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Frequently Asked Questions |
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Here is list Frequently Asked Questions about the heraldic
process in the Kingdom of Lochac. The majority of these are from the Cordon Rouge FAQ as created by Baron Karl Faustus von Aachen.
If you have any questions you'd like answered, email Crux Australis Herald at herald AT sca.org.au and we'll try to help.
What are Lochac's awards?
Lochac's are :-
- Golden Tear - For service. An AoA is generally also awarded if the recipient doesn't have one.
- Golden Lily - For Arts & Sciences.(was known as the Lily). An AoA is generally also awarded if the recipient doesn't have one.
- Golden Sword - For Skill & Prowess in Heavy Combat.(Was known as the Hasta Belli)
An AoA is generally also awarded if the recipient doesn't have one.
- The nock - For Skill & Prowess in Archery. An AoA is generally also awarded if the recipient doesn't have one.
- The Rapier - For Skill & Prowess in Rapier Combat. An AoA is generally also awarded if the recipient doesn't have one.
- White Scarf - Outstanding Excellence in Rapier combat. An GoA is generally also awarded if the recipient doesn't have one.
- Lochac Company of Archers - Outstanding Excellence in Archery. An GoA is generally also awarded if the recipient doesn't have one.
- Lochac Order of Grace - Give to the persion the King & Queen find most thoughtful of all (in Their Kingdom), dignified in carriage and gracious in spirit and thought.
- Prix Jongleur - For excellence in the arts of entertainment.
- Prometheus - For teaching.
- The Rowan - given to those who have displayed exceptional and consistent grace and courtesy to all.
- The Silver Helm - those fighters in Lochac who made a determined effort to improve their appearance in the field of combat.
- The Cross of Lochac - Given to people in other Kingdoms who help and support Lochac.
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Where can I find who has what awards?
The Canon Lore lists to whom awards have been given.
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Does Lochac have a populace badge?
Yes, it's the same as the Kingdom device but without the crown or wreath, that is it is split into quarters, top left and bottom right quaters are blue and the other two are white, over the top of this is a red cross with four white stars that have six points.To put it herald speak
(i.e. to Blazon it) - Quarterly azure and argent, on a cross gules four mullets of six points argent.
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Who can wear a coronet or coronel and what show they wear?
Royal peers, Landed Barons/esses and Court Barons/esses are generally the only people who "can"
wear coronets or coronels. There no laws that govern who can wear what, but the
Lochac Regalia page has some good guidlines.
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Does the Queen of Lochac have a device?
Yes, it's the same as the Kingdom device without the crown and the stars and
laurel wreath are replaced with white roses.
To put it herald speak(i.e. to Blazon it) - Quarterly azure and argent, on a cross gules four roses and in canton another all argent.
This device is optional and is to be used at the Queens discrection,if the Queen decides not to use this device she is entitled to
use the arms of the kingdom instead.
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Where do I send my submission?
The details of where to send you submission can be found on the cost,copies and where to send them page.
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What will it cost to register my name and device?
The Lochac College of Heralds currently charges $20 per heraldic
transaction. A transaction is the registration of a name or a device or
a badge. So for most people who want to register their name and device
in one go, it will be $40.
The majority of this money goes to support the College of Arms
throughout the Known World, to allow the commenting process to take
place. Without these funds, as well as spending their time checking
devices and names for conflicts and so on, the Heralds would need to
spend their own money on postage and copying.
A few notes: this being a Lochac FAQ list, all prices quoted here are in
Australian dollars. You can make cheques or money orders out to SCA Inc
College of Heralds, or if your local herald has a chequebook and doesn't
mind helping out, you can hand over the cash and he or she can send on a
cheque. Remember to offer a dollar or two extra to cover bank piracy if
you do this.
Remember that this only applies to initial submissions: the first time
you submit a new item, not the resubmissions that might be required if,
for example, someone further up the chain of Heralds decides to return
your submission for conflict or other problems. Presently in Lochac, you
have three years to resubmit, starting from the date on the letter send
to you to advise you of the problem. If you resubmit within this time,
it's free; after that, you pay again as if it were a new submission.
Author: Karl Faustus von Aachen (with corrections by Uberto Renaldi and
Anton de Stoc)
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Why does it cost so much?
