Shires in Romania
Herebe an explanation of why there formed in Romania a shire for a single city and not nation wide.
This is a long and complicated scandal but here is a short summary.
Originally there were several people throughout Romania who were interested in forming a SCA group. At the beginning they worked well together and all contributed ideas. It soon became suspected that one of the main supporters of this idea was in fact not really in Romania but only pretending to be (I don't know why this person pretended). This person was supposed to be the main contact for people in the south east, particularly Bucharest. So, since this person wasn't there, they appeared communication problems and we lost contact with potential members in Bucharest.
One of the other main people that supported this iniative found many people who wanted to become members but they were students of history and treated the other members with ill contempt because they felt that the nonhistorian members didn't know something about history. Although they were probably very well educated in history and could contribute much to the group, they were never ready to put their money where their mouths were. That is to say, they never made a single costume or weapon and didn't hold any events or fighter practices. As well, they reacted too quickly when making decisions and couldn't make rational plans. This caused conflicts with the group of serious reenactors that was forming in Hunedoara.
At this time, the SCA in the rest of Drachenwald was interested in forming a shire in Romania. With the help of the members in Vienna (the Shire of Ad Flumen Caerulum) who offered to the members in Romania several membership donations it was possible for a shire to form. The Kingdom Seneschal at that time, Lord Janos Barcsi, decided that it would be better to form a small local shire of people who had shown themselves capable of running a shire and who embraced the ideals of the SCA than to form a nation wide shire which would encourage further fighting within the group.
Of course, this caused a certain amount of complaints and scandals following the announcement that Hunedoara would form a shire. But that soon passed and the history students went back to studying and things have progressed well since then. It is likely that eventually other shire will also form in Romania but more likely as individual cities and not a nation wide shire as it is more stable for the groups this way. Each can do as it pleases. Probably even those who were against the Hunedoara shire will eventually also form a shire of their own when they become more organised.
