[Ansteorra] Persona development and lack thereof

[Michael Silverhands]

On Sep 27, 2006, at 12:47 PM, Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace wrote:

> Salut cozyns,
>
> When I first joined the SCA in 1986, I had a lot of people helping  
> me get
> all the things I needed: clothing, armor, a name, heraldry, feast  
> gear. I
> knew only a few folks who had personas. At least, I knew only a few  
> who
> actively played at being in persona. Frankly the whole persona  
> thing sounded
> a bit silly and far more theatrical than I wanted to be.
>
> What I didn't realize and what no one explained to me was that a  
> persona
> helps make everything come together. If you don't work around a  
> persona, you
> end up with some serious mismatches.

Like you, Sir Lyonel, I now have a fairly well thought-out persona  
story (or at least I like to think so) which nicely ties together  
both my "stuff" and my interests.

Like you, I didn't enter the SCA with a *shred* of this story -- or  
even a name -- in my head. I was at one of my first events and had  
given a neck-rub to a lady who had a headache. I didn't know who she  
was, but it was Baroness Elissena de Bayonne, a.k.a.  
"Lissa" (Baroness of Stargate at the time). She asked who I was, and  
I replied "Oh, just Michael." She told me "Oh, no! That will end up  
as Michael the Just... let's come up with something else... hmmm... I  
think I'll call you 'Silverhands', for that wonderful massage." It  
stuck. Everything else -- the interest in fighting, the Knight's  
Templar, Moorish music, service, etc. -- came years later. :-)

Regarding names: the heralds refused to register "Silverhands" since  
they couldn't find period references to "plural descriptive  
bynames" (or something like that). If you search the online armorial 
[1], you'll find "Michael Silverhand", although all of the awards are  
registered[2] to "Michael Silverhands". Piffle. <Popeye> I yam what I  
yam! </>, even if the heralds can't spell my name. ;-)

Kind regards,
Michael Silverhands

[1] <http://sca.uwaterloo.ca:80/heraldry/OandA/oanda_name.cgi? 
p=Michael+Silverhand>
[2] <http://heraldry.ansteorra.org/OP/op-names.php?search=Michael% 
20Silverhands&id=3427>