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to determine the overall cost for
each submission. However, here's a rough guide to the breakdown:
- Every new submission to [the Laurel King of Arms, who does the
registration] costs US$4.00 (currently about AU$7.50)
- There is a "scribe's tax" of $5.00 for every personal device
registered.
- We can't afford to individually post our Letters of Intent and
Comment to everyone on the College of Arms mailing list (most live in
the USA) so we use an intermediary instead. We are charged for this
service, the fee depending on the number of pages and the number of
copies required. (There is a web page showing the costs but I don't have
the URL at work.) From memory, the annual costs are about the same as
those paid to Laurel (i.e. another $7.50 per registration), possibly more.
- For a device submission, that's the $20 used up!
- From the name submissions, the remaining $5 goes towards the cost
of running the office (mostly postage stamps, envelopes and sundry other
stationery). The office also pays for submissions from branches (which
are not free at the Laurel level).
During my tenure, the office made a reasonable profit on the CAMeL
subscriptions, mainly because I forked out personally for the 'Reflex
Sand' paper I printed them on (what else should camels be on but sand?
grin). The office needs to make a slight profit so as to afford the
occasional large purchase such as the new O&A or a good reference book.
So, there really isn't much leeway for reducing the cost of submissions.
More subscriptions to the printed version of the CAMeL might help, but
as long as there's free access to the Web version this is unlikely to occur.
The introduction of the 3-year time limit on free resubmissions will
also help, but not much as most people already resubmit within this time.
Besides, for something that gets protected for it's owner forever, I
think $20 per registration is a pretty damn good deal! Especially if at
the end they also get a piece of artwork (their award scroll) which
might cost $100s if commissioned from a professional commercial artist.
Author: Uberto Renaldi
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What paperwork do I need?
To register a name, you need to give your local herald three copies of
the name form and all documentation, including the title page of each
book referenced. These are distributed as follows: one copy to your
local herald, one to Crux Australis Principal Herald in Lochac, and one
to the Laurel King of Arms.
To register a device or badge, you need to give your local herald five
copies of the device or badge form with your device coloured in, and one
copy with the device in black and white outline. These are distributed
as follows: one copy to your local herald, one copy to Crux, two colour
and one black and white outline copy to Laurel, and one copy to the
scribes for their records.
Some important notes: you must not use pencils, crayons or colour
printers, whether inkjet or laser, to produce your colour copies. The
previous Crux Australis Herald accepted quality colour photocopies on a
case- by-case basis, but the new Crux is under no obligation to follow
suit, and at the time of writing he has not made a statement on the
matter. You should use textas ("markers" if you're American), and the
absolute best are the Crayola Classic markers you can find at most good
stationery stores. Do your black and white outline copy first, using
solid but not excessively thick lines. Don't do the hatching you
sometimes see in mundane heraldry books; this defeats the whole purpose
of the outline copy. It is understood in Lochac that you should fill in
the black parts, if any, of your design, but don't shade in any of the
colours. Once you've got the outline copy done, fill out the rest of the
details on the device or badge form, then photocopy it on a good quality
black and white photocopier, and colour in the five colour copies with
textas.
You can ask your local herald for a copy of the name, device and badge
forms, or you can go to Crux's submission forms page.
Remember, it's always a good idea to make an extra copy of everything
and keep them yourself. That way, if the herald's house burns down or he
or she goes mad, you don't have to start from scratch to resubmit.
Author: Karl Faustus von Aachen
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How long does the registration take?
Registering a name and device can take about six months minimum, and
often much longer. It depends on many factors. The process goes
something like this:
You start by approaching your local herald, bringing with you whatever
ideas and documentation you may have. Don't worry if you don't have any
-- heralds love working with their clients to make up something really
spiffy. If you have any books or web site URLs that might help, bring
them, but be aware that your herald may be wary of some documentation. A
book with a title like 1001 Faerie And Elf Names For Your New Baby by Ms
Crystal Moonchild will not carry the same weight as, for example,
Elizabeth G Withycombe's Oxford Dictionary Of English Christian Names!
Once you and your herald have worked out a suitable name and device,
it's usually a good idea to take them both away, pin copies to your
cubicle wall at work and your fridge at home, and live with them for a
month to ensure you really do like them. While you're doing this, your
herald will wisely be double- and triple- checking the new designs with
the various resources available for such a purpose. With luck, by the
time you've become quite convinced that this is exactly who you wish to
be within the Society, your herald will have confirmed that there are
indeed no problems of style or conflict, and you're ready to go.
