Society for Creative Anachronism
College of Arms
15910 Val Verde Drive
Houston TX, 77083-4921
713-918-2947
herald@sca.org
For the December 2002 meetings, printed February 27, 2003
To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from François Laurel, Zenobia Wreath, and Mari Pelican, greetings.
The following is a table showing the status of Letters of Intent, Laurel Letters of Pend and Discussion, and Letters of Intent to Protect. The header rows are the dates of the meetings that will consider them, the dates when primary commentary is due, and the dates when responses to primary commentary are due. The key follows.
Wreath meeting	Dec 21	Jan 18&19	Feb 08	Mar 22 & 30	Apr 19 & 13	May 17?	
Pelican meeting	Dec 21	Jan 18&19	Feb 08	Mar 22 & 12	Apr 26?	May 03?	
	
Comment by			too late	Jan 31	Feb 28	Mar 31	
Reply/Respond by			Jan 31	Feb 28	Mar 31	Apr 30	
LoIs being considered:	
Æthelmearc	Aug 17	Sep 17	Oct 22
[P Oct 30]	Nov 23	Dec 19	-	
An Tir	Aug 30	Sep 30	Oct 30	Nov 29	Dec 27	(Jan 27)	
Ansteorra	Aug 17	Sep 15	Oct 20
[P Oct 30]	-	Dec 18	(Jan 19)	
Artemisia	-	Sep 30	-	Nov 30	-	Jan 31	
Atenveldt	Aug 20	Sep 15	-	Oct 20	(Dec 20)	(Jan 20)	
Atlantia	Aug 20	Aug 30
[P Sep 30]	Oct 26 &
Oct 27	(Nov 24)	(Dec 20)	(Jan 26)	
Caid	-	Sep 10	Oct 01 &
Oct 25	-	Nov 10
[P Dec 03]	-	
Calontir	-	Sep 03	Oct 16	Nov 13	-	-	
Drachenwald	Aug 22	Sep 19	-	Oct 25 
Nov 23	Dec 23	(Jan 23)	
Ealdormere	Aug 19	-	-	Nov 22	-	Jan 31	
East	-	Sep 01 &
Sep 22	Oct 27	(Nov 24)	(Dec 15)	(Jan 7) &
(Jan 23)	
Lochac	Aug 20	-	-	-	-	-	
Meridies	Aug 31	Sep 30	-	Nov 30	Dec 31	Jan 31	
Middle	Aug 19	Sep 16	Oct 14	Nov 11	Dec 14	Jan 15	
Outlands	Aug 23	Sep 23	Oct 23	Nov 23	Dec 23	(Jan 23)	
Trimaris	-	Sep 30	Oct 15	Nov 15	Dec 14	-	
West	Jul 24
[P Aug 01]	Sep 25	Oct 29	Nov 27	-	Jan 21	
Laurel LoPaD
[LoAR date]	Aug 31
[Jun LoAR]	Sep 19
[Jul LoAR]	-	Nov 14
[Aug LoAR]	Dec 18
[Sep LoAR]	Jan 31
[Oct & Nov
LoARs]	
Month day: the date on the Letter of Intent, Letter of Pend and Discussion, or Letter of Intent to Protect.
(Month day): for administrative reasons, this LoI has not yet been scheduled.
[P Month day]: postmarked on that bracketed date, so the LoI is redated or postponed.
"-": no LoI is scheduled for that meeting from that kingdom.
?: tentative.
Mar: Wreath's main meeting will be on March 22, with a road show meeting on March 30 at the Outlands' Heraldic Symposium. Pelican's main meeting is scheduled for March 22, with a road show meeting at Gulf Wars on March 12 at 9 A.M. Laurel will have a meeting at Gulf Wars on March 14 at 9:30 A.M.
Apr: Wreath's meeting is scheduled for April 19, with a road show meeting on April 13 at An Tir's Heraldic Symposium. Pelican's meeting is tentatively scheduled for April 26.
May: Wreath's meeting is tentatively scheduled for May 17.
