[Artemisia] courts

[drchelm]

I've been trying very hard not to get sucked in this topic, with 
results made obvious by this post.  ;-)  I will attempt to be brief 
(quit laughing El Hermoso Dormiendo - I know where you sleep...)

If you stop and think about this, I think you would concur that the 
style, length and content of any court depends on the size of the event 
plus the number & character of items on the court agenda.  Also 
consider that there are multiple functions that need to be fulfilled by 
every court .  These functions exert a first-order control on how a 
court should be constructed.  They are: court as the public venue for 
the business ( laws, awards, announcements, etc) of their majesties and 
their majesties' fief holders (ie, territorial barons and baronesses); 
court as the means by which individual members of the populace are 
honored for their achievements (awards, contest results, general public 
thanks, etc); court as a public news source (announcements, awards, 
contest results, etc), court as "rite" (awards, coronations, elevation 
to peerage, etc) and court as theatre (all the aforementioned court 
items).  These functions are also aimed at different audiences, i.e. 
royalty and baronage, individuals, event attendees as a whole, the 
populace of the kingdom, etc. Good courts balance all these functions.

For example, "theatre" dictates the order of court business, the pacing 
of court business, the types of items to be included in court, and the 
length of time on a per item basis (in general, shorter is better, 
excluding "rite" ceremonies which shouldn't be curtailed (within 
reason)).  "News service" affects the number and nature of 
announcements.  The business of royalty and territorial fief holders 
should be self-explanatory.  Awards (number, type) usually dominate and 
dictate the order and pacing of court items.  Presentation of awards 
should be paced and spread evenly in the court agenda, should use 
soundly-built ceremonies, should refrain from modern language and 
concepts, etc., etc., etc...  There are any number of specific 
procedures one might change in Artemisian courts, most of which would 
take lots of space just to discuss so I'll skip them for now.

ttfn
Therasia, old used court herald