As you all know, the novel Coronavirus that has swept through the lands like a plague has curtailed all of our activities, including SCA events. Their Majesties, Timothy and Gabrielle, held a very successful “Æthereal Court” this past weekend, and a similar technique will be used to stream the Coronation of Maynard and Liadain, but such measures will not work for Crown Tournaments.

How then are the Society’s Kingdoms going to choose their next Princes and Princesses?

The BoD has been mulling over some ideas, and narrowed it down to the following:

• 

  Appropriate social distancing

  Crown Tourney to be fought in each local group as a “spears-only” tournament so the fighters can maintain the required 6 feet of distance from their opponents at all times. The winner in each group will travel to a regional spear tourney, the winners of which will then participate in the Kingdom-level finals, all while maintaining appropriate social distancing.

• 

  Not appropriate social distancing

  If spear-lengths are not deemed safe enough, then the next royalty will be chosen using the peerage criteria in Corpora, which include the ability to dance, play chess, identify heraldic devices, sing or play a musical instrument, and demonstrate familiarity with literature and combat. To that end, the BoD will approve all such use of section IV.A.1 of Corpora to permit the Kingdoms to hold online competitions in each of these disciplines. Individual Kingdoms may choose to weight some categories more heavily than others, so we expect Calontir’s next royalty will be bards while the East is more likely to have dancers. In Æthelmearc, of course, our next sovereign would no doubt be a scribe.

• Kingdoms to hold an on-line competition where people can gain points for displaying an A&S project, teaching a class, boosting Kingdom morale, performing in a Kingdom bardic meetup, or serving as the all-important tech support for these endeavors. A defined start and end date for the competition will be declared, with points to be awards based on judges’ determination of the quality of each activity. Each entrant must designate a consort before the start of the competition. The judges shall consist of the sitting Royalty, the Kingdom Seneschale, the Kingdom A&S Officers, and the Silver Buccle Herald. The gentle who amasses the greatest number of points during the designated period becomes Sovereign, with their partner as Consort.
  

  Photo by Mistress Arianna.

  

  Photo by Mistress Arianna.

  

  Photo by Master Fridrikr Tomasson.

  

  Knitted socks by Lady Rachel Dalicieux. Photo by Master Fridrikr Tomasson.
• Entrants to compete in an online tournament using the game “Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.” Last person standing wins.
  
• Never mind, let’s all just take a nap until this is over.

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