Heraldry
STDDLY at TINY_TIM.SHSU.EDU
STDDLY at TINY_TIM.SHSU.EDU
Wed Mar 29 22:04:21 PST 1995
Believe it or not the heraldry devised by the College of Heralds was
put together to keep a "period" look to the arms we create. French
and English terms and rules were combined and codified so that from
the description of a piece of armory any artist could reasonably
reproduce it. Also so that people can recognize devices from across
the field.
3-D effects were rarely used in period charges. They are not allowed
now (except for a very few things i.e. dice) because they are not
period style and because the features that define a charge become
unidentifiable a even relativly close distances.
"Landscape" heraldry is also not period style. Also it tends to be
hard to identify and reproduce from written "heraldese."
Being that Amptguard is not a historical recreation group they could
use lots of things we don't. But, it is going to be hard to register
things that don't come in standard postures and representations. You
would have to compare every dragon to every other winged thing by
picture to make sure they are different.
Copyright infringements are something else again. Invairably, given
the nature of the fantasy aspect of Amptguard, some of the people are
going to want to take on the arms of characters in scifi/fantasy
novels and legendary characters. Technically, as I understand it, as
long as the arms are not displayed in public where "modern" people
would mistake them, people can get away with it. Some authors do not
mind people using their characters and/or arms, some do.
FYI The SCA has changed one heraldic rule. Except for a list of
historic arms, they are allowing registry of arms in the SCA that
have been registered in other Colleges of Heralds (of course as long
as they fall within the guidelines). They decided that since each
College of Arms in the different countries do not recognize each
other's registrations, that the SCA to do so was getting way too
difficult.
Lorraine
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