[SCA] Blazon help

[Benjamin de Hatfield]

No marshall is really close to me, thought I'd give the AA a shot to help with the blazon for what I want to register.

My description:
Divided per chevron. The top is sable, the bottom is paly argent and sable. On the argent part of the top, three pheons inverted and argent in the orientation of the chevron division.

My questions:
--How do I define that the pheons are on the top section? Do I use "in chief" or "to chief?"

--When I give the division, since the bottom is "paly," how do I write that? Would it be "Per chevron argent and paly argent and sable" or something more elegant? It sounds very muddled.

--How do I describe the inverted pheons as being orientated in a chevron? Is it "chevronney (sp)?"

Here is my Paint version of what I want if that helps. thanks to everyone in advance!

-Ramius

[Effingham]

First, that's not paly. Paly is (or SHOULD be) an even number of equal divisions, starting with a full width of one solid color and ending with a full width of the other solid color. To be correct, it should start with black and end with white (or vice versa).

What you have is an incorrectly drawn "argent five pallets sable" (white field with five vertical stripes). To make it more correct for THAT, there should be more white showing on either side.

Second, the items in chief are, properly, drawn on a line rather than jagged like that.

It should be this:

^ ^ ^

Not this:
^
^ ^

Effingham

[Donal Mac Ruiseart]

Effingham is right about it being argent five pallets sable rather than paly. And he is right that conventionally, the pheons would be in a straight horizontal row, but you DID say you wanted them in a chevron pattern.

If you want the very design you drew, you need to modify it a bit as Effingham said, to show a bit more white on the sides. But otherwise it's doable as follows:

Per chevron sable and argent five pallets sable, three pheons inverted in chevron argent.

The field division and the tincture of the pheons will automatically indicate that they go above the field division, since they wouldn't go well on the party field below. If necessary, you could add "enhanced" to that part (three pheons inverted in chevron enhanced argent). Another way would be to change the order of the blazon to:

Per chevron sable three pheons inverted in chevron argent and argent five pallets sable.

By the way, you don't need a marshal for this. Marshals have nothing to do with matters of heraldry. What you need is a herald.

If there is no herald in your branch or near enough to get in touch with directly, e-mail your kingdom herald or the submission herald if there is one in your kingdom. The process does require that you have a herald from your own kingdom as consulting herald (Effingham and I are both Atlantians) unless you make your submission at a consult table at an interkingdom event like a war.

[Benjamin de Hatfield]

Bah, meant "herald" not marshall. My bad!

Thanks for the help so far guys. I am trying to get this done in the right way and not try to pressure fit my design into heradry. I understand fully that as it stands, it isn't technically right.

Thanks for the heads up on the "paly" definition! The heraldric primer on the SCA site simply gives a picture and names that "paly" without really describing it. I will change it to either fit with being "paly" or to be "five pallets sable."

On the orientation of the chevrons, I understand that it is doable in the SCA; however, I am wondering on its historical validity. I chose to put them in a chevron because I fell it looks better that way. It seems more visually pleasing to have them match the field division below them. If that truly isn't a correct way, it presents a conundrum: Go SCA, or go Historical.

Once again, thanks for the help guys.

-Ramius