[ANSTHRLD] Heraldic Regalia

[Tim McDaniel]

On Thu, 5 Feb 2004, Jon South <jonsouth at centurytel.net> wrote:
> I am going to make the point (with some temerity) that when
> consulting, the herald is not in fact acting for the Society College
> of Arms, he is acting for the petitioner.

In my opinion, a warranted herald is also acting for the College of
Heralds.  This is especially evident when he's Armillary, Ansteorra's
Herald In A Box.  The closest period analogue to that is a heraldic
visitation, where they went around and judged the bearing of arms.
This is a weak point because they were concerned with destroying
armigers, not setting them up.

Even a freelancer, I believe, should keep an eye both on the wishes of
the submitter and the rules of the College, both for practical reasons
(gotta follow the rules to pass something) and for reasons of
intellectual honesty (I would likely despise someone who hid pertinent
evidence, for example).

> In consultation, the wishes of the petitioner have primacy, not the
> wishes of the Society, the CoA, or the CoH; all a herald can do is
> advise the petitioner that a particular choice will not pass or
> probably won't pass.

Actually, that's not quite true.  In Ansteorra, unless the rules were
changed, a local branch herald can return a submission.

**WARNING**: It's REALLY REALLY inadvisable, because very few branch
heralds have the knowledge to do a really solid ruling and to follow
the proper procedures in returning something (do you know what the
Admin Handbook says about that?  No?).  I can think of only five
people in Ansteorra who could do it reliably, and every one is a
Pelican or court baroness, and has been a big-H herald or Sovereign of
Arms.  It's also far more work to do a real return than to convince
them that "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!  ... erm, but I can help you design
something really close ...", especially considering they can appeal
anything past you (do you know what the Admin Handbook says about
that?  No?)  But technically, last I heard, it's possible.

It's a technicality that you'd better let lie, but it illustrates that
at least a local herald is a representative of the College of Heralds.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at panix.com; work is tmcd at us.ibm.com.