Avendale School in Exile - A Bravenet.com Forum

White Roses

Jan 4, 08 - 3:24 PM

The White Rose Family

This is a semi-official report by Sushuri Madonna-chei following the board Meeting at the Embassy and subsequent consultation with Bridgehead officials.

I am representing the present position to the best of my understanding. Naturally corrections and comments from any member, and especially from our honoured Elder Sister, are welcomed.

This post is mirrored from the Blue Camellia Club in order to allow open comments.

You are advised also to study these preliminary papers.

Following the Board Meeting at the Virtual Embassy, it was resolved to constitute the current Aristasian Elektra-Group as the White Rose Family.

Various models for a community with its associated hierarchical structure were considered. That of a family was at once the most loosely-defined and most obviously intimate.

This seemed to suit our current state of development. The Family is an organically evolving entity with a life of its own. Our current need seems to be to define a structure without forcing a very young and developing group into too tight a mould. This is not from a fear of structure, but from a recognition that this young flower has yet to take its final shape.

Board Meeting at the Virtual Embassy

Currently all Offices and Allegiances connected with the White Rose Family will be under the Law of Manifestation. This means that they will only affect Aristasian Personae and not be binding upon any Tellurian Persona. How deeply this affects an individual is clearly dependent upon how far her Aristasian Persona is "Plenary" or central to her whole self.

At this stage, no formal attempt will be made to define these matters externally.

It follows from this that offices or ranks will be in the Virtual, or Acting, category as defined by Operation Bridgehead.

After consultation with Elders, we put forward the following further proposals:

1. The Elder Sister to be sworn in by honoured Raya Chancandre at the Service for the Solemn Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lady on this coming Saturday, the 11th of Herthe 3327.

2. Two grades of Family Membership be recognised: "Petals", or full members, and "Leaves" or outer/pending members.

3. At this stage, the primary criterion for Petal Membership will be participation. Only regular participants in family events or informal gatherings may become Petals. This is because the family is based on living and growing relationships. It is not a "club" that can be joined.

It cannot be stated too emphatically that one should not take ineligibility for Petal membership as a "personal stigma". Even high-ranking Aristasians who do not participate regularly in the Family are ineligible for Petal membership.

Other criteria are suitability and a fundamental understanding and acceptance (at least "in persona") of Aristasian thame.

4. Leaf membership signifies the intention to become a Petal. It may also be a form of subsidiary membership for those genuinely unable to undertake regular participation.

5. Questions of eligibility, acceptance, waivers of conditions in special cases etc., will be adjudged by the Elder Sister, whose decisions are final. She may or may not consult with Family members as she chooses (Family members will, of course, render her all required assistance in making her decisions). Her decisions are to be accepted as made in thame and not as personal decisions (this last point should go without saying, but is included for the benefit of those unfamiliar with Aristasian law).

6. The Elder Sister, once sworn in, shall have the authority to swear in new Family members at both levels.

7. The Elder Sister may appoint Petal members to positions within the family. She may, for example, wish to appoint an "aide-de-camp" or second in command, advisers, members responsible for particular areas etc.

8. The Elder Sister may give titles for particular roles, award merits and demerits, etc.

9. Petal members, at least in persona, will obey the Elder Sister and (where appropriate) her appointed officers.

White Roses

Jan 4th, 2008 - 3:30 PM

The White Rose Family

continued

10. The Aristasian "culture of obedience" will prevail so that (for example) if someone is teaching the Family or a group within it she will be addressed with proper respect and obeyed in all matters relating to her role. Anyone being taught is legally in statu pupillari for the duration of the instruction and in all matters relating to it.

Any member (including the Elder Sister) will accept a subordinate role when and if the situation entails it.

