What do you call that noble, and where do they stand?

(Here continues the tale of my Field Herald's Manual. This is part [1, 2, 3, 4] five of the story....)

One of my primary goals for having this book was the need for a handy list of the Order of March of the Baronies of the Midrealm. You'd THINK that the Barons and Baronesses would know what order they go in, and you'd THINK that that information would be easy to find in the existing documents that the Midrealm maintains, but I was surprised to find that neither condition was the case at Pennsic a few years back during the line-up for opening ceremonies.

It was a right mess. I had to borrow someone's cell phone and find it on the internet with poor reception, and then herd everyone to their respective places while the Dragon Herald went and dealt with the allied Kingdoms and THEIR line up.

You could say that this was the one thing I KNEW I had to have in my book. I wasn't going to get stuck again, thrown into a situation where I was poorly prepared and with nobody present who knew the order. We can't always simply pray to St. Vorlin for guidance, sometimes we have to take things into our own hands.

I knew that I wanted that page to be the most accessible one in the book. Putting it at the back of the book made sense. I added, as well, the order of the Kingdoms. That's helpful, too.

It occurred to me that this would be a nice place to put a compiled list of the traditional honorific titles that you might announce a foreign Crown with in court. THAT was a harder task - where would you find that information? The answer is, no one had it all in one place. My friend Katerinka had a partial list, so I set about gathering up that information, as well as the honorifics of the Principalities and Heirs of the various Kingdoms.

Here that is, if you'd like it!

Since this was shaping up to be the section on Precedence and Order, I added also the Order of Precedence of the Middle Kingdom, and a section on toasting customs. I like to think that we have a fairly typical order for toasting, but I've never actually sat a feast in another Kingdom, so I don't really know. Anyhoo, it seemed like good information to write down. As a Baronial herald, I've been asked frequently to figure out who is supposed to do the toasts at feast, and maybe someone else would need it someday, too.

After I added one simple page for how to call the fighters to a tourney, and the Litany of Arms, I had one last section to write, and the whole book would be ready!

(to be continued....)

Ceremonies for Every Gentle: Degendering the Script

As court heralds, it's our job to be the voice of the Crown. Through us, people are informed, they are entertained for a while, and they are honored. Not BY us, but THROUGH us.

The words that we use to convey that honor matter. We may be playing at medieval people, to some degree or another, but inside of those medieval clothes is a modern person who deserves to be honored in a way that truly makes them feel seen and cared for.

In the Midrealm, we have standard texts for the scribe to follow. It's not a requirement for them to use it, but it's a good starting point, and it allows new scribes to put an appropriate text on a scroll without having to also be a wordsmith and poet as well as the calligrapher.

We also have ceremonies. Ceremony is important. Ceremony is something that knits humans together. It's something that we use to mark prestigious or momentous occasions, to give gravity and weight to a situation, to grave a precious moment in one's heart.

The last thing we want when etching a moment on someone's heart is to show them through our language that we are dismissing or ignoring a fundamental part of their self.

As modern recreationists, we need to remember that gender is not a binary state. That people are not sorted into "woman" and "man" with nothing in between. That you cannot assume that because someone fits our common conception of what a specific gender looks like, that they are that which we assume.

Language matters. Yes, calling someone "Milady" or "Milord" sounds courtly, it sounds medieval, and it does lend to the feeling of being transported back to the medieval period. But if you do not KNOW that someone is a "Lady" or "Lord", you should be prepared with language that doesn't assume their gender. It's just polite. And as the voice of the Crown, we should ALWAYS remember our manners when acting as their messenger.

It gets harder when you're reading a script. It's not easy to switch from the passive state, in which you are conveying words already written down, to an active state where you must modify your language on the fly. When you're reading a generic scroll text, and it says "he/she", which do you pick? Knowing that gender is not binary, there's going to be an occasion in which no matter which you pick, you will be wrong.

And in being wrong, in passively choosing to convey that honor with language that ignores the dignity of the person receiving that honor, you take that precious moment that the Crown wished to give to that person, and you grave on their heart a wound where the Crown wanted an accolade.

This is why, when I was creating the Field Manual, I worked very hard to degender the scripts and the scroll texts. Instead of "he/she", "him/her", "his/hers", etc, I used singular "they/them/theirs" wherever possible.

