[ANSTHRLD] royal badges?

[kevinkeary at aol.com]

I wa trying to get answers for my client yesterday, and she kept 
talking about the 'symbols' designating their majesties and their 
highnesses in the Black Star, which I didn't have in front of me. I 
checked the O&A, and found nothing registered other than the Arms we 
discussed yesterday. I even said at one point there were no badges, and 
no one on this list corrected me.

I went home and looked. Sure enough, there are 'badges' there that are 
basically subsets of the arms of the sovereign/kingdom and of the 
prince, with the orle and the demi-sun removed. These are 
black-and-white renderings, so I have to assume the tinctures are the 
same. They ARE color and metal where the Arms are color and metal.

Do these badges really exist, or are they being arrogated in exactly 
the same way lesser branches, Northkeep included, are in the habit of 
arrogating badges by using items from their arms but not the complete 
arms. Northkeep, for instance uses "Gules, on a saltire argent a tower 
sable" on the tabards of their Baronial Guard. This is not a badge we 
own, and it conflicts with "Gules, a saltire argent", protected non-SCA 
arms. We are working now on coming up with something that is both 
acceptable to the Guard and registerable.

Even if these are not legal badges, their use in the Black Star I think 
makes them recognizeable to the majority of the populace as symbols for 
Ansteorra's royalty, and that is the major concern of my client. So, I 
intend to change the advice I gave her yesterday and tell her she can 
use them.

Unless there are objections?