In considering and implementing a proposed "Fourth" or "Rapier"
Peerage, preservation of the current structure, traditions, and mythos
of the SCA's rapier community is not only in the best interest of the
activity, it is also in keeping with previous SCA precedent
for implementing new peerage orders, and is achievable, though not
without significant cross-Kingdom coordination and possibly the
temporary relaxation of a few corporate policies.
How do you institute a new Peerage for rapier atop a
community that has already grown as inspirational and responsible a body
of overseers as any other field of SCA endeavor--a group whose members
have already shepherded the activity through three decades of expansion
and serious growth in sholarship, who are already "clear
beacons promoting not only the ideals of the society, but also the
activities necessary for our Society to function and to best fulfill its
mission"?[1] Do you simply supplant this current, intrensic
group of leaders, and tell the various Orders of the White Scarf that
they no longer represent the pinnacle of all that is most noble and most
responsible in the field of rapier? Do you tell the Dons and Provosts
that they no longer embody the highest estate in their field, that they
may no longer embrace the responsibility for the activities, traditions,
and mythos they created--often against very tall odds or open
opposition?
I believe it would be wrong to marginalize the healthy, self-actualized
THEREFORE, in keeping with SCA precedent, I believe the
best way to implement the proposed new rapier peerage is for the Crowns
of the Known World, in close cooperation, with clear oversight on the
part of the SCA's Board of Directors, and incrementally over the course
of a year, to raise to the new Peerage Order all of those who are
already Companions in a White Scarf Order.
1. Because of the special nature of this effort and the
preexistence in the majority of the Laurel Kingdoms of an Order already
occupying the place, fulfilling the role, and embodying the virtues and
ideals of the proposed new peerage, the implementation decision by the
SCA's Board of Directors ought to be more "imperial" in nature than
would otherwise be the norm, coordinating the various Crowns in the new
peerage's implementation, rather than the BOD "firing and forgetting."
2. I believe a small implementation committee of
Heralds and/or representatives (at the Kingdoms levels, overseen by
someone appointed by the SCA Board) should oversee coordination of a
timeline with the Known World's many Crowns to make all possible efforts
to preserve the chronological order of current White Scarf precedence,
and to convert it into the new peerage. Offers of elevation to the new
peerage should be made to still-active and responsible (for at least the
previous year) companions the White Scarf. The offers and subsequent
elevations should be paced and coordinated to preserve the order of
precedence within the current collective Orders of the White Scarf. To
wit, the first should be offered to Tivar Moondragon, to preserve his
premier status. Next, offers/elevations should be made in the date
order of those who followed in the same year as Tivar, then to those who
followed in the next year, and so on, over the course of a year. Any
current White Scarf not wishing to be elevated may decline and maintain
companionship in their particular Kingdom Order of (High) Merit.
3. To facilitate the implementation process, the Board
of Directors should, for the course and scope of this effort only,
suspend or relax portions of Corpora that would inhibit this
process, such as restrictions on the Crown of one Kingdom recognizing
the accomplishments of individuals whose applicable accomplishments
occured in another Kingdom, and allow the Kingdoms' representatives to
the implementation committee (as proposed) to coordinate elevations,
objections, etc.
4. This process is almost certain to result in some
"mass elevations" at one event or another, necessary to synchronize the
generations of White Scarves across Kingdoms. Admitted, this could
detract from traditional peerage elevation mystique, and will be less
than palatable to some. Nonetheless, I regard this as a fair trade-off
in light of the greater structure and longer-held traditions that will
be preserved by the effort.
5. Some SCA members will quite rationally point out
that not every White Scarf Kingdom has always treated its Order as
something akin to a peerage when selecting the Orders' companions, and
that raising all current White Scarves to a peerage will grant that
estate to some who are potentially undeserving of peerage. Alas,
this could be true in some cases. It would be dishonest to deny it. However,
any current companion of the White Scarf who has not already grown to
meet the peerage standards as a result of the responsibility and trust
inherent in his Companionship, will quickly do so. This "adapt or be
marginalized" dynamic is nothing new to the SCA's existing peerages, to
which individuals so elevated are often held by themselves or others to
be lacking in one peerage quality or another. Such individuals either
rise to the occasion, or they do not. So, too, would it be with a new
peerage initially comprising the active White Scarves. As such, this
should not be an impediment. I openly assert that the overall level of
commitment, skill, scholarship, and virtue embodied by the collective
Orders of the White Scarf rival that of any existing peerage.
Preservation of the current structure, traditions, and
mythos of the SCA's rapier community in the implementation of a proposed
rapier peerage is, by far, in the best interest of rapier. As
importantly, it is in keeping with previous SCA peerage implementation
precedent, which should not be set aside due to the perceived complexity
of the implementation task. Such implementation as I have described
above is quite "doable," despite requiring significant cross-Kingdom
coordination and possibly the temporary relaxation of a few corporate
policies. In the end, I believe it is the right thing to do.
[1] SCA Census MMX, p. 5.
