Post by David Price on Sept 23, 2012 15:14:05 GMT -8
Kindred of the Emerald Domain-
I have now been Harpy for four months. I am honored by your support of me, and I appreciate the compliments I have received for the work I have done.
One month into my job as Harpy, on June 18th, I wrote a letter clarifying what I felt status should mean in this city. Despite the fact that it meant that many kindred in the domain would lose standing, I received quite a bit of support for it, because it meant that everybody would be held to the same standard- there would be many fewer situations of a primogen of a clan inflating their clanmates' status just to curry favor, because it was understood that there were standards that everybody needed to meet. It certainly has not been perfect, and I fully intend to continue to adapt to the city's needs in this regard.
I also wrote in it that because of the reputation that Seattle had faced from the world of large regarding people coming here to escape scandal, something needed to be done to counteract that. As such, any kindred coming into the city with very high standing would clearly be inviting a harsh analysis of themselves, and so would be stripped of standing. I fully expected this to mean that high status kindred would not come to Seattle for a period of time, and this was considered a reasonable compromise for confronting this situation.
A month after this, on July 21st, a group of kindred from Barcelona entered the city. Three of them, Dario, Cecilia and Seraphina, met my stated requirement for who would lose standing. I have had many situations as Harpy where I have made a declaration regarding my response in scenarios. There's been a few situations where things have been unclear and so I've tried to wing it, but there's quite a few where my actions have been clearly dictated by myself. And this was one of them. So Dario, Cecilia, and Seraphina lost some of their standing.
But still, I am known as Nice, so I made sure to clarify that this was provisional - if they could demonstrate that they were worth the standing they came in with, I would be happy to restore it. Dario took this to heart, and in the next month demonstrated to the Prince that he could solve problems facing the domain, and had his status restored.
During this time, however, many of the kindred from Barcelona responded with confusion and concern that I was not respecting the status given to them ages ago by respected kindred in Europe. I responded to many of those accusations at the time, and will not go into it further here.
Apparently the activities in Seattle have provided excellent gossip for other cities, who have taken to watching our activities with great interest. I am glad that our voice has become so respected and the city so notable that we are worthy of the interest of the Camarilla at large, but it does force me to clarify a few points- I had never intended my "treatise" on status, as people have referred to it, to be a global change in status. I do not have that authority and it was not my intent. Different cities have different things that they respect or disrespect, and that is fine and good. I intended it to mainly be a guideline for Seattle kindred- to understand that more is expected of high status kindred to gain further respect in the eyes of the Camarilla.
The Harpy of Barcelona was particularly concerned, as it turns out, regarding my treatment of Cecilia. He gathered loaned status from many kindred, including the Harpies of Marseilles and Milan, and the Seneschal of Athens. He then utilized the often neglected rule of being so much more respected than me and of the same clan, that he would sacrifice his own standing in order to remove my own. And as such, he felt that I was no longer to be known as Nice.
Normally in this situation I would have multiple avenues of response, the first of which of course being to gather support of my own, but the letter from the Harpy of Barcelona apparently did not seem to even consider this option. He also did not consider the consequences of so clearly interfering with a Domain without the approval of the residing Prince, but both of these became irrelevant because after a brief conversation with him he restored my status of Nice.
But in any case, it has now become a situation that I need to put forth to the kindred of the Emerald Domain as a whole.
There have been an astounding list of kindred who have been extremely well thought of by the Camarilla but ended up being declared traitors here.
Radik Colban was executed for authorizing a diablerie. Chase Covington was killed for breaking the Sixth Tradition. Jeremy Duston was executed. Diego and Augury killed a sitting Prince without the support of the city. Saga attempted to break Destruction. Vince Blackbird was discovered to be a diablerist. Kira acted against a sitting Prince and was banished.
Now, I'm sure many of those kindred had people that did and still do respect them. I'm not saying anything against that or to try to bring them up to open wounds. What I am bringing up is that it is important that status be hard to live up to. The fact that highly respected members of the Camarilla are being declared traitor is an indication that our respect is being given too lightly. People need to earn their standing.