The next step is to make the appropriate number of copies, and get the
right money together (see elsewhere in this FAQ for details on these
points). Hand all of these to your herald, in an unsealed A4 envelope
with suitable postage to reach the Crux Australis Principal Herald in
Sydney, NSW. Crux has monthly meetings, the schedule for which has not
been finalised at the time of writing, but which your herald will know
about. Allow a week for your herald to type up a covering letter and
possibly make some last minute changes, and then the submission will be
off and running.
At Crux's meeting, many submissions will be considered. Some will be
returned for style problems or conflict, which usually means the herald
who authorised them didn't check quite thoroughly enough, or (blush)
made a silly mistake somewhere. (I would be much sterner about this if I
hadn't made some truly awful mistakes in my time...) If your submission
is returned, Crux will send you a polite and detailed letter explaining
what you can do to fix it. As soon as you receive this, get back in
touch with your herald, who will also have received news via the
excellent Crux Australis Monthly Letter (CAMeL), and together you can do
what needs to be done to fix it. Don't feel that you're being singled
out and persecuted here! Names and devices are sometimes found to be
unregisterable for the oddest of reasons, but in every case Crux and the
other heralds in the College want to do everything they can to make it
all better. But they care about the standard of heraldry in the Society,
which is always improving, and they would rather encourage you to
improve than register something that you and they might regret!
Presuming Crux approves of your name and device, they now travel on to
the College of Arms, a large collection of heralds who comment on name
and device submissions. There are some amazingly educated heralds in
this group, but the earlier comments about wanting to do everything to
make you happy still apply. Over the next four months, these heralds
will discuss your submissions. Quoting the former Crux Australis Herald,
Baron Uberto Renaldi, here:
The SCA-wide heraldic community is the College of Arms. Each kingdom has
its own College of Heralds. The commenting period for each submission is
four months ([but if the Laurel King of Arms requires it] it has another
four months of commentary allowed on it). ... Laurel sets a cut-off date
by which comments must be made, and formally considers the submission at
their meeting about a month later. It might be worth mentioning that it
usually takes a 2-3 months for the decisions from each of Laurel's
meetings to be prepared and distributed, which explains why submitters
can get a letter in August saying "your submission was considered at
Laurel's meeting in May...".
Once Laurel has ruled, your name and device will be included in a Letter
of Acceptance and Return. With luck, it will be in the Acceptance
section, not the Return section! You will receive a letter from Crux
informing you that your registration is successful, and from then until
the end of time, they will belong exclusively to you.
If you've made multiple submissions -- usually a name and a device --
and one is returned but the other is OK, you will only need to redo the
ones that didn't work. If your name is OK and your device has problems,
your name will carry on up the pipeline as usual. If your device is OK
but Laurel rules that your name has problems, he will form a holding
name (such as John of Politarchopolis, or Jane of Lochac) and your
device will be registered under that name. As described in the FAQ
answer about costs, you can resubmit your name in this case free of
charge within three years, and your holding name will be replaced with
your new SCA name.
If all goes well, this process will take no more than ten months, and
often as little as six. I submitted my own device in November of 2000
and it was registered in the LoAR of April 2001, which I heard about in
June. This is about typical for the registrations I've seen. Naturally,
if things seem to be taking a very long time, consult your herald and
see what the holdup is. Submissions don't often go missing, but if they
do it's usually possible to find them or, if worse comes to worst,
resubmit them and give them a bit of a hurry-on.
Author: Karl Faustus von Aachen (with corrections by Wakeline de Foxley
and Uberto Renaldi)
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I've submitted my device, when can I use it?
While you can use your device at anytime, generally it is not adviseable to use your device until after you
recieve notification that it has been registered.
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Why should I bother registering my name or device?
It's a good question. After all, as seen elsewhere, the process of
registration can take months, and cost big bucks, and it's not
guaranteed to get you what you want. Why bother, when you can just paint
up a banner and call yourself whatever you want and no one ever needs to
know it's not official?
The usual reason you hear is "you register so that no one else can get
your name and device first, and force you to stop using it". But we're
in Lochac, far from the rest of the known world, with a very small
population; the chances of that happening are less than the chances of
me winning Crown. Forget it. There are two real reasons: a petty one and
a philosophical one.
