Dr. Livingston, I Presume?

[femkes_follies]

Anybody who knows me knows that I have a teeny tiny tendency to grab things and run with them. Today's flavor: Group Dynamics in the SCA.

Or: Why is New Group Formation in the MK the subject of so much hostility?

Cruising through various webbings of Society History has brought me to new imponderables. Bear with me as I wander in disjointed fashion through them.

The western Kingdoms in general seem to be able to spawn Principalities and often new Kingdoms with a minimum of spleen. Some of the Principalities in question remain parts of the parent Kingdom indefinitely. The Eastern Kingdoms seem to approach them with a little more indifference, but in the end manage to foster new groups with a regularity that suggests it's generally accepted practice. The Middle - fights it tooth and nail, then heaps coals on the head of the incipient groups and further tends to drive a wedge that makes peaceful co-existence as Kingdom and subdivision difficult, if not impossible. Interestingly, neither Ealdomere or Calontir has spun off a Principality either. Though I have no idea if this is due to lack of numbers, lack of desire, or an inherited cultural knee-jerk reaction against it from their mother Kingdom.

For whatever reason, new group formation of any kind in the MK seems to be greeted with hostility. Cat-pissing territorial wars, on a regular basis. Nobody wants to give up "power", "land", or "dominion." Arrrggghhhh! And yet, the MK has occasionally allowed the formation of a new group on another groups' territory against Kingdom Law. Even non-official groups in the Kingdom have a knee-jerk reaction to conflict that often involves a spin-off group (guild, household, whatever) followed by attempts at crushing out the life from the parent group.

The "Regions" of the Midrealm are officially "administrative constructs" with no offical status. And yet, they now have a slate of officers and other elements of officialdom. While breathing about forming a principality remains almost enough to warrant Banishment from the Royal Presence with certain Crowns.

The hubs opines that the differences in general attitude vary by how the Society started in that region. The Kingdom of the West began on a college campus. Thus, Multiple Colleges under the Aegis of the University are Acceptable (TM). His suspicion is that much of the formative culture of the MK happened at Sci-Fi conventions. Primarily among those who had nothing that made them feel powerful outside the Society. And so the cling to every scrap of "power" that makes them feel important and object to any perceived diminution of it strenuously. Not sure if he's right or not.

I just don't get it....

Comments

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

I think it'd be cool if all the current regions were permanent principalities. You'd have more royal presence even in the far reaches and maybe a little more fun. (Well maybe I'm the only one who thinks more royalty would be fun) But I digress, pretend power seems to cause as many problems as real power.

Or something like that, yes. I think it would be an interesting experiment at least. Formation of a Principality does not have to equal soon or even ever breaking away into a Kingdom. And I think if the MK had a better handle on that concept, they might have kept some of there previous principalities longer or even indefinitely.

Yeah, it's the pretend power thing that's making me crazy. And how neglected sections of the Region seem to be. There has been a lot of monkey business with new groups - usually involving Shires that don't have a lot of recourse to defend themselves. And they're so far out of the main, some of them might get a Royal visit every 5 or 10 years. Not because they're geographically distant but because they put on one small event that isn't deemed important enough to bother with. A couple of the "hinterlands" are pretty centrally located. Just lightweights in terms of influence with the Kingdom.

[mistressarafina.livejournal.com]

I think that the regional offices are supposed to help with levelling the playing field across the region, but we know that there are still some groups that will always get more of the spotlight. Even if both the crown and the tanists traveled every weekend to separate events, they still wouldn't get to them all. Maybe if all 4 split up, but what kind of fun would that be.

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

Creating a Barony over 5 co-equal Shires is almost the ideal way to do it. There is no "central" Canton. And not a single Shire going Baronial and then splinter groups forming Cantons out of pique. I'd think that the danger will be that everyone will continue playing with their Cantons and it might be difficult to get folks who want to run the Barony.