If you’ve been scratching your head at my recent super-long sig with the arcane terminology (“Party per bend sinister wavy…” etc.), wonder no more! I’ve added a link to the sig!
Or I could just say that it’s a heraldic device I’m thinking of registering in the Society for Creative Anachronism. It doesn’t officially belong to anyone yet, but it will belong to me, shortly, and any SCAdian who thinks of stealing my idea and registers a device like this (i,e., with less than two “clear distinctions”) to pre-empt my application should know that I will hunt down and cut off the toes of such a person. :mad:
To DrFidelius, who asked how he was supposed to blazon the thing: Go! Read! Look! That’s how!
OK? OK.
Party per bend sinister wavy bendy sinister wavy vert & or, & sable, in fess point a demi-pellet ensorcelled rayonny or inverted & bendwise sinister issuant from the party, in sinister base a roundel bendy sinister wavy vert & or.
Or something…
Oh, just go here.
OK, I wouldn’t actually cut all your toes.
Don’t try it!
Sorry about that. I just feel a little nervous putting it out here on the web where anyone can get at it. Until I get it registered, there’s squat I can do about that, though.
Not that anyone would want to steal it, or that anyone cares, anyway. I’m sure heraldry is pretty pointless, boring, & obscure to most people, anyway.
See? No one is responding, anyway!
How would you describe a golden yew (tree) on a blue field? That’s my guy’s.
All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people.
Satan’s coming?
Voted Best Sport
And narrowly averted the despised moniker Smiley Master
Forward deployed until 18AUG00
I think…unless there’s some special terminology for yews, it should be “Azure, a yew tree Or.”
That should do. Trees tend to either have their roots showing (“eradicated”) or issue from a little hillock in the base of the shield… which I can’t remember if one has to blazon or if it comes free. 
Cheers,
Martin
Thanks, Apollyon. (Hey! another angel! Have you met Jophiel & Satan?) I later realised I should mention that.
I looked up trees in Woodward’s A Treatise on Heraldry and found the following: While some arms are blazoned as “on a mount in base” or “eradicated” in many blazons the state of the tree’s roots is not mentioned. I suppose if the tree is eradicated, that would be mentioned. Woodward says that trees “are for the most part represented on a mount in base, which in German Heraldry is often replaced by the conventional symbol of a hill with three rounded tops…”
By the way, “eradicated” just means uprooted.
I have not had the pleasure of their acquaintance… however, if a particular mushroom eater is to be believed, I have the keys to someone’s post-apocalyptic dwelling. (Hi Satan).
Yeah, Heralds just like to use fancy terms to keep themselves in business. Like lawyers.
Wow, quite the elaborate blazon. I used to be a fairly active herald (small h) here in the Kingdom of An Tir. In those days (15 years ago), I probably couldn’t have gotten your arms registered (I’m assuming you’ve been awarded arms), as complexity isn’t period.
[For those not in the SCA: I mentioned the small h because a capital H indicates a title conferred by the kingdom College of Heralds or the Society-wide College of Arms. An Tir is the branch covering the northwest of the North American continent, excluding Alaska. ‘Period’ refers to history before 1600, generally. Sorry for the jargon, the SCA can really be a separate culture sometimes.]
However, they’ve had to relax that rule as the armorial filled up. There aren’t too many simple coats left to register. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more arms in use in the Society than there are active in the actual nobility of Europe.
PS. The device is very nice. As long as you don’t get into Victorian silliness, I have nothing against a little complexity. And the blazon is a thing of beauty.
I hope you’ve already tried this: show the device to a small group of heralds and ask them how to describe it in the language of blazon. Just remember to feed them occasionally as they argue for a month.
“If you prick me, do I not…leak?” --Lt. Commander Data
No, I haven’t shown it to any heralds–or pursuivants–yet. The blazon is a bit of a mess still, & very long, and I’d feel very sorry for any voice herald trying to describe my arms.
My problem is that I designed something geometric that I thought would be acceptable. I’ve been looking in Woodward’s Treatise since and now I’m not so sure. For one thing, divided roundels are quite uncommon, which I didn’t expect. Ordinaries (like saltires) are divided pretty often, but maybe sub-ordinaries (like roundels) “aren’t supposed to be.”
Anyway, if I drop the half-sunflower, I may be OK. If not, screw 'em. I’ll register the sunflower as my badge, and who needs a coat?
(You should see what I’d want for supporters! 
)
Yes, I am an egomaniac; why do you ask?
…You didn’t ask?
Ah, but I knew you were dying to!
…You weren’t?