingdom, with
the sole exception of the Big Annual Wars. And even then you're talking
of a fraction of the group. Kingdom size is about right. The SCA as a
whole is _not_ one locality. We're about a dozen or so...

TI>> I could be very comfortable with each kingdom having its own King
  >> of Arms and maintaining standards of uniqueness locally.
I agree. It would cause confusion on a regular basis, but that would add
a lot to what could be done with heraldry and to the flavor of the SCA.
Say, a set of real general guidelines over all, with the specifics left
to the kingdoms. Some basic SCA-wide checking of Kingdom-level
ensignia... but the rest local. I _like_ this; bring this up on HERALDS.

TI>> ...     -- but the solution is not to abandon authenticity, but rather
  >> extend that enforcement into these other slack areas.
  ...
TI>> JM> I will not impose my preferences on the entire SCA, and we should not
  >> JM> tolerate it when others do so.  Yet that is exactly what the College
  >> JM> of Arms has been doing for 25 years.
  ...
TI>> Look again -- that's just what *you've* been advocating for years. You
  >> would require everyone to tolerate anarchy, just because *you're*
  >> comfortable with it. Well, not everybody is; and I'm here to tell you that
  >> *I* find it utterly distasteful.

...Tadgh, this is not anarchy; this is just non-authoritarian. We've
been defined as a game, a hobby, and a research group/club. None of
those _require_ non-tolerant rule waving. If you disagree with someone
as to their authenticity or lack thereof, convince them with words, not
regulations.

Ulfie


 * SLMR 2.1a * CAT: A small, furry beast resembling a meatloaf.