Post Archive – Page 24 – Techniques of Digital Heraldry

The Order of the Sea Dog

The Order of the Sea Dog of Østgarðr is an award for service to one of the cantons of Østgarđr. Its name is sometimes written as a single word, “Seadog.”

The name and badge are rich with allusion, as “sea dog” is both nautical slang for an experienced sailor and the heraldic term for a half-dog/half-fish creature with a broad scaly tail that is often identified with the beaver, a creature that was plentiful in the territory of Østgarđr during the medieval period, and is memorialized on the seal of New York City, adopted in 1686.

The Award of the Sea Star

The Award of the Sea Star is a token given to recognize service at an event in the Crown Province of Østgarđr.

According to The Annals of Østgarđr, it may be awarded by the Viceroy, Vicereine, or Provincial Seneschal.

It is described in the Provincial Bylaws as:

The Honor of the Sea Star: Bestowed by the Viceregency upon individuals who have, on a particular occasion, served the Province well and ‘made things happen.’

Court Report, Whyt Whey Schola In The Solar

On October 28, A.S. LII, whilst his Excellency Suuder Saran, Il-Kha’an of Østgarđr, did lie abed recovering from a contagion, his fair lady Il-Khatun Lada Monguligin did venture forth unto her canton of Whyt Whey to attend a schola of arts and sciences, and there did share some of her talent in illumination with the populace, and did observe other displays of knowledge and partake in the feast that was set before her.

At the conclusion of the day, her Excellency held court, opening with kind words for the event and all who had attended.

The Østgarðrian Ladies’ Favor

The Østgarðrian Ladies’ Favor is a former martial award of the Crown Province of Østgarđr. It has fallen out of use in recent decades.

The Bylaws describe it thusly:

Bestowed by the Vicereine (if any) upon the person who has most distinguished him/herself both on and off the list field. She may, if she chooses, confer with the other Ladies of Østgarðr. The Favor is worn for one year and may be rebestowed on the same person.

Mordred Mjothvitner reports that he received this award for two consecutive years during the 1990s, and that it was given during the Provincial Champions event by the vicereine and her attendants.

The Order of The Silver Sea-Lion

Vert, in pale three sea-lions passant argent.

The Order Of The Silver Sea-Lion is the martial award of the Crown Province of Østgarđr.

It was created by His Excellency Gui Avec Chival (Viceroy AS XLVI–LI) to recognize both martial prowess and the leadership and training of others in the province in those skills.

The motto for the order is “I Go Forth, So That Others Might Follow”.

The Order Of The Silver Lantern

I’m continuing my earlier series of posts on the orders and awards of Østgarđr with some more detailed writeups of each one. More should follow soon. — Mathghamhain

The Order Of The Silver Lantern is an Arts & Sciences award of the Crown Province of Østgarđr.

The award was created by Her Excellency Johanne i Visby (Vicereine AS XLVI–LI) to “acknowledge skill, sharing and teaching in the Arts and Sciences.”

The heraldic registration for the order’s name and its badge were submitted in 2012, but the first design of the badge (which lacked the star) was returned for conflict and needed to be resubmitted before passing in 2013. (I’ve previously posted the submitted image and other details of these registrations.)

Name and Arms for Badr al-Abyārī

Badr is a rattan fighter in our province and had been working towards registering a name and device for some time. Along with with some of the other heralds on Facebook’s SCA Heraldry Chat group, I was glad to provide support as he worked through the process of selecting and combining name and armory elements.

Sable, the moon in her plenitude argent and on a chief Or a dragon passant gules.

Badr already had the outlines of his desired design worked out, and just needed a bit of support to find a combination of his favored elements that was registrable and clear of conflict.

The dragon image here comes from the Viking Answer Lady’s SVG Images for Heralds, while the moon image comes from Bruce Draconarius’ Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry.

Orders and Awards of Østgarđr and the East Kingdom

Following a recent discussion of kingdom and provincial orders and awards, I thought I’d try my hand and putting together a visual overview, in part to force myself to wrap my head around all of them, and also in hopes that the result might be of use to others.

My point of reference for this was the East Kingdom Awards Overview created by Tola knitýr, which is itself based on a similar chart created for the Middle Kingdom by Gebhard.

Rather than just copying the existing chart, I wanted to make sure I understood the underlying awards, but after looking at various write-ups online, it turned out that many of them were out-of-date following a significant reorganization of the East Kingdom award structure that took effect in October 2015.

Every Distinct Tincture, Fur, and Field Treatment

A discussion earlier this year led me to the calculation that there were 97 heraldically distinct tinctures, furs, and field treatments recognized in the SCA, and this evening I figured I’d go ahead and sketch them all out.

The math works out as follows:

7 solid tinctures (2 metals plus 5 colors) +
10 neutral furs (every combination of 2 metals x 5 colors) +
20 ermine furs (2 metals ermined of 5 colors each, plus 5 colors ermined of 2 metals each) +
20 masoned (2 metals masoned of 5 colors each, plus 5 colors masoned of 2 metals each) +
20 papellony (2 metals papellony of 5 colors each, plus 5 colors papellony of 2 metals each) +
20 scaly (2 metals scaly of 5 colors each, plus 5 colors scaly of 2 metals each).

Examples of Individually Attested Pattern Registrations

[Update, December 2020:] For the latest version of this document, see A Catalog of Individually Attested Pattern Submissions which includes additional items not listed below.

The SCA’s current rulebook for heraldic submissions, The Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory (or SENA), establishes a common set of requirements called the “Core Style,” based on armorial practices that were common across late-medieval Europe and on Anglo-Norman conventions in particular.

However, it also provides an escape hatch — you can register designs which do not meet the core style rules if you can show that all of their elements were part of established heraldic practice in some particular time and place. This mechanism is known as an “Individually Attested Pattern” (or IAP), and allows for registration of designs which are typical of German, or Italian, or Japanese, or other heraldic cultures but which would not be registrable under the Anglo-Norman-influenced core style rules. Continue reading “Examples of Individually Attested Pattern Registrations”