People will argue that I am disrespecting European status, or status as a whole. I find this to be a strange argument, because it seems that I'm the one that's arguing that status should be respected. And for that to be respected, it needs to be hard. I'm trying to claim that the people who are amazing should be amazing. That when somebody says they have a huge reputation, that needs to mean something. Not just that they were amazing two hundred years ago. But it means that they're respected now.
Some people have accused me of disrespecting age. I'm going to come out right here and say- if a kindred is very old, they should have some respect. They are likely quite powerful and have seen things that younger kindred have not. But that by itself is not enough to be the most respected kindred in the domain. A young kindred might find status very hard to earn. An old kindred might find it very easy. But it is still something that everybody should earn.
I'm arguing that anybody worth their standing should be able to earn it back trivially. Dario earned his back in a month. There are Harpies around the domain that feel that this shouldn't be the case- that even if they can't prove their standing they should be honored as they were ages ago. I argue that this devalues the respect owed to all of the kindred of the Camarilla with standing. I make the same demands of myself as I do of all the kindred in Seattle - I will not rest on my laurels. I will not shy from aiding the domain and fixing the problems I find. I demand that status mean something that people live up to, and I think you should too.
But this is no longer a situation where just the support of the Primogen is convincing the Camarilla as a whole. This is a situation where I need every voice that is willing to speak out. This is a situation where I want everybody in the Domain to choose clearly what side they want to fall on.
So I ask you all to loan me your standing, if you feel that it should mean something that you have it. That earning it meant you did something hard and good and that everybody should be held to that standard. That asking people to prove that they deserve their standing is not too much to ask of them- that you feel insulted by the idea that you don't have to live up to the status that you have yourself.
Will you join me in this, and send a message to the Camarilla that Seattle is now a city where standing is respected? Where we demand that status be earned, and earned again?
Kindred that have loaned me support so far:
Luthias
Heron
Dragos
Bruce Cook
Caellech
Dr. Longfellow
Colin Colissimo
Scott Chambers
Pierce
Calisto Santiago
Meaka
Skittering Sneak
Razor
((If you also wish to support David Price, please either PM me or IM me or email me. I use zane314 at either hotmail.com or gmail.com (latter is preferred).))
I have now been Harpy for four months. I am honored by your support of me, and I appreciate the compliments I have received for the work I have done.
One month into my job as Harpy, on June 18th, I wrote a letter clarifying what I felt status should mean in this city. Despite the fact that it meant that many kindred in the domain would lose standing, I received quite a bit of support for it, because it meant that everybody would be held to the same standard- there would be many fewer situations of a primogen of a clan inflating their clanmates' status just to curry favor, because it was understood that there were standards that everybody needed to meet. It certainly has not been perfect, and I fully intend to continue to adapt to the city's needs in this regard.
I also wrote in it that because of the reputation that Seattle had faced from the world of large regarding people coming here to escape scandal, something needed to be done to counteract that. As such, any kindred coming into the city with very high standing would clearly be inviting a harsh analysis of themselves, and so would be stripped of standing. I fully expected this to mean that high status kindred would not come to Seattle for a period of time, and this was considered a reasonable compromise for confronting this situation.
A month after this, on July 21st, a group of kindred from Barcelona entered the city. Three of them, Dario, Cecilia and Seraphina, met my stated requirement for who would lose standing. I have had many situations as Harpy where I have made a declaration regarding my response in scenarios. There's been a few situations where things have been unclear and so I've tried to wing it, but there's quite a few where my actions have been clearly dictated by myself. And this was one of them. So Dario, Cecilia, and Seraphina lost some of their standing.
But still, I am known as Nice, so I made sure to clarify that this was provisional - if they could demonstrate that they were worth the standing they came in with, I would be happy to restore it. Dario took this to heart, and in the next month demonstrated to the Prince that he could solve problems facing the domain, and had his status restored.
During this time, however, many of the kindred from Barcelona responded with confusion and concern that I was not respecting the status given to them ages ago by respected kindred in Europe. I responded to many of those accusations at the time, and will not go into it further here.
