Heraldry

[James Crouchet]

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