A Request to the Crown of Lochac from the Landed Baronages of the Kingdom

Your Majesties, the Landed Baronages of Lochac ask that you consider publicly adopting one of the following in-game terms for Australia and one for New Zealand, for use during Your Reign. Then, when the time comes and if such suits, encourage Your Successors to consider making such a choice at the commencement of Their Reign, and so on. Whatever choices are made in each Reign, the Landed Baronages will support and encourage their populace to follow suit.

Our reasons for making such a request:

• The Kingdom was expanded by the addition of the groups from Caid. However, because the term "Lochac" once applied to only Australia, there has been a natural tendency born of habit on both sides of the Tasman to sometimes use "Lochac" as if it applied only to Australia. Such usage implies that the New Zealand groups are somehow outside the Kingdom, and that undesirable effect will persist until there is common use of an alternative in-game term which is specific to Australia.
   
• The simplest work-around -- using "Australia" and "New Zealand" when in-game -- tends to feel very mundane, especially in Court and other formal situations most often encountered by Yourselves and Your Landed representatives. While not all of us encounter these situations equally often, we all recognise that they do arise.
   
• A formal process to adopt in-game terms for both New Zealand and Australia was begun at the behest of the Crown in 2005 (cf: Pegasus in May and August of that year) but was suspended due to the workload involved (cf: a report from Crux to the Kingdom Seneschal in March 2006). More information on this is in these Frequently Asked Questions.
   
• Since the suspension of the above process, a casual practice has grown of using non-mandated terms -- primarily Terra Rosa for Australia and Crescent Isles for New Zealand. However, of late, some in the Kingdom have objected to the use of such terms, and have strongly expressed that concern to those doing so. To address the resulting issues, there have been calls to revive the suspended 2005 process.
   
• At this time, and after very lengthy discussions, our collective view is that re-starting the formal process is needlessly complex and burdensome. In principle, we feel a gentler and yet ultimately acceptable approach would be to have informal terms (which may vary from Reign to Reign) adopted and used by each Crown. Such terms could then be used with confidence by any in the populace who wish to do so during that Reign. Over time, one particular term may come to be preferred in each case, but the informal approach means that there isn't an implication that only one term is acceptable, or that these terms will one day define some separate entity.
   
• With that idea in mind, we have conducted our own name generation and proving process, referring to period documents, the initial process and other materials from the time Lochac was first founded or the Kingdom was expanded. We submit to you the possibilities below. In all cases there are notes as to their origin and how "registerable" we think they might one day be -- but we note that the informal emphasis means that being registerable isn't an essential pre-requisite, just a helpful one.
   

The Proposed Terms

For Australia

Although it is likely none of the following generic terms are registerable, we received a strong sense that some groups in Australia would be far more comfortable with such generalised terms than with full-blown names. Therefore our recommendation is to use one of these three:

• Western Islands - reflecting one geographic view of the Kingdom. It may pose a minor problem for those who think of mainland Australa as a continent rather than a very big island, but is easy enough to understand and adapt to.
   
• the Continent - another obvious geographic allusion. Note that including Tasmania in this term is geologically accurate. This usage also borrows from English tradition, where references to travelling to "the Continent" often didn't make a distinction between mainland parts of Europe and offshore islands such as Sicily or Corfu.
   
• Old Lochac - referencing that the wider Kingdom grew from the Principality which encompassed Australia and giving a sense of both history and the change in status. May not be sufficiently different to avoid the "Lochac=Australia" problem and may start to feel irrelevant as more time passes since the addition of "new" lands.
   

Should you instead feel that a name rather than a generic term is required, these three candidates (in the order shown) were preferred among those Baronages who felt able to support names rather than generic terms:

• Fürstmark (loosely pronounced Firstmark) -- literally "Prince's Land". An allusion to a very accurate and appropriate way of referring to Australia, as "the former Principality (of Lochac)", acknowledging its history and the fact of change. Probably registerable.
   
• Cumberland -- the name originally used by Australian groups before they joined the SCA. Not registerable as there is a real place called Cumberland.
   
• Altemark -- literally "Old Land". Another way of acknowledging Australia's history as the Principality which evolved into the Kingdom, and also alluding to its well-known mundane geographical age. Probably registerable.
   

For New Zealand (listed in order of the support they received among the Baronages)

• Crescent Isles -- used by King Cornelius when he came to take the NZ groups into the Kingdom in 2003, very widely used and understood ever since, documented at length at http://webcentre.co.nz/kk/mapci.htm. Probably registerable.
   
• Gottmark -- proposed by Dame Alys many years ago and used by some ever since, understood fairly widely in NZ and sometimes elsewhere, well documented at http://verso.org/medievalism/gottmark.html. Probably registerable.
   
• Eastern Islands -- has sometimes been used by Australians, including Crowns, not often used by New Zealanders but easily understood as a generic term. Probably not registerable.
   

Notes on the Baronage discussion

• This process began formally at the Baronages' meeting at Festival 2008 (attended by ten of the eleven Baronages) and continued for two months thereafter via email.
   
• In keeping with every other Kingdom-level venture into this area over the years, the discussion was lengthy, involving many false starts and blind alleys.
   
• The original objective was to come up with several good and potentially-registerable names for each country, that were universally accepted among the Baronages. This was modified during the process by the realisation that at least one group felt unable at accept any specific name for Australia, though they were comfortable with very generic terms. Hence the two sets of recommendations for Australia.
   
• It became obvious early on that there was no problem accepting the currently-common names for New Zealand: Crescent Isles and Gottmark, with a clear preference among the Baronages for the former. This made it hard to realistically propose explicitly parallel or matching terms for the countries (e.g. West Lochac, East Lochac), though the informal nature of the proposed approach doesn't rule that option out.
   
• Several promising names or terms - especially Latin ones - were ruled out on the grounds that they were too long, were hard to say or spell, did not permit easy variation (cf: Lochac, Lochacians) or just felt too unfamiliar to some of the Baronages. Some, such as "Central Lochac", were ruled out because they had undesirable implications of primacy or exclusiveness. Others, such as "Western Lochac", were omitted because they clashed with existing casual usage or understanding, or felt a bit location-centric (i.e. what made sense from Wellington made less sense from Sydney and even less from Adelaide).
   
• Even the recommended terms may possess some of those defects, but it is recognised that most of these problems are likely to disappear with familiarity and ordinary use, i.e. if a particular term is adopted, it will work over time.
   

For more on this whole issue, please see these Frequently Asked Questions.

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