SR - principality reasoning

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

Going thru old e-mail.

On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Dennis and Dory Grace wrote:
> Aquilanne here.
...
> When you said "insignia," I assumed you were talking about designing
> the heraldry for whatever awards we might develop

Somehow this reminded me of another topic I meant to write about.

I can think of some famous knightly orders.  Order of the Garter.
Thistle.  Bath.  Star.  Golden Fleece.  Saint Patrick.  Elephant.

They're almost all just one word, and not a fanciful one at that.
"Saint Patrick" is two words, but that's just to identify which
Patrick is involved.  "Golden Fleece" was the outlier: it was a
mythical thing, but both words were needed to identify which fleece.
(And the thing was golden; "Silver Fleece" would make no sense, make
no reference.)

It wasn't "The Star of France".  "The Royal Elephant."  "The Blue
Garter of Honor of the Englandrealm."

A challenge to anyone who wants to think about award and order names:
consider common words, preferably just one-word names.

My first thoughts were Hand and Arm for service awards, but the
phrases "Let's give him a Hand" and "No, I wanted to give him *arms*,
not *an arm*" come to mind.  A Leg gives support too, but the
temptation for a fighter to say "let's Leg him." would be well-nigh
irresistable, as would the temptation to immediately give Kief one.
I'd say body parts, then, are problematic.  (Tho I wouldn't mind
hearing of an honest Award of the Pizzle "for service under the
Coronet".)

But "Award / Order of the Heart" is open at present.  (It's clear of
Namron's -- don't worry.)  No fanciful "Lion's Heart" or "Heart of the
Field of Honor".  (Can we avoid saying "have a Heart"?)  The Flower.
The Cushion.  The Pillow.  ("Pillar"'s already taken, alas.)  The
Helm.  The Glove.  (The Gauntlet would require permission from Caid;
they have the Gauntlet of Caid.)  There's gotta be dozens of simple
names that people would like and don't conflict.

And they don't have to be Really Serious With Deep Meaning.  Think of
"The Garter" -- one of the most honorable and exclusive orders of
knighthood in history, and what is the thing itself?  The Bath is
pretty old and honorable too -- but come on, *bath*?

Daniel "KISS -- Keep It Simple, South" de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; 
if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com is my work address.
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