And before you try to tell me singular they is grammatically incorrect, stop. It's not. Not only is it correct, it's MEDIEVAL (source).

In correcting the scripts that we use for our most precious occasions, I noticed also that much of the text also referred to "King" and "Queen" where "Sovereign" and "Consort" would do just as clearly, and not assume that we will always have a Sovereign who desires a male-gendered title, or a Consort who desires a female one. We are already used to using "Crown" to refer collectively to the royal rulers, and "Tanists" to refer to their Heirs, and I brought that wording into the stage directions of the ceremonies in my book, too.

Our ceremonies for the recognition of those who have previously reigned, those whom we honor with the titles of Count, Countess, Duke, and Duchess were much harder to degender, and in the end, I could not do it with graceful language. To my knowledge, there is no gender-neutral word that conveys the concept of "person who has ruled over a Kingdom (once, or more) as Sovereign or Consort." The ceremonies are specific to the role of former Sovereign and former Consort and should not vary based on the gender of the recipient. Since these honors are always given to someone who is expecting them, I hope that the herald or the recipient would give the wording some thought to make sure that the ceremony accurately reflects whichever gender identity they have. I replaced the words "he" and "she", and their analogs, wherever appropriate, but left in the actual titles of Duke, Duchess, Count, and Countess.

If you have suggestions for elegant, gender-neutral language to convey this concept, I am open to suggestions!

In making these adjustments, it is my hope that, as heralds, we can be more inclusive in our language. We can convey the honor, care, and love that the Crown has for Their people. We can be more confident that we are part of etching happy memories on the hearts of the gentles that we have the privilege of calling to the dais.

With just a few small changes, I made the choice to include EVERY GENTLE in the words that knit us together. We should all be working very hard to make choices that honor each person for who they are, and this was my small part to further that goal.

Rounding it out

(Here continues the tale of my Field Herald's Manual. This is part [1, 2, 3] four of the story....)

Scope creep had claimed my project for good. After several people reacted very enthusiastically to the idea of a little field manual, I decided that maybe I'd make up a thorough one and use that as a way to ensure that our Kingdom heralds were better prepared.

I started hitting thrift stores in earnest. If I was going to deliver these into the hands of heralds, I wanted to make sure there were as few barriers to using them as possible, and that meant making sure that the first few books were handed out ready to use. I needed to get cheap binders to put the book in for when I gave them out.

As I slowly accumulated covers, I worked on rounding out the contents of my book. I added a checklist for Pre-Court meetings, so that an inexperienced herald would have a guideline of things to ask the Crown. I added a similar list for meeting with a vigilant. I've got a planned blog post about those, do not fear, my friends!

It's a good idea to ask the vigilant what accoutrements they have for their ceremony.

One of the decisions I made on the contents of my book was to include the Crown Tourney ceremony. In the Midrealm, unlike in several other kingdoms, our heralds stand on the OUTSIDE of the Crown pair, usually on the Sovereign's side. This leaves the Sovereign Consort without their own herald! During Crown Tourney, the Consort has lines, but no herald of their own to hold a book with their script. I decided that this was a good opportunity for this book. It was already easier to carry than the standard format book, because it's half-size, making it easier to take to an event. Maybe being prepared for any ceremony that the Midrealm has would let newer heralds feel more comfortable joining the dais crew for this really formal and awesome occasion! After all, we are all more confident when we are comfortable and using our own materials, right?

I added the Crown Tourney script, but while I was typesetting it I realized.... it's FULL of gendered language.

(to be continued...)

What if it's not just for me?

(Here continues the tale of my Field Herald's Manual. This is part [1, 2] three of the story...)

This started out as a project to alleviate my own poor aching arms, and I had worked on both the scroll texts and the ceremonies. I knew that I wanted to rearrange the way the Peerage ceremonies were laid out, because in the Book of Ceremonies, they have the vigils all together, and the elevations all together. There's some sense in that, but I knew that sometimes, SOMETIMES, the Crown decides that the Peerage Train is coming into the station, and it's all going to happen right now.

So instead of grouping the vigils together and the elevations together, I decided to put the vigil script immediately before the corresponding elevation script. That way we could just read right through if needed, without the dreaded page flipping.

