Unto the heralds and populace of the Kingdom of Lochac does Amanda Martel, Crux Australis Principal Herald, send greetings.

It’s the end of another year (according to some – surely New Year’s isn’t until May?), with various celebrations and, at least in my part of this fine Kingdom, a heat wave. I hope you’re enjoying whatever it is you get up to at this time of the year.

For the main part of my message this month, I’d like to talk about the loudest, yet quietest part of the College of Heralds.

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There are, broadly speaking, two main categories of heralds in the SCA: voice heralds, and book heralds. Of these, there can be a tendency for book heralds to dominate the conversation a lot of the time. Mostly, this is because book heralds work in the realm of decisions, records, and precedents, while voice heralds do their excellent service in a more ephemeral way.

One of the problems with this is that our heraldic ranking system tends to focus on book heralds, or those more generalist, and leaves the voice specialists off to one side. I’d like to fix that.

To be ranked as a Pursuivant, you need to be generally proficient in “at least two fields of endeavour”. I see there being at least six fields of endeavour in heraldry: tournament heraldry, court heraldry, event/duty heraldry, armoury design/research, name design/research, and administration.

Three of these six are solidly in the realm of voice heraldry.

I’m working on plans for a more general system to recognise the good work and good expertise of all the diverse heralds of our Kingdom, and also ways that the College of Heralds can bring value to to voice heralds, but the first step is to call for recommendations.

If you think there’s someone who is doing well in at least two of the fields of heraldry listed above, especially if they’re focused on the voice heraldry parts of what we do, but my roster shows them as a Macer, then let me know!

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The following items have been registered in Lochac on the October 2018 Letter of Acceptance and Response:

Alethea Gaye Kingseleye. Name and device. Purpure, a unicorn and on a chief invected Or four fleurs-de-lys purpure.

Aveline Goupil. Release of badge. Quarterly purpure and vert, a fox sejant guardant within a bordure Or.

Aveline Goupil. Blanket permission to conflict with badge. (Fieldless) A hawk’s lure gules.

Aveline Goupil and Damian of Southron Gaard. Joint badge. (Fieldless) A stag’s head couped sable collared Or.

Brynjólfr Hallþórsson. Name.

Clara Boese. Name and device. Sable, three dragonflies argent.

Elise Marchand. Name and device. Azure, in saltire two needles threaded with a single thread between in fess two fleurs-de-lys argent.

Elyna Delynor. Device. Vert, a bend of two ivy vines entwined argent.

Emmeline of Ansteorra. Device. Per chevron azure and argent, two threaded needles in saltire argent and a mullet of five greater and five lesser points sable.

Fineamhain an Einigh inghean ui Chonchobhair. Household name Fellowship of the Bee Skep.

Fineamhain an Einigh inghean ui Chonchobhair. Device change. Purpure, a fess engrailed barry Or and gules between three bees Or marked sable.

Gabrielle Hastyings of the Marshes. Name and device. Argent, a dragonfly vert and a ford proper.

Gaspar Falch de Cantoria. Name.

Grim of Thornby. Device. Per bend sable and argent, a padlock argent and an anvil azure.

Hallvarðr Sveinsson. Name and device. Per pale sable and gules, between two ravens displayed their faces to center a roundel argent.

Issabell de la Villa. Name and device. Per pale argent and purpure, two wyverns erect respectant, in chief three mullets counterchanged.

Kolfinna Burlufótr. Name and device. Per fess engrailed argent and azure, a duck sable and a quatrefoil Or.

Lothar Sigurdsson. Device. Argent estencely azure, a griffin salient to sinister gules.

Mathilde Hastyngs. Name and device. Quarterly purpure and vert, three owls affronty Or.

Safiya bint ‘Abd al-Shahid. Name and device. Argent, on a bend sinister cotised gules three cinquefoils palewise argent.

Tiberius Arius Maruthus. Name.

Ulfviðr náttfari Hrafnsson. Name.

Unnr Auðunardóttir. Name.

Rocket Herald will send out individual missives to all those with acceptances and returns. Quarrel Herald will update the Lochac Roll of Arms, which will be available at http://lochac.sca.org/LRoA/index.php?page=Recent when done.

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Yours in service to the Kingdom and Crown of Lochac,

Amanda Martel
Crux Australis Principal Herald