[Steppes] Heraldic rules (was: Does anyone have)

[Diane Rudin]

--- Sir Morgan Buchanan <morganbuchanan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> So, and I ask this for educational purposes...
> 
> Let's say someone makes something for someone with the King/Queen
> arms on it.  Is there something in kingdom law that says they have 
> to give it over to the general royal "stuff" pile?  Or that merely 
> common practice, and they COULD decide to put it in a box and use 
> it if they ever won again?

Nothing in kingdom law, just 800+ years of heraldic law.

I suppose that a Crown could have a personal hoard of things with the
kingdom arms; some probably do.  There's no problem with that as long
as they only use/display those things when they're Crown.  But why
make something for someone as a personal gift that they can only use
half the year for only a few years, if ever again?

Heraldry means something; it's not just pretty pictures.  The arms of
Ansteorra say "I am Ansteorra"; the badge/ensign of Ansteorra says "I
am Ansteorran".  These are two very different things.

Robin has a few things with the arms of the Steppes on them, left
over from his tenure as Baron.  They are kept as historical items,
and they've come in handy a few times, serving as backup banners and
herald's tabards.  But someone hand-painted an achievement of the
Steppes arms (on vellum, with gold leaf and using handmade
period-recipe paints) as a personal gift for him, and we can't in
good conscience display it in our house.  So it gets trotted out for
occasional arts & history displays, but otherwise gathers dust in a
closet.

If the intent is to make a personal gift, it should be, well,
*personal*.  Why pour all that love into something someone can't
use/display all the time?

--Serena