The Petty Reason
There are heralds out there. They might see your banner, or hear your
name, and be sufficiently interested that they'd go look them up. When
they discover they're not registered, a sufficiently narky, grumpy
herald might exercise the full extent of his or her heraldic power
and... politely ask you to register. Hardly sounds scary, eh? Except
that you're overestimating the heraldic capacity for politeness. You can
get pretty irritated with some heralds' idea of tact and diplomacy. You
don't want to go there. Better to just register and put that behind you.
The Philosophical Reason
We believe in honour. It's one of the things we're proud of, the way
Australians are proud of being fair dinkum and the Welsh are proud of
having a language with a lot of spitting in it. We identify ourselves as
a Society built on an ideal. So how, exactly, does fraud fit into that,
even a mild and esoteric kind of fraud? Remember, heraldry is property.
People in period bore arms because they were given the right to do so.
If you, in the SCA, claim that right without earning it, you're
committing fraud. You're being dishonourable. Granted it's a pretty
small sin, but it's still not exactly in line with the ideal.
Uberto puts it this way:
There is another reason why registration (or at least the process
leading up to it) can be a good thing to do. The SCA is supposed to be
about researching the middle ages; finding documentation for a name and
looking at medieval heraldry may be the first (and, for some, last)
taste of the kind of research that is required for the Society to
maintain that authentic look and feel which enhances everything else
that we do in it. If nothing else, by doing the research needed for
registration most people learn something about the middle ages that they
never knew -- and that has to be a positive thing.
Pragmatism
I'm not going to tell you that everyone who ever used a device or name
without registering it is a dishonourable fiend. It's not so. Some
people tried and failed to get their stuff past the heralds, and never
tried again, often because the mere mention of heralds still makes them
twitch. Me, I'm OK with heralds but I feel that way about eggplant, so
who am I to cast the first stone?
But registering is worth it. It shows you've earned your place, in a
very small way. You did something that a lot of people consider
difficult, you paid a bit of hard-earned dosh, and you created something
that, within two points of difference, has never been created before.
And that's about it.
It's not much, but I happen to think it's worth it.
But then, I would say that, wouldn't I?
Author: Karl Faustus von Aachen (with suggestions and corrections from
Uberto Renaldi)
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Why should I go through my local herald when I register my name or device?
This is fairly simple, and kinda-sorta optional. In theory, you can
design, research and document your name and device and send it straight
up the line to the Crux Australis Herald for registration. A lot of
people do that, and when your local herald is busy on other things it
might be the only way. But I'd like to encourage you to include your
local herald in the loop, if you can. Here's why:
- Your local herald may be more experienced than you at conflict
checking and interpreting the rules. He or she may see something you've
missed, that would otherwise lead to Crux returning your submission for
further work. Even if the local herald is a rank newbie compared to you,
it doesn't hurt to have them look the submission over before you send it
off. As another Eric once said "Given enough eyes, all bugs are shallow".
- When things go haywire in the SCA, it usually helps to have
backups. Knowing that your entire submission is on file with your local
herald is useful when your filing cabinet burns down, or the package of
submissions gets attacked by narwhals on the way overseas, or Crux gets
kidnapped by aliens. Geeks call this an "offsite backup"; it's one of
the rare uncontroversial Good Things.
- Crux expects his local heralds to do their job. If there are a
lot of submissions coming from a particular group but the local herald
has nothing to do with them, Crux gets suspicious, and then annoyed. You
don't want to see what he looks like when he gets annoyed.
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I want to do voice heraldry! How do I start?
Oh gods, thank you! I wish there were a hundred of you! Or at least a
dozen... enough that we could work out a roster so the rest of us could
have a break occasionally!
How you start is simple: you ask the herald on duty if you can get a
quick bit of instruction. The herald will invariably recite some version
of the above paragraph, and then throw you in the deep end by getting
you to do a bit of shoutage. Don't be afraid; the herald will be right
there, and if you mess up, well... you'd be amazed how much worse some
of us have messed up. You're in good company.
Duty Heraldry
At a feast or revel, you will generally be making announcements, thus:
Oyez! Oyez! My Lords and my Ladies! The Feast Steward requires that the
scantily-clad belly dancers currently seducing that knight over in the
corner move a bit this way because he's stuck in the kitchen and he
can't see! Thank you!
