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Rules of Heraldry
Sir Brian:
Sir Edward is correct in that I developed mine from scratch. My original and current CoA was the combined arms of me and my wife’s. The gold griffin on green being mine and the white rose on black hers. I used a counter-charged cross to divide or quarter the fields. Of course I had since learned that I made a few mistakes in my CoA which incited me to revamp it. ;)
Sir Edward:
--- Quote from: Paladin on 2010-10-14, 16:41:29 ---Didn't go into much detail? That was a wealth of information- and an excellent starting point for me to begin understanding what all of it entails. It seems more intricate than putting together a harness, requiring more thought on the matter.
Note to self: Creative juices- now would be the time to start flowing!
--- End quote ---
Well, not much detail on why they were important symbols to me. Plenty of detail on what they mean. If you understand the distinction. :)
But yeah, I think the important thing is to come up with something that looks good, and feels right. Not everyone has symbolism that is personally meaningful in the same sort of way. You can start with charges you want, or you can start with a meaning you want to convey and then research what charges represent those. Or you can just use something you think looks cool, or derives from a nickname.
Just be aware that if it's overly simplistic, like just a dragon on a single-color field, it's probably been done or is very close to someone else's. Anything with multiple charges has a much better chance of being unique. This uniqueness may not matter to you, of course, unless you get into a larger group like the SCA. That's why I took the time to register mine, so that whether I get more active with them or not, my uniqueness is protected there, and I can happily paint up shields and banners and display them proudly without anyone complaining. :)
The way the SCA does things is very close to European standards. For instance, any new CoA has to have at least two "points" of difference from any other registered arms. I think several things saved mine from having to undergo changes, because swords on Bends are very common, as are dragons. But the fact that I did the Bend in "sinister" (rare), the dragon is in a "couchant" position (also rare), and I combined them with an ankh (pretty uncommon), all worked to my favor.
Sir William:
I do understand the distinction- since it has personal meaning, the symbology might be different for a viewer than what it means for you. All good.
Understood also with regard to variety...unfortunately, my tastes so far run to something along the lines of those of the English Kings prior to the Hundred Years' War. Three lions rampant on a field of red, something about gules, which I haven't figured out what that means. Heraldry seems comical at first til you realize just how important it was to be able to recognize friend from foe on the battlefield. They could've just ridden around in open faced bascinets, that would've made things very interesting, wouldn't it? :)
Sir Edward:
Well, it was more than just recognizing people with their visors down. It was also to recognize them at a distance, and most importantly, to recognize them by reputation without having met them face to face previously.
Gules is red. All the colors have specific heraldic names.
Colors:
Vert = green,
Gules = red,
Purpure = purple,
Azure = blue,
sable = black
And the metals:
Or = gold/yellow,
Argent = Silver/white
Detail here: http://heraldry.sca.org/primer/tinctures.html
Sir Brian:
Here is another site that has some pretty extensive explanations of the different charges. :)
http://bdweb9271a.bluedomino.com/learning.html
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