NR - Frequency of Colors in K&P arms

dssweet@okway.okstate.edu dssweet at okway.okstate.edu
Tue Mar 24 13:20:11 PST 1998



Hahseika Maleah Farashsa Raushana bint Abdullah, she said quietly:

>     So I reiterate, NOOOOOOOOOO RED, except maybe in
>small patches such as the sun on the Ansteorran banner (and I'd still
>prefer another color). Blue sounds great to me.

    Hmmm, I think I'll cross-post this to Ansteorra, just in case anyone 
from another region might find this useful, & I think I'll send it to 
the local newsletter, it'll certainly make an interesting addition. 
Maybe I should have compared the relative position of things as well.... 
[somebody stop me now, please!! :)]

     Just to amuse myself (and see how little it takes to amuse me), I 
decided to look at the various kingdom and principality arms. All this 
information came from the various kingdom and principality web pages and 
the on-line armorial, so if anything is incorrect, it's not my fault, 
talk to the web masters. There are 15 kingdoms and 8 principalities 
(with 2 other principalities/regions that are apparently using arms that 
I couldn't seem to find in the on-line armorial [so those are my best 
guess-heraldese from the pictures] for a total of 10 principalities). 
There's a total of 25 arms.

     The usefulness of this quick study is rather small, as any 
proposed arms must, of course, be checked against all sca-arms. However, 
I felt that a listing of just *what* has been used previously up to now 
would not hurt, and it might give those interested in drawing/doodling 
up proposed arms (for any Ansteorran principality(s)) items to either 
stay away *from* or to *purposely* include.
     
     The East Kingdom is divided into Northern, Central & Southern 
Regions. The Middle into 2 Principalities: Ealdormere & Northshield; & 4 
regions: Constellation Region, Northern Oaken Region, Pentamere Region, 
& Southern Oaken Region. An Tir is 2 Principalities: Avacal & Summits; 
& 4 regions: Inlands Region, Rivers Region, Northern Region, & Western 
Region; and Meridies into at least 1 region (the western region, Gleann 
Abhann). The West has 4 Principalities: Mists, Cynagua, Oertha, & 
Lochac. And Drachenwald has 1 Principality, Nordmark. Ansteorra has 5 
regions: North, Central, South, Coastal, & West. Any other kingdom not 
listed did not have any divisions (regions or principalities) stated on 
their web pages.

     All kingdom arms are required to have a laurel wreath and a crown 
of some type. The principality arms also have laurel wreaths and some 
have crowns/coronets.

    I've tried to take into account relative sizes of items, but it just 
might depend on who draws the arms. I divided the arms up into 4 
different areas: field; crown; laurel wreath; and creatures, things & 
ordinaries.

     BASIC FIELD COLOR  
          4 x argent, azure
          3 x Or
          2 x sable, purple, gules
              vert
          2 x quarterly argent & Or
              quarterly azure & argent
              checky Or & argent
              per pale argent & azure
              per pale sable & azure
              per pale purpure & sable

          From most used to least used field colors, counting .5 for    
      each half field:
          argent 6.5; azure 5.5; Or 4.5; sable 3.0; purpure 2.5; gules 2.0;
          vert 1.0

     [b means it's big; s is for small]

     CROWNS - 18 of 25; not all principalities had them.
          3 x crown Or - bbs
          2 x ancient crown Or - ss
          2 x ancient crown sable - bs
              crown of 3 points sable - s
              crown of 3 points argent - s
              crown dancetty of 3 voided vert - b
              a crown of 3 greater & 2 lesser points Or - b
              eastern crown of 3 grand points tipped with pearls & 2     
                lesser points Or - b
              crown vallery Or - b
              (lion sable) crowned gules - s
              crown of 5 points, each point tipped with a mullet argent - b
              Saxon crown Or - s
              crown vert - b
              coronet argent - s

          Total: 7.00 Or; 2.00 sable; 2.00 argent; 2.00 vert; .50 gules


     LAUREL WREATHS
          Vert - 7 [1 each fimbriated Or, held by lion/swan] - 4b 3s
          Or - 7 [1 - within a border] - 5b 2s
          Argent - 4 - 3b 1s
          sable - 2 - bs
          proper - 2 - bs
          azure - 1 - s
          counterchanged argent/sable - 1 - b
          counterchanged argent/azure - 1 - b

          Total: 7.00 vert; 6.50 Or; 4.50 argent; 2.00 sable; 2.00 azure        
 
     CREATURES, THINGS & ORDINARIES (or everything but crowns & laurels)
      - 10 of 25 arms have a creature (but 1 has 2 creatures)

      2 x dragons (passant vert & passant coward sable) - bb
      2 x griffons (rampant gules & passant argent) - bb
          2 griffons combattant Or - bb
          lion rampant tail forked & nowed sable - b
          stag argent - b
          swan rousant, wings elevated & adorsed sable - b
          wolf sejant, head erect argent - b
          ram rampant argent - b
          3 crescents argent - b
          3 pine trees eradicated gules - b
          3 mullets argent - s
          2 triskeles azure - b
          2 compass stars argent - b
          2 arrows Or - s
          Ansteorran star sable - b
          sun in his splendor Or - b
          cross of Calatrava Or - b
          escarbuncle argent - b
          cross gules - b
          4 mullets of 6 points argent - s
          trillium flower affronty argent barbed vert - b
          compass rose argent - b
          cup azure - s
          demi-sun issuant from base gules - b
          a tressure sable - b
          a pale gules - b
          a pale sable - b
          a border embattled argent - b
          a border embattled Or - b
          a border engrailed azure - b
          a fess wavy, cotised & counterchanged argent & azure - b
          a fess wavy azure - b
          a pile Or - b
          a base argent - b
          a point pointed gules - b
          a point pointed argent - b
          a chevron argent - b

          Total: 14.50 argent; 6.00 gules; 6.50 Or; 4.00 azure; 6.00     
                    sable; 1.50 x vert (the barbs)
         
          After counting everything mentioned in each set of arms, I had 
109 things, but with just over 20 of them being "small", that dropped 
the total number to 99 items mentioned in the 25 arms (3 things- 4 arms, 
4 things - 10 arms, 5 things - 9 arms, 6 things - 2 arms). That makes 
the numbers essentially the percentages as well. 

          Fields  Crowns  Laurels  C/T/Os    Totals 
 argent    6.5      2       4.5     14.5      27.5            
 Or        4.5      7       6.5      6.5      24.5            
 sable     3        2       2        6        13.0          
 azure     5.5      0       2        4        11.5        
 vert      1        2       7        1.5      11.5        
 gules     2        0.5     0        6         8.5       
 purpure   2.5      0       0        0         2.5       
TOTALS    25       13.5    22       38.5      99.0


      Well, Daniel should be happy with the lack of purple, even if 
others aren't.

     Estrill
     Mooneschadoweshire
     nordsteorra
     


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