Loyalty and Fealty

[jamesq]

As most of you know, I play in the SCA. Now I mean that in a very specific way: I play in the SCA. I think I play the game seriously, and I do take some of the lessons learned in the game and apply them to my real life.

But it is still just a game.

Not everyone agrees with me on that. Some people treat the SCA as a way of life. Or they take the game too seriously. Or they apply real world consequences to SCA situations.

For example, I've never sworn fealty to anyone in the entire time I've played. There are people who would question my commitment to the game based solely on that fact. I remember when bork107 and justgemma17 stepped up recently as Prince and Princess they made a big point about getting as many people as they could to swear fealty. I was thinking about it right up until the point where they equated game fealty to loyalty. Loyalty and service to the game.

That bugged me a little so I didn't go up. I like to think I contribute to the SCA in my own small way, and I count loyalty to my friends as one of the few solid character traits I have. Their speech suggested to me that unless I swear fealty that means nothing. For the record, I have a nodding aquaintance with both in the real world and I don't think they really meant that - but it sure sounded that way.

So why not swear, if I don't take the game seriously? First, I do take the game seriously, I just don't lose sight of the fact that it's a game. Second, too many people in the game treat it too seriously. I'd catch shit in the real world for appearing to shirk game obligations if I had sworn fealty to someone. I'd rather not put myself in that situation.

I have a friend I was talking to earlier this evening. He's reluctant to swear to someone (though he has done it) unless he's willing to take a bullet for that person in the real world. This, I suggested, is taking the game too far. He can do what he likes for his own reasons. I simply disagree.

To clarify, I don't care that he puts that kind of restriction on his own oath swearing - I disagree that swearing in a game needs to be that stringent.

I've also seen some downright rude behavior in these fealty type situations. A knight yelling "beer me" to a squire and not even saying "thank you" when the guy is nice enough to bring you a beer. Sure, real knights treated real squires like dirt - but in the real world knights were well armed bullies. Our game is supposed to simulate the chivalric ideal of knights in fiction. I suggest that treating your squires as fetch-and-carry boys without so much as a please or thank you fails this simulation. Sure, they may have sworn an oath of fealty - and they may treat it seriously while playing the game - but it doesn't make you less of a dick.

Another example is the rumours I've heard about squires sticking around with "bad" knights because of their oath. Instead of simply renouncing the oath and moving on, the stick around and are miserable. Enough misery and they'll simply stop playing.

Isn't the game supposed to be fun? Is an in-game oath so important that you'll stop playing rather then extract yourself from a bad situation?

I think an important distinction should be made between self and persona. The oath you swear in game is made by your persona - a fictitous character you've invented. If you've decided that your persona is so loyal that they would never break an oath, maybe you should make a different persona. Persona-A can exist in a virtual realm staying loyal to thier oath while you continue playing with Persona-B, who doesn't have to have anything to do with the asshat you wish to get away from.

It's late and I'm tired, so this might not be the most coherent thing I've ever posted. I really want people to come away from reading this with three things:

1. I have my reasons for playing the way I do - this post attempts to explain some of that reasoning.
   
2. Play the game as seriously as you'd like.
   
3. Don't pretend that a lack of oath on the part of my persona equates to a lack of loyaty in the real world. Nor do I value my friends less just because I don't call then "brother" in an SCA houshold.

Not trying to stir shit, but I fear I may have done so regardless.

Comments

[pandorasbox.livejournal.com]

I really Liked this. One reason I quit the SCA was because of the demand for Feality and how to some people it meant slave labour.
Dude does not abide. Miss ya James!

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

Whether you stir it up or not, I'm glad you posted this - it was really interesting. I've wondered what SCA was like from the inside.

[ya-inga.livejournal.com]

Fealty is a totally personal thing and I think that you should play the way that it pleases you to play hon. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an asshat.

This IS a game and people who take fealty beyond the confines of the game and abuse it are also asshats. I respect people's decisions not to swear and would never think less of them in game. Out of game doesn't even apply. Cause this is a game and it is SUPPOSED to be fun : )

I take fealty very seriously personally but I also believe that fealty is a two way agreement and that someone who abuses me and takes my fealty to mean I owe them slavelike loyalty is not worthy of my fealty.

I treat my knight with complete respect and I am loyal to her - by choice - but she in turn treats me with respect. I am not her slave, I am her student. One commment about the squire knight thing though - you don't always know the personal dynamic behind things - some squires and knights are very good friends in and out of the game and the "squire get me a beer" thing is part of their "play". If it works for them and no one is hurt by it then we don't don't have any right to judge that either dear. As weird as it sounds, that model works for some folks. THAT is why it is important to be clear on who you are swearing fealty to if you choose to.

I have always felt that fealty is the glue that holds this society together but that it is trust thing and that it needs to be handled with care. Listen to the words of the actual oath. Basically I give you my fealty and support you and yours in your endeavors and you in turn will support and protect you and yours in your endeavors. Pretty straight forward. Be good to me and I will be good to you. If either part breaks their end of the bargain then the chain of fealty is broken.

When it comes to the swearing of fealty to the Coronets or Crown, I always swear regardless of who it is because I not swearing to them as people, I am swearing to my Prince and Princess/King and Queen do their job and care for our Principaltiy/Kingdom which helps make this game run and be fun. I have always been good with that but now as a peer and Baroness, it means even more. The best part is to me, by this oath, it means not only am I NOT supposed to just follow blindly but that it is my part of the bargain to tell them when things are going amiss and advise them as best I am able.

Fealty is a two way street and folks forget that - a lot.

Hope that makes sense - I just woke up : )

[othelianna.livejournal.com]

Aptly put.

[jamesq]

I'l grant the point that I might not know the dynamic of the knights/squires in question.

Of the Montengarde Knights, I've only seen one do that sort of thing, and he seems like a nice enough guy in other respects (he was very safety conscious during my one-and-only heavy practice, for example).

The other two Knights I see semi-regularly don't engage in that sort of behavior. As for the Borealis Knights, I'd be hard-pressed to name more then a handful, much less their squires or how they behave towards each other.

I personally would not swear fealty to a position precisely because it's too open-ended. I have no idea who's going to be the next Prince - it might very well be someone I can't stand. It's why I held off on volunteering for my current position until I knew who the B&B were after the recent polling. It had to be someone I could work with.

[jamesq]

I hope I didn't bad mouth it too much - I do have a fun time playing the game. You might like it too, but you seem to prefer later eras to play in.