Cantons are subordinate groups to Baronies -- if you think of a Canton as being to a Barony as the Barony is to the Kingdom, you're not too far off. They have a partly-separate legal existence, IIRC (they can have a separate bank account and such), but they are absolutely *part* of the Barony, and members of the Canton are members of the Barony.
Basically, there is no way to be inside a Barony but separate from it: SCA rules more or less absolutely forbid "islands" inside of a group. (Which causes its own problems from time to time.) But Cantons provide a way to have a somewhat differentiated identity within the Barony. They make sense if a geographic region of the Barony likes to play together, and feel that they have their own identity to some degree, but don't want the tsurrus of trying to break off a separate Shire...
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Date: 2008-01-21 10:43 pm (UTC)Basically, there is no way to be inside a Barony but separate from it: SCA rules more or less absolutely forbid "islands" inside of a group. (Which causes its own problems from time to time.) But Cantons provide a way to have a somewhat differentiated identity within the Barony. They make sense if a geographic region of the Barony likes to play together, and feel that they have their own identity to some degree, but don't want the tsurrus of trying to break off a separate Shire...