I was thinking some more recently, and thought I'd write a few more musings here, so I've also updated the title of this thread.
Back in 2001 I was part of a re-creation society (much like a miniature SCA), and within that I had the opportunity to create my own Order of Chivalry. I was quickly knighted, and then I in-turn quickly knighted a few others into it. It was all done very quickly, and the society itself didn't survive much longer. It was very casual, and done within the context of the group. That's the extent of my experience with Orders of Chivalry in the modern sense, and even then it was more of a "fictional" context, even though my goal was real chivalry for the real people that were members.
A few years ago I was googling around to see what else was out there. Almost everything I looked for turned up SCA related information. I was already aware of the
Selohaar order, but not much else.
The
chivalry section on the
Armour Archive is an interesting place to discuss or read about others opinions on chivalry, and how it informs their daily actions. It's almost entirely populated by SCA members, and therefore mostly SCA knights, so it is all influenced by that. However, the lines between the SCA persona and the real person's personality are often blurred, and that can be evidenced by how seriously some of these folks take their Chivalric philosophy.
This past year, I was pleased to meet some of the members of
The Knightly Order of the Fiat Lux, which appears to be based in North Carolina (it was NCRF where I ran into them). They're a modern order, but they do knightly combat demonstrations to raise money for charity, etc.
And recently, some folks from
Chivalry-Now came over to this forum and let us know about their group. Chivalry-Now drops the historical trappings altogether, except in the symbolic sense, and focuses on modern life as a grass-roots effort to improve our culture. An ambitious but worthy goal.
Through these contacts, I've also learned of the existence of other groups out there, or other efforts by individuals. This includes the
The Order of the Noble Heart, which appears to be perpetually in the planning stages, and
The Order of the Green Cross, which is a modern religious order which
appears hostile to secular groups.
With a few exceptions, I'm encouraged to find that these groups are springing up. In the grand scheme of things, the Internet is still relatively new, but it's starting to have a great impact in allowing like-minded people to find one another and build communities when physical distance in the world would otherwise be prohibitive.
It's also nice to see that some places have local organizations that are doing a pretty good things, like the Fiat Lux order. Personally, I think it would be really cool to take part in an organization like that. If I were creating it, I'd set up the combat system and equipment a little differently, but the concept is great.
How about all of you? Are there other groups out there you know of? Have you ever taken part in such groups before? What would you expect out of one if you joined it? Or what would you want to contribute?
