Copyright © 1995 - Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
The 1st Tenure of Da'ud Ibn Auda (2nd year)
[A dance overall a griffin segreant queue forché counterchanged] "The counterchanging of the complex overall charge over the complex primary may be considered too much because it breaks up the outline of both charges to an excessive degree." (Device returned for this and administrative reasons.) (LoAR 7/91 p.19).
[An ermine field, a Celtic uncial T counterchanged] "Additionally, the counterchanging of the ermine spots over the edges of the charge significantly reduces its identifiability." [Returned primarily for use of a single letter or abstract symbol.] (LoAR 8/91 p.24).
[Sable, a saltire dovetailed gyronny purpure and argent] "There are two problems with this device. One is that the combination of a dovetailed line on a gyronny saltire is pretty clearly post-Period style. Even though the SCA has long allowed the use of dovetailed as compatible with our style, and has allowed the use of saltires gyronny, the combination seems obtrusively modern. (See RfS VIII.4.d.: 'Generally modern style in the depiction of individual elements or the total design may not be registered.') The second problem is RfS VIII.3, Armorial Identifiability. The purpure portions of the saltire, with its complex line of division, fade so badly into the sable field that the identification of the primary charge is lost." (LoAR 9/91 p.16).
[Lozengy gules and Or, on a pile gules a <tertiary charge>] "This particular design is just acceptable. Because of the nearly parallel lines of the lozengy field and the pile, the outline of the primary is almost too badly broken up to be identifiable. The best analogy for allowing this is an ordinary counter-compony or checky sharing a tincture with the field. But it would have been better on a field whose division lines did not so closely follow the line of the ordinary." (LoAR 11/91 p.9).
[Bendy sinister of eight,a sword bendwise inverted counterchanged] "The counterchanging of the sword on the field renders its identifiability extremely problematical. The silhouette is so broken up by the counterchanging across the bendy field that it becomes extremely difficult to identify, defeating one of the basic principles of period-style heraldry, quick identification." (LoAR 11/91 p.18).
[Two spurs fesswise conjoined at the rowel] "The identifiability of the spurs conjoined in this manner is marginal." [The armory was registered] (LoAR 12/91 p.9).
[Quarterly, an increscent within four mullets of four points in cross counterchanged] "The counterchanging of the primary and secondary charges is excessive, and reduces their identifiability to an unacceptable degree." (LoAR 12/91 p.17).
[A sword palewise transfixing five rabbits] "Although the rabbit and sword combination charge was drawn much larger on the full size emblazon, and hence were more easily identifiable than on the mini-emblazon, the identifiability of these charges is just within the range of acceptability." (LoAR 1/92 p.11).
[A bend sinister, overall a lion rampant guardant contourny within a bordure fleury counterchanged] "Counterchanging an animate charge over an ordinary greatly diminishes its identifiability. That in conjunction with the counterchanging of the complex bordure is simply too much." [The device was returned] (LoAR 1/92 p.14).
[Per pale, a saltire engrailed counterchanged debruised by a <charge> between in pale two <other charges> Or] "The counterchanging, hidden as it is by the <charges> makes it difficult to recognize quickly what is going on with the field and saltire in this device. However, we felt that it was just within acceptable limits." (LoAR 2/92 p.13).
[Per chevron nebuly sable and purpure, in base a <charge> argent] "The complex line of division on the large emblazon was impossible to define at any distance. The very best we could tell was that it was not a plain line of division. RFS VIII.3 requires that all armorial elements be identifiable. The complex line of division here is not." (LoAR 3/92 p.14).
[...on a pile rayonny argent a sea-ounce sable, its head argent marked sable, crested and finned azure] "The identifiability of the 'sea-ounce' is severely reduced by both the azure 'crest' and the fact that the head is primarily argent on the argent pile. It thus does not meet the requirements of RfS VIII.3, Armorial Identifiability." (LoAR 3/92 p.15).
[<field> a rose and on a gore a rose] "The use of two different sizes of the same charge (the primary and the tertiary) has been grounds for return in the past, as they make it harder to identify just what is going on on the field, belonging as they do to two different charge groups." [the main reason for return was non-period ermining on both primary and peripheral charge] (LoAR 3/92 p.15).
"The majority of the commenters seemed to feel that squirrels' hides are as identifiable as any other kind of hide." (LoAR 4/92 p.12)
[Two sprays of ripe barleycorn and fructed olive proper, shaped like a wreath] "Nearly every commenter found the wreath of barleycorn and olive to be too much like the required laurel wreath for branch arms. Additionally, combining two different types of charge into a single visual unit, as is done here with the barleycorn and olive, is visually confusing and poor practice." [The badge was returned for this reason.] (LoAR 4/92 p.16).
[Per pale and per chevron argent and azure, on an eagle displayed a kleestengeln counterchanged sable and argent...] "The counterchanging of the eagle breaks up the outline to such an extent that identifiability becomes problematical. We believe the counterchanging here to be excessive per RfS VIII.3." (LoAR 4/92 p.16).
[Purpure, on a cross quarter-pierced argent four lilies pendant checky purpure and argent slipped and leaved vert] "The identifiability of the flowers is severly hampered by the checky treatment of the blossoms. (See RfS VIII.3. Armorial Identifiability.)" [The device was returned for this reason.] (LoAR 4/92 p.23).
[A sword per chevron] "A long skinny charge may not be divided per chevron in this manner. The line of division is not identifiable, thus falling afoul of RfS VII.7.a." (LoAR 5/92 p.24).
[Argent, semy of cockroaches sable...] "This is being returned under RfS I.2, Offense. This general principle states that 'no submission will be registered that is detrimental to the educational purposes or good name of the Society, or the enjoyment of its participants because of offense that may be caused, intentionally or unintentionally, by its use.' Given the universally negative reaction of the commenters to this semy charge, it is believed that a significant percentage of the populace of the SCA will find this device so offensive as to reduce their enjoyment of and participation in SCA activities." (LoAR 12/91 p.19).
"As for the argument in the LoI that a black widow is 'a thing, a critter, a two word noun', if the College were to have to consider this submission on those grounds alone this would have to be returned, since the name 'black widow' was not given to the spider until early in the 20th century (the earliest citation is 1927), well after the Society's 1600 cut-off date. (The arachnid is not itself native to the Americas, but was brought into this hemisphere in the late 19th or early 20th century from the Far East.)" (LoAR 4/92 p.24).
[Semy of butterflies] "Versus... semy of bees... the majority of the commenters did not have a problem applying X.2 between butterflies and bees here." (LoAR 6/92 p.9).
[A two-tailed scorpion] "Conflict with... a lobster displayed... The visual similarity between this scorpion and a lobster is too great to grant a [CD]." (LoAR 6/92 p.16).
"Lord Batonvert has documented double-pointed knitting needles as having been used in the time of the Roman empire." (LoAR 7/91 p.2).
"The majority of the commenters favored changing the blazon of these charges from delfs pierced two and two to square weaver's tablets. This then is the defining example of square weaver's tablets (with four holes, one in each corner). There are examples of weaver's tablets in other shapes and with other numbers of holes. If used, these other forms must be specifically blazoned." [This supersedes a ruling on the LoAR 10/90 p.10] (LoAR 9/91 p.10).
"Sewing needles are point to base by SCA default." (LoAR 2/92 p.5)