Armorial Displays – Techniques of Digital Heraldry

Unregistered Badges of the Eastern Baronage

As mentioned in my recent post of baronial banners, House Runnymede is an association of the landed nobles of the East Kingdom, formed in an era when the baronage felt they might need to coordinate their efforts in response to royal overreach.

In years gone by, a badge was proposed for Runnymede, although it was never registered with the College of Arms. The insignia combines symbols of the House’s common greeting — tilting one’s coronet as you pass a fellow member — with its primary activity — gathering for informal conversation over drinks.

House Runnymede

A goblet argent enfiling a coronet bendwise Or.

For the landed baronage of the East.

Armorial Banners for House Runnymede

In the SCA, House Runnymede is an association of the landed baronage of the East Kingdom. Its name was inspired by the circumstances of its creation, at a time (decades ago) when some felt that a counterweight was needed to royal power; in recent years it functions more as a social and support network for the baronage.

Each year, Runnymede holds a dinner at Pennsic, and the vicereines of Østgarðr had offered to host this year’s gathering. Beyond the standard duties of organizing the venue, food, and entertainment, they wished to make the event memorable by providing their guests with personalized gifts, and I volunteered to assist with that effort.

In the months leading up to the dinner, I worked to emblazon the arms of the eighteen Eastern baronies, as well as the Crown Province, for production as fabric banners which would be presented to the guests — and now that the festivities have passed, I thought I would share those images here.

Making a Sheet Wall Panel for East Kingdom Royal at Pennsic

For local branches in the East Kingdom, the royal encampment at Pennsic provides a lovely opportunity for heraldic display. Traditionally, each barony, province, shire, canton and riding is invited to create a fabric panel displaying their arms, and the collection is hung side-by-side around the edge of the camp to represent the populace while providing a modicum of security and privacy.

Machine-Printed “Silk Banners”

Colorful pennants and long standards fluttering in the breeze significantly enhance the ambiance of outdoor historical recreation events — but hand-painting silk can be a daunting project, and requires skills that I have not mastered.

To approximate the impression while leveraging my collection of digital images, I turned to a custom fabric printing service from Spoonflower. The results were satisfactory, so I’ve written up the process I used in case others would like to follow it.

Kingdom Sumptuary Laws for Heraldic Achievements

A recent question regarding allowable elements of a heraldic achievement sent me running for the best reference I know: a paper by Andreas von Meißen presented at KWHSS in 2013.

This document is admittedly out of date — among other things, it predates Avacal, and it does not include several changes that were made to the rules in Ansteorra the following year, based on Andreas’s recommendations — but I’m not aware of anything more recent or more authoritative, and so this remains a useful guide.

Branch Arms on the East Kingdom Pennsic Sheetwalls

The sheetwalls surrounding the East Kingdom royal encampment at Pennsic are donated by local branches, and decorated with their arms.

This lovely display of the provincial arms is reported to have been created by Lord Renier VerPlanck (sometimes written Reijnier Verplanck), and is likely about fifteen years old.

Heraldic Love in the Seahorse

I put together a page about #HeraldicLove for the spring issue of the Seahorse (aka the E-Horse), the provincial newsletter of Østgarðr.

Armorial of the Viceregents of the Crown Province

Back in 2018 I created an image for the fiftieth anniversary of Østgarðr (and by extension, of the East Kingdom) that shows the arms of the viceroys and vicereines, the unique title held by the landed representatives of the Crown here in the only Crown Province of the Known World.

When I drew this five years ago, Suuder and Lada still wore the chains of state which serve the viceregents as the civil equivalent of the coronets one finds in the 185 baronies which follow us in the Armorial of Precedence. Tonight I’ve updated the chart to reflect the investiture last autumn of Angelica and Sofya, joint Viceréinas of Østgarðr. Long may they serve!

The Season of #HeraldicLove

Every year at this time we celebrate the season of Heraldic Love, encouraging the populace to display their armory or allegiance on a heart-shaped shield to show their love for the historical recreation community.

Heralds — this is a great opportunity to get your local members excited about armorial display; if your branch has a populace badge, help them trim it to size and encourage folks to show it off for the next week.

Search the web for #HeraldicLove to find more examples (and historical examplars!), then join in by updating your own profile image. You can make your own image with pens, paints, or any materials you’re comfortable with (a template is attached), or use the kingdom, provincial, canton, or Society populace badges to show everyone where your heart is.

For folks who construct their images digitally, you can find a heart-shaped field and a set of corresponding heart-shaped field divisions and ordinaries in the Traceable Heraldic Art collection.

Why You Can’t Register Marshalled Armory

Considerations of armorial designs including straight-line per-pale or quarterly field divisions often include a discussion of whether they have “the appearance of marshaling.” Putting aside the question of how we answer that question (already ably addressed elsewhere, see here and here), one might wonder why this is an issue — why doesn’t the SCA’s College of Arms register armory that has the appearance of marshalling?

I believe the answer is that marshalled arms were not issued as such by period heraldic authorities, nor did newly-armigerous families assume already-marshalled arms.

Instead, each individual coat of arms was granted (or assumed) independently, and it was only after that point they were ever combined via impalement or quartering (or sometimes more esoteric arrangements as seen in Iberia).