NR - Tribute and Warlord

[Aunt Dwen]

Greetings to the List, Dwen here.

    I find myself in agreement with Estril and others who feel that Tribute
and NRW on top of one another is hard on the region and those who
participate.  Spacing regional events six months or so apart makes all the
sense in the world to me.  I *really* liked the idea of having NR Tribute as
an indoor event--possibly with some land outside for the truly hard-core who
might want to fight in the height of the Nordsteorran summer.  There are, of
course, other martial exercises/experiences which can be done inside--battle
strategy classes, arms/armor making classes, siege engine construction, good
warm-up exercises, etc.  As the person who coordinated classes for a couple
of the NR Tributes I received a lot of feedback from fighters who wanted to
participate in the classes but were unable due to fighting.

    It certianly seems to make sense to have the NRW event as soon as
possible after Gulf Wars so the Warlord can coordinate melee and other
fighter practices.  Jean Paul did an excellent job of promoting regional
fighter practices after accepting the NRW responsibilites from, I think
Colin? who knew he wouldn't be able to attend the war.  The organizing of
the troops in Nordsteorra seems the best most obvious part of the "job" of
NR Warlord.  If you look at the unofficial calendar that's posted online,
Crown Tourney will be the first weekend in March.  There's not much after
Gulf, and nothing that is scheduled in this region.  Perhaps one of those
dates for NRW...

    Another thing that made the first NRWarlord work well was the amount of
communiction to the Crown, and the Crown's support of the idea.  As I
recall, this was done in such a way that the Crown's absolute right to
appoint it's own regional warlords and kingdom warlord was respected.  The
N.R. Warlord was primarily to gather troops, promote unit fighting and
coordination in a melee setting, and to promote participation in the war
itself.  If the Crown then chose to make use of that person on site at Gulf
War, great!  If not, a very important service to the Crown and Kingdom has
been provided and unity and cooperation amongst the Northern troops is
increased.  PR seems like a very important piece of this puzzle that's been
lacking in the past.

    I don't know how our current N. Reg. Seneschal feels about it, but I
don't really think that in the past it has been the responsibility of the N.
Reg. Seneschal to help put on the event, though it could be if that was a
responsiblity the person in office wanted.  In looking at the history of
NRW, I think that the lack of a "lead" group, like Wiesenfeuer was for
Tribute for many years, has left the event un-anchored.  I seem to recall
this year that Baroness Sigen put forth a call for bids to sponsor the event
(though my memory could be impaired). (I'm taking it no one did, and that
Northkeep stepped up to help?)

    The bid process is very much the way Kingdom level events are done.  If,
as some have suggested, NRW is another vehicle for our working together as a
region in preparation for eventual independence (did I say that out loud?),
we might want to approach both Tribute and Warlord in the same way Crown,
Queens and A&S are done on the Kingdom level.  Bids could begin now for both
of those events for the 2001 year.  Coordination of those bids might well
have to go through the N.R. Seneschal's office (unlike any other events we
hold).

    These thoughts are put forth to encourage more discussion.  What do
folks think about an Early Spring/Late Summer split of the two events?  How
'bout the bid process?  What are some specific thoughts about improving PR?

Blessings,

Auntie Dwen

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