Re: heraldry rules

[Julien de Montfort <julien@spiaggia.org>]

Poster: Julien de Montfort <julien@spiaggia.org>

> > "If they say that that the jeans that they are wearing to an event
>is a
> > pair of hose, fine, let it be a pair of hose.  If the color of their
> > tunic is fleuorescent highway-orange, but they say it is Or
> > (yellow/gold), interpret it as Or, and act accordingly."
>
> Ummm...no.  This isn't a valid extension of what I said.  Recall the
> point that I raised that said it takes a reasonably advanced level of
> heraldic knowledge to be visibly struck by a poorly drawn charge (say
>a
> unicornate horse, for example).  It takes virtually no knowledge to
>know
> that a pair of jeans is not period.  Orange hose...hey, my opinion is

That wasn't the point.   The point was that once they've been told that
jeans are not acceptable, if they say "oh, okay, well, it's good enough
for me, please approve of my wearing them", there's something wrong
there -- we obviously aren't living up to our responsibility as an
educational and *re-creationist* society.

And if a person is told that what they have submitted is not acceptable
by the rules of heraldry, and they say, "oh, okay, well, it's good
enough for me, please approve of it anyway (by registering it)",
there's something wrong there -- we obviously aren't living up to our
responsibility as an educational and *re-creationist* society.

If a person can't make hose, that's okay -- we aren't all seamstresses,
and there's nothing wrong with asking someone to help or make them for
them.  Likewise, if a submitter cannot draw a heraldic unicorn, there's
no shame in asking someone with more artistic skills to assist or draw
it for them.  heck, ou canton herald is an admitted artistic
abomination, so she asks for me to help her with the more complex
stuff.  I'm happy to do it, and the likelihood of something being
returned for a redraw is reduced (I doubt seriously if a stick-figure
unicorn would pass, for example ;->).  I'm sure there's someone
artistically-inlined in her area that would be willing to assist if she
asked.

> that a pair of jeans is not period.  Orange hose...hey, my opinion is
> that if they want to wear orange hose, they've already been punished
> enough, let them.  (Besides, can you prove orange didn't exist in
> period?)

Orange is period.  *Fluorescent highway-orange* is not. ;-)
Representations of Unicorns are period, representations of horses with
horns on their heads are not. ;-)

> If there are clear conflicts between the drawing and the blazon of a
> device, then resolve them (or, at least return the device with a
> statement "The Blazon says Vert (green), your picture was Red.  We
> couldn't tell which you wanted, please resolve or advise").  If the
> thing drawn is not obviously something else, then assume that what the
> submitter says they want is what they want.

Blatant contradictions like that are what the local herald is there for
-- theoretically it shouldn't get to Kingdom like that.

> I'm not saying "register everything".  Heck no.  I am all for
>enforcing
> a stricter interpretation of what charges are period and what aren't,
> documenting names better, etc.  I'm just against making someone try,
>try
> again to draw a picture that matches the blazon they want because they
> can't fit a Heraldic unicorn respectant couchant into a 1.5" square.

Well, one could also make the argument that if you cannot fit something
properly on the template given, you might want to think about
rethinking the device in the first place, as it may well be too small
of an element to be recognizable regardless.  When I do my submissions,
I use a regular Prang black magic marker to do the outlines -- if
something is too small to be effectively drawn with one of those, I'd
be a little concerned that from a distance, it's just going to be a
blurry blob.

Julien
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Seigneur Julien de Montfort                  De sable, seme d'hermines
"Solum Dice Nullus Sunt Suficio"             d'or, tres amphorae et un
Canton de Spiaggia Levantina                     caid palissade argent
julien@spiaggia.org                            http://www.spiaggia.org
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