Back in the ancient times, to the roots of human history when society as we conceive it today has reached its golden age, hierarchies were something deeply respected and the actual roots of all tribes and social structures.

If you think just as an example about how the Greeks would have a very structured system on how the adult men would take care of the adolescents, and how they were introduced to the adult life (from hunting, to fighting, to sex, work,  philosophy, etc..), you will have quite a clear idea of what I’m talking about. In those times, a boy would be introduced to the higher adult society by a Man, and be educated and initiated by him. That boy would then understand and experiment on his own skin a lot of what he would have been facing in his adult life; again, from fighting to hunting, from helping out the elder in his work, from being of service in the home of a Landlord, and to having sex.

Us Leathermen, we are traditionalists and we have a thing for Rituals, Traditions and Protocols. Doesn’t matter how much we evolved from those ancient times, and even though Old Guard Culture comes straight from a strict adherence to Military lifestyle, actually it doesn’t really matter if we had a military education or not (it helps, but it’s not mandatory). We still work and live by the feeling of a sense of structure and hierarchy between us.

Of course this is only true to some people, and this is why still today you can hear about “Old Guard Leatherman” definition. Old Guard is something that doesn’t belong in a mainstream fashion to our days by definition, but some of us decide to live by the Codes and Protocols of those ages and that environment. It is both for a matter of worshipping and honoring our roots, but also a way to still live by those rules and Codes, even if each day we seem to become more and more outnumbered by those who live Leather as a mere fetish or sexuality; I do believe that being a “part time” Leatherman is less honorable than being an Old Guard one, but I also do believe in personal freedom, so be it. We Old Guard exist, and them new guard exist as well. Not my place to judge, and also everyone’s sexuality and psychology is unique and good and has the right to be. Yet, we are different.

by the book: starting as an Leather Alpha boy

By the book, according to Old Guard Protocol, it does not really matter wether you address yourself as a Dominant or a submissive out of the box. You don’t get to entitle yourself as a Master just because you like the idea of it or because you feel entitled of being one. It just doesn’t work that way. Being a Master means much more than just shouting orders, being obeyed and being Dominant. It involves a long path or learning, and I’m not just talking about a matter of learning at a bondage masterclass or on a whip cracking workshop. You will have to learn, on your skin, what it means to belong. You will have to learn what it means to suffer, to trust, to beg for Ownership inside of you, to feel the joy and the calmness that having a Master means. You will have to learn what it means to put people what you will put them through. You will have to learn to Dominate yourself before being able to Dominate others, in a fashion that you’ll always not be harmful or a danger to those who put their lives in your hands.

So, regardless of what you think you are, you don’t just get to walk in Old Guard Leather Community with the arrogance of thinking you’ll be welcomed and trusted and respected because of your beautiful gear, how much you spent on it, or on your looks and thoughts. You will have to earn the respect.

Ideally, you will get to be taken under the Mentoring and guiding figure of an Older Leatherman that decides to meet you, know you, test you, and eventually train you.

Of course, especially nowadays, this is a very rare dynamic. Those of us who can say to have been in this kind of right path and have known the love and care of a Mentor, and that have slowly learned what it means to be part of this Community, are the few lucky ones.

I have been one of these lucky men.

About this Leather Alpha boy

I started my journey in BDSM and Leather life when I was 17. I always felt that this kind of path was needed, as I always have been a very Dominant boy also as a child. It is true though that I strongly missed a father figure, and as written in other articles such as The Wolf Spirit, I anyway missed a kind of a guide in understanding what I had inside and what to do with it. So my first experience as a sub was a kind of a disaster. The Man was attractive, I was young and couldn’t possibly understand that what I was searching for required a bit more than just a lot of gear and some physical goodies. So I left that experience aside, and went back to my more comfortable position of Dom-Top only.

After a couple of years, when I just turned 19, I got to meet the man who currently is my husband, and my very first Mentor.

I was searching in him that guiding figure in Leather History and Culture, in BDSM Protocols and Etiquettes, and a man to belong to that would empower my qualities as a boy and teach me in the process to become a Master myself one day. Him and I are though very different people and very different kind of Leathermen, so that didn’t workout and as a result it became difficult to feel submissive at all. I was too young to understand determined dynamics, and he was too quiet and non comunicative to help me out seeing my mistakes. It was a continue struggle to try to please him to honor my path, and a violent insurgent rebellion against the ways and the motifs that made me regret each time the idea to sub.

Now that many years have passed and Sir Daniel and I are still together, I realize how much patient he has been with me when I was a kid, and also that there’s nothing wrong in our different styles. He is, nevertheless, the man who have created me, one way or the other.

