Outside the Specific, A, it's an exercise. Obviously like any other fealty situation, it's intensely personal, and the decision making process would be so. I'm interested in everyone's opinions just to see where they come from and where they take the question, but I don't pretend to value some opinions more than others.
A group of Knights were up late one night discussing fealty when a Master of Arms joined the conversation. After barely a few moments, the Knights told him that a Master of Arms could not truly understand such a concept. So, Ivar Battleskald left the little coterie for some time and then returned with 'Born on the Listfield' as his response to their rebuke. Or so the story goes...
I agree with you - fealty ends with death. Love and respect do not. You have to find your way through the grief, while continuing to honor those ties of love, respect and inspiration. But you can honor the memory of your mentor without refusing all new teachers.
Sure, fealty--and the personal relationship it is--ends with death. Should the knight die, all those folks in fealty to the knight are released. This is a nice, legal, & logical way to see it.
However, we work on emotions here, and in these stuations, the dominant emotion is grief. Those in fealty should not feel abandoned; at the very least, the virtue of hospitality should be extended to them in a kingdom-wide manner. It is these such things that a kingdom proves itself.
Fealty ends with death, but grief continues on. What a person decides to do after a death of a close friend is a very personal decision and is their way of dealing with grief. If a person chooses to re-squire good, it will be a different relationship than what they had with the first knight. If a person chooses not to re-squire they should not be penalized because they where once squired to a dead knight. For some it takes a long while to find the correct mentor again. Just because a person does not re-squire does not mean they are refusing all new teachers, teachers do not have to have a formal relationship.
As far as I am aware, fealty does not extend beyond death. From a practical standpoint it is difficult for most people to continue upholding any contracts after that point. More seriously, though, I don't believe there should be an issue with continuing to wear some emblem or token of one's former mentor in such circumstances. If one re-quires, whether a token of the former mentor is should continue to be displayed or worn is up to the squire and the 'new' Knight.
In my view, continuing to wear the former knight's belt seems a little inappropriate--mainly because the belt is the symbol of the fealty that is no longer there. However, as others have already said, different people work their way through their grief differently. I'm not going to condemn anyone for continuing to wear the belt of their fallen mentor--but I might look askance if they continue to do so *after* resquireing.
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Or so the story goes...
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Everyone judges the worth and worthiness of our fellow human apes. Their words, and their actions.
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However, we work on emotions here, and in these stuations, the dominant emotion is grief. Those in fealty should not feel abandoned; at the very least, the virtue of hospitality should be extended to them in a kingdom-wide manner. It is these such things that a kingdom proves itself.
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In my view, continuing to wear the former knight's belt seems a little inappropriate--mainly because the belt is the symbol of the fealty that is no longer there. However, as others have already said, different people work their way through their grief differently. I'm not going to condemn anyone for continuing to wear the belt of their fallen mentor--but I might look askance if they continue to do so *after* resquireing.
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