Great Northeastern War this year I knew would be exciting however I never knew how exciting that it would be.  Setting up Heralds point can be a challenge to predict.  Will you get clients?  Will you have either internet via hot spot or have enough books to handle the clients that you could get?  Will you have any clients?

With some of these hurdles I started an active campaign to get as many clients that were interested before the event, so that way I had the access to all that I needed and their bye have them researched, prepped, printed, colored and ready to hand back to clients.

I find this way of prepping for an event, efficient for the clients who maybe busy with other parts of the event, or may not have the time to hang around heralds point as we do the leg work.  This way they show up, double check things, get their paperwork and head off to fight, fence, shoot, make pretty things. All easy.  The part I never suspected was the amount of clients I would get before the event.

23… yep 23 submissions.  Now keep in mind that sounds like a lot, however if you think of one client could request a Name, Device, Badge or any combination of those.  So one client could have 3 submissions just by themselves.  Now with that said keep that total in mind for the prep work was wonderful, and the assistance I got at GNEW was fantastic.  However 23 in lack for a better term Pre reg submissions became the tip of the iceberg.  So let’s look at them shall we?

Fionn mac Con Dhuibh

Ahhh Fionn, such a good friend and I really still giggle on this one.  So Fionn wished to do a badge.  What is a badge you may ask? Simple a badge is a small device that you have registered to you that states “this is mine”.  Where your device is saying “This is me” your badge is like your cat and marking those things that belong to you.  Well that was part one.  Part two was the design.  His device of “Azure, three orbs argent.”  He wished to take one part of his device, in this case an orb.  And incorporate a stags head into it.  Wait I know I have seen this before.  Oh wait I have seen this before, right Jagermeister.  Well ok let’s see, this is different enough from the logo, well let’s see if this has happened before.  Head right over to OSCAR and do a search, and find a similar badge, check for differences, and set it up for Fionn.  Meanwhile wait for all the Jager jokes to begin.  “Sable, a stags head cabossed and between the antlers an orb argent.”

Arnora Bjolfrsdottir

Arnora is a wonderful Viking name.  When I say that it is like several names that I have had in the past, go to the webpage pic from the Female names, then go to male name pic your daddy, add some Patronymics and easy peazy done.  So then all you have to do is make sure there is no other Bjólfr’s daughter named Arnora in the known world.

Her device was a bit different, she is into brewing so we knew there would be bees and she loved a sun to be included with it.  First we started with just a Sable back ground with a Or sun and up in the chief area include two Or bees, looked simple should be fine, and go to do the preliminary conflict check and run into conflicts.  With a mullet of eight points, and an 8 pointed sun.  Sun and stars really? Ok well let’s look into this.   We did have one DC for the background but the conflict and position was making it difficult to clear for the second.  Switch the chief to have a Or band, change the bees to sable, and then give it a good contrast, add at least 2 differentials.  Run it through the conflict check and get clear.  Hope this goes through for I so adore how this comes out “Sable a sun and on a chief Or two bees sable”

Bassi Belasson

A friend of mine fiancé, and really easy Viking name, where as he chose the two names, I showed him what the patronymics would be, peace tab an into slot b and there you go.  Quick and simple love them

 

Cailte Crobdurg MacScandal

Ahhh my friend wanted a badge with elements of his device “Sable, on a fess between three domestic cat’s heads caboshed argent three triquetras vert.”  Ok, he knew what he wanted it was a manner of placing all the pieces together.  Sable from his background, the cat’s head (and people say I am going to be the crazy cat guy), and one of the three vert triquetra, the only difference was to tattoo that on the cats head.  Interesting and then I saw it when it went together.  Nice, run it through the conflict check and then the conversations start about making the triquetras bigger, talking over with Cailte in trying to figure out if an inverted triquetras to fill in the forehead better.

 

Fedor Bogunov

A new guy to the area, and wishing to do a Russian style name and device,   Russian outside of Vodka and Chekov I have yet, nor have much time to explore in this area, ok here we go.  So the given name that he was looking for was specific, however what he was looking for I could not find documentation for however after looking down the period names I can see, we did find one that was so close that it was pronounced quite similar.  Sweet we can do that, ok so his surname posed to be a little tricky.  You see that where as  many cultures are “son of” or “daughter of” this area and time frame, do a total change on the placement of letters in their name that make it “son of” or “daughter of” and it latterly took both us many exchanges and quoting the same thing before we helped each other understand it better.

With Fedor’s device it was a bit tricky where as he really wanted a man holding a spear (after a conversation about trying to make it proper with a red sash, pale skin, black facial hair, and the difficulty we decided Or would make It less complicated and make it easier for submission, he also wanted two bears combatant.  Ok no problem however how the best way to keep from slot machine?  Place the bears in chief and the human as the primary charge slightly larger and moved down.  Now with this there was a unity of posture rule issue.  Where it is a list of postures and orientations that can be used to determine whether two charges or groups of charges conflict.  (Yep a mouthful).  With this device fortunately the bears and the humanoid are in different catagories. So their positions didn’t cause conflict.

