[ANSTHRLD] Re: +AFs-ANSTHRLD+AF0- Re: +AFs-ANSTHRLD+AF0- Stars

[Tim McDaniel]

On Sat, 9 Mar 2002, Bob Dewart <gilli at seacove.net> wrote:
> So how come it took so long for the Rising Star paper work to get
> started?

It's true that Corpora says

    Kingdoms may establish awards and orders conferring Awards or
    Grants of Arms, and the Crown may award membership in such orders
    according to the laws and customs of the kingdom. The names and
    insignia of these awards and orders must be ratified by the Laurel
    Sovereign of Arms.

and

    Non-armigerous awards and orders may be established by a kingdom,
    principality or barony, according to the laws and customs of the
    kingdom. The names and insignia of these awards and orders must be
    ratified by the Laurel Sovereign of Arms.

It's just that not many people bother to sit down with their branch's
name, arms, armory, and awards, to bump up against an Armorial to look
at what's registered.  (We just had a case where a branch name was
registered with a typo back in the 1980s and they apparently just now
noticed.)  I checked the Armorial when I became Oakenwald (Steppes),
and found an unneeded item.  But I didn't bother as Bordure.  (I did
notice that Meridies hadn't registered at least one grant-level award.
I was tempted to submit it from Ansteorra and ransom it to them for a
"peppercorn" ransom like a plate of cookies, but I realized quickly
that the political grief and interkingdom hate would have been
incredible.)

Hell, how many crowns and baron/esses actually bother to ask a
herald's opinion about whether a name or design is registerable before
they announce it and use it?  They're the ones who are motivated to
actually work with it and in a position to fix things before they
become official.

> Couldn't Laurel just make an exception and pass it so the 239
> recipients of it wouldn't feel badly about the whole thing?

That would be BAD on so many levels:

- If that were done, any branch would be able to pass any award name
  by refusing to register it, using it for years, and then saying
  "don't hurt their feelings".  In short, it would reward
  rule-breaking with more rule-breaking.  (I am reminded of the
  Steeleye Span version of "Royal Forester", one of many such medieval
  and post-period songs: a woman is raped, she goes for justice, and
  the judgment is that she has to marry her rapist.)

- "I've been using it for years" has been a complaint for so many
  years by so many submitters, and I for one have no more sympathy for
  it now than I did years ago.  -- Not that my sympathy or lack of
  same counts at all: I make no decisions on registerable items.  As I
  see the complexities of rulings at Laurel level, I am getting more
  and more sympathetic to "non scripta, non est" and "them's the
  rules, period".  Anything else leads to one Hell of a lot of
  headaches and submitters upset at differential treatment.

- You're suggesting that an Ansteorran Laurel Principal King of Arms
  and an Ansteorran Pelican Queen of Arms make a special exception
  just for Ansteorra?!  Man, you must really want to see Francois and
  Mari get abused!  No.  It's fairly prudent when a Society officer
  from kingdom X has to be more hands-off than normal for issues from
  kingdom X, for fear of being thought to play favorites or to use his
  external political power to affect internal politics.  Da'ud Laurel
  had to let several situations in Ansteorra fester because he felt he
  dasn't intervene.

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at jump.net;
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