[MR] Comments on Proposed revision of Corpora IV.A.1.

[Gorm of Berra]

I think it is very important to point out that many of those claiming that 
the proposed system is bad are inadvertantly not considering one important 
facet of the way An Tir chose to perform their experiment.

It was NOT merely a melee tournament.  The combatants fought in a "Normal" 
fashion (ie one-on one, I do not know if it was Single or Double 
elimination, or pools, or what, but I do know that it was single combat) 
UNTIL the field was down to the final two.

Then those two, and ONLY those two, had the overnight period to garner 
support from the other entrants of the Crown Tournament.  ONLY those who 
fought in the Crown Tourney were eligible for the "Crown War" portion.

So it would not be possible for the proposed small "Kingmaking" group to 
decide to throw the crown to someone and just rotate it between 
themselves.  Their proposed champion would have to get all the way to the 
finals of Crown, not coincidentally defeating the other members of the 
"Kingmakers" , before the others could band behind him and give him the 
Crown, if they could defeat whoever the other finalist had behind him.

So, the pool of contenders is limited to those who can, on their own honor 
and skill and will, acheive the rank of Crown Tournament finalist.  That is 
a very select group...in my memory there are Logan, Anton, Galmr, Amalric, 
Corby, Janos, Ragnarr, Stephan, and a handful of others.  The same folks 
who win Crown tourneys.

 From another angle...No one is proposing to force Kingdoms to adopt Melee 
combat for the selection of Kings.  Leaving things as they are merely 
allows those Kingdoms who wish it to give it a shot.  And it's a 
self-correcting problem.  If Melee combat finals produce bad Kings, then 
future Kings won't have the selection by Melee combat.

Perversely enough, this is a Kingdom rights issue.  Give the Kingdoms 
rights to choose their monarchs how they choose (so long as it's within the 
parameters of Rattan Combat).  Don't force them to use a system that was 
developed by accident.  The Society can't be harmed by allowing 
experimentation.

Single combat has chosen bad kings as well.  There was a King from the 
Midrealm back many years ago who is reviled, some believe a recent King of 
An Tir was bad.  Both of these were chosen by single combat.  Should we 
eliminate that system because it has demonstrated that it can create bad Kings?

Gorm of Berra