Jun: Wreath's meeting is tentatively scheduled for June 21.
Not all letters of intent may be considered when they are originally scheduled on this cover letter. The date of mailing of the LoI, date of receipt of the Laurel packet, or other factors may delay consideration of certain letters of intent. Additionally, some letters of intent received may not have been scheduled because the administrative requirements (receipt of the forms packet, receipt of the necessary fees, et cetera) have not yet been met.
REMINDER: Until all administrative requirements are met, the letter may not be scheduled.
From Laurel: Call for Applications
One of the major responsibilities of any officer is to ensure an orderly transition at the end of his warrant. The time required to recruit, train, and turn over an office varies by the job being filled. When filling a Society-level office, the lead time automatically includes the time required for posting the call in the kingdom newsletters, the time for applications to be prepared and sent, and the time to get on the Board of Directors agenda for a decision at a quarterly meeting. The Laurel office's submission process is a four-month cycle for each Letter of Intent including the commentary period. Therefore, given these timelines, the decision to step down must be made a year in advance of the actual end of term.
At the January 2003 Board of Directors' meeting, I asked the Board to call for applications for a new Laurel and staff to take over next January. The Board accepted this request and has directed that a call for applications be published in the March kingdom newsletters. The Board will choose the next Laurel at their July 2003 meeting.
Laurel is responsible for overseeing all heraldry in the SCA, including the processing of heraldic submissions. A detailed job description is found in section IX of the Administrative Handbook of the College of Arms at http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/admin.html#IX.
The current structure of the Laurel office splits the submissions work between three main deputies: Pelican Sovereign of Arms (decisions on name submissions), Wreath Sovereign of Arms (decisions on armory submissions), and Laurel Clerk (handling the hundreds of submissions processed each month and the College of Arms correspondence for those submissions). Other structures for the office are acceptable.
Application must be made in writing to Laurel Resume, SCA Inc., PO Box 360789, Milpitas, CA 95036-0789, or to resumes@sca.org. Resumes must be received by May 1, 2003. Applicants are encouraged to forward their resumes to the College of Arms to allow the College to provide informed commentary to the Board. Applicants should strongly consider attending the June 2003 Known World Heraldic Symposium.
From HL Shariya, the 2003 KWHS Event Steward: Please Submit
We only have two submissions for the Proceedings at this time and desperately need more.
The submission deadline for KWHS is April 1, 2003. Files may be submitted by e-mail, preferably in Microsoft Word. Hard copy and disks will also be accepted. There is a standardized release form that needs to be filled out and signed in order to publish. It can be obtained from Lord Cathus; it will also be located on the Web site. Please send all materials to Lord Cathus the Curious at:
[snipped]
or to [snipped]
The Proceedings will be available in either standard three-hole booklet format or on CD. Please visit the Web site at http://www.kwhs.org/ for more information.
From Pelican: Inadequate Summarization of Submissions
Several submissions this month were inadequately summarized on their LoIs. As a reminder to submission heralds, an LoI must include a proper summarization of information provided on the submission form, which includes any request for authenticity. If a request for authenticity is not included on the Letter of Intent, the College of Arms is not given an opportunity to provide information specific to the submitter's requested time and/or culture. Letters of Intent that do not include such information (as well as other information such as changes allowed, et cetera) are not complete and so do not meet the requirement in the Administrative Handbook that "The letter of intent and all associated paperwork must agree in their arrangement and contents." For a further discussion of this issue, please see the section "From Laurel Clerk: Things Missing from LoIs" in the Cover Letter to the November 2001 LoAR.
From Pelican: What is a Generic Identifier?
A submission this month raised the issue of generic identifiers again. Given the confusion that exists regarding what is and is not a generic identifier, as well as how generic identifiers are used, we are providing a clarification of this issue.
Generic identifiers are descriptions that may be associated with registered items (mainly badges) to identify the use of that item. Unlike registered names (award names, order names, guild names, household names, et cetera), generic identifiers are not registered as an independent item and are not protected from conflict. This does not mean that the group may not use this identifier, but simply that we will not limit the usage of that identifier to a single group.
