Order of the Argent Bear

Company of the Golden Ring

Jan - Jul 99, Principality of Oertha

Patron:

Viscountess Katrazina (Princess of Oertha during the duration of the Company)

Organized by:

various - see Company Membership

Description:

An informal votive company as described in the Company Charter.

How it Went:

The initial announcement, at closing court of Winter Coronet, went over quite well. Lord Fergus deserves special mention at this point - the item of announcing the Company had been inadvertently dropped from the Herald's list of business. If not for Lord Fergus' encouragement and efforts, the whole matter would likely have been set aside for latter and, perhaps, never started at all.

Combat occurred throughout the Principality - to our knowledge in every branch. The fighting at at least one event, in Winter's Gate, was especially arranged to provide an opportunity for Golden Ring combat.

Since records were rather scare, we don't have notes on especial deeds of any of the members. Anyone with information to add to this account is encouraged to forward it to Baron Alfonso for inclusion.

The Company ended with less pomp and certainty than it began. As noted under lessons learned, it was difficult to be certain that the goal of the Company had been achieved. Without that, it was difficult to be as grand at the end as we were at the beginning.

One effect of the Company was to remind everyone that honorable combat on someone's behalf does not require romantic intentions or involvement. Many combats were done in friendship and many worthy ladies were honored with noble combat.

Lessons Learned:

Setting up the Company 'to fight in honor of each and every lady in the Principality' led to two difficulties, one very minor and one more significant.

The minor issue is that there was some interest from our lady combatants to fight in honor of some of the non-fighting lords in the Principality. As a general issue, that's a non-issue. But in this context it was a little hard to reconcile. In essence, the entire Company undertook a collective vow to achieve a particular goal - fighting for every lady. We would fail or succeed together based on whether or not the goal was achieved. Would adding lords in this way change to requirement to fighting for every non-fighter in the Principality? Could or should we commit everyone to that, and what would that mean? The final decision was that Company's members were welcome to undertake Golden Ring challenges for lords as they wished but that the goal of fighting for every lady would remain unchanged.

A more significant difficulty was how to make sure every lady was fought for. We did not want to risk trivializing the combats by creating a 'list of names' to be checked off. But without such as list it became impossible to tell if every lady had, indeed, been fought for. We certainly did not want to compound the mistake of missing a lady with the insult of now claiming that we had fought for every lady.

We're not sure how this could have been better handled. Perhaps keeping a list should not have been as much of a concern as it was. Better record keeping of who was fought for would have made checking easier. As structured, the Company was very informal and records were not required so perhaps a stronger organizational hierarchy was needed.

Another possibility is that the challenge should have been less individually specific. Perhaps, estimating that there are a hundred ladies in the Principality, a vow 'to do combat in honor of one hundred ladies' would have worked better. That would have removed the questions about what to do if a lady didn't want to be fought for, allowed combat to be done for ladies outside of the Principality if needed or desired, and would have simplified record keeping.

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Comments or questions should be mailed to truffa@alaska.net , please include the words 'Argent Bear' in the subject line.