Tuesday, May 8, 2012

You can never go back...


I live in Meridies. 

Before that I lived in Ansteorra. 

Before that: Meridies, Ansteorra, Meridies, Drachenwald (when it was part of the East), and Meridies. 

Before that, Novgorod. 

I was born in Novgorod, the Northern principality of what is now (but was not then) Russia.  At some point--and the why's and specifics are unnecessary--I left the land of my birth and wound up here in Meridies ((the first time…, in 1982, when I started in the SCA)).  I have not, since that time, taken up residence in Novgorod, or any other part of the Rus lands.  I do not hold lands there, and trouble myself very little with that land's goings on, except for the bits I pick up from others who once lived there, whom I encounter here in the Laurel Kingdoms.

I am not sure how I could manage to live all the way back there, anyway, (like I could ever convince my lady wife to tolerate that much snow!) and still make it to tournaments and courts and revels here in Meridies.  It takes many weeks to accomplish even part of the trip, if I even knew how to get back.

And how would I explain one sovereign to the other?  Rus traditions are certainly more relaxed than those in Western Europe.  I could leave service to one Prince or magnate, shift allegiance to another, and still keep the land I was given by the first.  The ways of the Laurel Kingdoms are even more relaxed.  Nonetheless, I cannot bring myself to pledge my service and fealty to a Meridian King while at the same time espousing similar devotion to a French or English King or claiming to hold lands from a Turkish Emir or a Grand Prince in Tver'. 

No, that doesn’t make sense for (to) me.., temporally or feudally or any-way-ally.

No, I live here in Meridies, full time, with my family and all the retainers, troops, and tenants befitting my station, in my fortified chalet overlooking Altantia’s southern border vale. 

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