Apparently the activities in Seattle have provided excellent gossip for other cities, who have taken to watching our activities with great interest. I am glad that our voice has become so respected and the city so notable that we are worthy of the interest of the Camarilla at large, but it does force me to clarify a few points- I had never intended my "treatise" on status, as people have referred to it, to be a global change in status. I do not have that authority and it was not my intent. Different cities have different things that they respect or disrespect, and that is fine and good. I intended it to mainly be a guideline for Seattle kindred- to understand that more is expected of high status kindred to gain further respect in the eyes of the Camarilla.
The Harpy of Barcelona was particularly concerned, as it turns out, regarding my treatment of Cecilia. He gathered loaned status from many kindred, including the Harpies of Marseilles and Milan, and the Seneschal of Athens. He then utilized the often neglected rule of being so much more respected than me and of the same clan, that he would sacrifice his own standing in order to remove my own. And as such, he felt that I was no longer to be known as Nice.
Normally in this situation I would have multiple avenues of response, the first of which of course being to gather support of my own, but the letter from the Harpy of Barcelona apparently did not seem to even consider this option. He also did not consider the consequences of so clearly interfering with a Domain without the approval of the residing Prince, but both of these became irrelevant because after a brief conversation with him he restored my status of Nice.
But in any case, it has now become a situation that I need to put forth to the kindred of the Emerald Domain as a whole.
There have been an astounding list of kindred who have been extremely well thought of by the Camarilla but ended up being declared traitors here.
Radik Colban was executed for authorizing a diablerie. Chase Covington was killed for breaking the Sixth Tradition. Jeremy Duston was executed. Diego and Augury killed a sitting Prince without the support of the city. Saga attempted to break Destruction. Vince Blackbird was discovered to be a diablerist. Kira acted against a sitting Prince and was banished.
Now, I'm sure many of those kindred had people that did and still do respect them. I'm not saying anything against that or to try to bring them up to open wounds. What I am bringing up is that it is important that status be hard to live up to. The fact that highly respected members of the Camarilla are being declared traitor is an indication that our respect is being given too lightly. People need to earn their standing.
People will argue that I am disrespecting European status, or status as a whole. I find this to be a strange argument, because it seems that I'm the one that's arguing that status should be respected. And for that to be respected, it needs to be hard. I'm trying to claim that the people who are amazing should be amazing. That when somebody says they have a huge reputation, that needs to mean something. Not just that they were amazing two hundred years ago. But it means that they're respected now.
Some people have accused me of disrespecting age. I'm going to come out right here and say- if a kindred is very old, they should have some respect. They are likely quite powerful and have seen things that younger kindred have not. But that by itself is not enough to be the most respected kindred in the domain. A young kindred might find status very hard to earn. An old kindred might find it very easy. But it is still something that everybody should earn.
I'm arguing that anybody worth their standing should be able to earn it back trivially. Dario earned his back in a month. There are Harpies around the domain that feel that this shouldn't be the case- that even if they can't prove their standing they should be honored as they were ages ago. I argue that this devalues the respect owed to all of the kindred of the Camarilla with standing. I make the same demands of myself as I do of all the kindred in Seattle - I will not rest on my laurels. I will not shy from aiding the domain and fixing the problems I find. I demand that status mean something that people live up to, and I think you should too.
But this is no longer a situation where just the support of the Primogen is convincing the Camarilla as a whole. This is a situation where I need every voice that is willing to speak out. This is a situation where I want everybody in the Domain to choose clearly what side they want to fall on.
So I ask you all to loan me your standing, if you feel that it should mean something that you have it. That earning it meant you did something hard and good and that everybody should be held to that standard. That asking people to prove that they deserve their standing is not too much to ask of them- that you feel insulted by the idea that you don't have to live up to the status that you have yourself.
Will you join me in this, and send a message to the Camarilla that Seattle is now a city where standing is respected? Where we demand that status be earned, and earned again?
Kindred that have loaned me support so far:
Luthias
Heron
Dragos
Bruce Cook
Caellech
Dr. Longfellow
Colin Colissimo
Scott Chambers
Pierce
Calisto Santiago
Meaka
Skittering Sneak
Razor
((If you also wish to support David Price, please either PM me or IM me or email me. I use zane314 at either hotmail.com or gmail.com (latter is preferred).))