I‘m working my way into getting involved with the SCA again. One of the things that’s a part of medieval reenactment for many people is heraldry. In the SCA, you can design your own heraldic device (read “coat of arms”) and you can even register it with the SCA, so nobody else can use YOUR emblem. They compare it with the various existing lists, also, so you don’t inadvertently use one that’s already a real-life coat of arms in Europe or someplace else.
The cool thing about heraldry is that it has its own language, describing the colors, stripes, symbols, animals, etc., and their positions. That allows anyone to re-create the device just from the wording, which is pretty cool. An example of the language is: “gules, an eagle displayed or” or maybe “per bend sinister sable and azure, a bend sinister argent between two crosses botonny argent,” which is the device that I’m considering submitting.
Here are a couple good links if you’d like more information:
A Heraldic Primer from the SCA
Pimbley’s Dictionary of Heraldry
You can even get Free Heraldry Clipart to use for creating your own device.
[tags]heraldry, sca, medieval, middle ages[/tags]
Na
