SR - Principality Discussion (Long)

Zimmermann, Leonard zimmerml at kci1.com
Tue Jun 2 07:09:24 PDT 1998


During our Populous meeting in Bjornsborg last night we had a brief
synopsis and short talk about the Principality Discussion meeting at the
Rattestoet event hosted by Fynnon Gath (sp?). During this discussion
several people brought forth their impressions of the meeting and Master
Ivar, in his own particular idiom, seemed to be a focus for getting
others to gel their impressions into a cohesive form. I cannot speak for
others or even remotely for the feelings of "The Barony of Bjornsborg",
but I can tell you how it all came together for me and I wanted to share
these thoughts with all of you.

Let me admit that I was quite excited by the idea of forming a
Principality before the big meeting at Rattestoet. Afterwards I was less
than enthusiastic. Master Ivar apparently summed it all together quite
well. It was BORING!!!! And you know, the heat was bad, the humidity was
high, the wind was non-existent and some of the same items and off-topic
ideas would keep cropping in to do nothing but compound the boredom. But
thinking about it later those things were not what was so boring. Except
for a few folks, the whole group seemed pretty apathetic about the idea
and despite my own interest I found myself being pretty apathetic as
well. There was nothing to sink our teeth into. Nothing exciting about
the idea. Nothing to inspire any of us. And it made a few of the highly
interested appear extremely over-zealous just because everyone else was
so darn lackadaisical. That apparent over-zealousness turn out to be a
big turn-off, even for those of us who are for the idea.

I don't think anyone will be very excited about the idea of forming a
principality without something more to chew on. The list of names that
was on the net was never presented. The motto we have discussed was
never presented. Very little we have discussed in this forum was
presented. And worse, we didn't have all our ducks in a row to make sure
we all KNEW Kingdom and SCA Law concerning Principalities and Kingdoms
before going into this thing. A bit of misinformation even got touted
about because those concerned just didn't know any better.

Well you know what? Master Ivar passed on another bit of wisdom last
night that I felt was all too pertinent. He stated that discussion was
required and that it should not be stifled. (I hope that was a decent
synopsis, Ivar.) After the last meeting in Tempio there was a great deal
of "concern" that this entire Principality thing was only being
discussed on the Net. That those "few" of us on the Net were somehow the
only ones allowed to shape this thing. So in order to appease those
people, we stopped talking. Well, how much have we progressed on coming
up with a small set of names we like? Or heraldry? Or some consideration
of culture we are interested in celebrating and fostering? We DIDN'T!
And no one at the meeting had anything they could really sink their
teeth into. Some vague idea about the Southern Region and some amorphous
entity called a Principality.

It's time to talk, folks. It's time to talk to each other and then bring
our ideas to our friends who are not on the net. It's time for us to
come up with something concrete. Maybe everything we think of here will
be shot down in flames at some of the upcoming discussions, but at least
it will be something for people to get excited about. Good or bad, at
least it's excitement! And excitement is the only thing that will keep
this ball rolling.

So. Let's start talking again! But let's start from the beginning. The
"Southern Region" is just an arbitrary political boundary. Let's first
take a look at why we want to from a Principality, and I don't mean the
how to form one, or because we think it will be fun, but what we hope to
bring together into a cohesive whole by creating a Principality. What
cultural ties do we want to look at and celebrate? What keeps us playing
together, besides geography (although that is also a strong
consideration), more than we play with some other groups? Indeed, what
groups are the ones we play with, or might really like to start playing
with more? (I can easily name Bonwick and some of the Western Region
groups, for example, as groups many of us have started to really play
with frequently because of some great folks out there with some
similarities in cultural ideals.)

I'd first like to toss out that in this area we tend to celebrate, with
only a few exceptions, the ideals of persona play, some level of
historical accuracy and a penchant for putting on "different" types of
events. Certainly not all of us do those things and certainly the rest
of the Kingdom does some of those things, but I think in this area we do
a good deal more of those things. Heck, just look at the names and
mottos we've proposed so far. Many have to deal with lions, a symbol in
Ansteorra of the ideals of persona play, and "As Heroes Do", a common
saying by one of this Kingdom's most respect members of the Lions. And
take a look at a barony like Bjornsborg. Some other groups talk about
not being able to throw a dead cat without hitting a brass hat, while
here the same could be said for member of the Lions. (And I'm darned
pleased to be part of a group that can say that!) And Bryn Gwlad
recently created a Baronial Award to celebrate those in that Barony who
show so much in their Personas. A celebration of something more besides
the usual Arts/Sci/Fight/Service. A worthy award to celebrate our love
of persona play.

Please note here, that I can say that I do not see the same kinds of
ideals as highly espoused in, as strictly a nearby example, Stargate.
Many may well take that to mean that I think Stargate is a bad place and
should not be allowed to play with us. Here we see the usual argument
of, "If you want to form a Principality, never do it because you just
don't like someone else." Well, that's got nothing to do with it, folks.
I have lots of great friends in Stargate and I often enjoy events there,
I just think we celebrate different cultures. Not a bad thing at all. In
fact it's a GOOD thing because it gives us diversity! Does that mean I
hate Stargate, or any other group in the Kingdom as I only use Stargate
as an oft-cited example as someone "we", whoever "we" is, "dislike"?
Absolutely not! But realize that folks will still say such things. Oh
well. That shouldn't stop us from talking.

So what do you all see as the cultural ideals we, as a group of
individual players in this game, espouse? I'll be happy to compile what
we have and I'll be happy to send it out to the Seneschals of interested
groups, in and out of the Southern Region, so all of those groups can
discuss the ideas and decide what THEY would want out of this should
things start becoming more serious!

Lionardo Acquistapace, Bjornsborg
(Lenny Zimmermann, San Antonio)
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