Glossary of Terms Used

The purpose of this Glossary is not to define the many heraldic terms which may be found in any basic or general heraldic text. For such terms, we commend to you works such as J.P. Brooke-Little's An Heraldic Alphabet or James Parker's A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry. Our purpose here is to help define or explain some of the terms more or less specific to the Society or terms which may differ somewhat from non-S.C.A. usage. Armiger. A person who has been awarded the right to arms. Arms in the Society can only be given by the Crown of a kingdom, and come in three levels: Awards of Arms, Grants of Arms, and Patents of Arms (or Letters Patent). A person with registered personal armory who is not an armiger has a device, but only armigers have arms. Armorial. (1) Adjective. Of or related to armory. (2) Noun. A list of armory organized by the bearers' names. See also Ordinary. Armorial Element. A component of heraldic design. An armorial element may be a charge, a line of division, a line of partition, a field treatment, a tincture, or other component that may be used in designing armory. See the Rules for Submissions, Part VII, for discussion of Compatible Armorial Elements. Armory. Any design that the College of Arms registers or protects, including devices/arms and badges. This includes various important non-SCA armory from the real world and may also include trademarks, logos, and other graphic symbols that resemble heraldic bearings. See the Administrative Handbook, Parts II and III, for a discussion of Registerable and Protected Items. Arms. In the SCA, people who have been awarded arms by the Crown of a kingdom may call their heraldic device "arms." The distinction between arms and a device is not tracked by the College of Arms. Arrangement. The placement of charges in a group relative to the other charges in the group. For example, the arrangement three roundels two and one is different than the arrangement three roundels in fess. Arrangement is sometimes confused with location, and sometimes with orientation. Augmentation of Arms. (Also, Augmentation) An honor added to a registered device. First, the Crown of a kingdom must give the recipient of the augmentation the right to add a charge or charges to a registered device as an honor, then the honor must be registered with the College of Arms. An …