Names that fall into the generic identifier category are names that would reasonably be used by more than one branch for common functions of the branch. All kingdoms can have a university. All baronies can have a baronial guard. All groups can have an equestrian guild.
Adding the name of the branch to the description does not affect generic identifiers (because branch identifiers are transparent for conflict). As an example, Outlands Equestrian Guild falls into the generic category because the only thing that would differentiate it from Equestrian Guild of Calontir are the branch identifiers Outlands and of Calontir.
Some generic identifiers referring to kingdom uses are:
King's battle flag, Ensign, Flag, War banner, populace badge
Some generic identifiers referring to awards or specific positions are:
Champion, Defender, Kingdom Warlord, King's Champion, Queen's Bard, Queen's Champion, Children's Defender, Champion of Arts and Sciences
Some generic identifiers referring to guards and guilds are:
Baronial Guard, Guard, Queen's Guard
Archers, Archery Guild, Armourers' Guild, Bards' Guild, Brewers' Guild, Chirurgeon's Guild, Clothiers' Guild, Cooks' Guild, Equestrian Guild, Herbalist Guild, Needleworker's Guild, Scribes' and Illuminators' Guild, Waterbearers' Guild
Æthelmearc Equestrian Guild, Equestrian Guild of Calontir, Outlands Equestrian Guild
Carolingian Brewers' Guild, Drachenwald Brewer's Guild, East Kingdom Brewer's Guild
Some generic identifiers referring to academies and universities are:
Atlantian Pages Academy, University of Drachenwald, University of the East Kingdom
Some generic identifiers referring to offices are:
Office of the Chatelaine, Ministry of Children, Office of the Minister of Children, Kingdom Chirurgeon, Chronicler, Chronicler's Office, Hospitaller, Office of the Lists
Descriptions such as these are generic and may be used to identify the purpose of a registered item, but are not registerable on their own. They are included in the Ordinary and Armorial as references, rather than as registered items. In this manner, they convey the use of the item with which they are associated, but they are not protected against conflict.
From Wreath: Brown Humans
Thanks to the members of the College who provided commentary and research on this issue. Thanks especially to Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme: we hope his extensive research on this topic will grace some future Symposium proceedings.
Here follow the SCA's standard depictions, attributes, and proper colorations for some of the different varieties of people found in period heraldry. The following definitions should allow the SCA to recreate all the varieties of people found in period emblazons, using the most common blazon term for each of these varieties of people.
The proper tincture for varieties of people not described below continues to be Caucasian proper, with hair color specified in the blazon.
The Turk: The Turk is drawn with a large mustache. By default he is bare-headed with a distinctive hairstyle (shaven head except for a topknot). If the Turk is vested of a turban it must be explicitly blazoned. When proper, he is Caucasian with dark hair.
The Moor and the Blackamoor: The terms Moor and Blackamoor will both be used to blazon the same sort of human. He has Negro features, and is clean-shaven with short curly/nappy hair. If the Moor or Blackamoor wears headgear, such as a torse, it must be explicitly blazoned. When proper he is dark brown, a tincture which classifies as a color (rather than a metal), and his hair is black.
The Saracen: The Saracen has Semitic features, and is bearded by default. His hair, when visible, is long and wavy. He is depicted with headgear; usually this is a turban, but sometimes it is a torse or a crown. The type and tincture of the headgear must be explicitly blazoned.
Saracens in period heraldry may be found in two different proper colorations. Saracens may be tinctured in a light shade, roughly that of a suntanned Caucasian. This shade classifies as a metal for purposes of contrast. Saracens may also be tinctured in the same way as the Moor or Blackamoor, dark brown with black hair. The light proper tincture appears to be more common in period heraldry and also matches the defining SCA Saracen's head in the 1978 registration of Athelas of the Knife, reblazoned in the West section of this LoAR. Thus, a default Saracen proper is a light tincture, the tincture of a tanned Caucasian, and is considered heraldically equivalent to a standard Caucasian tincture (although as an artistic note, the period rolls using both standard Caucasians proper and Saracens proper generally draw the Saracens proper slightly darker than the Caucasians proper).