11. Suggested candidates suitable for immediate adoption as Petal Members are:

Honoured Signorina Clarissa del Giglio

Most Honoured Fraulein Cecile Landgrebe (Elder Sister)

Honoured Sushuri Madonna-chei

Honoured Miss Adele Poppy

Honoured Miss Padraica Yatsenko

Honoured Mengxia Yu-chei

This is a very short list as we have interpreted the participation rule quite stringently, and we wish to have the Family grow from a very firm central core.

It is of course subject to approval and amendment by the Elder Sister and her Family.

12. We intreat the blessings of Our Most Holy Lady, Mother, Daughter and Absolute Deity, upon the founding of this Family of Her servants.

RAYATI RAIHIRANYA

"Sindeline"

Jan 5th, 2008 - 12:35 AM

Re: The White Rose Family

I thought Aristasia was a non-democratic hierarchy running down from the Empress to the scullery-maid where everyone follows orders. Isn't that what golden chain means? I've always liked that idea.

So why do you have these meetings and passing things back and forward to be approved? It sounds a bit disappointingly democratic.

Sushuri Madonna

Jan 5th, 2008 - 2:30 PM

Re: The White Rose Family

Honoured Miss Sindeline, we are always sorry to disappoint.

Your understanding of the Golden Chain is perfectly valid as far as it goes. The vertical chain of command (and of Grace) is indeed fundamental.

However, it is important to understand a little more about Aristasian culture. In the first place the Empress and her Queens (and by extension all their servants-in-command) are not in any sense "arbitrary rulers". The modern (i.e. post "Enlightenment") idea of an "Absolute Monarch" as enunciated both by its supporters and its detractors, is untraditional.

All rulers rule by thamë, not by their own personal will. The function of a ruler is to maintain the Golden Order, not to implement her own policies - or anyone else's.

Naturally, changing times require adaptations. But the sole purpose of any adaptation is to maintain thamë under new circumstances - just as all the movements of a skier are to maintain balance and direction - not to become a football player!

Thamë is the sole law, therefore we oppose all "revolutions" in the modern Tellurian sense. Or, more correctly, we do not even conceive of them.

In the end a ruler will impose her will-in-thamë over all complaints if she needs to. She will do this in consultation with Elders, both Raihira and Haiela, because her first concern will always be to ensure that she is truly in thamë.

But this very rarely happens. It is said that in the Motherlands a law is rarely passed until it has become so customary that most people already thought it was a law.

Harmony, agreement and consent are fundamental to Aristasia. It is generally considered that where there is disagreement or disharmony, something must be wrong.

There rarely is, because, as Tellurians may understand, once the ruler has spoken, all her subjects conform themselves to her word.

What Tellurians may have more difficulty in understanding is that the ruler will rarely speak until she has tried to ensure that her word is harmonious with all goodly maids.

This is not democracy; it is the subtle inweaving of social harmony. In a society where there is no fundamental "opposition of principle" (such as is built into the very fabric of the late-patriarchal "party system"), when there is disharmony or serious disagreement, the first reaction is that something is wrong somewhere; and that the cause needs to be found and remedied.

Now society is an organism. Aristasian societies have grown over centuries and millennia, developing their very specific embodiments of thamë.

Our Family is very new, but it is also an organism. It needs to grow and develop its own way of expressing thamë. This certainly means being in the Golden Chain and giving absolute obedience to the Empress (may she be blessed by the Seven Angels) and all her servants-in-command.

But it is not the normal Aristasian way for those servants simply to create a one-size-fits-all structure and impose it on a fledgling community. In an emergency that might be done, and of course we should accept it meekly (without questioning whether the emergency justifies it either. Our Elders have spoken. That is all). But normally that just isn't the way Aristasia works.

Rulers are like gardeners: watching, nurturing, correcting. Ensuring each plant grows straight and true as it should. Remember, it is a maternal, not a paternal, society.

In this particular case, where no pre-existing thamë is established, it is natural that the Elders first ask the community how it sees itself, solicits our proposals; then considers them in the light of thamë, makes further proposals and passes them to us for consideration. This is not democracy. It is civilised behaviour.

