Fixing Royalty

It's 2020. Why in the world are we limiting access to the highest point of our play society's order of precedence to the top performers in a single aspect of the organization, and the least accessible one at that?

At present, the only way to become a royal is winning a crown tourney, or being consort to someone who does. That limits our royalty to the top tier of heavy fighters, and in general to members of the Chivalry, who are ~3% of the active fighting populace and closer to 1% of the total membership. While traditional, this cuts out huge swathes of people who would make excellent royals by dint of physical inability to fight on that level, disability that makes fighting inadvisable, or simple disinclination that leads them to dedicate their time in the Society to other ends.

That is, at this point, utterly unacceptable. The position of royalty is not one that requires fighting. Nor should it. The royals exist to play a role, that the rest of us can play along for everyone's amusement.

My proposal: Remove royalty from the sole purview of fighters. Replace the crown tourney with the crown champion's tourney, letting the crown's strong right arm stand as the peak award for heavy fighters, and the Consort's champion stand for the steel fighting set.

Treat royalty like Barons. In the months before Crown, let those who would be king make their case, and put it to a populace vote. In this day of electronic media, such things are simple. Letters of intent can easily be read by all via the kingdom's web presence and voting could be easily handled the same way.

This clears the way for those who specialize in the arts and sciences, or in service, to find the chance to serve at the highest level; thus creating more opportunity for diversity and inclusion across the Society.

It is likely not a perfect proposal, and I am more than willing to accept feedback, but I feel it is a discussion that needs to be had.