The SCA has not yet received a submission using the dark brown version of a Saracen proper. This sort of Saracen proper would need to be distinguished in blazon from the default Saracen proper for reasons of contrast and reproducibility of emblazon. Some commenters suggested that we might blazon such a charge as a brown Saracen proper. This is not a mellifluous blazon, but it has the virtue of clarity. The final decision on what to term such a charge may be deferred until we receive a submission with such a charge.
From Wreath: Crowned Animal's Heads and Crowned Animals
The College was generally in agreement that the addition or deletion of a crown from the head of a (whole) animal should not be worth difference. Some period evidence was presented suggesting that, in armory using a crowned animal, the crown was at times dropped from the emblazon. Such an easily deletable artist's distinction should not be considered to be worth difference.
The College was not able to find period evidence about whether crowned animal's heads could have the crown added or deleted by artistic license. Some commenters suggested that perhaps crowns on animal's heads should be considered analogous to collars on animal's heads. Current precedent gives a CD for collaring an animal's head (as if the collar were a tertiary charge) but does not give a CD for adding a collar to a whole animal. However, these two designs are not truly analogous. A collar on an animal's head does indeed function as a tertiary charge and thus must have good contrast with the head on which it lies. This good contrast enhances the collar's visual prominence. However, a crown on an animal's head does not generally have such good contrast. The crown generally either has poor contrast with the field or with the animal's head. In addition, a crown may be further obscured by some artistic details of the head on which it lies, such as ruffled eagle's feathers or a lion's mane.
Without period evidence to the contrary, and because of the contrast problems inherent in the design of a crown on an animal's head, it does not seem appropriate to give difference for adding a crown to a charge consisting only of an animal's head.
Roster Changes
The roster sent out last month showed the previous Æthelmearc contact information for Juliana de Luna. The update from the July 2002 LoAR cover letter: Siren Herald (Laurel staff commenter): Juliana de Luna (Julia Smith), [snipped]. She is on the mailing list and roster.
Similarly, the contact information for Bordure Herald (Ansteorra's external submissions herald) also had old addresses. The update from the August 2002 LoAR cover letter: Alden Drake (Paul Haines), [snipped].
Bright Leaf Herald (commenter from Atlantia), Gwenllian ferch Maredudd (Wendy Erisman), is removed from the mailing list but remains on the roster.
Send What to Whom
For all Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, et cetera, send one paper copy to each of Laurel PKoA and Wreath QoA at their mailing addresses as shown on the College of Arms Mailing List.
Send Laurel office copies of all submissions-related paper, including
- Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, et cetera (note: such paper copies are in addition to the personal copies for Laurel and Wreath mentioned above)
- Submission packets (one copy of each name form plus documentation, including petitions; two colored copies of each armory form plus two copies of any associated documentation, including petitions)
- Cheques or money orders for submissions, payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms"
to [snipped].
Send Laurel office copies of all submissions-related electronic files to submissions@sca.org. In particular, the Laurel Clerk would very much appreciate e-mailed copies of all LoIs, LoCs, LoRs, et cetera.
Send roster changes and corrections to Lord Symond Bayard le Gris, Bruce R. Nevins, 2527 E. 3rd St., Tucson, AZ, 85716-4114, 520-795-6000, 520-795-0158 (fax), bnevins@nexiliscom.com. College of Arms members can also request a copy of the current roster from Symond. 
For subscriptions to the paper copy of the LoAR, please contact Symond, above. The cost for an LoAR subscription is $25 a year. Please make all checks or money orders payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms". For subscriptions to the electronic copy of the LoAR, please contact Laurel at herald@sca.org. The electronic copy is available free of charge.
For all administrative matters, or for questions about whom to send to, please contact Laurel Principal King of Arms, whose contact information heads this letter.
Pray know that I remain
In service
François la Flamme
Laurel Principal King of Arms