The way of thanë is often slow. We are actually moving at a fair old crack by the standards of many Aristasian governmental processes - largely because there are only a few of us! Also because, being new, we have no precedents. Asking questions and raising points concerning precedents is often a lengthy procedure in Aristasian lawmaking - or rather lawshaping, for no human being makes the Law.

Let us also remember that there is thamë and there is sitthameë (cf. Sanskrit svadharma). Sitthamë is the thamë of a particular entity - be it an individual, a plant or a society.

Especially with a new entity such as our family, our Rulers will be concerned to understand its sitthamë and to act in such a way as to nurture and develop it.

I hope this makes everything clearer.

I am also happy to report that all twelve points of the latest proposition have been approved by four out of six (all who were present) of the core Family members in the White Rose Room yesterday!

Lady Aquila

Jan 5th, 2008 - 4:12 PM

Clarification

How perfectly expressed, Madonna-cheri, and congratulations on the fine progress of your Family to you all.

I just felt I should mention that while in great affairs and fundamentals every precaution should be taken, in quotidian matters an Elder has a very free hand.

So, for example, if the Elder Sister of this family decided that all juniors should take a cold shower at (their respective) 6 a.m., or that they should copy out passages of Scripture with their non-dominant hands, this would be considered a matter of simple housekeeping and entirely subject to the decision and whim of the Elder Sister concerned.

I merely mention this because I know that Madonna-cheri would not wish her sarachenya to feel hamstrung by pettifogging legalities in matters of daily organisation.

Sushuri Madonna

Jan 5th, 2008 - 5:10 PM

Re: The White Rose Family

I have no idea whether it is in thamé to mention that honoured Lady Aquila is a beast.

So I shall not mention that fact at all.

Cecile Landgrebe

Jan 5th, 2008 - 7:49 PM

Re: The White Rose Family

Thank you for pointing this out Lady Aquila. Now I shall be able to make myself very much loved by allowing them cold showers at 7.

	Avendale School in Exile *A Role-playing game for Aristasians* *...and a place for unregistered friends to post!* Welcome to the School. Feel free to post a message. Females only, please. No vulgarity or unkindness is tolerated. See the School Archives here
Search For Similar Forums · Return to Website

