☙ Why the Order Rejects Gatekeeping in All Its Forms ❧
“What is noble may yet be open; what is discerning need not be cruel.”
Let it be declared, for the record and the realm alike:
The Order of Vulgarian Knights is not a private club, nor a curated salon of approved taste. We do not draw lines around canons. We do not guard gates. We raise banners—and they are visible to all.
This is not a mistake.
It is our mission.
✠ Against the Gate, For the Firelight
Too long has genre fellowship been tarnished by petty tests:
- “Have you read every volume?”
- “What edition did you play?”
- “Which films count as canon?”
These are questions posed not from curiosity, but from control.
They are the whispered barbs of gatekeepers—those for whom love becomes a ledger, and lore a bludgeon.
We reject such things.
You may have just discovered Lovecraft.
You may have only seen one season of Trek.
You may love Trancers more than Blade Runner.
You may be ten. You may be seventy. You may be neither.
If your heart stirs at the strange, the valiant, the wondrous, or the weird—you are already one of us.
✠ No Purity, Only Passion
We do not test. We do not rank fandoms by prestige.
The Order reveres Gothic horror and Saturday matinees alike. It exalts the folk tale and the fever dream. It holds in equal regard the swords of Solomon Kane and the sneakers of Buckaroo Banzai.
To be Vulgarian, after all, is to come from the common tongue—from the folk, from the field, from the fire.
We do not exclude because of taste.
We delight in difference.
✠ A Chivalry of Curiosity
This openness is not permissiveness.
It is not sloppiness, nor surrender.
It is a deliberate stance:
To hold oneself noble without holding others beneath.
To say: You are welcome here—and mean it.
To make of one’s knowledge a lantern, not a cudgel.
This is the chivalry we aspire to.
This is the Order we are building.
This is what makes us public—not pompous.
