Armory – Techniques of Digital Heraldry

Heraldic Alternatives for the Ranged Weapons Peerage

After this summer’s initial presentation of a proposed name, regalia, and badge for the recently-approved peerage for ranged weapons mastery, the College of Arms has responded to feedback from the Board of Directors and members of the community by opening commentary on a number of alternative suggestions.

Members of the heraldic commentary community may provide feedback via the relevant Laurel Letters of Intent, dated August 15, November 30, and December 10. Folks who do not have OSCAR accounts may send their feedback to laurel@heraldry.sca.org by early January.

Candidate Names

Order of Esperance
Order of Prudence
Order of Resolve
Order of Valiance
Order of the Air
Order of the Banderole
Order of the Leopard
Order of the Mark

Candidate Regalia

A garter ermine
A white loop of cord at the shoulder
Two white vambraces or bracers

Candidate Badges

Badges for the Champions of Østgarðr

I’ve recently completed the design of a set of badges requested by the Vicereines of Østgarðr for use by their provincial champions.

The designs incorporate the green and white field used for provincial regalia along with symbols associated with the various areas of endeavor: armored combat, fencing, archery, thrown weapons, youth combat, arts and sciences, and bardic performance.

The initial designs I started with featured crossed arrows and axes, but those turned out to have conflicts with previously-registered armory, and in the end I like the distinction we ended up with of having single charges for the fields in which folks demonstrate their excellence individually rather than head-to-head.

It’s anticipated that these will be displayed along with the populace emblem as part of baldric-style sashes worn by the champions in court and other formal events.

Heraldic Registration Basics Redux

At the invitation of the Canton of Northpass, I ran an introductory session today about how participants in the SCA can register historical names and armory.

I used my “Heraldic Registration Basics” document as the basic outline for the class, although I glossed over some sections and went into additional detail in others.

My thanks to the class participants for the questions and comments during the class; the ensuing discussions inspired me to add a few more paragraphs to my notes so I can better cover those topics the next time.

On the Heraldic Submissions for the Ranged Weapons Peerage

The introduction of the proposed name and insignia for the new ranged-weapons peerage has provided a rare glimpse into an uncommon occurrence in the Society; a decade has passed since the last time this happened, and it’s unlikely another will be added any time soon.

As shown on the August 15 Laurel letter of intent, the proposal is for the name “Order of Esperance” and a tinctureless, fieldless badge of “A set of nesting scale weights within and conjoined to a mascle fleury at the upper point.”

All of the Field Only Armory

The publication of this year’s updates to the Field Only Armoury Project are as good reason as any to point people towards this fabulous resource.

Vémundr Syvursson of An Tir has illustrated all 270 field-only badges and devices in the SCA’s heraldic database — all of the armory that consists only of a divided or decorated field, often with various complex lines, treatments, and furs, but without any heraldic charges arranged on top.

Identifying Charge Groups Revisited

Four years ago I posted an adaptation of Yehuda ben Moshe’s “Charge Group Theory” flowchart, intended to guide people in classifying the elements in an armorial design.

The chart I posted was slightly simplified, but I worried that it still might be daunting for beginners, and the recent occasion of teaching a class on charge-group analysis provided a good excuse to revisit it.

Ordinaries, Divisions, and Arrangements Revisited

Six years ago I posted a fun little chart that highlights the relationship between the terms we use for ordinaries and the related divisions, arrangements, and orientations.

Recently I made a few minor updates to the chart, the most notable of which was to add a column for the corresponding multiple divisions, such as barry and bendy.

A Concordance of Heraldic Terminology

TL;DR: The International Heraldry Phrasebook provides translations of 500 blazon terms between six different languages.

When reviewing documents about medieval and early-modern European armory, it’s quite common to encounter blazons in languages other than English. In some cases, automated translation tools such as Google’s will suffice, but the degree of specialized heraldic jargon sometimes exceeds their grasp, or yields a confusing jumble that doesn’t resemble a workable blazon.

In the middle of the last century, the short book Vocabulaire-Atlas Heraldic, by Gaston Ferdinand Laurent Stalins, attempted to address a similar need by providing a concordance of over 500 terms, showing their equivalents in each of English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch, along with corresponding illustrations.

On Contrast for Furs and Proper

There’s a widespread claim in modern heraldic circles that furs and proper charges are neutral for contrast purposes (eg Wikipedia on the Rule of Tincture), and many of them cite this passage from Fox-Davies:

Furs may be placed upon either metal or colour, as may also any charge which is termed proper.
AC Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909), p 86.

With all due respect to Fox-Davies, generally considered the leading light of Victorian-era English heraldry, I think this is a bad call.

Populace Badge of Northpass

Back in 2018 I provided some support for the Canton of Northpass’s efforts to design and register a populace badge, but due to some other drama I somehow never got around to posting about it.

With the news that the Canton of Northpass will soon be reinstated, I thought it was fitting to dust off those emblazons and make them accessible again.