The Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory - SCA Heraldry

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The Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory:The Rules for SubmissionsFurs are a group of named patterns used as tinctures. For the purposes of tincture, ermined furs are groupedin the same way as their background color. Ermine (a white background with black tails) and erminois (ayellow background with black tails) are metals. Counter-ermine (a black background with white tails) andpean (a black background with yellow tails) are colors. Furs such as vair and potent are two differentpatterns of multiple pieces in blue and white by default. As they are made up of multiple pieces, dividedevenly between a color and a metal, they are treated as neutral and are considered to have good contrastwith both colors and metals, as long as they do not share a tincture with the color or metal.Proper is a term used for a charge in its "natural" or "standard" tincture. Items that were used in propertinctures in period armory may be used. A list of proper tinctures is found in the Glossary of Terms. Anyanimal (not including monsters) that can be brown in nature can be blazoned as a brown X proper. Such ananimal would be expected to be completely brown, as opposed to drawn naturalistically. Similarly, toolsthat can reasonably be wooden can be described as a wooden X proper, and are brown. Brown isconsidered to be a color, not a metal, and it is not identical to black or sable. While a few monsters have adefined proper, most of them do not because they do not exist in nature. Thus, monsters constructed fromanimals which can otherwise be proper may not be proper.For example, a rose proper is defined to be gules barbed vert seeded Or. Some proper animals include: abrown bear proper, a brown falcon proper, and a brown rabbit proper. Tools and other wooden objectsinclude: a wooden staff proper, a wooden barrel proper. A heraldic dolphin proper is green with red finswhile a natural dolphin proper is light grey (effectively argent).In general, charges that do not have a heraldically defined proper may be described as proper when anormal person would be able to color them appropriately from knowing only the sort of item with no furthercolor description. So, a tree, a thistle, and an elephant can be proper. On the other hand, a femaleAmerican kestrel, an Arctic fox in winter phase, or a bay horse cannot be proper.Proper charges are classified as a color, a metal, or neutral depending on their dominant tincture. Grey andlight skin tones are treated as a metal (equivalent to argent); brown and other darker skin tones are treated asa color.Metal Color NeutralPlain tinctures ArgentOrsablegulesazurevertpurpureFurProperErmineerminoislight greylight skin tonescounter-erminepeanDark greydark skin tonesbrownwooddark pinkvairpotentDivided fields and charges are considered metals or colors based on the tincture class that dominates acrossthe entire field or charge. If fields or charges are evenly divided into color and metal, they are treated asneutral and have good contrast with both colors and metals. If they are over half color, they are treated ascolors and have good contrast with metals. If they are over half metal, they are treated as metals and havegood contrast with color. This is not dependent on how much of the charge is made up of any particulartincture or fur. A charge may only share a tincture with the field when both the charge and the fieldmaintain identifiability. A charge which has minor details of the same color of the field is registerable, aslong as identifiability is maintained.Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory – April 29, 2012 - Page 41 of 73
The Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory:The Rules for SubmissionsFor example, Lozengy vert and Or, a chief Or may be registered, but the vert portions of the field musttouch the chief to maintain identifiability. Vair, a griffin argent cannot be registered, because the complexoutline of the griffin will be obscured by the portions of white vair bells that touch the griffin. Argent, a foxproper may be registerable, even though the identifying characteristic of the white-tipped tail is against awhite field, but the depiction must retain identifiability.2. Definition of Good Contrast: Good contrast between two tinctures means that they are not from the sameclassification. Pairings such as a color and a color or a metal and a metal are said to have poor contrast orto be low-contrast. Pairings of the same tincture are said to have no contrast, and are allowed only asartistic details. The following pairings are said to have good contrast:• a color and a metal• a color and a neutral tincture• a metal and a neutral tinctureIn some cases, two neutral tinctures may have good contrast with each other, but identifiability must bemaintained. This occurs most often when a charge is counterchanged over a line of division. In such acase, both the field and the charge are, as a whole, classified as neutral, but all edges that touch have goodcontrast with each other.3. Contrast Requirements for Divided Fields and Charges: Divisions are categorized in terms of howmany parts they create (two, three, four, and many) and whether those parts are equal or not. Equality is notbased on literal size, but on the ways in which they were conceptualized in period heraldry.a. Elements Divided in Two Parts: Elements evenly divided into two parts (per pale, per fess, per bend,per bend sinister, per chevron, per chevron inverted) may use any two tinctures or furs, as long as the twosections do not have the same base tincture. Elements that further divide one of those two parts musthave good contrast between its sections. Effectively, that means that either they must be made up of acolor and metal or one half must be evenly split between color and metal, and identifiability must bemaintained.For example, a field divided per pale may consist of azure and gules, argent and Or, Or and ermine, orvert and vairy gules and argent. No field may consist of argent and ermine or gules and gules masonedOr, unless the sections are separated by an ordinary. Per pale argent and vair, where the argent bells ofthe vair were against the per pale line, would not be registerable because the line of division would beobscured. However, if the azure portions of the vair section were against the per pale line, it would beidentifiable and thus registerable.For example, both per pale vair and per fess sable and Or and per fess azure and lozengy argent andazure are registerable. Per pale sable and per fess gules and azure would not be registerable, because itdoes not have good contrast between the sections. Per fess ermine and lozengy argent and sable, wherethe argent lozenges were against the per fess line, would not be registerable because ermine and argentshare a background tincture and the line of division would be obscured.While we find fields or charges divided into two parts with poor contrast, we do not generally findcomplex lines of division separating regions with poor contrast. Thus, any pairing of low-contrasttinctures with a complex line of division must meet the standards in Appendix H.b. Elements Divided in Three Parts: Elements divided per pall or per pall inverted must have one partthat has good contrast with the other two parts. No two parts may share a background tincture, but a partmay share a tincture with another part which is multiply divided as long as identifiability is maintained.Standards for Evaluation of Names and Armory – April 29, 2012 - Page 42 of 73
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The Standards for Evaluation of Nam
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Sea-Creatures, Wyverns, etc.:The St
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