Society for Creative Anachronism

"Harmless historical nuts Who wear boilerplate on their butts Who dress up in clothes from the twelfth century To bash on each other with sticks and debris And make up the world's largest private army... Harmless historical nuts."

- Leslie Fish, "True Story"

The Society for Creative Anachronism is an organization dedicated to reliving The Middle Ages and The Renaissance. On any given weekend, somewhere in the world (usually several somewheres), people will come from miles around, dressed in pre-17th century costume (or an attempt thereat), and fight in armor (with rattan swords), sing period or period-style songs, fight in armor, show off their skills with a pen/loom/anvil, fight in armor, eat a medieval feast, fight in armor, watch as the king and queen bestow awards on some deserving gentle, and fight in armor. Most participants choose a time and place to be from and a name that might have belonged to someone from that time and place (but not that of a real person or fictional character); this is called the participant's "persona".

Establishing a persona may involve crafting a costume (known as 'garb'), which can be as elaborate as a person's budget and time allow, but it's a serious faux pas to nitpick another person's garb. When not in SCA garb, a person is said to be in 'modern' clothing; it's sometimes called 'mundane' garb, but that term has fallen into disfavor in recent years due to its somewhat negative and 'put-down'ish overtones.

The 'Middle Ages' as depicted by the SCA are slightly different than the real-world events, and as such are called the 'Current Middle Ages' in Society parlance. 'Current' means that while strict historical accuracy is nice, it's not always practical in a modern context; as such, allowances are made in situations where actual historical information is limited or may not be entirely compatible with modern society.

Strictly speaking, the Current Middle Ages comprise a period from approximately 600 CE to roughly 1600 CE; this allows a wide variety of personas, from many countries and walks of life. The only hard-and-fast rules are that persona names must be historically accurate (or 'period'), a persona cannot be an actual historical figure or a fictional character, and a persona's culture must have established some form of interaction with Middle Ages society.


 * Acceptable Breaks From Reality: A perennial criticism of SCA chivalric combat is that attacks below the knee are generally considered foul, and this leads a lot of fighters to favor a less historically accurate style of high guard. However, aiming for that area leads to a lot of leg and knee injuries: most groups would rather have less "historical" fighters come back next weekend than lots of very period fighters laid up in the hospital.
 * Anachronism Stew: Vikings, Romans, Elizabethans, Samurai and Saracens manage to coexist. Even Musketeers are welcome, despite being technically out of period.
 * And then there are the Tuchux, essentially Gor roleplayers who technically aren't even part of the Society but are always welcome, particularly on your side during a war.
 * Badass Bookworm: Almost all heavy fighters.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Check any listing of members' persona names, their arms or households, and you are sure to find enough multilingual puns, jokes and references to choke a Percheron.
 * For instance, Baron Pog o'Mahon of Carillion, East Kingdom (Ocean County, NJ), whose name is a homonym for "Kiss my ass!" in Gaelic.
 * Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: The Society has developed (or absconded with) a number of period or period-flavored terms for modern things in order to allow their inclusion in "in persona" discussions without breaking the illusion of periodicity.  For example, automobiles usually are referred to as horses, chariots, steeds or the like, computers are "golems", and the Internet is "the Rialto" (referencing several lines in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice where characters ask "What news on the Rialto?").
 * Death Is Cheap: If it weren't, the ranks of armored fighters would get thin really quickly.
 * Fake Nationality: Part of developing a persona in the Society is to pick -- and thoroughly learn about -- the culture in which that persona would have lived.
 * Filk Song: The Society not only has a strong bardic tradition, many of its premiere bards are also the premiere filksong writers and performers of SF and Fantasy fandom.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: In the grand tradition of historical heraldry, Society heraldry is an opportunity to get away with all manner of visual punning.
 * Persona names are also a rich source of this and Incredibly Lame Jokes.
 * Mugging the Monster: See the story of Sir Trude Lacklandia in the "Real Life" section of that page.
 * Oral Tradition: How much of the SCA's lore gets transmitted to newbies, and between established members as well.
 * Rule of Cool
 * Rule of Fun: Despite the research and the work, fun is what the SCA is mainly about.
 * Screw the War, We're Partying: Sometimes the war is the party...
 * Shown Their Work: Arts and sciences competitions frequently require participants to document that their entry is done in an authentic manner, using authentic materials.
 * Sometimes done just for fun, as when a feastcrat successfully documented medieval beanie-weenies.
 * "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Sadly, the Society has its share of people who think the historical recreation is the most (or only) important thing, and do not hesitate to lecture anyone who sacrifices accuracy for fun.
 * War Is Glorious: ...and fun, too!
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: While it can be found in all its florid glory at almost any Society event, this trope is usually averted; "in persona" speech is either period-flavored modern vernacular (on the grounds that everyday speech is everyday speech regardless of era) or painstakingly-correct Elizabethan usage.