Interesting Times

Well, let it never be said that life doesn't tend to throw you a curve ball every now and then. And for the record, this one caught me right between the eyes.

Last weekend, Sir Jean Paul de Seans threw the final blow of Crown tournament, making him the first local Mooneschadeen to hold the title of Heir to the throne of Ansteorra.

Well... yeah. I'll be honest with you, I didn't see that one coming. Maybe others did, maybe the whole kingdom did for all I know, but I just didn't see it happening until I heard about it from my wife. And also, I will point out that I have had some stuff happening in my mundane life that had my attention that day, so this wasn't idle ignorance.

So, what does this mean to me as a herald? And to a lesser extent, what does this mean to me as a Mooneschadeen?

Actually, a good amount on both.

As a herald, that means that I now have new access to the crown and a new and very different perspective on how and why they conduct themselves. True, I don't consider myself one of His Highness's inner circle, but I do know him far better than I do any other person to sit the throne.  I'm probably going to have a better chance to interact with a Golden Staff than ever before, and as HRH's attendance is almost guaranteed at any Mooneschadowe event, my local exposure to a crown will be as high, if not higher, than it was under Her Grace Vanessa's second time on the throne.

On a semi-political note; I made what some will likely label a ploy when I last spoke with High Highness. Knowing that they were still looking for a Golden Staff (Crown herald), I asked if he would speak to his choice about taking me on as a student of sorts.  Why not just throw my name in as Golden staff? Simple, I don't have that high an opinion of myself, and neither does JP (rightfully so, I might add). I told him when I spoke that this wasn't any sort of attempt to get in good with anyone. The bottom line was that this was probably going to be my best chance to get an inside perspective on the office of Golden Staff. I do want the job, someday, and that day won't get any closer unless I start learning.

It will be an interesting time, without question. And I'm not even going to hazard a guess if that is going to be good or bad, mainly because I don't want to jinx what luck I have.

As a Mooneschadeen, the effects are no less dramatic. With Owen, and now Jean Paul set as members of the royal family, this will be represent a full year of northern representation on the throne. As I recall, Sir made the finals both this time and last, and after he steps down, Owen might very well intend to try and trade off reigns with JP, though that is only my own speculation.

Why is this important? Several reasons.

First of all, there are a lot of people in the kingdom that don't understand Mooneschadowe. That's okay, mind you. I don't understand a lot of the other groups, and trust me when I say that they all are very unique in how they work. But the problem is that Mooneschadowe isn't a shire, a canton or a barony. We're the only province in the Kingdom, and one of only a handful in the SCA known world. There have been more than just a few hard feelings and even some harsh words exchanged over our status, and a lot of it originates with people totally misunderstanding how and why we went province rather than Barony. I'm not saying that we want to change how people think, but I think have a Mooneschadeen crown on the thrown will go a long way towards getting people to rethink their original opinions of us. Or at least I can hope, right?

I guess, in the end, JP's victory at crown can only affect me as much as I want it to. It represents a huge opportunity for a lot of us in Mooneschadowe, but at the same time, it also is just part of the cycle that is Ansteorra's Royalist Government.

Lord Ivo Blackhawk
Protege to Master Robert Fitzmorgan
Nordsteorra Herald
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"God Save the King!"
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