The Law

These are household regs that are more or less handed down from the Black Lantern himself, Master Saher.  They are important to him, there are not many of them, and they are not onerous.  He's always willing to listen, but these basic ethics are pretty integral to who he is, so if you can't live with them, you may not be as good a fit as we might all hope.

	Rule Number One: "If you make a mess, clean it up."  This is a physical, emotional, and political admonition  If you use pots and pans to cook breakfast in the common tent, wash them, don't leave them for someone else.  Don't leave open glue on the workbench, paint-sodden paintbrushes on the floor, or sawdust in the tent.  If you hurt someone's feelings, apologize.  Admit you're wrong when you are.  When you're right, don't rub their nose in it.  If, due to toothache, over-indulgence in alcohol, or a sudden fit of idiocy, you tell the reigning monarch to smooch your delicately rounded buttocks, fix it.  Again, apologize when you're wrong, don't rub their nose it it when you're right, and make every effort to get along with your political rivals or enemies.  All of that said, people make mistakes.  One dumb-ass move doth not a pariah make.  If, after making every reasonable effort to clean up your own mess, you find that you are in over your head, don't hesitate to call upon the Laurel.  Or the rest of us, for that matter.  All of us are willing to put our shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone, and help you dig yourself out of whatever hole you have gotten yourself into.  All while pointing at you and laughing privately.  This is to keep you humble. As a matter of courtesy, we, the members of your house would prefer not to have to help dig you out of the same hole twice.  Please limit your dumb-ass moves to one of each particular type.
	Rule Number Two:  "Do not undermine the Laurel (or each other) in public."  This one can be difficult, because Master Saher fears that he might succumb to the dreaded disease Laurelus Pompousidiem Swell-Headius.  Accordingly, we of his household, particularly his apprentices, have a standing order to lampoon, satirize, and otherwise puncture any attempts of Saher's ego to get the better of him.  This can occasionally make Rule Number Two a little tough.  Nor are you expected to remain silent in public debate.  If Saher comes up with a dumb idea at a baronial business meeting,  you are allowed and encouraged to speak your mind.  (Better would be to catch Saher before the dumb idea escapes and demonstrate it to him, preventing him from releasing a dumb idea into the wild where it might breed.)  What is not allowed is going to third parties and slamming the Laurel or his ideas, or those of your fellow household members.  We like to present a united front to the cold, cruel world, and that kind of back-biting is bad for the House.
	Rule Number Three: "Our people are not for sale."  From time to time folk in the SCA will hold mock slave auctions, dowry exchanges, and assorted other gags or re-enactments of the sort.  Saher has a deep and abiding respect for fundamental human dignity, and while he grants the participants in these games the right to engage in them, he wants he and his people to have nothing to do with them.
	Rule Number Four: "The Laurel is not Always Right."  Similar to rule number two.  If you see our fearless leader about to make a mistake, head him off.
	On Puppetry:  You will do puppets. We are a puppeteer household.  If you are paralyzed by stage-fright and utterly incapable of speaking in front of an audience, it's okay.  Shadow puppets don't talk.  And there are costumes to make, scripts to write, and puppets to build.  There's room in a puppet troupe for performers, writers, woodworkers, costumers, metal-workers, and a host of other participants, but if you hang with this house, you will do puppets.

So far, that's it for The Law.  Not much to it, is there.  It can mostly be summed up in the independent clause: "Act Like A Grown Up."