[Hellsgate] Motto

[Tim McDaniel]

I would like to tangent off for general advice, at the risk of
sounding like a pint-sized Polonius.

When trying to decide on something in the SCA, be it a name, arms, a
motto, a style of clothing, food, tents, or anything else, it is well
to not get one's heart set on it before thinking it over, and one of
the issues is whether it's period style.  Period style should be
weighed as appropriate for the situation -- for example, a feast menu
for a major A&S event should weight it far more heavily than bringing
a dish to a Yule revel.  Personally, it's my personal suggestion that
groups ought to consider a higher level for all senses of "higher" --
I don't mean just period style, but spiffiness in general.

As a general principle, it's hard to come up with ideas and then see
whether they can be shoehorned into a period pattern.  In SCA
heraldry, that's called "stunt documentation" ("don't try this at
home; these are professionally trained stunt heralds") and it has been
compared to "you're hungry, so you drive to a streetcorner in your
city and hope that there happens to be a restaurant there".  It's a
lot easier to look at what was done in period and then alter parts
that are annoying, impractical, or whatever.

Anyone interested in a topic (whatever, not just mottos) can always
research it some to have a store of knowledge on hand when it's
brought up.

Dannet Lincoln
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com