[SCA-AE] Re: crown tourney requirements

[KaziBrionSCA at att.net]

Greetings from Brion Enkazi:

I am not a peer and would therefore be subject to this rule.  I live in the BMDL and would have no trouble getting three letters.  Indeed, I have had more than three peers come up to me unbidden and offer such letters.  I even consider the Prince and Princess to be my personal friends, and would have felt perfectly comfortable going to them for a letter if someone other Royal had been the one to add the requirement.

Moreover, I also think it is perfectly legal and within TRH prerogative to ask for letters.

That said, I disagree with the requirement and will not fight in this Crown because of it.

What is the benefit of the rule?  Barring a hypothetical contestant who might actually win but couldn't manage to get three peers to sign the required letter?  I don't believe that any such a person even exists, and if they did the rule would HURT more than it would help.  (BTW, please note that the closest we've ever come to such a person was NOT Kyle - he's from the Hael and had local peers galore who would have signed the letter for him.  The closest example would have been Prince Rurik, who came out of nowhere to win his coronet.  But he turned out okay, did he not?)

For the sake of argument, however, let's assume the target person does exist.  A hot young stick who might be able to win, but might also be an . . . unfortunate result.

Without this rule, TRH would receive the letter of intent and face a choice.  They could allow the person to fight; they could ask for the letter to be withdrawn; or they could simply say "No."  In each case TRH could (and given the individuals involved would) speak with both the fighter himself and any trusted locals to get the lay of the land and assuage any bruised feelings.  Problem solved, and everyone may even be the better for it.

With this rule, TRH have a much tougher problem.  I think we can assume that a person who could not get three peers to say OK would have enough problems that the scenario above would kick in.  True, TRH would have a little bit of emotional cover to hide behind - they wouldn't have to say "No" - but is that really such a problem?  But what happens if the "unfortunate" person DOES manage to get the letters?  Now TRH either (a) have to let the person fight when they otherwise could have finessed it, or (b) have to essentially overrule the surety of Their peers and bruise more people in worse ways than otherwise might have happened.  Bad all the way around.

In other words, the rule has no real benefit at all.  The idea that it might encourage hot young sticks to seek out peers they otherwise wouldn't is speculative at best.

So does the rule have costs?  Several, and to my mind profound.  The first is the practical one cited above - it actually limits the Royalty's ability to solve a potential problem in the way They would wish.  Second, it implies (at least) that non-peers are somehow less worthy as individuals to sit the throne.  Since when did Aethelmearc have that kind of ethic?  There are some Kingdoms I might name who believe that tripe, but I've always been pround that we aren't one of them.  To the extent this rule would change that, it harms us all.

Third, there have been times when we didn't decide to enter Crown until the last moment.  This rule makes that impossible.  Fourth, the rule adds senseless paperwork.  Nuff said.  Fifth, it might put a peer who was asked for a letter but did not want to give one in a particularly nasty spot.  Sixth, it creates the potential for an administrative nightmare that could come back to bite us - what if one of the peer letters looks okay at first glance, but later turns out to be somehow off in some technical, "wrong words" way?  Would we have to apply a Lucan rule and overturn the results of the Crown?  Seventh, eighth, ninth . . . You get the point.

The rule does no real good.  The rule causes many and significant harms.  It is a bad rule, and we therefore choose to not comply.  This is one we'll sit out.  Which kind of sucks, because I would have loved to work as the heirs for this particular couple, but . . . watcha gonna do?

YIS,

Brion Enkazi


-------------- Original message from "Michael B. Greenstein" <greenstein at earthlink.net>: -------------- 


> >i think it *might* be difficult for someone down 
> >there, no matter their potential, to know 3 peers well enough to ask for 
> >letters of recommendation. just my opinion." 
> 
> Peers travel, too, though. At Blackstone Raid, for example, I imagine there 
> will be quite a few. Even better, and speaking only for myself, as a rule I'm 
> not that far away at all. In fact, I'm right here on your desktop. Then, of 
> course, there's Pennsic, when even Lochac is easily reached from AEthelmearc on 
> foot. 
> 
> The point is, Peers aren't hard to find or contact. 
> 
> - Michael 
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