The value of a persona

One of the interesting twists of the SCA is the shear diversity of ideas about what participation in the SCA is or should be. As a newcomer who prefers to know something about a group before showing up in person this leads to some interesting conflicting opinions. The first of which is what is the value of a persona? For the most part I see three different thoughts on this when I poke around online.

The persona is nothing. Register a name if you like or stick with the simple Real First Name of SCA Locality but play how you want mixing time and place freely.

The persona is everything. You are playing as a person from a time and place so do your best to represent or even live as that time and place.

The persona is a starting point. Give yourself an anchor to start your journey but change it or ignore it if you feel that your chosen persona hems you in.

I'm exaggerating for effect of course but it surprised me how often I ran into the persona is nothing idea. I understand the fact that it lowers the barriers to entry. Generic garb can be borrowed and is easier to make. It helps remove any worries from someone who just wants to get on with the fighting. It lets you pick only the things you like without worrying about how exactly things fit together historically.

While I understand that side of things I prefer to put some weight into a persona. The SCA no longer claims to be an educational group but much of my interest in being a part of the SCA is because it gives me a reason and direction to my own self-education. I've picked a Georgian persona because it isn't a common time and place in the SCA. It makes my persona a good jumping off point because there isn't a default SCA answer to questions about Georgian garb, decorative arts, cooking, and so on. While there are places where I complain about the lack of easy sources I actually love the research challenges! 

I like having an anchor but I don't think I can go farther to the persona is everything idea. During the pandemic, when I first started thinking about the SCA as a retirement meta-hobby, I encountered the idea of Enchanted Grounds and while I think it is an interesting idea I am too conscious of what I don't know to be fully comfortable being Davit as opposed to reenacting Davit.