Heraldry
James Crouchet
crouchet at infinity.ccsi.com
Fri Apr 7 08:13:06 PDT 1995
On 6 Apr 1995, Aodhan Ite an Fhithich wrote:
>
> Dia duit!
>
> [Replying to a message of Dottie Elliott to All]
>
[...Large Bandwidth Savings!...]
>
> My view on this is somewhat more extreme than Arval's - I think we should
> enforce temporal consistency in names and armory. If you're a 14th C German,
> the elements of your name would have to have been used in Germany in the 14th
> C, as would the elements in your armory. Further, conflict could only be
> called against German armory (or other countries the Germans would have
> checked against) extant in the 14th C. In other words, consistency with the
> time period the submittor's persona is portraying.
>
> DE> I think this would be quite nice, since folks could then register
> DE> heraldry the is most appropriate for their personna.
>
> And, they might accidentally learn something about their chosen time and
> place.
>
[...]
> Aodhan
The only way I see this as being practical is if most heraldry is
designed by the heralds. Of course, I think most heraldry should be
designed by the heralds anyway. If the herald doing the designing is
knowledgeable this eliminates problems with non-period style and
non-heraldic style, and probably lessens the chance of conflict.
I know there are heralds who will design a piece of armory if requested,
but this does not seem to be a common practice. What most heralds do is
to take the submitter's device and try to "clean it up" so it will pass.
What I do is ask the submitter if they have a prefered charge, a color
they would like to use and whether they like silver or gold better. If
they need help selecting a charge I show them pictures from my heraldic
library and make suggestions.
When they have decided what they want I design a device and present it to
them. If they don't like it I will make several attempts to find
something they will like. I suppose I would eventually give up if they
didn't like anything I came up with, but I haven't failed yet. And to
date every person I have worked for has a registered device AND
associated badge.
Now I'm not suggesting making such a system manditory. I am not sure
there are even enough heraldic designers to handle the load (though this
would reduce the load in other places), but I would like to see it become
a much more common practice.
I guess one big obstical is the availability of herladic designers.
Heraldic design requires a person with knowledge of herladry and a tallent
for it. I see it much like having a tallent in danceing, painting or
singing (things I'm not particularly good at). Anyone can learn about it
and make an attempt, but one must have a tallent to be more than
mediocre. Add to that the fact that not everyone who might have such a
tallent comes to the CoH and discovers their abilities and we end up with
a limited pool.
Anyway, I think that I will addopt your suggestion and start designing
more persona approprate heraldry.
Savian
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