Torpido is a fisshe

[ursula]

In fact, a torpedo is a sting-ray.

The new herald for a new barony recently posted a list of proposed order names to SCAHRLDS. A certain number of people responded with, "Why on earth do you need all those orders? It's not remotely authentic!" She then replied that giving lots of awards is an integral part of the SCA culture, and alienating people by insisting on authenticity with no regard to their feelings is a Bad Plan.

This is the plan for a more-authentic, SCA-friendly baronial award system which I posted:

• As nobility, the Baron and Baroness should give cool stuff to their followers at every opportunity. This could range from free food all the way through, oh, I don't know, piles of gold (assuming your local artisans incline that way). Wearable items with the baronial badge might be particularly appropriate. Earlier on this thread we had some discussion of non-physical cool things to give, as well, such as Freedom of the Barony.
  
  The SCA is very susceptible to the "Anything Done Twice Becomes a Tradition" law. If the Baron and Baroness present the same cool thing twice for the same reason, I'm willing to bet that it will be virtually indistinguishable from an award with a registered name.
  
  
• Actual orders should be limited in number. This can be set up like the Award of Arms. Everyone understands that an AoA honors a wide range of things. It also carries a certain precedence. I'm not the right sort of herald to ask about how precedence works with Baronial awards, but something along the lines of Order of Cool People and Order of Absolutely Astonishing People seems reasonable, and bards and fighters (and clerics and rogues?) can all proudly belong to the Order of Astonishing People together.
  
  
• The Barony should allow for barony-sponsored guilds, military companies, schools, and the like which are modeled on medieval groups other than knightly orders. Membership or title in a specific guild may be the best way to honor skill in a specific area.
  

(For those of you playing along at home, one natural conclusion from this line of reasoning is that the best way to deal with awards with unregistered names such as the Tsveti Madrone [which comes with a flower medallion and can be received multiple times] is NOT to register the name, but to treat it as a specific example of the Baron and Baroness' great generosity in giving gifts to worthy subjects.)

Comments

[ursula]

Any chance of getting alaric to start handing out halibut? :)

Have you showed gemdol how to search old Academy of Saint Gabriel reports? Since she's looking for information on specific names, they might be helpful. (Though it's hard to find a better source than Mari's articles, if you're willing to start with a list and go from there.)

[katerinfg.livejournal.com]

Dear, *I* have never gotten around to learning how to do that. I'm much more of an armory herald than a name herald, and even in that I still have loads and loads to learn. I'm barely staying a hop, skip, and a jump ahead of my students.

So, how do you search old Academy of Saint Gabriel reports?

[ursula]

Actually, it took me several years of belonging to the Academy to figure out where the right search tool was, and they only put it in a logical public place recently. The advanced search tool is here:

http://www.s-gabriel.org/advancedsearch.html

It's slow and just lists results by report number, but it's still the best way I know to look at old reports. As an example, searching for Jonathan (without changing any of the optional fields) yields four or five reports, including this report:

http://www.s-gabriel.org/1172

which says that Jonathan was a rare name in England, and there probably isn't a period Irish equivalent.

The Academy FAQ for Heralds:

http://www.s-gabriel.org/faq/heraldsfaq.html

has a little bit more about other ways to search old reports.