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− | <h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Lions and Warriors</h2> | + | <h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">He What??</h2> |
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− | ''By Michele Ellington [[Tawnee Darkfalcon]]''
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− | This one is a history lesson on the award of the Lion and Warrior.
| + | By [[Luke Wyndegard]] his RP reaction to the recent elections in the Wetlands. |
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− | How ironic these statements are! I feel pressed to offer a little
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− | history lesson. When we first started the club, the only order
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− | offered for fighting was the [[Order of the Lion]]. At that time, [[knights]]
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− | had a very definite code of conduct, which was expected of them. Not
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− | everyone in the club wanted to be a knight. The [[Corsairs]] and a few
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− | others recognized and freely acknowledged that this code of conduct
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− | was not for them, and did not even solicit Orders of the Lion.
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− | However, it quickly became clear that some of these "mavericks" were
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− | some of our best fighters. It was clearly unfair that there was no
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− | way to make public note of their skills. So we invented the [[Order of the Warrior]]. It was intended that a fighter who earned ten Orders of
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− | the Warrior would become a [[Warlord]]. A Warlord was to be the
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− | equivalent of the Knight, but not bound by the code of conduct
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− | expected of the knights. When [[tournaments]] were conducted, the
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− | fighters were watched for both skill and conduct, and were awarded
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− | Warriors or Lions as was deemed appropriate by the [[Monarch]]. At this
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− | time, there was only one form of [[Knighthood]]. [[Roses]] attributed to
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− | titles of [[nobility]], and [[Dragons]] were simply prestige [[awards]]. Time
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− | passed. Some confusion evolved about the intended difference between
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− | Warriors and Lions. An odd sort of dichotomy arose, wherein Lions
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− | were almost impossible to earn, yet Warlord was the club's most
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− | coveted title. In my opinion, this was the result of the fact that
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− | most of the really skilled fighters were the "maverick" types, and
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− | the Monarchs all but forgot the existence of Lions and what they
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− | meant. Warlord was a separate title from Knighthood, but was no
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− | longer regarded as its effective yin/yang opposite. Warlords won
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− | [[Crown Tourneys]] and were also knighted. The intent of the creation of
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− | the Warrior as an Order separate from the Lion fell away. The focus
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− | became wholly skill based, with no real evaluation of attitude
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− | included. Monarchs came and went.
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− | After a couple of years, the Monarch decided that Knighthood should
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− | be broken into four belts: [[Sword]], [[Serpent]], [[Flame]], and [[Crown]]. To that
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− | end, the Orders were all evaluated. The Order hardest hit was Lion.
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− | The Monarch making the changes added Warriors as one of the Orders
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− | contributive to Knighthood of the Sword. Then he broke the Order of
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− | the Lion into Lions for combat and Griffins for chivalry. Then the
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− | persons holding Lions were subjectively reviewed, and decisions were
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− | made about whether they were good enough fighters to hold that number
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− | of Lions, or if some of those awards had been given for chivalry more
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− | than combat prowess. Some players' Lions were converted to Griffins,
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− | and, if I recall correctly, no longer contributed towards Knighthood
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− | of the Sword. As combat had always been the focus of the club,
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− | deleting combat orders to make them "orders of the nice guy",
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− | read "orders of the chump" by the much acclaimed Warlords who weren't
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− | expected to play fair, was hardly a compliment. So now you see the
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− | irony of your reference to Griffins as a highly sought after and
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− | scarcely offered award.
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− | I am sorry we lost the dichotomy between Warlords and Knights. I
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− | think that a lot of the problems we experience today with Knights
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− | acting in unsportsman like and un-chivalrous fashions would be
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− | alleviated if there were another Prestige Track available to those
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− | who aren't truly "knightly stuff". I have mixed emotions about
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− | whether the "code of knightly conduct" should be enforceable, for
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− | right and wrong are ever subject to interpretation. But there was a
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− | time when those who knew themselves to prefer a less "moral" set of
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− | expectations were able to earn prestigious titles and awards for
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− | their skill alone. With this option available, it was certainly
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− | easier to argue that Knights should be expected to meet certain
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− | behavioral requirements.
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