The Laurel King of Arms and his staff met in October, as they do every month, and deliberated upon all the name and device submissions from the nineteen kingdoms, including a healthy batch from Lochac. Once they had considered them, they put their considerations into writing, cross-checked every detail, dotted the “T”s and crossed the “I”s, and just now I received into my hands the finished result.

The good news for the people of Lochac:

Angelina Rossi. Name and device. Gules, a wing and a sinister tierce argent.
Ásfríðr Úlfvíðardóttir. Alternate name ffride wlffsdotter.
Eleanor de Castleton. Name.
Elena de Montague. Name and device. Per bend sinister gules and sable, two pithons erect wings displayed argent.
Elicia Blackmore. Name.
Mordenvale, Barony of. Badge for Mordenvale Company of Brewers. Per chevron vert and gules, two mash rakes in saltire Or.
Nicola de Coventre. Device. Azure semy of escarbuncles argent, a swan naiant contourny wings addorsed Or.
Ringwar Northwood. Device. Per pale Or and vert, a stag springing counterchanged.
Saint Andronicus, College of. Branch name and device. Gules, two lions combattant sustaining between them a sword inverted, in base a laurel wreath Or.
Wulfric Hwite. Name.

Bravo to my old Alma Martyrdom, the University of Canberra, for finally getting a name and a device. I am quite sure without even looking it up that Saint Andronicus must be the patron saint of getting distracted by parties, skipping lectures and then working like a mad-aleck in the week before exams, so he’ll do very nicely indeed.

There was one return this time, so Rocket Herald will be in touch to discuss options.

On the subject of returns, I know it can be disappointing when you wait for months for the ruling on your submission, only to find that it’s been rejected for some silly reason. I’d like to talk a bit about that.

First of all, and don’t let me fail to stress this, it is quite fair to feel disappointed. You’ve pinned your hopes on getting your design passed, you’ve painted your shield or sewn your banner. So it’s a bit of a bugger to find some bloke you’ve never met has declared it unacceptable. Especially after the heralds closer to home said it was fine.

But the fact that it was ruled out by Laurel is a good thing, believe it or not. Having followed discussions among local heralds, I’ve seen that many questions get discussed and weighed early on, with every herald trying to prove that a design is good and free of conflict. But when they’re not sure, or they can’t agree one way or another, they pass the design on to Laurel so he can act as final arbiter. And this means your submission has the best possible chance of being accepted.

If the commenting heralds are sure it’s OK, they pass it on for judgement.

If they’re sure it’s not OK, they return it to you quickly, before it gets too far into the system, explaining how you can fix it.

But if there’s any doubt at all, they err on the side of optimism: they let Laurel decide. That takes longer, but it prevents a worse outcome: that a design or name that was perfectly fine might get rejected because we were too pessimistic. So Laurel decides, and sometimes he and his team surprise us, which is good for everyone.

I know that’s no great consolation if yours is a name or device that got returned, but it does work out better for everyone this way. And with Lochac’s excellent record of acceptances vs returns, there’s a lot of help available to make sure your next try will pass.

So don’t give up, because we never will!

In service,

: Karl Faustus von Aachen, Crux Australis :