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New Member's Guide
Introduction
What
is the SCA?
Getting
Involved
Glossary
SCA
Etiquette
Your
Persona
Your Name
Medieval Clothing
Making Clothes
Your 1st Event
Awards
Officers
Your Persona
As a new SCA member, one of the first things you need to do is begin developing your "persona," or your SCA identity. Each member of the SCA chooses a "persona" to adopt for activities within the SCA.
Defining Persona
As a member of the SCA, you will choose to play the part of a person who could have existed in the Middle Ages, but who did not actually exist. You adopt this persona, similar to a role in an ongoing play, to guide your research and actions within the SCA.
A persona is:
- A character of a fictional presentation;
- The social facade an individual assumes;
- The person you might have been had you lived in the Middle Ages.
In the SCA, you can have any persona you want, as long as it is not a person who actually existed. For example, you can be 12th Century French, but you cannot be Eleanor of Aquitaine.
How to Create a Persona
To create a persona, you will need a name, a time frame, and a country or place of origin. As you continue to build your persona, you can add details such as your experiences, family, work, etc.
In the SCA we assume we are all of noble descent, although you can choose a persona from another class if you wish. Although we are all assumed to be of noble birth, you cannot take titles that imply landedness or rank. These will come later in your SCA life.
You can get a lot more information about personas from other members and your local herald. Take your time to find a persona that you like and can live with for a long time. Although you can change your persona later, any name you pick tends to stick. You also don't need to develop every little aspect about your persona now—details can come later. Right now, a name and a place are all you really need.
Country
Your can choose from a wide selection of nationalities or heritages. You can be from anywhere with which European culture would have had contact, meaning you can be English, Celtic, French, German, Oriental, Middle Eastern, etc.
In addition, your persona may be a person who traveled from one area to another, or someone who stayed in a single region their entire life.
Time
In the SCA, we relive the Middle Ages from 600 AD to 1600 AD. Pick an era from this time that you would like to study in depth. For example: Crusades, Hundred Years War, early Celtic, Italian Renaissance.
One of the neat things about the SCA is that you can always change your time period and move around in time. A lot of people choose their time period based on costumes, armor and historical events.
Name
You will need to research and choose a name that could have existed in the time and country you have chosen. This may be the hard part, but luckily there are people who can help you.
The Herald's Office is the best place to start developing your persona. Other people in the SCA will also be glad to help you by giving you ideas about names and other persona information. If you have any questions about any part of developing your persona, ask the local herald.
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