The important bits of this are:
- Prepare: Think what you're going to say. Get all the details,
check with the appropriate authorities, and don't make any announcement
that the King wouldn't approve of. You're his voice, by tradition. Be
professional and competent and bring no shame on yourself or your new
profession.
- Play it straight: At least at first, don't try to be funny (that
comes later... much later) because you may misjudge your audience. Even
if you're already a comedian or a performer, you're a different person
when you're being a herald, and your words are heard differently. Best
to play it straight and avoid misunderstanding or irritation from on high.
- Start with "Oyez! Oyez! My Lords and my Ladies!": The word Oyez
is the old French equivalent of "Hear Ye", and is pronounced /oy-YAY/ or
/oh-YAY/. That and the "My Lords and my Ladies" bit give the people in
the hall or the park a chance to finish their sentence and pay
attention. Make sure you don't go overboard ("Oh YAAAAAAAY! (pause) Oh
YAAAAAAAY! (longer pause) Oh YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! (pause for deep
breath)...") because their patience is not infinite. Just get a rhythm
and go for it.
- Be clear: This matters more than volume. People will stop talking
to listen anyway, if they know what's good for them. Enunciate, speak at
SBS newsreader pace, and you'll do OK.
- Pace yourself: It's important to keep people's attention through
the whole message. That means no pauses for breath, so short is good,
and no pauses for applause, so straight is good. Announce, don't converse.
- Finish with "Thank you!": This is to tell people you've finished
and they can go back to their conversations.
Field Heraldry
At a tourney, you may be asked (or volunteer!) to do some tourney
heralding. There's a standard litany for most heavy tourneys, which I
here reveal, but always check with the local officials -- heralds,
lists, royalty -- to find out the changes. It goes like this:
Oyez! Oyez! In this bout of the Name Of Tourney here meet One Fighter
(pause) and The Other Fighter (pause). My Lords/Ladies/Lord and Lady,
salute the Crown! (Pause) Salute the one whose favour you bear! (Pause)
Salute your honourable opponent! (Pause) Now, for honour and glory, at
the Marshalls' command...
The important bits of this are:
Before the round
- Drink!: You need water. Get a tankard, get it filled, sip from it
as you go.
- Stand close: Stand beside the field, inside the three foot safety
zone around the field ropes. This means you're not surrounded and people
can see and hear you.
- Get the cards from Lists: Lists will give you cards with the
order of the round on them. Go through to make sure there are no surprises
- Find out the names: If you can, check with the fighters to find
out how they pronounce their names. They hate it when you get it wrong,
and ignore it when you get it right, but try to get it right anyway.
- Find a runner: This is usually any child or teenager who got
roped into it by Lists. In big tourneys there'll be a network of the
little buggers. Their job is to take the cards you got from Lists and
bring them back to Lists after you've written down who won and lost each
bout. If they're kept well supplied with cards, Lists finds their job a
lot easier, and you will be raised in their estimation.
- Check the titles: A long standing tradition in Lochac is to only
use "field titles". This is an inane little conceit, one of many we
heralds put up with when heavies are near; basically, the only titles
you use are the ones that are theoretically attained in battle: Sir for
knights, Crown Prince, Crown Princess, King and Queen for royalty (never
mind about the whole "by right of arms" rubbish; just assume the Consort
got his or her (usually her) title on the field by dint of inspiration,
OK?) or Viscount, Viscountess, Count or Earl, Countess, Duke and Duchess
for former royalty. Other titles are left off -- even Baron or Baroness
of the local group, which seems silly to me, but there you go.
- Double-check the double-titles: Some fighters have multiple field
titles, and some have a preference for form. For example, Graf Ritter
(Count Sir) Cornelius von Becke may prefer to be known by both titles in
either German or English, as the whim takes him. Respect his, and all
fighters', wishes in this.
- Announce the order: Fighters love to know in advance who's
fighting whom in each round. You'll win points with them by announcing
it at the start of the round: "In this round, Fighter 1 shall meet
Fighter 2, then Fighter 3 will meet Fighter 4..." Finish with "And
Fighter 99 has the Bye". The Bye is the "time off for being odd" bonus.
