One thing that I have really liked about the SCA so far is that the concept of an SCA persona is so much different from that of a gaming persona, and especially less so than a LARPing character. That’s part of what made me stop LARPing, to be honest – the interaction was more than I could handle with my busy “out of game” life. But that’s a whole other story. From what I have experienced and thought about so far, persona provides a framework to play within, without prescribing rules strict rules of participation. It’s a nice balance – it tells me things that I should do, but doesn’t limit me from things that I shouldn’t do.
And the puzzle pieces of persona are sort of fun to play with. How do things that I want to do fit within that framework? What does it say about my portrayal if I do these things? Here are some of the questions that have come up, and how I fit them in, sort of chronologically….
What is my name?
This was easy – I knew what name I wanted to take. I started with the ancestral relatives of my mother’s Scottish Clan, and then just worked out the name bits from there. Right from the start, this decision made a lot of choices for me: The founding of the clan was around 1300. They were loyal to the crown (alternatingly England and Scotland). They were allies of the Scottish nobility (when it served them). These are all good things.
Why do you know how to fight?
Plenty of wars with Scotland to write about in the 1300-1600 time period, so certainly no issue with someone from this clan knowing how to fight. Problem solved.
What about your armor, that’s a Norman helmet!
This was the first moment that gave me a little pause. But I also remember the happy dance I did when I realized that since this clan aligned with the Bruces specifically, and the Bruces were Scot-Norman.
So now, we start to turn it around and make it work the other way.
Mundanely, I am a musician…. I want to start doing musical manuscript. What should I do?
Musical manuscript in the middle ages ranges from strictly oral tradition to four-line (if you are lucky) chant to stuff like this:
Well, gee… sure the clefs are funny (unless you know what C clefs are, and I do) and some of the musical characters are a little strange… but that, my friends looks like the music we write today for the most part. And the best part? It’s French manuscript from the 14th Century.
And what’s this? DIAMM has a class you can take SPECIFICALLY on how to read and write in the 14th C. French manuscript style? When I found that out, I could not get to AC Moore for calligraphy stuff fast enough at this point. I bought a drafting table off Craigslist, too.
But within my persona, it works nicely too. It’s perfectly reasonable that my educated, cosmopolitan Scot lord was educated (since he knows how to write at all, and knows anything about music) in France. And that’s why he has a Norman helmet.
And that’s part of the fun. Where are the hooks, where are the similarities? What is the narrative line that I can run through various known histories, and map out a single lifetime that could have happened almost a thousand years ago?
This is a great post! I sorta worked my way backward: my first group was a mercenary company in 1460. Pretty specific. Then I switched to SCA and could play a bit. I like Norse mythology, I like bliauts, but I wanted to stay English. Clothing made my choices!
I think that most of them start out that way – one little detail, that first step. My garb is very generic (although also very much not what Scots in that period wore… Another foreign influence!)
Great thought process in developing your persona. Very good read. You could help (or at least inspire) a lot of people not sure about their persona.
Thanks – that’s exactly what I am trying to do with this blog in general: document events, challenges, thoughts and questions that I a come acess starting out in the SCA.