Author: Mathghamhain

A Roadmap to Morsulus’s Monthly Updates

Last year I wrote up a summary of Morsulus’s process for applying updates from the monthly LoARs to the Society’s O&A database, and then more recently I put together a high-level visual overview of the context in which the Morsulus herald does his work.

More recently, I thought it might be useful to use a similar visual style to summarize the monthly update process, as a way of giving people a graphical roadmap to the data flow before they dive into the step-by-step technical nitty-gritty. Continue reading “A Roadmap to Morsulus’s Monthly Updates”

The Refrigerator Test

At the conclusion of an armorial design process, whether self-guided or in consultation with a herald, when you’ve found a device that appears to follow all of the rules and is free of conflicts, there can be an urge to rush it off to your kingdom’s submissions herald ASAP — after all, it’s perfect — and registration takes so long, you better get started now — and worst of all, what if someone else registers it first?

At this point, savvy practitioners will urge you to pause for a moment and catch your breath.

Continue reading “The Refrigerator Test”

April First Letters of Misintent

Once again it is time for the College of Arms’ annual April First Letters of Misintent. Last year I put together a bunch of submissions but I didn’t have time to do so this year, and will have to settle for laughing in appreciation of this very nerdy form of humor.

New Clip Art Files Posted Without Gray Fills

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback in response to my questions about black-and-white and transparent images for the Traceable clip art library.

I’ve kept the original grayscale files, as some people find them useful, but I’ve now also added a bunch of new file formats, including “outline” files which have only black and transparent pixels, and “B&W” files which have only black, white, and transparent pixels. I hope that these help with the “light gray fill” issue as well as the jagged edges I’ve noticed showing up in raster art due to anti-aliasing and flood fill tolerance settings. Continue reading “New Clip Art Files Posted Without Gray Fills”

Stodart’s Survey of Scottish Arms

Tanczos Istvan drew my attention to a book of arms I hadn’t previously encountered, “Scottish Arms: Being a Collection of Armorial Bearings, A.D. 1370-1678, Reproduced in Facsimile from Contemporary Manuscripts, With Heraldic and Genealogical Notes” published by Robert Riddle Stodart in  1881.

It contains a selection of Scottish armory excerpted from over a dozen different period sources, organized into two volumes; the first contains plates reproduced from period sources, while the second contains heraldic and biographical data about each of the individuals whose arms are shown. Continue reading “Stodart’s Survey of Scottish Arms”

Armory Submissions from Virtual Heralds Point

During the month of February, the College of Arms organized a online Virtual Heralds Point during which people could sign up for consultation with heralds who would guide them through the submission process for names and armory.

Below is a collage of armory I worked on as part of this event. (The rowan berries in the bottom left are a badge I did for myself during VHP but submitted directly.) Continue reading “Armory Submissions from Virtual Heralds Point”

Traceable Art for February

It’s been a busy couple of months, with well over two hundred items added to the Traceable Heraldic Art collection since December, bringing the total to more than four thousand items grouped into more than a thousand headings.

A big driver of the recent activity has been the College’s Virtual Heralds Point, which for the first time used online tools to coordination heraldic consultations, art assignments, form preparation, and electronic payment. In addition to processing submissions for hundreds of people, this event also facilitated connections between heralds and artists from all across the known world who might not have ever met in person. Continue reading “Traceable Art for February”

An Introduction to the Tinctures

One of the first questions commonly asked by newcomers to the world of armory is “what colors can I use?”

This seemingly-simple question has multiple answers, depending on how deeply you want to dig in, and it does involve learning some basic heraldic jargon, but the it’s worth mastering these foundations. Continue reading “An Introduction to the Tinctures”

A Roadmap to the World of Morsulus

Because the tasks performed by the Morsulus Herald mostly take place behind the scenes, even experienced members of the College can be a little vague about what’s involved, so I put together a high-level conceptual diagram that outlines how some of the main elements are related. Continue reading “A Roadmap to the World of Morsulus”