Heraldic Policy – Page 2 – Techniques of Digital Heraldry

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?”

What Does the Eastern Crown Herald Do?

The Eastern Crown Herald is the East’s royal court herald, sometimes styled “Vox Regis,” or voice of the crown. Continue reading “What Does the Eastern Crown Herald Do?”

Rules on the Appearance of Armorial Displays Within Armory

Some elements are so distinctively suggestive of independent armorial displays that there are rules that limit their use as part of a larger design.

Inescutcheons, cantons, pennons, and sails should not look like they are displaying secondary arms that the submittor has no right to display.
— [Artair MacArtair of Orkney, Return, May 1983 LoAR]

As noted above, this protection applies to single escutcheons, cantons, banners, and sails, but the rules are slightly different for each of these shapes, as I will catalog further below. Continue reading “Rules on the Appearance of Armorial Displays Within Armory”

Precedent Review: May Flags and Sails Be Divided or Charged?

During my recent review of precedents on “independent forms of armorial display” I collected a number of decisions that document how the Society’s College of Arms developed its current rules.

Some of those older precedents are no longer relevant, but I figured I’d post them here for those who are interested in the history of this subject. Continue reading “Precedent Review: May Flags and Sails Be Divided or Charged?”

Precedent Review: Can Lozenges, Roundels, and Delfs be Escutcheons of Pretense?

During my recent review of precedents on “independent forms of armorial display” I collected a number of decisions that document how the Society’s College of Arms developed its current rules.

Precedent Review: Can Plain Lozenges and Roundels Be Used as Fieldless Badges?

While putting together my recent summary of which charges can be considered an armorial display, I looked at a lot of old decisions that document how the Society’s College of Arms developed the current rules.

Charges Which Can Appear To Be An Armorial Display in a Fieldless Badge

The College of Arms has a rule commonly phrased as “we do not register fieldless badges that appear to be independent forms of armorial display.”

Below, I will attempt to explain this sometimes-confusing rule, catalogue which shapes are considered to be “forms of armorial display,” and note features which cause this rule to not apply. Continue reading “Charges Which Can Appear To Be An Armorial Display in a Fieldless Badge”

The Role of a Branch Herald

[Crossposted from my session notes on the Elmet site.]

On November 13, I coordinated an online meetup and chat session for heralds of the East Kingdom focused on the responsibilities of a branch herald, and figured I would share a portion of my notes here for easy reference.

Ten heralds of the East attended, nearly all of whom were branch heralds or their deputies, from all areas of the kingdom and all levels of experience — one herald had held the same position for twenty years, while another learned learned during the call that he was being promoted from deputy to take his barony’s pursuivant position. Continue reading “The Role of a Branch Herald”

Frequency of Branch Designators

As the herald of the Crown Province of Østgarðr, I am well aware that it is the only branch in the Society to bear that particular designator — a result of its distinctive history as the home territory of the earliest royalty of the East Kingdom — and I became curious as to what other unusual branch designators were to be found in the catacombs of the Society’s armorial database.

A bit of data extraction produced the following table: Continue reading “Frequency of Branch Designators”

An OSCAR Commentary Checklist

The SCA’s College of Arms processes around three thousand name and armory submissions per year, attempting to ensure that each is properly structured, historically plausible, and unique within the society. A distributed system of commentary allows the burden of this process to be shared among multiple heralds and minimizes the number of things that fall through the cracks.

By commenting on Letters of Intent, first at the kingdom level and then at the Society level, these other heralds help to catch problems, suggest additional resources, and highlight issues that need to be considered during the monthly decision meetings in which the senior-most heralds make the final determinations as to whether submissions will be accepted or returned. Continue reading “An OSCAR Commentary Checklist”