[Blacklake] Fw: heraldry article: achievement registration

[Allene Jahnel]

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Coblaith Muimnech <southern at herald.ansteorra.org>
To: Alexandrina Ya Suka <Blacklake.senechal at yahoo..com>
Sent: Sunday, March 1, 2009 5:57:53 PM
Subject: heraldry article: achievement registration

illustration coming under separate cover

Registering Heraldic Achievements
—Coblaith Muimnech, Orbis Herald

You’ve seen heraldic displays featuring a heraldic device with a helmet and a crest on top and feathery or ribbon-like mantling curling around it, perhaps flanked by supporters and/or coupled with a riband on which a motto is written.  The various elements of such a display are collectively called “heraldic achievements”, and they can turn the simplest coat of arms into the centerpiece of an elaborate work of art.

Traditionally, heraldic achievements reflect their bearers’ rank, standing, and accomplishments.  In some S.C.A. kingdoms that tradition carries on in the form of rules reserving certain achievements to gentles with particular awards.  In Ansteorra, the general rule is:

You must have an Award of Arms to display a helm and mantling.
You must have a Grant of Arms to display a crest or to turn your helm to face any direction other than dexter (left, from the viewer’s perspective).
You must have a Patent of Arms to color the visor of your helm gold or to display a motto.
You must be a noble to display supporters or a coronet.
You must be of ducal rank to color your entire helm gold.

There are some reserved tinctures and charges and other details to consider.  All the specifics are available on the College of Heralds’ website at herald.ansteorra.org/achievements.php or from your branch or regional herald.

The process of achievement registration is simpler and faster than that for the registration of devices or badges.  All you have to do is fill out the Achievement Registration Form (available on the same webpage mentioned before) and attach two images—one full color and one an uncolored line drawing—of your proposed achievement, including your arms.  Then send that to Sable Crane Pursuivant either by mail to the address in the back of the Black Star or by e-mail to sable-crane at herald.ansteorra.org.

Achievement registrations are handled entirely within the kingdom, and require review by only a few people, so the entire process takes only a fraction of the time required for the registration of armory or a name.  Crests and supporters will be conflict-checked against those that have already been registered (lists of which you can see, again, on the above webpage), but two crests or two sets of supporters can be much more similar than two devices or badges, so clearing any conflicts is a simple matter.

If you don’t feel up to drawing your own escutcheon, helm, and mantling, you can find achievement blanks online.  Several are available at coblaith.net/Heraldry, for example.

Once you’ve registered your achievement, the fun can begin!  Have it carved on chests, stamped on the covers of books, painted on maiolica dishes, or woven into bed hangings.  Get an achievement scroll made, and have Star Principal Herald put his signature and seal on it.  Or take any number of other opportunities to show off your accomplishments and revel in contributing in some truly striking ways to the pageantry at the next event you attend.


      
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