Finally, at the age of 23, I completely abandoned bottoming and searching for a Mentor. It happened very rarely from time to time that I showed respect to some Doms and Master, but it was each time worst, as each time I let myself to try and submit to Older Leathermen that wanted to use me, I felt angry and humiliated and ashamed over having showed respect and submission to such empty, void and superficial people that were merely playing a role.

So I decided that I had enough experience and that eventually the Old Guard I had been reading about and taught about, all that I envisioned for my future was something that slowly died after the 90’s, and that I should suck it up and just cope with the fact that The Community is now shredded in tiny little groups around the world, and that it would have been impossibile, for me, to get in touch with the right peers, in that moment of my life, with the obligations I had and such. So I decided to let it go, and just “auto graduate” and to be the Master I knew I was destined to be in the future.

Yes, it was wrong, from a Protocol point of view, from an Ethical point of view, and from an educational point of view. But it was also bad for me, for my growth, for my own soul and for the stress that being a real Master involves, stress of which maybe I was not fully ready. I don’t want to say though at the same time that it was bad, because I got to Own great boys and slaves, some of which are still with me. The adventures I lived, the honest and just real and true love and protection and teaching that I gave to my boys is nothing I regret, and I’m proud of it. But I wasn’t ready to defend myself from how evil and manipulative the Ego of some men can be, and that’s a hard lesson learnt.

So I’ve built my own Leather Family together with my husband, and over the time I came to Own on a stable LTR basis two boys, and be co owner of another one.

Building in reverse

At that time, in 2016, Sir Rod (fantasy name) came my way and was the second Mentor I had.

The conversations with SIR started in a friendly and brotherly way. HE was addressed as Big Brother, I was addressed as little brother. After all, HE was 48 and I was 27, it was about respecting the hierarchy. I was requested after some chatting to go and visit HIM to have some brotherly fun on HIS slaves, and I was very excited by the idea. Then HE started to exercise some pressure and a growing Domination over me, always staying between the boundaries and dynamics of normal Protocol. The great part was that for the first time I was talking to a Man that was slowly getting my full Respects, as he not only understood but spoke the same language, and had similar goals and experiences.

On HIS encouragement, I started to deconstruct all that I have built by myself till that point. I slowly managed to lay down all defenses and prejudice that I had to lay over to be able to stand on my feet and be the Man I wanted to be. I arrived to trust HIM fully, as in HIM I didn’t see the mere will to Dominate me and obtain the extra hard prize of having my genuine submission. HE wanted to help me in having what I wanted, HE wanted to teach me what HE knew, and wanted to work with me, not on me.

Now, this is not the right post to share much more of O/our story, as it is not about telling you how it happened, but to let you know what happened and what it means, in O/our scenario.

Hierarchy

To some people it’s inexplicable or difficult to believe that a Dom needs to be Owned, or to be son of a Father. To the most, the idea that the golden “Dom Aura” they have in their fantasies is somewhat corrupted by the lurking idea of humanity. Yes, humanity.

As of today, barely 1% of the human beings I know are truly only top or only bottom, with a different balance over the two roles. As a matter of facts, it’s possible that one is strictly bottom, but it’s almost impossible that one is really only top. As SIR used to say, we’ve been all on the floor licking some Boots, and we all had a dick up our asses and mouths at some point in our life; and if we didn’t, we’ve lots on something. It means we didn’t try. And you cannot say your life is complete if you exclude from your experience things before even trying them. So, of course each one of us has a preferred role. Of course each one of us is more Dominant or more submissive. But these tendencies can float in each individual, swinging from one side to the other of the pendulum, depending on the partner involved. I have always said that I am a Big Bad Wolf. But I never meant to mean that I think I am the biggest one in the forest; that would be arrogant.

As a matter of fact, I have been for years. Now I have someone on top of me. Does it mean I have magically become something else? No. I am simply complete, happy, fulfilled and, finally, smiling. My experiences towards my peers in BDSM have not change that much. I have found my own Sir, my own Mentor, and possibly the Owner of the Wolf. What has really changed with me becoming SIR’s Alphaboy?

• I was ordered to officially step down publicly from title “Master” to “Dom”
• I am not taking new subs or bois for Ownership
• There is now somebody I happily obey to and that I let teach me
• I still maintain my role with my subs and other subs that are not Owned by me
• I still am a Dominant in this community and love and appreciate all the submission and Respect I receive
• I am stronger, Prouder and braver than I was before

Inside of HIS slave pack, I have the luck, Honor and Duty to be at the top of the foodchain. Which means that there is SIR above all always, there is me, HIS boy, and then there are the subs and slaves. We all obey and follow HIM, but I have special rights. I am responsible of handling, counseling and helping the other subs in their role, I can handle and use the subs both for mine and SIR’s enjoyment and amusement when HE gives permission, and I get special privileges.

