This is the ninth in a series of educational articles about heraldry for Calontir. (See bottom of page for links to previous articles.)

The previous article in this series discussed “conflict” – the rule that no two people in the SCA can have names or armory that are too similar to each other.

On a regular basis, someone trying to register a new item will discover it conflicts with an item that has already been registered.  But all is not lost.  If you can track down the owner of the item that conflicts, you can ask for a “Letter of Permission to Conflict”.  They don’t have to give you permission, of course, but a lot of times they will.  (You might request a letter preemptively, if you’re not sure if your item conflicts or not.)

Some people have been kind enough to file “Blanket Letters of Permission to Conflict” with the College of Arms which is nice to save hassle in the future.  Even with Permission, no one can register a name or device that is exactly like yours.

On a related note, the names and heraldry registered with the SCA are considered legal property, and the SCA has committed to protect your heraldic property in perpetuity.

So what happens to your registered names and armory when you die?  Their ownership passes to your legal heirs.  This may be fine, or you might prefer someone else in your biological or adopted SCA family inherit your items.  Some people choose to completely release their heraldic items from protection when they die, or release some of them.  Others designate their Kingdom Herald as their heraldic heir so that Letters of Permission to Conflict can be issued as needed.

You can do any of these things by filing a Heraldic Will with the SCA College of Arms.  There is no fee for this.

There are sample letters and wills here:  http://heraldry.sca.org/admin.html#APPENDIXD

As always, there are lots of “Heraldic Helpers” to guide you through all this.

At your service,

Sofya la Rus, Habicht Herald

Calontir Heraldic Education Deputy

habicht@calontir.org

Previous articles in this series:

Heraldic Helpers

What’s in a Name?

Where do I find a good name?

How do I create a coat of arms? Part one: inspiration.

How do I create a coat of arms?  Part two, design principles.

How do I create a coat of arms?  Part three, ingredients.

How do I create a coat of arms? Part four, embellishments.

Conflict is bad (in Heraldry and elsewhere)

This is the eighth in a series of educational articles about heraldry for Calontir.  (See bottom of page for list of previous articles in this series)

Hopefully at this point, you have developed some ideas for your name and/or your heraldry.  But before you fall in love with one of them, it’s a good idea to make sure you don’t conflict with (are too similar to) someone else.

Names conflict if they look or sound too much alike.  It would be awkward if a herald called your name in court and someone else answered the call.  Most of the time, no other name is even close, but sometimes it’s tricky to decide if your name is different enough from name that has already been registered.

Items of armory conflict if they look too much alike.  There are actual period guidelines for this, called marks of cadency.  A mark of cadency would be a small change that a son would make to the family coat of arms to show he was related to the head of the family, in SCA-speak that’s a “distinct change”.  So your device needs to be enough different from someone else’s, that you’re not implying that you’re their heir.

Over the years, heralds have come up with a system of what counts as a major change (significant change or SC, just need one), minor change (distinct changes or DC, need two) and what doesn’t count at all for difference – based as much as possible on period research.

Go here to see what names have already been registered (check multiple different spellings of each of the parts of your name): https://oanda.sca.org//oanda_np.cgi

Here are the official rules about names conflict: SENA PN.3. Personal Names Conflict – http://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#PN3

Go here to look up what other coats of arms have been registered with your charges: https://oanda.sca.org/ordinary/

Here are the official rules about armory conflict: SENA A.5. Armory Conflict – http://heraldry.sca.org/sena.html#A5

Articles to explain the rules: http://scaheraldry.info/index.php?title=Conflict_Checking

Admittedly, “conflict” is one of the most challenging parts of researching names and heraldry.  Even experienced heralds get confused, argue, and miss things (a lot), but you can at least start the process and get ideas for what other people have done.

As always, there are lots of “Heraldic Helpers” to guide you through all this (see article below).

At your service,

Sofya la Rus, Habicht Herald

Calontir Heraldic Education Deputy

habicht@calontir.org

Previous articles in this series:

Heraldic Helpers

What’s in a Name?

Where do I find a good name?

How do I create a coat of arms? Part one: inspiration.

How do I create a coat of arms?  Part two, design principles.

How do I create a coat of arms?  Part three, ingredients.

How do I create a coat of arms? Part four, embellishments.

This is the seventh in a series of educational articles about heraldry for Calontir. (See bottom of page for links to previous articles.)

Previously, we discussed the basic ingredients for a coat of arms.  Now how can we embellish those basic ingredients?

Furs.

Furs are treated like tinctures in most ways.  The most common fur in heraldry is ermine.  Plain ermine is black ermine tails on a white background, but versions can be done using all the heraldic tinctures.

Vair is another fur, meant to mimic squirrel fur, and is traditionally blue and white, but can be done in other tinctures also. Furs obey the contrast rules, so you can have red ermined white, but not red ermined green.

Lines of Division

The field (background) of a device, and many charges (motifs) can be divided into different-colored pieces.  These pieces do NOT have to obey the contrast rules if they’re simple enough to be identifiable.  (This because the color is considered “next to” the color, not “on” the color, i.e. you’ve divided layer 1 into different colored pieces, not placed a dark-colored layer 2 ON a dark-colored layer 1.)

Here are some options:

Complex Lines

The lines of the above divisions don’t have to be straight line, and these complex lines can also be applied to the edges of some simple geometric charges.

Here are some examples:

Diapering

In heraldry, diapering is adding tone-on-tone patterns to embellish an otherwise plain area of a device.  For example, a plain blue background can be dressed up with light blue foliage swirls.

As you can see, even with all the rules in heraldry, there are millions of amazing options available.  We’re happy to help if you can’t make up your mind.  (See “Heraldic Helpers“.)

At your service,

Sofya la Rus, Habicht Herald

Calontir Heraldic Education Deputy

habicht@calontir.org

Previous articles in this series:

Heraldic Helpers

What’s in a Name?

Where do I find a good name?

How do I create a coat of arms? Part one: inspiration.

How do I create a coat of arms?  Part two, design principles.

How do I create a coat of arms?  Part three, ingredients.