Society for Creative Anachronism College of Arms 103 E. 30th St. Bldg 1 Apt 203 Austin, TX 78705 +1 512 942 7005 laurel@heraldry.sca.org For the March 2015 meetings, printed May 8, 2015 To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive, from Andrewe Laurel, Lillia Pelican, and Brunissende Wreath, greetings. Items listed below in square brackets have not been scheduled yet. For information about future scheduling, please review the status table located on the Web at http://oscar.sca.org/index.php?action=137. The March Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, March 15, 2015 and the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, March 22, 2015. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: Gleann Abhann (10 Dec, 2014), Laurel LoPaD (14 Dec, 2014), Northshield (14 Dec, 2014), East (16 Dec, 2014), Middle (20 Dec, 2014), Calontir (21 Dec, 2014), Outlands (26 Dec, 2014), Atlantia (27 Dec, 2014), Ealdormere (29 Dec, 2014), Atenveldt (30 Dec, 2014), {AE}thelmearc (31 Dec, 2014), An Tir (31 Dec, 2014), Ansteorra (31 Dec, 2014), Artemisia (31 Dec, 2014), Caid (31 Dec, 2014), Drachenwald (31 Dec, 2014), and Meridies (31 Dec, 2014). * All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Saturday, February 28, 2015.* The April Laurel decisions were made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, April 12, 2015, at the joint Roadshow held on Saturday, April 18, 2015 at Noisemakers Schola, and at the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, April 26, 2015. These meetings considered the following letters of intent: East (08 Jan, 2015), West (08 Jan, 2015), Northshield (13 Jan, 2015), Laurel LoPaD (15 Jan, 2015), Gleann Abhann (19 Jan, 2015), Ealdormere (21 Jan, 2015), Outlands (23 Jan, 2015), Calontir (25 Jan, 2015), Atenveldt (27 Jan, 2015), Atlantia (28 Jan, 2015), Middle (28 Jan, 2015), Trimaris (30 Jan, 2015), An Tir (31 Jan, 2015), An Tir (31 Jan, 2015), Ansteorra (31 Jan, 2015), Artemisia (31 Jan, 2015), Drachenwald (31 Jan, 2015), Meridies (31 Jan, 2015), and Laurel (02 Feb, 2015). * All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Tuesday, March 31, 2015.* The May Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, May 3, 2015 an0d the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, May 10, 2015. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Ansteorra Other Letter (23 Nov, 2014) (pushed due to delayed decision per Feb CL), Ansteorra Other Letter (23 Jan, 2015) (pushed due to delayed decision per Feb CL), Ansteorra Other Letter (04 Feb, 2015), Laurel LoPaD (15 Feb, 2015), Northshield (15 Feb, 2015), East (16 Feb, 2015), Middle (18 Feb, 2015), Atenveldt (21 Feb, 2015), Calontir (21 Feb, 2015), Atlantia (22 Feb, 2015), Ealdormere (22 Feb, 2015), Ansteorra (23 Feb, 2015), Artemisia (27 Feb, 2015), {AE}thelmearc (28 Feb, 2015), An Tir (28 Feb, 2015), An Tir (28 Feb, 2015), Ansteorra Other Letter (28 Feb, 2015), Caid (28 Feb, 2015), Drachenwald (28 Feb, 2015), Meridies (28 Feb, 2015), Outlands (28 Feb, 2015), and Trimaris (28 Feb, 2015). * All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should have been entered into OSCAR by Thursday, April 30, 2015.* The June Laurel decisions will be made at the Pelican meeting held on Sunday, June 7, 2015, at the Wreath meeting held on Sunday, June 14, 2015, and at the joint Roadshow on Sunday, June 28, 2015 at KWHSS. These meetings will consider the following letters of intent: Lochac (14 Mar, 2015), Northshield (15 Mar, 2015), Outlands (17 Mar, 2015), Middle (20 Mar, 2015), East (22 Mar, 2015), An Tir (23 Mar, 2015), West (25 Mar, 2015), Ealdormere (26 Mar, 2015), Atenveldt (30 Mar, 2015), Calontir (30 Mar, 2015), {AE}thelmearc (31 Mar, 2015), An Tir (31 Mar, 2015), Ansteorra (31 Mar, 2015), Artemisia (31 Mar, 2015), Atlantia (31 Mar, 2015), Caid (31 Mar, 2015), Drachenwald (31 Mar, 2015), Gleann Abhann (31 Mar, 2015), and Meridies (31 Mar, 2015). * All commentary, responses, and rebuttals should be entered into OSCAR by Sunday, May 31, 2015.