Lucky them. Be prepared to answer questions if a fighter comes up having
not quite heard what they wanted to hear.
For each bout of the round
Now, for each bout, follow this pattern:
- Call the fighters: The usual method is:
- The next two are called: "Would Fighter 1 and Fighter 2
report to the field!"
- The ones due after them are warned: "Would Fighter 3 and
Fighter 4 arm and stand ready!"
- In a really big tourney -- Crown or Festival -- the ones
after that are given their first call: "Would Fighter 5 and Fighter 6
arm and prepare!"
- Be ready to go: When the fighters are ready the marshalls will
give you a nod. Take a deep breath and start immediately.
- Start with "Oyez! Oyez!": As above. It's good to get people's
attention, even moreso out in the open.
- Remind people what tourney they're at, in case they forgot since
last bout: What can I say? It's dumb, but it's tradition.
- Name the fighters: You're doing this for the public, not the
fighters. It doesn't matter what order you do it in -- we're not that
fussy any more -- but watch to make sure you'll know who's who when the
marshalls point their sticks at the winner later on!
- Do the salutes: You can replace "your inspiration" for the
unwieldy "the one whose favour you bear" -- I do. Recent discussion with
some fighters revealed to me that they prefer the order to be as above:
finish with "your opponent" so they're facing each other for the start
of the fight.
- Hand over to the Marshalls: Lochac rules say the Marshalls cry
"Lay On", not the heralds. It makes sense: they're there because they
know a rap from a vambrace; I don't. Let them say when it's time for the
thumping to start. This gives you as herald a chance to make a run for
it away from the ropes and into the crowd, where you...
- WATCH THE FIGHT!!!: I know it's dull, but you need to watch so
you know when one of the lads or lasses gets their thumping and falls
over, whereupon you...
- Announce the winner thus: "Victory to One Fighter!" Don't bother
with huzzahs or anything else; they only care about who won.
- Write it down: Mark the card the Lists gave you with a W for the
winner and an L for the Los-- umm, the other one. If there's a runner,
give them the card.
- Carry on: A fast game's a good game. Go straight on, presuming
Lists has given you enough cards.
At the end of the round
- Finish: When the bout is over, finish with "Thus ends this round
of Name Of Tourney".
- Announce the eliminations: Lists may want you to announce who's
been eliminated in a double-elimination tourney (the most common kind).
Announce it. This is one opportunity for you to ham it up (slightly!).
Announce the sad passing away from their wounds of a number of fighters.
Sympathise floridly. This is where the fighters have given up on their
chance at glory for the day; giving them one last bit of attention
doesn't hurt!
- Find a replacement: You shouldn't do more than about ten bouts in
a row without a break. Keep an eye out for another volunteer. If you
can't find one, don't be afraid to refuse to continue for the sake of
your health... and then come and give me (or your local herald) a
thumping for not organising things better!
You may also be called on to make other announcements. Look to your
guiding herald for this, or just wing it if there's no one there,
keeping the "Duty Heraldry" suggestions in mind at all times of course!
I know this all seems complicated (I'm amazed at how long this is; I
expected this to be a short entry!) but it quickly becomes second
nature. Rely on your fellow heralds -- you're part of the largest single
community in the SCA now! -- and you'll do OK.
And welcome!
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Why do you keep making mistakes?W
hy do I keep stuffing up my voice heraldry, tripping over my tongue,
getting names wrong, forgetting bits, muddling titles and generally
making a complete dog's breakfast of it?
I'll tell you.
I make mistakes because I'm human. I'm tired, because that Small Person
you see running around is an exhausting creature for all her unearthly
cuteness, and I never get enough sleep. I mess up your name because
there is a thousand years of culture in the SCA's period and I'm a
Laurel in none of it. I forget because there are umpteen fighters in the
tourney and I'm not even a big fan of heavy fighting and it all runs
together after a while. I forget your titles because, to be honest,
"Viscount Sir Whatsie" rolls off the tongue like gravel and no amount of
clear and reasonable explanations will convince you to use a title that
actually meant something in period. I screw up because in my
light-headedness I thought we could do things a little differently,
because after the nine godzillionth time it gets a bit repetitive. I
sometimes try to be funny or try to be original because it would drive
me mad if I didn't.