“Azure, a Turk affronty maintaining a spear, and in chief two bears combatant Or.”

Frederick van der Veer

Ahhh Frederick, how I do enjoy the bardic times we have shared, your name was a good lesson for me.  Frederick was in itself difficult to find, in any various forms out there for where he was working for, and then as if it was fate or pure luck I ran into his given name.  As far as his surname, well let me tell you I absolutely LOVE family search.  There are a set of guidelines from the college of heralds on how to use it however at the same time as long those guidelines are used, the searching becomes sooooo much easier many of times.  Anytime I start running into a road block I go there (and who would thought I would find van der Veer there)

His device I latterly got, “I want a swan displayed flames, and crescents in the bottom.   And…. Go” well ok a couple of quick thoughts along with this and come up with “Per fess rayonny argent and gules, a swan displayed sable, and in base two crescents argent”

A bit of warning with devices like this.  The swan has a thing we call a Step from Period Practice because the only thing in period was shown as displayed would be Eagles.  So any other displayed bird we do show in herald, just out of the time frame of the sca.  Step from Period Practice can happen but each client is only allowed one.  So be very careful when you run into these.

Lasair an Dunaidh

Ahhh Lasair, how I love your clan, and at the same time there are moments I want to drown my sorrows.  Ok, first name, Thanks to someone who owns I book that I have about Irish names and just had him take a picture of the page and entry.  Glad I got that book to avoid that again her surname is easy right off the medieval name archive at the academy of saint Gabriel.  In many cases easy is wonderful.

Her device on the other hand became a wonder.  As I was working on another member of Thunder clan they stumbled on a charge which was a stag’s antlers in annulo conjoined to itself Or.  In a nutshell it’s their thunder wheel.  The debate came upon is that we have documentation for a 6 spoke wheel, they wished for 8.  This I had to go back and forth with other heralds and the finial thought of that we have one that has got approved before, there is no source to determine the number of spokes (for better term) so run it and let Wreath make the final call.  So with her favorite colors of purple and black add a frog and we get “Per bend purpure and sable a stag’s antlers in annulo each conjoined to itself Or and a frog tergaint argent.”

Nasir ibn Makki

A good friend of mine got into the sca and decided to want an Arabian name; anyone who has known him will know this is really no big surprise.

After doing some research on names for that area and time.  And even though his persona is being set as an orphan, their naming culture still always would include the ibn for son of.  So like Norse and other patronymic naming cultures, it really is you son of, or daughter of, dad or mom.  Sooo pick from column A and pick from column B and we throw in ibn and name game set match.

His device has one thing on it that for the life of me I really dislike in heraldry.  Not because I find it a bad peace of heraldry, no not at all, I find that the rules within the SENA as well every time one of these it is almost the rules change.  What am I talking about? I am talking about chevrons or even inverted chevrons.  Why could these be a difficulty? Really simple it’s the matter of how much they take on the shield, and after a couple of College rulings on the matter, I always have to see help when drawing these for I have had devices get rejected for improper chevron depth, angle, or what not.

Ok so after getting assistance about how the chevron is going to look and we talk about color patterns, the talk of charges come up, he wanted a bat for one, (and again anyone who really knows Nasir knows this is a no brainer).  The final part is he wanted a  triquetra within the mix,  well with a chevron this developed a problem do to the way a triquetra was as well  fitting it right.  It was decided that inverting the triquetra was better for the fit. It really does bring it out.  Now a thing about the bat.  In heraldry we do not call it a bat.  They are classified as a reremouse, mmm ok flying mouse not a bad thing after all.

So we come up with “Per chevron inverted azure and sable, a triquetra inverted and in chief a reremouse argent”

Ranka Sviensdottir

Ranka was one that I have worked on before, however she felt that her original name was harder to pronounce.  So what we found was a name that rolls off the tongue better for her, and really feels that it fits as well.

 

Roland de la Mar

Roland was a first for me, for his name was already registered, however he wished to just change his surname.  Interesting for when I get someone that is wishing to update his name it’s usually a whole thing at once, I have never had to just change one element.  So the question is what it that we do for documentation for this is.  Well in this case what we do is document the name element that he wishes to keep and then notate which LoAR that it passed on and then after that just document his surname.  This was an interesting search for where I could not find documentation anywhere I normally go for this name.  I went to the OSCAR.  This is where all names, devices, badges, etc. go through for their process for submission.  Did a search for de la Mar and found multiple entries.  So that is where the leg work has been done, grab a good entry and then add it to the form.  All set and done.

