[ANSTHRLD] Who can register

[tmcd at panix.com]

I have been asked in private e-mail whether a guild, a household, a
tournament company, et cetera, can register a device in Ansteorra, and
then a full achievement.

There's a non-period weirdness in heraldic terminology in the SCA.
Armory registered is either a "device" or a "badge".  A "device" can
be registered only to a person or to an SCA branch, and it's at most
one per customer.  Anything else, whether it's intended to be armory
for a household (or guild or tournament company), the arms of an
alternate persona, a kingdom war banner, whatever, gets classified as
a "badge".

So a guild &c can't register a "device".  There can be a "badge"
registered.  However, the other thing to note is that everything
registered has to have an owner, and it has to be a person or an SCA
branch, and that owner has the power to release it, transfer it, et
cetera.

Similarly, groups are either a formal branch of the SCA Inc. (kingdom,
principality, barony, shire, canton, stronghold, port, und so weiter),
or they are classed as "household" (even if they're a guild, a
tournament company, or whatever).

As to whether a group that's not an SCA branch can register an
achievement ... The text at
<http://www.ansteorra.org/heraldry/achievements/> doesn't say
explicitly, but it implies that it's only for a person or an SCA
branch.  However, there are certainly period examples of the
Worshipful Guild of Narf-Mongers having arms (say, their patron saint
maintaining in one hand a narfing-iron and in the other a
gort-burnisher).  It would, I presume, be good period recreation for
such a guild to have an achievement.

If I were starting a household, a guild, a tourneying company, or some
other "household" (as the SCA calls it), I might register a badge just
to make it available, but release it if the "household" broke up.  If
thinks looked stable for a year or two, I'd ask Star for permission to
register an appropriate period-style achievement that's somewhat
consistent with Ansteorran regs (probably have just mantling and
helm).

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com; tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work address