Privileges

It’s not easy talking about privileges without feeling like bribing, which I really don’t want to. Though the concept of this post is to instruct about a lifestyle that might be different from the one of the reader, or wanted by the reader itself, so I’m trying to depict the more obvious things that can be seen from the outside. But of course there is much more involved, and not a mere balance of privileges and duties that I have. As usual, the WHY stands before the WHAT.

So let’s start from the whys.

BDSM itself and these kind of relationships are not meant to brutally rewire or rewrite one’s personality over the mere pleasure of conquer over a man. There is unfortunately plenty of people thinking or behaving that way, but that is not the right path, and can bring to temporary or permanent damage to the subject itself, and let’s say it clear: there is no real reason to do so, if not a sick and narcissistic way to express some kind of internal discomfort.

BDSM and these kind of relationships have the drive of empowering and developing one’s potential; it has a therapeutic power exchange experience and can indeed change a person, but the main goal should get that subject closer to its true self, not to bring it away from it.

My SIR is not trying to change me into something that I’m not. HE has no interest in making of me a sub, not more if that isn’t what I spontaneously want. HE wants to push out that side of me in the right context and with the right people. My SIR is not trying to put under HIS Boots my Dominant side; HE is simply trying to help me develop it in a safe, sane and matured way throughout a path of learning.

Between me and my SIR there is not a Master/slave relationship. There is a Mentor and apprentice relationship orchestrated within the dynamics and emotional world of what we both stand for: Protocol, Honor, Ethics, Moral Code and a strong sense of self development. HE takes special care of me, because HE knows HE is deploying inside of me something about HIM. One day HE told me this:

True boy. One day my boy will walk in my Boots. And when time is up or close, boy will come to retirement home n will put Boots on my feet. N’ I go see my Master.

When HE told me this, I cried in joy and in a beautiful pain for several minutes. I felt finally this was it, and I was finally being Mentored and would have developed to be the Best Leather Master I could be. I am so much filled with Pride and Honor that my SIR have seen in me the potential to make me HIS boy.

Another important lesson HE gave me was this

Sometimes, even a King has to go and search for His crown in the gutter.

Lots of HIS teachings are about learning humility and humbleness; HE is teaching me to abandon that sense of arrogant superiority that a younger Dom might feel inside, and giving me a path to follow that will bring me to be a Man proud of himself regardless of the number of subs worshipping him. For you can only trust others once you trust yourself, you can only be reliable to others when you are reliable to yourself, you only have the right to bring others with Pride to the floor if you stayed to that floor yourself, and you can only teach this kind of lifestyle once you truly known what it is all about. On both sides.

So because I’m not a slave or a general sub, but a Master in the making (Alpha), these are my privileges:

• When HE needs to take a piss, and W/we are with others subs around, I am the one who gets to drink HIS piss from HIS Cock.
• When HE wants to cum, I have the right to take HIS seed (no bareback of course).
• I get to be by HIS side while HE is giving physical discipline to subs and slave; sometimes I can partecipate and we give O/our strokes and hits at the same time, in synchro.
• I get to sleep with HIM when I am visiting
• I get to be helped by HIS subs in removing Boots or other gear
• I get to sit close to HIM during dinner or lunch time
• I am allowed to have my own free time when I am with my subs.
• I am given a lot of HIS time, HE checks on me each day and always listens to my worries and thoughts and always gives an insightful feedback
• I can share whichever secret or thought with HIM; HE will not turn HIS head away on me.
• I have a special black book for when I behave bad or miss on something. I will get disciplined over my mistakes to learn both trough words and facts, but also through physical discipline
• I have my own special gear. I was gifted with the privilege to have a jeans vest with written on the back “ROUGHBOY”.
• I have my own name HE gave me.

And of course there are also responsibilities:

• When HE gives me HIS piss, I should always save a sip of it and share it with the other subs and slaves
• When HE is handling slaves, it’s my job to be supportive and a positive figure of help or just hug the subs to make them feel I’m there and we are a pack.
• I need to learn, when in SIR’s playroom, to call them Brothers, and not be called Sir, but Alpha.
• I need to take care of HIS coffees, empty the ashtray, prepare and cut HIS cigars, always be ready with a lighter to light HIS smokes
• I need to keep an eye on the subs and be sure they’re doing ok and having a nice time, as I’m kind of a Big Older Brother to them, in SIR’s pack.
• I must (and want to) make HIM proud with HIS mates and behave like Protocol and Etiquette prescribe.
• I have to stop specifying to new people that “I’m normally a Dom but with SIR I’m His sub”. Nobody cares, nobody asked. This make it seem like I’m ashamed of something.

Conclusions

This Article was written in 2016 during my Mentoring with SIR Rod; the time we have spent together was extremely important for my growth as a Master as it has completed some voids that were making me a weaker young man. Also the way the relationship was over was extremely instructive, and I hope sharing these very intimate details with you can inspire you to not only do like we did, but to do even better.