Or maybe... just maybe... I'm out to get you because I want you to
suffer. That could be it too -- but if it were, why would I content
myself with mangling your name when I could be pouring honey into your
spare groin protector and leaving it near an anthill...?
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How do you conflict-check a device?
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So you want to check a new device for conflict? It's one of the
trickiest parts of being a book herald, and a lot of otherwise expert
heralds throw in the yellow-and-green towel when they even get close. I
used to be like that, but people like Teceangl Bach and Giles Leabrook
helped me learn, and now I'm going to help you.
First, get hold of the Rules for Submissions. This is the basis of what
I'm about to describe.
The Basics
Consider a client's device, A, which you're comparing with an
already-registered device, B. Look at section X of the RfS:
- X.1: If A has a primary charge and B doesn't, A and B don't conflict.
- X.2: If A has a primary charge and B has a substantially
different primary charge, they don't conflict, provided they are both
"X.2 Simple" (see the RfS for the new definition of X.2 Simple); If
they're not X.2 Simple, you can't use this rule. (Substantially
different is Dog vs Pile, or Lion vs Fleur-de-lys, not Lion vs Tiger or
Chevron Embattled vs Chevron)
- X.3: Ignore this rule unless A and B are both branch arms. In
fact, in the words of Blaise: "This is the most misunderstood rule in
the RfS. Ignore this rule unless you are a certified Professional
Trained Stunt Herald. This rule applies so seldom that if you think it
applies, ask your kingdom submission herald before claiming that it
applies."
- X.4: If all these fail, you need two CDs (Clear Differences). Go
through the list in the RfS.
Checking
This is my simple procedure for conflict checking, once you've gotten to
X.4 (and not before!):
- Any time a client comes up with a design that isn't X.2 Simple,
remind them that simple style is good style, and suggest they take a
look at some real period heraldry to inspire a version that is X.2
Simple. In the words of Uberto Renaldi, Stress to them that this is not
for the sake of "the heralds' rules" but rather because it will be more
medieval in style that way.
- Using the on-line Ordinary and your experience and the experience
of other heralds and the on-line precedents (starting from the most
recent and moving backwards), work out an exhaustive list of what
charges are and are not substantially different from the one you're
checking. Ignore everything that falls into the "substantially different
list".
- You'll be reading through all the Ordinary entries for charges
that are not substantially different. Figure out, in your head, what is
enough reason to discard a device. That is, what are the indicators that
you have enough CDs to be clear. For example, if you're checking then you know you can have a CD for changes to the primary,
and a CD for changes to the field, and a CD for secondary charges.
Similarly, if you're checking , you
have a CD for the field, the primary, and the removal of the secondary.
- Start with the "slightly different" primaries. For example, in
checking against an uncharged, straight-line fess, check the charges
and/or complex-line fesses first. You already have one CD for either
charging or complex line, so for these, you only need to check the
field. They're in alphabetical order by field, so this is the quick bit.
Write down any that come close. You'll need to present these to other
heralds to show you've done your job!
- Now look at the exactly-the-same primaries. Start by checking the
same field; might as well get the bad news out of the way early. If you
find any the same, you need to look carefully, counting secondaries and
hoping. If you don't find any the same, you know for a fact that
everything is at least one CD away. Again, write down any that come close.
- Everything is (or should be) written in the form, or . If you get as far as
and the primary is substantially different,
don't read any further on that line; it's clear. Move on. Similarly, if
your device has no secondaries, as soon as you see "and a chief" or "a
bordure", it's clear; move on.
- Read fast, but not so fast that you miss something. Each time
your eye skips to a new row, you need to be certain you've discarded the
previous row for a good and solid reason. Concentrate! If in doubt (and
believe me, you'll still be in doubt occasionally, no matter how good
you get) write it down and ask someone.
That's it; that's my conflict checking technique. Thanks to Giles who
really got me over the hump from unconfident newbie to the smug bastard
I am today (although one correspondent wondered if perhaps I wasn't
already a smug bastard; he may have a point). Anyone who'd like to
comment and refine, please do; this FAQ is a work in progress, always!
Author: Karl Faustus von Aachen (with suggestions and corrections from
Blaise de Cormeilles, Uberto Renaldi and others)
This is not a corporate publication of SCA Inc and is not intended to
delineate SCA policy Last modified 11 Dec 2007 by S.Maynard
