East Kingdom – 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.

Historical Timing of East Kingdom Coronation

A recent comment on social media led me to wonder when the East Kingdom’s spring-and-fall calendar for coronations had been established. I knew it had been developed independently of the West, which follows a completely different schedule, and a cursory glance at the list of coronation dates shows that the first few years were much more ad-hoc — when had things stabilized?

I pasted the dates into a spreadsheet and applied a few minor transformations to produce this chart, showing the chaos of the kingdom’s first five years followed by a shift in 1973:

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.

Charting the East’s Crown Cycle

For those of us steeped in the culture of our local kingdom, the annual rhythm of coronations and crown tournaments is part of the familiar cycle of the year, but I remember being somewhat bewildered by it as a newcomer.

In hopes of making the procession of fixed dates slightly more accessible, I put together a simple chart showing how the calendar year aligns with the summer and winter reigns and the kingdom events that govern their passage here in the East.

Team Blue Square

The Blue Tyger has served as a mascot for the East Kingdom for about fifty years, since it was selected to combat the red dragon of the Middle, and it is displayed widely as a populace badge as well as being integrated into other badges and displays.

This has led to a bit of good-natured grumbling from scribes and others who have been repeatedly asked to paint this image in a wide variety of sizes and media: “oh no, another tyger, with all of those fiddly little tufts of hair — why didn’t we choose something simpler?” Nobody was seriously suggesting replacing the tyger, but a joke developed within the scribal and heraldic communities that things would be easier if our populace badge was a simple blue square.

Populace Pride

As the Society recognizes Queer Pride this month, I thought I would share a couple of images I created featuring the populace badges of the East Kingdom and the Crown Province of Østgarðr, which folks are free to use.

Click either image for a higher-resolution PNG file.

How the East Kingdom got its Blue Tyger

The Blue Tyger (sometimes informally known as “Sparky”) serves as a sort of mascot for the East Kingdom, appearing in its populace badge as well as many of its award insignia.

Earlier this year I got curious about why this was, and asked some Eastern heralds, who provided a bunch of the context: the blue tyger had been selected by Alfgar the Sententious, first Brigantia Herald, as a figure from East-Asian mythology and a riff on the dragon of the Middle Kingdom.

[People’s Democratic Republic of the East, Returned, Apr 1996 LoAR]

I recently stumbled across this gem in the Archive of Laurel Letters:

Laurelin Hardy Letter of Intent of 1 April 1996

East, People’s Democratic Kingdom of the. Name and device. Purpure, in saltire a hammer and sickle within a laurel wreath, in chief a crown Or.

What Does the Brigantia Herald Do?

On April 25, 2020, as part of the East Kingdom Officer Schola online event, Master Malcolm Bowman led a session reviewing the role of two kingdom-level heraldic positions he holds, including that of Brigantia Herald.

I am attaching my notes from this session below in hopes that they might be of interest to other members of the community, but please be aware that this is not an official transcript and may contain errors or omit relevant details.

The Brigantia Herald has overall responsibility for all heraldic activity in the kingdom, including courts, events, and submissions. Continue reading “What Does the Brigantia Herald Do?”