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Re: MR: bagpipes, AOAs, etc.




Poster: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.math.harvard.edu>

  OK, so why would anybody register and display a coat of arms if they
  don't have an AoA?  It happens all the time.

Greetings from Tibor.

We do what we do, because we have always done it.  And, if you go back far
enough in the Society, you find that someone tried something... and maybe it
was right or wrong, but it became popular.

The bearing of coat armor, and the carrying of weapons, would (in period)
have been unrelated utterly.  Of course, social status being what it was,
those that might have been bearing heraldry, and those that might own or
wear weapons for certain functions might have been linked by money issues or
hubris.

As Pedro has shown (here and in other fora) Royal Action was not required in
period for the use of coat armor: but those that bore coat armor by royal
gift had stronger claims.

Weaponry, well... the various and sundry behaviors of the many kinds of
powerful people in period are SO wide... how can you judge?  But, I'll bet,
someone in the Society once wore a sword "because that's what they did then"
and took it off as a sign of respect.  Someone else thought that was fun,
and wore two swords, and then three, and a a little knife, and a boot
dagger, and so forth...

And then someone else decided it had always been that way.  Now you HAVE to
take off your sword.

My personal perception: hostile intent toward a ruling noble in their
propria court is a BAD IDEA.  Wearing of decorations is a good idea.
Playing cause and affect with that, and heraldry, is confusion.  A confusion
that our games and revels encourage.  As a herald, I carry a small knife on
my belt, which I use to cut my meat: it is not a weapon.  When I play the
Baron, I do not carry weapons of war: I pay scutage and let others do that
work.  Therefore, I do not find it appropriate for my persona to even WEAR
weapons, let alone in court.

If called into court, I attend with alacrity.  If I pray an audience before
the court, I dress appropriately, and the Crown's majordomo should satisfy
himself that my intent is, well, courtly and appropriate.  Even if I bore
weapons, I would not consider them important, as I am a gentleman, and would
not attack a man in his court.

	Tibor
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