[ANSTHRLD] How to get your award in the OP.

[Diane Rudin]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]

Daniel de Lincolia wrote:

>I assume you'll accept the word of unrelated and unbiased witnesses, like a >baron/baroness who saw it given?

In the Olden Days, before I became Zodiacus Herald, three known-to-be-reliable heralds swearing that an award was given was considered sufficient evidence as well.  I continued that tradition (not that it was ever necessary), but I don't know if that's still considered "good enough".  Certainly, I believe that the word of two or three known-to-be-reliable-and-disinterested peers or nobles ought to suffice as well.

Why are Daniel & I qualifying our remarks with words like "disinterested" and "reliable"?  Well, as one example, a person was once given an award based on the strong recommendation of two local people.  The Crown was horrified when, after court, they discovered that the recommendation came from the individual's spouse and the individual's own alternate persona.  Every local person was outraged.  So was the Crown, once they learned how they had been duped.  (No, I don't know what was done about the award.  Since revoking an armigerous award involves involving the Board, I suspect the Crown learned their lesson and moved on.)

I won't even START on the story(/ies) of the people who've claimed to be knights and weren't.

I will take this opportunity to remind people that this is why it is so important to fill out court report forms and SEND THEM IN.  (In which regards, mea culpa.)  Don't have a form with you?  Use any darn scrap of paper you can find.  Not sure if the award is a local nonarmigerous unofficial widget or the official armigerous Baronial Service Order?  Write down the name of the widget they were given and send it in.  It's Zodiacus's job to know what is supposed to go in the OP and what is not.  Too much information and detail is better than too little.  I remember carrying a copy of the OP with me to every event, standing up in morning court and asking people to come check their listing with me, running up to anyone wearing anything I didn't know they had and asking when they got it, etc.  One King of Ansteorra finally was convinced of the necessity of paperwork when the Zodiacus Herald looked at the scrolls on his wall and said, "Hey, we don't have in the OP that you have that!"  (That Zodiacus Herald took a notebook everywhere, and the King's unknown award immediately was added to it.)

Now, for a Good Old Days story:  A King of Ansteorra once stopped court and consulted his recording herald before adding an award to court, so that it was on the official list before it was given out.  This is the same king who once, when his herald was being ignored during court, exchanged props with his herald, giving the herald the royal mace and taking his herald's staff.  He glared at the populace, saying,"This man is my voice.  When he is talking, I am talking.  When you see this," waving the herald's staff, "think this!", waving the (very real and functional metal) mace.  The populace paid very respectful attention to the rest of court.

--Serena, who misses the days when the king stood up for his herald rather than joining the populace in ridiculing heralds



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