Life, the Universe and Everything

I've been working on a post for a while now and have had a hard time finishing it up, but I wasn't sure why. And today it hit me: I can't finish it because I know it won't work. Oh, all the steps are there and the all make sense, but the whole process just won't work in Artemisia right now. It would have worked 10 years ago and it might work some time in the future, but it won't work today.

The post was on how to have successful regional fighter's practices and while everything I said was valid, Artemisia is currently lacking the one thing it needs to make them work: infrastructure. Yes, we have the marshallate, but their primary concern is safety with education a distant second. And the Ministers of Arts and Sciences have their hands full enough with all of the other areas of study to try and commit to any real concerted effort to promote fencing. Sure, the armored fighters don't mind us tagging along with them, but again, we're a secondary concern to them.

What we need is a guild: a kingdom-wide organization dedicated to teaching and promoting fencing. That's why it was easier 10 years ago to have successful regional fighter's practices: we had Blackwing. Not only did that mean we had a group who could coordinate things across the kingdom, but we had a standardized book to work from, even when we worked at a local level. Yes, Blackwing had its problems, but it gave us an infrastructure that made it easier to spread knowledge throughout the group and the kingdom.

I'm not saying we need to bring back Blackwing. I know if I did, somebody 'd say, "Great! Thanks for volunteering!" And let me tell you, the quickest way to kill off a project like this would be to put me in charge. I mean, it helps if whoever you pick to lead something actually likes people. I also recognize that The Blackwing Company had a bad connotation to some people and if our goal is to promote fencing and learning, we don't want to start off alienating people. But I do think we need some sort of group that is dedicated to promoting fencing in Artemisia.

I'd love to see a fencing guild return to Artemisia, but despite my occasional fantasy, I have to be honest enough with myself to say I'm not the one to organize it. If someone does, though, I'll be right there.