[MR] Arts for fighters/fighting for non-fighters

[Terri Morgan]

Duke Logan wrote (in part):
<snip>
> personally i dont know that i would support the notion
> that a pelican candidate, for example, be knowledgeable
> in or of the fighting arts in order to be considered.  
<snip of the rest of a good outline of 'what a peer should be'>

That's okay, Your Grace, I'll hold up that end of expectation. :)

Corpora has an outline of what is expected in a Peerage Candidate and those
expectations are the same for every category of Bestowed Peerage, with the
thing which separates them into "chivalry", "Pelican" or "Laurel" being a
master of their particular art. So all peers are expected to have a
knowledge of arts, service, and fighting and excel in one of them.

I don't fight. And never will. But the requirement isn't 'can you do' but
'do you have knowledge of' and the answer to that is "yes". I expect myself,
as a peer, and all candidates that I poll positively for to be able to
discuss, and even 'teach' a newcomer what we consider to be our form of the
fighting arts. To be familiar with parts of armour. To understand tactics,
if only across a gameboard (this means I expect that a candidate can play
chess, haftl, backgammon or Goh), to know what different types of a tourney
are. To possibly be able to create a tourney tree. To recognise the heraldry
of many of our fighters and be able to point them out on the field. To know
the difference between a pole arm and a long sword. To know the difference
between rapier or schlager and 'heavy armoured' fighting. To know that
archers in the SCA can't have a bow that pulls more than 35 pounds. To be
able to, as an event organiser, know what is needed for a tourney field, an
archery range, a war scenario.

Usually, by the time a candidate comes up for discussion, they've been in
long enough that such knowledge is taken for granted. Certainly, I'd not
allow my own protogees (or apprentices, if I ever take one) to be considered
without first making sure that they have that knowledge. And (since it's
me), I'd want to make sure that they were familiar with history - crusades,
the One Hundred Year wars, history of the Knights Templar, the Viking Era,
the Years of the Tourney - whatever area of interest they choose and a good
working knowledge of the rest.

In my mind, a Peer should be someone who could re-create the SCA on a
deserted island with no recourse to the Internet and have it be recognisable
when they and their friends are rescued. Or at least be able to answer most
of the questions a visitor would ask at a demo.

So that's what I look at. Other Peers may consider different things but that
is my interpretation of Corpora's requirements towards 'knowledge of the
SCA'.

in service,
Hrothny
--
Dame Hróðny Rognvaldsdottir, OP, OL
Great Dark Horde, Barony of Marinus
Misericordia Fortitudo Suprema Est
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