Heraldry

[STDDLY at TINY_TIM.SHSU.EDU]

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