Author	Comment
White Roses Jan 4, 08 - 3:24 PM	The White Rose Family This is a semi-official report by Sushuri Madonna-chei following the board Meeting at the Embassy and subsequent consultation with Bridgehead officials. I am representing the present position to the best of my understanding. Naturally corrections and comments from any member, and especially from our honoured Elder Sister, are welcomed. This post is mirrored from the Blue Camellia Club in order to allow open comments. You are advised also to study these preliminary papers. Following the Board Meeting at the Virtual Embassy, it was resolved to constitute the current Aristasian Elektra-Group as the White Rose Family. Various models for a community with its associated hierarchical structure were considered. That of a family was at once the most loosely-defined and most obviously intimate. This seemed to suit our current state of development. The Family is an organically evolving entity with a life of its own. Our current need seems to be to define a structure without forcing a very young and developing group into too tight a mould. This is not from a fear of structure, but from a recognition that this young flower has yet to take its final shape. Board Meeting at the Virtual Embassy Currently all Offices and Allegiances connected with the White Rose Family will be under the Law of Manifestation. This means that they will only affect Aristasian Personae and not be binding upon any Tellurian Persona. How deeply this affects an individual is clearly dependent upon how far her Aristasian Persona is "Plenary" or central to her whole self. At this stage, no formal attempt will be made to define these matters externally. It follows from this that offices or ranks will be in the Virtual, or Acting, category as defined by Operation Bridgehead. After consultation with Elders, we put forward the following further proposals: 1. The Elder Sister to be sworn in by honoured Raya Chancandre at the Service for the Solemn Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lady on this coming Saturday, the 11th of Herthe 3327. 2. Two grades of Family Membership be recognised: "Petals", or full members, and "Leaves" or outer/pending members. 3. At this stage, the primary criterion for Petal Membership will be participation. Only regular participants in family events or informal gatherings may become Petals. This is because the family is based on living and growing relationships. It is not a "club" that can be joined. It cannot be stated too emphatically that one should not take ineligibility for Petal membership as a "personal stigma". Even high-ranking Aristasians who do not participate regularly in the Family are ineligible for Petal membership. Other criteria are suitability and a fundamental understanding and acceptance (at least "in persona") of Aristasian thame. 4. Leaf membership signifies the intention to become a Petal. It may also be a form of subsidiary membership for those genuinely unable to undertake regular participation. 5. Questions of eligibility, acceptance, waivers of conditions in special cases etc., will be adjudged by the Elder Sister, whose decisions are final. She may or may not consult with Family members as she chooses (Family members will, of course, render her all required assistance in making her decisions). Her decisions are to be accepted as made in thame and not as personal decisions (this last point should go without saying, but is included for the benefit of those unfamiliar with Aristasian law). 6. The Elder Sister, once sworn in, shall have the authority to swear in new Family members at both levels. 7. The Elder Sister may appoint Petal members to positions within the family. She may, for example, wish to appoint an "aide-de-camp" or second in command, advisers, members responsible for particular areas etc. 8. The Elder Sister may give titles for particular roles, award merits and demerits, etc. 9. Petal members, at least in persona, will obey the Elder Sister and (where appropriate) her appointed officers.
White Roses Jan 4th, 2008 - 3:30 PM	The White Rose Family continued 10. The Aristasian "culture of obedience" will prevail so that (for example) if someone is teaching the Family or a group within it she will be addressed with proper respect and obeyed in all matters relating to her role. Anyone being taught is legally in statu pupillari for the duration of the instruction and in all matters relating to it. Any member (including the Elder Sister) will accept a subordinate role when and if the situation entails it. 11. Suggested candidates suitable for immediate adoption as Petal Members are: Honoured Signorina Clarissa del Giglio Most Honoured Fraulein Cecile Landgrebe (Elder Sister) Honoured Sushuri Madonna-chei Honoured Miss Adele Poppy Honoured Miss Padraica Yatsenko Honoured Mengxia Yu-chei This is a very short list as we have interpreted the participation rule quite stringently, and we wish to have the Family grow from a very firm central core. It is of course subject to approval and amendment by the Elder Sister and her Family. 12. We intreat the blessings of Our Most Holy Lady, Mother, Daughter and Absolute Deity, upon the founding of this Family of Her servants. RAYATI RAIHIRANYA
"Sindeline" Jan 5th, 2008 - 12:35 AM	Re: The White Rose Family I thought Aristasia was a non-democratic hierarchy running down from the Empress to the scullery-maid where everyone follows orders. Isn't that what golden chain means? I've always liked that idea. So why do you have these meetings and passing things back and forward to be approved? It sounds a bit disappointingly democratic.
