FAQ

The Registration Process

What will it cost to register my name and device? Why does it cost so much? What paperwork do I need? How long does the registration take? How can I avoid the common mistakes?

Consulting

Why should I bother registering my name or device? Why should I go through my local herald? My group has no herald, what do I do?

Voice Heraldry

I’m running a feast/tourney/revel soon: will you be available to do heralding? I’d like to do that shouting thing too: how do I start? Why do you keep making mistakes?

Help! I need to herald Court, what do I do?

Book Heraldry

How do you conflict-check a device? Someone over there has a religious symbol on their arms; isn't that against the rules? Why can't I colour in my device submission how I like? Why are you so obsessed with paper?

Why must I have a unique name? Someone on the roll of arms registered X, why can't I? Where can I see examples of good period heraldry?

Display issues

Is there a kingdom law or tradition of putting the kingdom arms on the hoist of a standard? What is the Kingdom Populace badge? What arms should the Queen use?

Being a herald

How do I become a herald? What should a group herald include in a report? Who reports and when? How do I get one of those funky heraldic titles? Can I stop being a herald?

[In Progress] How Many Pieces Of Paper Do I Need, Really?

Registering a Device or Badge

Let's imagine you want to register the device you see below: Pean, a raven sable and on a chief embattled gules three quatrefoils argent. Never mind if it's a bit naff, I just made it up to demonstrate a few details about colouring in.

So how many pieces of paper do you need to send, and where? I'm glad you asked!

How it works is: after you've consulted with heralds to get the details right, you draw out your original on the correct forms and fill in the words. Then, using the best quality black and white photocopier you can find, you make seven copies. Six of them, you colour in, using the good textas (marker pens) that hold their colour well. Make sure your purple is purple, not pink or blue, and your green is a good rich forest green rather than a lime or council-worker-fixing-power-poles yellow-green. Don't use pencils, metallic inks or all the other no-nos you read about [link: here].

Your Own Copies

You need one colour copy for your own records. That's just good sense; you'd hate to wake up in a month and not be able to remember if the raven was sable or counter-ermine, right? Especially if you're sewing a banner. You also need the original outline version too, in case you make a mistake in colouring and need to make more copies halfway through.

This is your copy. Look after it! This is your original

Your Local Herald's Copies

Even if you send your submission direct to Rocket Herald, you should for the sake of insurance against bad luck send one colour copy to your local herald:

This is for your group herald. Always keep local officers in the loop!

Rocket's Copies And Everyone Else's Too

To Rocket Herald, you should send four colour copies and one outline copy. Don't colour in the outline copy, even the black parts (although titchy little black bits like ermine spots are OK to colour in):

This one is for Rocket Herald's files in Lochac This one goes to the scribes in Lochac This one goes to Laurel in the US This goes to Laurel as well This one is scanned and emailed to Laurel but not kept afterward

Bundle It All Up

The pages are A4, and there should be five of them, plus whatever you have for your name forms (see below). Use an envelope large enough to hold them without folding; talk to your friendly post office staff about that. Tell them it's going to Melbourne, and they'll advise you on postage. Don't worry about Express Post or Registered Mail unless you've spoken to Rocket and he's advised you otherwise.

Send this all to:

Rocket Herald
2 Kelvinside St
Hughesdale
Victoria
Australia 3166

You will not receive an acknowledgement of the stuff you send, but you will be able to keep track of it by looking on the [list publicly viewable forums here]. If your package hasn't shown up online after [two weeks?], contact Rocket Herald directly at rocket@lochac.sca.org to see what's happened. Australia Post and New Zealand Post are usually reliable, but we have evidence that some post offices are situated quite near a black hole or some other subspace anomaly, so be vigilant, and be prepared to changed post offices if necessary.

[In Progress] What Does Period Heraldry Look Like?

We can't do good heraldry if we don't know what it looks like. There are rolls of arms out there, but a lot of them are hard to find, and the ones that we can find have a handicap: they're meant for heralds, who can read blazon. They're accurate, and fully documented. That's not what we need.

This is a list of links to rolls of arms. It will bypass the introductions and take you straight to the pictures. Follow these links and you can immerse yourself in the visuals of heraldry. You'll come away with a better sense than you might have had, of what heraldry looks like. And then you can go help people design good heraldry.

Be aware that this is not a substitute for scholarly heraldic resources like the Medieval Heraldry Archive of the College of Saint Gabriel. This is an emotional aid; it's here to help you feel what heraldry should be. Use it and then go looking for the details later.

More to come...

FAQ