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Chivalry Scroll for Sterling de la Rosa

Most fearsome warrior, most honored counselor, source of all good order in the world, administrator of the affairs of war and of right thinking. When this exalted Imperial cipher is read aloud, be it known that Sterling de la Rosa, noble of bearing, skilled in diverse arts of the blade, faithful subject of the East, shall be named a Knight of the Society. We, Sultan Wilhelm & Sultana Vienna of the Eastern Realm, have commanded that the afore named be given all the rights befitting a knight, arms by letters patent  (arms information here) as well as the responsibility to defend the weak and helpless, and to act in the manner of a peer, with courtesy and respect for all peoples, even the enemies that stand before the East. We so command that this be accomplished forthwith, on this day 30th Day of March in the 53rd Year of our Society, at Our Divan at Mudthaw.

Commentary:

Sterling has a 16th Century Ottoman persona, so I researched Ottoman Court documents to try to arrive at a word text that sounded authentic.

Here is the deal: Fermāns (legal documents) are well documented, their fine swirly Tuğras (mark of the Sultan) have fascinated art historians.  What is not well documented?  What the damn things actually SAY in ENglish.

Which is what made me order a book on Amazon because the only two copies in English I could find in World Cat were in Turkey and in Germany.  Fortunately this strategy paid off. 
Although it still did not actually translate any of the Fermans or Berats, the introduction gave me  good idea of the structure of the thing and I was able to pluck out enough phrases from the originals to give it an Ottoman feel.This is why, although our current King and Queen are German, I have fashioned them as Sultan and Sultana.

Note: Some of these documents contain invocations to Allah, I made the decision to leave them out, as I don’t know Sterling’s religion and I did not want to stray over into territory that might make the populace uncomfortable as it was read aloud.   Additionally my limitation from Jon Blaecstan, the scribe, was 150 words, and leaving off invocations to Allah saved me a ton of words.

Sources:
Nadir, Aysegul, Imperial Ottoman Fermans, Exhibition Catalogue, 1986, London, The Handpress Limited, ISBN 09511680 10

The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Exhibition Catalogue, 1987 National Gallery of Art, Washington Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 0-89468-098-6

An overview of writing Fermāns or Berāts.

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