Middle Kingdom Submissions Herald
Office of the Escutcheon Herald
How to Submit Names and Devices
HOW TO SUBMIT NAMES AND DEVICES
There seems to be a lot of confusion on this matter. The submission process is really quite simple.
- A complete name submission (whether for your persona, alternate name, or household name) should
include the following:
- Two copies of the Name Submission form (one for Dragon, one for Laurel)
- Two copies of all documentation for your name
- A check for $7.00 US made out to "SCA -- MK College of Heralds".
- A complete device or badge submission should include the following:
- Three COLORED copies of the Device Submission form (one for Dragon, two for Laurel)
- One UNCOLORED LINE copy of the same form (UNCOLORED means a black and white line drawing like a coloring book picture; NO grayscale!! Even if your charges or field are sable, do not color in the black areas)
- Two copies of any documentation for unusual charges (if applicable)
- A check for $7.00 made out to "SCA -- MK College of Heralds".
- A single check may be written out for multiple items (e.g., name and device on one check, etc.).
NOTE : Official SCA branches (Shires, Cantons, Baronies, Principalities, etc.) do NOT pay for their group name or device submission but still must enclose the appropriate paperwork (note: branches use a different name form than individuals do -- although the device and badge forms are the same). However, they must pay for other submissions (i.e. - order names, badges, etc.). Petitions MUST be included with all paperwork (i.e. - name, device, etc) from the group's membership.
- Mail all materials to:
SCA -- MK College of Heralds
c/o Skye Savage
PO Box 63
Ionia, MI 48846
Questions? Drop me a line at submissions {at} midrealm {dot} org
HOW THE PROCESS WORKS (Or How Long Does it Take Anyway?)
Submissions are required to be processed in a timely manner but they still take time to process. In the interest of serving you better, an explanation of the various steps a submission must go through follows.Submissions are processed as received (as of November 1997, confirmation emails are being sent out -- if you have not received one, your submission was not received) and collected together once a month in an Internal Letter of Intent (ILoI). The ILoI is posted to the Middle Kingdom Garden on the Online System for Commentary and Response (OSCAR). Commentators are given one month to comment on this ILoI (i.e. - the comments on a March 5th ILoI are due to Rouge Scarpe's office or posted to OSCAR by April 5th).
Within the month after the deadline, the Rouge Scarpe Herald reviews the comments and the submissions and decides which ones will be sent forward and which will be returned at the Kingdom level. The decisions are published as an Internal Letter of Acceptance and Return (ILoAR). The Incunabula Pursuivant will notify the submitters via email or USPS explaining the reasons for the return at Kingdom (if applicable) or informing them that they are being forwarded to Laurel. Submissions that are to be sent forward are placed on the Kingdom's monthly External Letter of Intent (ELoI) and sent to the Laurel Sovereign of Arms (the Society Herald) by posting it to the Online System for Commentary and Response (OSCAR).
Laurel allows two whole months for commentary before the ELoI will be considered for decisions (i.e. - an ELoI sent out anytime in April will be in commentary until the end of June and be considered at the July Laurel Meeting). Decisions of Laurel Meetings are made available to members of the Laurel College and Kingdom Principal Heralds within a few weeks of the meeting in the form of a Letter of Acceptances and Returns (LoAR). These letters are archived on the Laurel website and anyone can subscribe to receive them electronically in any of a variety of formats here (scroll to bottom of the page).
When the LoAR is received, the Middle Kingdom decisions are unofficially published either via the Kingdom mailing list or The Pale. Due to the one month lead time required by The Pale, however, it can often take two or more months from the release of the LoAR before the notification is made in The Pale. The Opinicus Pursuivant makes official notification to the client directly explaining the reasons for the return (if applicable) or congratulating them on the successful registration.
Let us follow a submission through the process:
- The submission received by Escutcheon anytime in January. Email confirmation sent.
- Escutcheon places the submission on the February ILoI after the 1st of the month.
- Comments are due to Rouge Scarpe one month later, sometime after the 1st of March.
- Rouge Scarpe publishes the ILoAR and ELoI within a month, trying for the same month the ILoI closed commentary, so before the end of March.
- Incunabula sends notification of Rouge Scarpe decision.
- Comments due by end of May on OSCAR.
- Laurel staff makes decisions in June.
- June LoAR is written, proof read, and published. This usually takes two months.
- Results published on the Middlebridge and/or The Pale.
- Opinicus sends notification of Laurel decision.
A submission should go through the system in around six months from ILoI to Laurel decision with the decision letter published soon after. There will occasionally be delays along the way but the process should take no more than a year from submission being received to the results being available.
Note that notifications take time to generate and if your email or postal addresses have changed they may have difficulty finding you. Watching the LoAR archive or subscribing to receive LoARs electronically is the fastest way to discover when your submission is decided on by Laurel.
Questions? Drop me a line at escutcheon {at} midrealm {dot} org
FEATURES
Rouge Scarpe Submission Database
This database includes not only submissions currently in process, but also items submitted in the past, running back several years. It does NOT include items recently received by the Escutcheon Herald's office for processing. Submitters should allow 2-3 months for their submissions to appear in the Rouge Scarpe's database. Anyone who has submitted in the past two or three months should have received a confirmation post card from the Escutcheon Herald -- no postcard means your submission was not received.
Middle Kingdom Heraldry Letters
The Middle Kingdom Heraldry Letter archive, located on Midrealm Server, contains current and past Internal Letters of Intent (ILoI) and Internal Letters of Acceptance and Return (ILoAR). Once a month, all the submissions received by the Escutcheon Heralds office are assembled in an ILoI. Internal Letters of Intent (from 10/97 onwards) are available on-line at the ILoI archive. The ILoIs are commented on by Kingdom commenting heralds and, on the basis of those comments and additional research, the Rouge Scarpe Herald makes a decision whether to send the submission to Laurel, Sovereign of Arms, the Society Herald. Rouge Scarpe's decisions (pro and con) are reported on an ILoAR. Internal Letters of Acceptance and Return (from 4/98 onwards) are also available on-line at the ILoAR archive.
USEFUL LINKS
- Society for Creative Anachronism
- Middle Kingdom
- Laurel Sovereign of Arms
- SCA Heraldry Page
- On-Line SCA Armorial and Ordinary
- Rouge Scarpe's Home Page
- Dragon Herald's Home Page -- including the (downloadable) MK submission forms
- Dictionary of Heraldry--lots of pictures, good for beginners and novices