* _Not all letters of intent may be considered when they are originally scheduled on this cover letter. The date of posting 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 Wreath: Discussing, once again, maintained and sustained **** The determination of whether or not a charge is sustained or maintained has been done on the basis of visual weight for many years, a practice which has pleased neither heralds nor submitters. A charge which is large enough to grant difference as a secondary or tertiary is frequently considered to not grant difference if conjoined or held, though no difference is granted for the conjoining itself. One of the arguments in favor of the current standard is that maintained charges are charges which, in period practice, are sometimes omitted from the emblazon. Some of these charges are rather large, which is what drives the current sustained/maintained dividing line. In addition to being immensely difficult to explain to submitters, the practice of changing whether or not difference is granted based on whether or not two charges are touching as a held charge is in contradiction with our general stance on the absence of difference for conjoining of charges. Additionally, the number of period designs which sometimes omit the maintained charges is amazingly small. We are not aware of anyone in the SCA who treats maintained charges as if they can be omitted from the emblazon. Therefore, commenters are asked to discuss the proposal below. Commenters are asked to discuss the potential issues that this change could create. A held or conjoined charge which is clearly not a co-primary charge is sustained if it is identifiable, no matter what the size. Sustained charges grant a cadency difference - currently referred to as a "DC". This standard is intended to include charges which are much smaller than the current definition: a charge large enough to grant difference as a tertiary charge will be considered sustained. Sustained charges must have good contrast with their background. All sustained charges count towards the complexity limits - both type and tincture. A held or conjoined charge which is not identifiable is a maintained charge and does not grant difference. A charge may be rendered unidentifiable through the usual methods, including reduction in size, poor contrast, etc. A maintained charge still may not share a tincture with the field. Maintained charges do not count towards complexity limits. This does not change how to determine if held or conjoined charges are co-primary charges. We will continue to return items which blur the distinction between co-primary charges and sustained charges. Anyone in the SCA who wants a sustained charge which is sometimes there and sometimes not should register both variants of the design independently. **** From Laurel: Transfers of Heraldic Titles from Kingdoms **** This month, an attempt was made by a kingdom to register a new heraldic title and then transfer it to an individual who had been awarded the right to such a title. In July 2013, the rules were changed for transfer of heraldic titles from groups to individuals. The Cover Letter states: ...while we recognize that there are [heraldic] titles which were registered to kingdoms in the days before individual ownership was allowed, and we will not stop the transfer of already registered titles to the individuals they were registered for, new titles should be registered directly by individuals, not kingdoms. Titles registered before the May 2013 Laurel meetings will be allowed to be transferred to individuals, and all such transfers should be submitted to Laurel by December 31, 2013. Any personal titles currently in process for individuals which are being registered to groups should be withdrawn immediately and resubmitted by the individual, with a fee collected. In the case that the title is expected to be transferred to an individual who has not yet been granted a title, and the above date passes, the individual may purchase the title from the group. All transfer paperwork should be made out as if it were a normal transfer, with the exception that this submission must be accompanied by the usual Laurel payment amount, and that payment must have been collected from the submitter. Whether or not to charge a full submission price instead of just the (currently $ 3) Laurel fee is a matter for the kingdom to determine. The Cover Letter was clear in intent, if not language. To resolve any ambiguity, we will not register new heraldic titles to kingdoms if they are intended for transfer to an individual. Any new heraldic titles will not be transferable from a kingdom to an individual. Transfers of older titles can be made as long as the following criteria are met: (1) the title must have been registered before May 2013, (2) it cannot be a well-known staff title used by multiple bearers, (3) it may not be in conflict with an open order or award name, and (4) proper payment must have been made by the individual accepting the title transfer. Concerning the second point, transfers of inactive staff titles that are now closely associated with one individual (even if they were not the first to bear the title) will be considered on a case-by-case basis, provided the other conditions are met. **** From Pelican: Protection of Real-World Knightly Orders **** The submission _Order of Alcantara of the Bridge_ on the East kingdom letter this month raises the question of how we protect mundane knightly orders. SENA NPN4B2 states: Order and award names may not include the names of the peerage orders or overt references to famous knightly orders such as _the Garter_. Other types of non-personal names may only use such elements in contexts where no reference to the order is likely to be perceived by members of the order and the general populace. This was nearly identical to the language in the prior Rules for Submissions. The present submission has been pended to discuss two issues: (1) What constitutes "an important knightly order." In this case, the _Order of Alc{a'}ntara_ is the name of one of the three most important military orders in Spain. It was formed in the 12th century and functioned as a royal agency from the late 15th century to the early 19th century (Nicholas Morton, _The Medieval Military Orders 1120-1314_ and E. Michael Gerli, Samuel G. Armistead, editors, _Medieval Iberia_, https://books.google.com/books?id=ra9BtjLRNMsC). Juliana de Luna's "Medieval Secular Order Names" (http://medievalscotland.org/jes/OrderNames/) identifies 70 courtly orders; she has identified 45 more orders that began as religious orders (including this order, the Order of Santiago, the Templars, and the Hospitallers). Not all of these orders are important enough to protect as "important knightly orders," as some survived only for a few years. Some additional fraternal orders (the _Esel_ and _Golden Apple_ for example) may be more important than many courtly orders. We need a standard for how to define which orders are important enough that we should disallow "overt references" to them. We ask for help defining such a standard. (2) Whether certain kinds of constructions make a more overt reference than others and hence ought to be judged differently for possible presumption. For example, does _Order of the Green Garter_ make a reference that is as clear as _Order of the Garter of the East_? What about _Order of the Fleece_ (removing the tincture from the _Golden Fleece_?) Is the _Order of the Ermine and Star_ (both French knightly orders) more problematic than the _Order of the Ermine and Bull_ (where bull is not attested as the name of a period knightly order) or _Order of the Ermine and Thistle_ (with a French and a Scottish order)? **** Society Pages **** On Saturday, April 11, 2015, on the occasion of their coronation in the Barony of Bhakail, Their newly crowned Majesties of the East, Darius (called Omega) and Etheldreda, called forward Donovan Shinnock, Golden Rapier Herald, and presented him with a writ of summons to attend them at their Court on the occasion of Crown Tourney on May 2nd, there to sit vigil and answer them whether he would become a member of their Order of Defense. We are saddened to report the passing of Master Adhemar de Villarquemada on April 8. Master Adhemar served as Brigantia Principal Herald between March 2005 and January 2009, and just retired as Baron of Dragonship Haven. He will be sorely missed. Please send information about happenings to major heralds and major happenings to all heralds to Laurel, so that it can be published here. **** Send What to Whom **** Letters of Intent, Comment, Response, Correction, et cetera are to be posted to the OSCAR online system. No paper copies need be sent. All submission forms plus documentation, including petitions, must be posted to the OSCAR online system. While black-and-white emblazons must be included in the Letter of Intent, only colored armory forms need to be posted in the forms area. Cheques or money orders for submissions, payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms" are to be sent to David Duggar, 1705 Holiday Place, Bossier City, LA 71112. Send roster changes and corrections to Laurel. College of Arms members may also request a copy of the current roster from Laurel. For a paper copy of a LoAR, please contact Laurel, at the address above. The cost for one LoAR is $3. Please make all checks or money orders payable to "SCA Inc.-College of Arms". The electronic copy of the LoAR is available free of charge. To subscribe to the mailings of the electronic copy, please see the bottom of http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldry/lists.html#lists for more instructions. For all administrative matters, please contact Laurel. Pray know that I remain, In service, Andrewe Bawldwyn Laurel Principal King of Arms =============================================================================== Created at 2015-05-08T12:07:54