Heraldry

[LANGJ at mail.syntron.com]

	 Without going back and snipping bits out of a couple of dozen
	 postings. . . .

	 The focus of the SCA on European culture is implicit.	The Board,
	 and indeed Corpora are *deliberately* vague.  The fact of the
	 matter (repeated in many personal conversation with Board members)
	 is that explicit restrictions do not encourage creativity
	 (Creative is our middle name), nor exploration, nor initiative.
	 The Board actually would like to encourage all of them.

	 "Western Culture" covers a lot of ground.  Deliberately!  It
	 permits sojourns into African, Arabian, and the fringes of Asian
	 cultures (Turkey, the home of Byzantium is in Asia Minor).

	 Whereas the SCA's existence was inspired by the fascination of our
	 founders with the feudal societies of Europe, those societies did
	 not exist in a vacuum.  Trade, invasions, and migrations with the
	 outside world make any attempt to isolate the SCA's scope of
	 activities from the rest of the world as futile as any form of
	 political isolationism.

	 The Board meets quarterly, and examines the events of the previous
	 quarter.  They "patch" the governing documents of the SCA in
	 response to those events.  Fix things where they've broken, and
	 leave the rest alone.	A particularly apt analogy (for this forum)
	 that I heard many years ago, points out that the SCA was founded
	 largely by software people, and the Board meets quarterly to debug
	 Corpora.
	 "Software that isn't maintained, rots."

	 The College of Heralds is a feedback loop installed by the
	 Corporation to minimize flights of fancy, and help keep focus on
	 the intent of historical reenactment.
	 I have often cursed and railed at the College, but their function
	 is critical.
	 Historical reenactment is augmented by historical armory.

	 The College, like the Board, responds to problems as they are
	 perceived.  In the sixties, arms were registered to a Western
	 Duke, that contained a "Shiny" black star on a matte black field.
	 Horrid heraldry!  That is no longer permitted.  Non-European
	 animals were allowed until they began to distort the body of
	 armory too badly.
	 Quibbling about bears is nonproductive, a polar bear is a "bear
	 argent," in general, most charges can be any tincture or metal you
	 wish.	If you really wanted it, you could register a bear erminois
	 (although why you would want to display such a thing is beyond
	 me).  The college is not generally inclined to fret about minor
	 anatomical differences between species of bovines (for one thing,
	 our artists aren't all that great).
	 The College doesn't *want* to register your personna (that's only
	 your business), only that which impacts the rest of us.

	 Take a serious look at your suggested name and armory.  If you
	 could be transported back to medieval europe with it, could you
	 fit in?  Could you spend two weeks in the culture of your persona
	 and be accepted?
	 We'll use a masculine example:
	 When you were born, your mother had endured nine months of a
	 serious threat to her health (death in childbirth was common).
	 You lived (up to half of infants never saw their first birthday).
	 Your father called in his relatives, friends and neighbors to
	 celebrate.  He held you (a pink squirming bundle) up for all to
	 see, and said, "This is my son!  My heir!  I shall call him....
	 He-Man Gut-Ripper, Son of the Death God!"
	 **NOT**

	 This is a good place to stop.

	 bran (Stargate)
	 [langj at mail.syntron.com]  >>(whose access to the net will be out
	 for the day while a new drive is being installed)<<