[ANSTHRLD] Chronological list of groups

[Tim McDaniel]

On Fri, 6 Nov 2009, Jay Rudin <rudin at peoplepc.com> wrote:
> Daniel replied to Donnchadh:
>
> Do> I would guess that the prov[i]nce comes after the baronies
>
> Da>Why?  Corpora III.C <http://sca.org/docs/pdf/govdocs.pdf> says... <snip>.
>
> Meanwhile, back in Ansteorra, kingdom law can and does add more
> restrictions.

The SCA Governing Documents say that Corpora trumps kingdom law, so
Ansteorra cannot *contradict* Corpora.  For example, ceteris paribus,
Ansteorra would not be allowed to rank knights above masters of arms,
or the Chivalry about Laurels and Pelicans.  Despite various SCA
practices that have done so, though not in Ansteorra that I've seen
lately.

> Allowing a province at all is fairly new in Ansteorra, and they've
> been given restrictions that don't apply to baronies, per kingdom
> law Article VIII, Section 7.  Precedence is not mentioned, but the
> tenor of the law is such that I would put all baronies before all
> provinces.  Two clear facts justify this:
> A. Nobles rank above non-nobles, and a barony is ruled by a noble.

Nonetheless, Corpora talks about the branches being equal.  The
personal rank or office rank of the ceremonial head doesn't come into
it.

> B. Baronies have armigerous Orders that outrank Comets, given to
> province and shire members.

By Corpora, baronies are not permitted to have armigerous awards
either.  As you know, Rob, [1] the only way it works at all in
Ansteorra is as a rules hacque, that the baron and baroness ask leave
of the king and queen to bestow it.  I suspect that, if anyone were
stupid^H^H^H^H^H moved enough to want to raise a corporate-level fuss
about this, and if Laurel and the BoD weren't able to convincingly
avert their eyes (in recent years they've been atypically sensible, so
they'd want any excuse to duck it), the BoD might well forbid the
practice, or require it to be entirely controlled by and bestowed by
the king and queen solely.  For the sake of a number of people's
gastric systems, I hope the issue never arises.

Daniel de Lincoln


[1] For those unfamiliar with the base phrase: "As You Know, Bob", is
the informal title given in science-fiction circles to a scene where
two characters deliver a lump of exposition of background facts that
both characters know perfectly well but that the reader doesn't.
That is, in reality there'd never be such a conversation, so it's just
a ridiculously clumsy and WSOD-shattering [2] way of delivering an
expository lump.

[2] WSOD: Willing Suspension Of Disbelief.  To immerse yourself in the
story, you have to ignore the fact that you're reading fiction, so you
have to start with some WSOD.  Some aspects require stronger
Suspension than others.

-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com