Post Archive – Page 7 – Techniques of Digital Heraldry

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.

A Techie’s Guide to the Ordinary & Armorial

I ran a session about the SCA’s O&A database at the Virtual Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium this January, and am now belatedly getting a copy of my presentation posted here.

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.

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.

The Crown Province’s Shibbøleðr

Newcomers and neighbors of the Crown Province inevitably run into a tricky question: how do you pronounce Østgarðr?

There are (at least) three potential pitfalls packed into this one word, and even many long-time residents habitually get one or two of them wrong.

Continue reading “The Crown Province’s Shibbøleðr”

A Winter’s Worth of Traceable Art

The seasons are starting to turn here and I figured that was as good reason as any to review the changes that’ve been made to the Traceable Heraldic Art collection over the last three months, including over two hundred and sixty new entries.

Eighty of those new images are drawn from Joakim Spuller’s WappenWiki collection, for which he has my continuing thanks. My appreciation also goes out to returning artists Volusia Zoe, Aurora Faw, and Lily Morgaine, as well as first-time contributor Tancorix inigena Bivaidonas — welcome to the team!

Other images in this update were drawn from period manuscripts, including for the first time Jean Faucket’s Commonplace Book of Heraldry, Des Kaiserlichen Kammergerichts zu Speier Kammerrichter, Wapenboek van Gent, and Queens College MS 72. My thanks to Iago ab Adam for continuing to bring new sources such as these to the attention of our community. Continue reading “A Winter’s Worth of Traceable Art”

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!

Mapping the Changing Cantons

Back in 2017 I drew a map of the Crown Province and its neighbors, which I updated a few years later to reflect subsequent changes.

Unsurprisingly, with the passage of time, that version too is on the edge of becoming obsolete, and so I have refreshed it one more time to show the anticipated name change of the Canton of Whyt Whey to the Canton of Appleholm, and the reinstatement of the Canton of Northpass, both of which are expected to occur in the coming months.

It will be interesting to revisit this in a few years and see what else has changed!