Sushuri Madonna Jan 5th, 2008 - 2:30 PM	Re: The White Rose Family Honoured Miss Sindeline, we are always sorry to disappoint. Your understanding of the Golden Chain is perfectly valid as far as it goes. The vertical chain of command (and of Grace) is indeed fundamental. However, it is important to understand a little more about Aristasian culture. In the first place the Empress and her Queens (and by extension all their servants-in-command) are not in any sense "arbitrary rulers". The modern (i.e. post "Enlightenment") idea of an "Absolute Monarch" as enunciated both by its supporters and its detractors, is untraditional. All rulers rule by thamë, not by their own personal will. The function of a ruler is to maintain the Golden Order, not to implement her own policies - or anyone else's. Naturally, changing times require adaptations. But the sole purpose of any adaptation is to maintain thamë under new circumstances - just as all the movements of a skier are to maintain balance and direction - not to become a football player! Thamë is the sole law, therefore we oppose all "revolutions" in the modern Tellurian sense. Or, more correctly, we do not even conceive of them. In the end a ruler will impose her will-in-thamë over all complaints if she needs to. She will do this in consultation with Elders, both Raihira and Haiela, because her first concern will always be to ensure that she is truly in thamë. But this very rarely happens. It is said that in the Motherlands a law is rarely passed until it has become so customary that most people already thought it was a law. Harmony, agreement and consent are fundamental to Aristasia. It is generally considered that where there is disagreement or disharmony, something must be wrong. There rarely is, because, as Tellurians may understand, once the ruler has spoken, all her subjects conform themselves to her word. What Tellurians may have more difficulty in understanding is that the ruler will rarely speak until she has tried to ensure that her word is harmonious with all goodly maids. This is not democracy; it is the subtle inweaving of social harmony. In a society where there is no fundamental "opposition of principle" (such as is built into the very fabric of the late-patriarchal "party system"), when there is disharmony or serious disagreement, the first reaction is that something is wrong somewhere; and that the cause needs to be found and remedied. Now society is an organism. Aristasian societies have grown over centuries and millennia, developing their very specific embodiments of thamë. Our Family is very new, but it is also an organism. It needs to grow and develop its own way of expressing thamë. This certainly means being in the Golden Chain and giving absolute obedience to the Empress (may she be blessed by the Seven Angels) and all her servants-in-command. But it is not the normal Aristasian way for those servants simply to create a one-size-fits-all structure and impose it on a fledgling community. In an emergency that might be done, and of course we should accept it meekly (without questioning whether the emergency justifies it either. Our Elders have spoken. That is all). But normally that just isn't the way Aristasia works. Rulers are like gardeners: watching, nurturing, correcting. Ensuring each plant grows straight and true as it should. Remember, it is a maternal, not a paternal, society. In this particular case, where no pre-existing thamë is established, it is natural that the Elders first ask the community how it sees itself, solicits our proposals; then considers them in the light of thamë, makes further proposals and passes them to us for consideration. This is not democracy. It is civilised behaviour. The way of thanë is often slow. We are actually moving at a fair old crack by the standards of many Aristasian governmental processes - largely because there are only a few of us! Also because, being new, we have no precedents. Asking questions and raising points concerning precedents is often a lengthy procedure in Aristasian lawmaking - or rather lawshaping, for no human being makes the Law. Let us also remember that there is thamë and there is sitthameë (cf. Sanskrit svadharma). Sitthamë is the thamë of a particular entity - be it an individual, a plant or a society. Especially with a new entity such as our family, our Rulers will be concerned to understand its sitthamë and to act in such a way as to nurture and develop it. I hope this makes everything clearer. I am also happy to report that all twelve points of the latest proposition have been approved by four out of six (all who were present) of the core Family members in the White Rose Room yesterday!
Lady Aquila Jan 5th, 2008 - 4:12 PM	Clarification How perfectly expressed, Madonna-cheri, and congratulations on the fine progress of your Family to you all. I just felt I should mention that while in great affairs and fundamentals every precaution should be taken, in quotidian matters an Elder has a very free hand. So, for example, if the Elder Sister of this family decided that all juniors should take a cold shower at (their respective) 6 a.m., or that they should copy out passages of Scripture with their non-dominant hands, this would be considered a matter of simple housekeeping and entirely subject to the decision and whim of the Elder Sister concerned. I merely mention this because I know that Madonna-cheri would not wish her sarachenya to feel hamstrung by pettifogging legalities in matters of daily organisation.
Sushuri Madonna Jan 5th, 2008 - 5:10 PM	Re: The White Rose Family I have no idea whether it is in thamé to mention that honoured Lady Aquila is a beast. So I shall not mention that fact at all.
Cecile Landgrebe Jan 5th, 2008 - 7:49 PM	Re: The White Rose Family Thank you for pointing this out Lady Aquila. Now I shall be able to make myself very much loved by allowing them cold showers at 7.