[tirrigh-heralds] Received AoA, now I need CoA

[Judy Harcus]

Greetings,

The Tir Righ College of Heralds will be most happy to assist you with 
your heraldry.

First, though, I should mention (in case you are not already aware of 
this) that you will need to register your name in addition to your arms 
as all heraldic registrations are tied to the primary registered name. 
Having your name on the Order of Precedence or a membership card is 
different from having it registered. We can assist you with this as 
well. I am a bit worried about your first name, Thane. 'Thegn' is an 
alternate title for a Viscount and thus cannot be registered as a name 
unless you are a Viscount. However I'm not sure whether this spelling is 
also reserved or not, but that can be checked.

As for your preliminary device (arms), this has some problems in terms 
of acceptable style.
1) There are specific heraldic 'tinctures' that were used for medieval 
heraldry which you are limited to, which are the 'colors' red, blue, 
green, black and purple and the 'metals' white and yellow. Except in 
some rare cases, you can only put a 'metal' charge (your tower, swords, 
etc. are charges) on a 'color' field (the background) or a 'color' 
charge on a 'metal' field.

Therefore, the background on the top part cannot be grey is not a 
heraldic tincture. As your tower is white (a metal), the field it is on 
should be a color (red, blue, green, black or purple). Your swords are 
white on a white field which provides no contrast at all (they will be 
impossible to see in any dim light) and should also be on a color field.

2) You have three different types of charges of approximately equal 
importance on the field (which puts them in the same 'charge group'). 
This wasn't done in medieval heraldry (our term for this is 'slot 
machine' armory). No more than two different types of charges are 
allowed in the same charge group. (Note: if, for example, you had the 
crossed swords in the center and three smaller towers surrounding it, 
than you would have two different charge groups - the tower being the 
primary charge group and the towers in a secondary charge group. This is 
also relevant to the next comment.

3) All three sections have different combinations charges. The tower is 
a single element, the skull and crossbones are two bones in saltire 
surmounted by the skull, and the sword are in saltire but not surmounted 
by anything so each has to be described separately. This runs into a 
problem with section A3D2c of the Standards for Evaluation (the rules 
governing allowable styles as well as conflict rules) which states that 
"A charge group in which postures for different charges must be blazoned 
individually will not be allowed without period examples of that 
combination of postures."

4) I believe there is a restriction on the use of a skull and crossbones 
but I would have to check that.

5) A minor point - the horizontal line across the center should be 
higher so the space above and below the line is more equal.

In period, your arms wasn't telling a story about you, which is what I 
think you're trying to do. It would be best to simplify. If you can let 
us know what is the most important charge(s), maybe we can offer some 
suggestions. Also, let me know if you don't understand any of the above 
information.

In service,
Alicia le Wilfulle
Red Flame Herald

Runescope wrote:

>Greetings unto the Lists!
>
>I'm not sure if this made it onto the lists yesterday, if it did, my
>apologies for a repost :)
>
>
>A couple of years ago, I received my Award of Arms, and I’ve finally gotten
>around to designing a (VERY) preliminary Coat of Arms.  
>
>I’ve been told that this is the place to request help for design and
>approval.  I’m pretty sure I can’t post an image to the list, but this link
>will take you to an image of my first draft.
>
>Any and all, critiques and comments welcome!
>
>http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7365/8860694446_2bfafe55da_o.jpg
>
>
>
>
> Gerry Harris aka ‘Runescope’ aka Thane Greyhaven
>
>The Single Minded Schizophrenic, The Original Unified Committee
>The Master of the Brief Infinity,    … Or was that the Infinity Briefs? …
>
>This and all other notifications shall not be misconstrued as an alien
>invasion, unless said notification is specifically notarized as being an
>actual alien invasion.
>
>Interested in the Distant Past, and the Far Future
>runescope at shaw.ca  runepod at gmail.com runescope at hotmail.com runepad at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
>
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