(This is a series of posts from a class I taught at R.U.M.)
The first place the royalty will need to go when they arrive at your event is the Royalty Room.
Royalty Room Location
Preferably, it is close enough to activities that it’s not a burden on Their schedule to go back and forth. This becomes an issue when, for example, it has been a hectic day and an item has been left in the royalty room that needs to be used for court. Some events are completely outdoors. If someone from the group could set up a pavilion for the royalty to use, that is perfectly acceptable. Some sites don’t have ready access to a room that is close to the central activities of the day. That’s just the way it is and is no reflection on you as a group. If there are several options available, ask TRM’s chamberlain for TRM’s preference.
Royalty Room Guards
This is nice to have. If the royalty room is far removed from the activities, this becomes more important to secure personal and kingdom property. When the room is close to the activity, having guards ensures some level of privacy when needed. Yes, some people think they can just walk in on the royalty because they see others come and go from the room. The royalty may be having private meetings, changing clothes, or taking a much-needed break.
Royalty Room Residents
In a perfect scenario, each set of royalty present at the event has their own royalty room and is separate from the scribes’ room. However, it is understood that this is often a challenge and sometimes impossible. It is the responsibility of the royalty to limit access to the room when necessary. E.g. if sharing a relatively small room with one or two other sets of royalty, it behooves Them to limit access to one or two of Their attendants. If scribes are to share the room with the royalty, try to find a way to set up a divider for privacy or inform the scribes that their time in the room will be limited based on TRM’s schedule. Please inform TRM’s chamberlain if there are others who will be sharing the royalty room.
Royalty Room Amenities
The types of amenities that you can provide to help make TRMs more comfortable or to provide convenience are listed below. These are things that people rarely think about providing but, when they do, the royalty greatly appreciates the extra effort.
- Full length mirror – Royalty is “on-stage” all the time and we in the Midrealm like to see our royalty well put-together and veils on straight
- Chairs (at least one for each royal person in the room, a couple more for guests who need to meet with the royalty)
- A place to hang garb. The preference is some sort of clothing rack that can support the weight of the royalty’s garb (which can be quite heavy, especially in a winter reign). In a pinch, an over-the-door hook works great.
- Table(s) – This is especially useful for a place to set out items while getting dressed, a place to lay out all the award tokens and go over them with the court retainer, a place to sign scrolls if there is no other room provided for that task
- Cover windows – Part of the mystique of royalty is keeping the transformation from real life to Royal presence hidden. No one needs to see the Royalty getting dressed. Cover any windows and/or provide a dressing screen.
One of the coolest royalty rooms we experienced was a very large room in which a 10×10 “Easy-Up” was placed in the middle of the room. The entire pop-up had been draped in breezy fabrics to hide its modern look and it had walls to provide complete privacy. Inside the pop-up was a clothing rack, a full-length mirror, a table and two chairs. On the table were a make-up mirror and a basket of useful items such as a brush and comb, hand lotion, breath-mints, hair spray, a couple of different remedies for headaches, safety pins, sewing kit, etc. Putting the pop-up in the room allowed a private place in the room but still allowed for retainers, porters, and guests to come and go and converse with the royalty. The remainder of the room had several tables and chairs. We had different tables to use for different tasks (signing scrolls, organizing gifts, personal items, snacks, etc.). People who had business could be in the royalty room and still talk with us while we were dressing because we were in a room-within-a-room that had well-secured walls (no one could even peek in). The Royalty liaison had a separate person lined up to set up and manage that pop-up because she was busy with other royalty liaison tasks.