🚀 go-pugleaf

Greetings from Godfrey!

Justin du Coeur writes:
> 
> Re: Surprises
> Continuing on this thread, Branwen writes:
>>Artists and fighters, by
>>the nature of what they do, are constantly comparing their art or their
>>fighting to other people's as a measure of improvement, so they would
>>have a pretty good idea when their skill level had reached peerage quality.
>>People who primarily do service, however, don't have the same kind of
>>measure to go against.
> 
> Oh, I don't know if that's really true -- there are measures for
> service as well. Running large-scale things well for a while tends
> to get a Pelican eventually. Running smaller scales very well for
> a long time often gets one to that point as well. I'd say that the
> measures for a Pelican may be a little more subjective, but they're
> definitely there.

This seems to vary by kingdom.  I've heard some people state that in
the kingdom in which they reside, the various service awards are just a
sequence of merit badges, with the Pelican being the highest one --
hold Kingdom office for a couple of years (doing a good job, of course)
or autocrat a lot of events, and you're practically guaranteed to get a
Pelican.

Here in Trimaris, the Pelicanate is the smallest of the three Peerages,
by choice of its members.  Not only is unselfish service required, but
they require a candidate to have all the qualities of a Peer, as well.
Most Pelicans will not even take a protege unless they already see these
qualities in the protege, as well.

I come originally from a region of the East Kingdom which seemed to be
somewhere in between these two attitudes; it was not merely a merit
badge (many Eastrealm Pelicans that I know *are* Peers in every sense
of the word), but I've known some Pelicans in the East who really did
not fit the image of a Peer. I won't mention any names, but IMHO it
cheapens the Peerage when rude, crass, belligerent people are added to
its ranks.

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Net:  Jeff Lee / jlee@smylex.uucp / jlee%smylex.uucp@tscs.tscs.com     |
| SCA:  Lord Godfrey de Shipbrook / Wyvernwood, Trimaris                 |
|       Per pale azure and argent, a clarion counterchanged or and gules |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    "The only thing that helps me maintain my slender grip on reality
    is the friendship I share with my collection of singing potatoes."