Setting Precedence

As I'm sure you all know, His Lordship Albion is fighting his prize to become a White Scarf at Whipping Winds (August 26-29 in Windgate, be there!). This has been greeted by the prevailing opinion up north that it's about time, and a few grumblings about why couldn't they just give him the scarf at Uprising? The people asking the question think of this as just a delaying tactic to put off his scarf for a few months more.

I'll tell you what, I don't think so. I think that the delay is necessary. It gives Albion time to prepare. I know, I know: what's to prepare? Well, for starters, most people don't carry emergency prize kits with them to every event. And then there's the invitations. If you're going to fight your prize, there are people who you'll want to be there, and those who should be there. And don't forget new garb. You don't want to receive your scarf in your old, ratty first-event tunic.

And those are just some of the reasons, but the biggest reason I think that the delay is a good thing is because we are setting precedence here. Albion will be the premier Defender of the White Scarf of Northern Artemisia. His prize will set the standard of what will be expected of future prizes up here. And while it might make things easier for us future Northern White Scarves if he does just slap something together, it wouldn't be right. We are talking about the culmination of over a decade of hard work: his prize should reflect that hard work. I know we - Albion's friends - see it that way. That's why we're doing everything we can to help make sure Albion's Prize will blow everyone away - to "show 'em how we do things up north," as one person put it.

Albion has been (and is) the Northern Artemisia Fencer for better than 10 years and the fencers of Northern Artemisia are going to do their part to repay what he's done for us and to keep what he is alive.