Heraldic help

[Eric Stoneking <estoneki@swales.com>]

Poster: Eric Stoneking <estoneki@swales.com>

My device just went out of kingdom (contrary to rumor).  There are some
things I know now that I wish I'd known when I started.  Like:

Mundane references are not sufficient.  Just because it's in a library book, 
doesn't mean it'll pass an SCA herald.  Some reasons are obvious (like OOP
things), some aren't.  There is an SCA Pictorial Dictionary which may be a 
better guide to the charges (and their depictions!) which the SCA finds
acceptable.

At the SCA heraldry webpage, there are two online articles which may be 
of some use:  the Rules for Submission, and Argent Snail's Insta-Boing List
(or something like that).  These give a much better idea of what's going on in
the heralds' collective consciousness than any mundane resource can.  They
also define specialized technical terms like "slot machine", which you do
not want to first hear after your second device submittal.

Making and passing a device is an educational experience, no doubt about it.
I think there'd be less grumbling if more of the education happened up front,
rather than after the submitter has invested time, money, and identity on a 
particular concept.  

-Henri LaGrave

PS  It would also help if a herald who claims he can't tell a goat from a cow
because he's a city boy, who disregarded two written clues in order to
mis-identify the main charge on the device that someone else would be
saddled with, didn't shrug it off as an amusing bagatelle.  This is supposed
to inspire confidence?

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