 

Johannes von Braunschweig

Johannes was a fun one, where as I do not normally do any Germanic naming at all, this gave me a opportunity to look at that area and see how naming would be for the time, add to it the von in his name is an indication of a place name.  This develops an interesting challenge for a book herald.  Why is that?  Well let’s look at this place names can be as simple as find a location, however was the town in existence back within period time?  Or even better was it spelled the same way in period?  It is these two questions that make documentation tricky, for anyone can do a wiki search and find a location that is within period.  This is normally not advised as Wikipedia is never to be used for official documentation however can be used for a starting point to look.  First part, find out if the town existed in period, ok check, that we do show that it was established, and fortunately  this is where family search became a life saver.  If you take the modern spelling von Brunswick, and input it into the search engine, chances are at times small but then you can get lucky.  In this case family search gave me a proper spelling, and many different documentation sources.  SCORE

 

Marie D’Agincourt

Marie I was surprised with her name, she sent me the request for a name that was on her AOA, this can be either very easy or a frustration for if a gentle gets an award before they submit their name, it is possible that either one, their naming construction is not period, or two their name is taken by someone else.  So going to Academy of St Gabriel on this one and do a quick couple of browses on Flemish naming and found in one shot her given name.  Her surname took a bit cause there is obvious known location of Agincourt, however it was the idea of how this to be constructed.  Run to OSCAR figuring that someone had to have put in a locative place name of Agincourt before and got really lucky.  Not only is there documentation however also documentation for the D’ to mark it as a locative and that she is from Agincourt.

Her device on the other hand is one part ok and the other part has me sooooo cautious.  See the lady in question is a gamer geek, and those who know her know this well, hell her vehicles license plates are listed as “Nat 20” so what was her first request, twenty sided dice as part of her device.  Now for those that browse the web, we have found that gaming in period and thanks to many Archaeologists there is evidence that more than the traditional six sided dice in existence, however in heraldry there is little to no existence that was use in heraldry.  So how do we work this?  Use the mathematical definition of a twenty sided die which is icosahedra.  There is a precedent that this has gone through once I can hope that the two that she wants will go again.

“per pall argent, purple, and azure, a cinquefoil vert and two icosahedrons argent”

There was a few more that came before however to give them a proper entry I will have to start part two for them.  For the rest of this I would love to take the opportunity to thank all those that came to assist at heralds point.  As one of my duties as regional herald is to “Assist the Eastern Crown Herald when the Royal Progress comes to the region.”  Well as real life can have a way to do so, the Malagentian herald had to stand down from her office.  For the record I do not fault her, I know what she has been going through and did support the decision.  Granted the timing was a bit off but hey that is how we play the game.  Well with her standing down someone needed to stand in as herald as the province get nominations, elections, etc.  (or find a willing candidate, hog tie them and throw them into the ring).  That was a no brainer; I jumped into that as pro temp.  So with this I was covering two aspects.  Local herald, where at events such as this, Heralds point, is your primary concern.  Second part toward that are my duties as regional herald.  Assisting the crown herald, I really like, for I get to see and learn a lot of the behind the curtain and learn how court comes together.  For reading scrolls, I am as green as green can be.  I have been told that I can project well, however I have a stage fright like there is no tomorrow.  Best way to get over this.  Read, read and more read.  Ultimately for me I would love to get the words to scrolls at least a month.  So I can research pronunciation and how that all goes together.  Well in this particular case GNEW was a fun but yet tiring challenge.  How do I mean, well follow this.

So as close as we were getting to GNEW the work was coming in for the pre-game work, wonderful, and then word came down how many courts there would be at GNEW this year.  First round it was one LONG court, second call out was a couple of LONG courts (and when I say LONG I mean over 3hrs) and then I hear many smaller courts throughout the duration of the war, and three Large courts, one on Friday night, another on Saturday morning, and the traditional court on Saturday night.  I show up to the staging area, and find out there are 79 pieces of business.  Whooo ohhh lets do this, (meanwhile my mind is thinking this will be a LONG day) so start working with the court herald in prepping for Friday night court.  Just a few pieces of business for this one where the Orders of High Merit will be rewarded and one Knight going to vigil.  And that is where it hit me.  Well not to get to deep into it, I am helping getting things all in place and I look and go “why is my name here”   As I was to be brought into the Order of the Silver Crescent.  I needless to say floored however job still to do.  This was going to be my first time playing rear herald.  What I was to do, was to follow down the court report, and have things ready for the court herald reading.  When mine name was called, I hand the book to a fellow herald, walk up, kneel, and let it all flood in.  As soon as the order welcomed me as one of their own, and then it was “Back to work”.

Saturday morning was one of those that you learn two things, pacing yourself and drink at every opportunity you can.  Saturday morning was where the bulk of those getting their award of arms, and those being sent to vigil for the peerages they would be entering.  This proved to be where I had the problem.  Not because I was nervous cause believe you me, I was.  Cold reading is a special thing many people can do, where they can look at words for a scroll, in like 3 min or less, and nail it at court.  Me, on the other hand prefers preparation.  So a couple of scrolls that I was ask to read had a couple of hick ups for I was not sure of the flow.  Here is what I will mean by this.  If I had read a scroll in the comfort of my own place a couple of times, that I can rehearse how the words go together and feel the cadence if you will of how the scroll sounds.  And when reading it in court I have little anxiety over what I could be if read cold.  One person asked if this is something I am not comfortable doing why do it?  Simple this is a challenge and a personal battle, and as part of my job there by it’s personal to overcome my own anxiety to help make court run smooth.

Overall a wonderful weekend and the fun begin as I update the Order of Precedence.