Now it was time to gather the oaths. We all know the order:

• Great Officers
• Royal Peers
• Territorial Baronies
• Chivalry
• Laurels
• Pelicans
• Masters of Defence
• Populace

But there are other oaths! We have oaths of Loyalty for the Champions, the Lesser Officers, the Red Company, etc, and I went out and gathered them all up, so that I would be prepared in court, just in case. Naturally, since they usually happen near the beginning of court, I wanted them near the beginning of the book.

I put them in, and then started to work on the dais layout page. We had in our protocol handbook at the time a graphic that I found terribly confusing. It was laid out in a way that didn't make any sense to me. So I set about trying to make sense of it, and in the end, I had to make myself a little picture. Heralds might be notably literate in the Medieval period, but we ARE KNOWN for our love of imagery....

As long as I don't hear any MST3K from the audience, we're good.

I posted my larger graphic in the Facebook group devoted to SCA Heraldry, (complete with misspelling!), and people really seemed to like it. It provoked some good conversation of Inter-Kingdom Anthropology (IKA). And a lot of "I didn't know that's how it was laid out!"

...and THIS made me wonder if other people in the Midrealm probably wanted something like this manual, too.

As I thought about all the things that I wanted written down, I also thought about the things that I know, as an experienced herald, but that many OTHER heralds do not.

• How to do a pre-court meeting
• What to ask someone who is being elevated?
• What to say when heralding a tourney?
• Who toasts first at feast?

And many more questions...

I admitted that I was making myself a little Voice Herald's Companion, and via private message I got a handful of "could I have one, too, when you're done?"

Suddenly, my little book got a little more complicated, and it looked like it wasn't going to be just for me anymore!

(to be continued...)

Formatting matters!

(continued from previous post...)

My plan for a field book for myself was becoming more and more real. I'd sat down and thought about the objectives for the book.

• Small enough to carry
• Fits in a half-letter planner cover
• Easy to read text
• Nothing that I didn't need AT an event
• Worksheet to help with Court Reports

What next?

I needed a framework to put things into. So I brainstormed a little about the specific things I wanted to have at an event.

• Scroll texts
• Dais Layout
• Baronial Order of March
• Scripts for various ceremonies
• Something for Tourneys
• Cheat Sheet of questions to ask in a pre-court meeting
• Some pre-written boasts for the Crown

Since this book was meant to be used on the fly during court, a primary objective I had was that the text be clear and readable, and that stuff could be easy to flip to. There are few things I dislike more than watching a herald flip through pages, trying to figure out where the text for the next thing is.

My first target was the scroll texts. In the available book at the time, they were listed in precedence order. Logical for a handbook, I suppose, but NOT easy to find in a hurry, since it required you to remember what level the award was. I put them all in alphabetical order! A revelation! Now it was easy to flip to exactly the one I wanted, with only a few page turns to find it. A few letter tabs, and that would be no more than a second away in court, should I find myself with an unreadable scroll with no gloss, or no scroll at all!

Each scroll text contains a sentence, usually at the end, that lists the place, date and event that the award was given at. These are commonly not read by the herald, since Court is usually opened with these statements. I didn't want to accidentally read that again, as it is tedious for the audience, and redundant. So I decided that I would put them in a different font style so that I had a visual cue where to stop reading.

Now that I had the scroll texts all written up, my next target was the Peerage ceremonies.

This is when I realized that I wasn't writing this little book just for me. The CROWN also needed to be able to use it! It wasn't enough that I could read it. I would be sharing this book with whichever Sovereign I would be standing next to.

Font, layout, and text size suddenly became very important. The book that the Crown reads from during a vigil or elevation is a moving target. You're leaned down, pointing at the section they should read, and because they are the center of attention at that moment, they need to read a bit, and then look up from the book and gaze upon their recipient, or their subjects, and then quickly find their place again to read the next part.

"Quit wiggling, I'm trying to read!"
photo by Charla Kinzel

I did a little research on the most readable fonts. It's a general rule that what we read most (serif fonts) is most legible, but size matters! For something that's meant to be read quickly at arm's length in sub-optimal conditions, sans-serif fonts win. It was also a consideration at the time that our King was dyslexic, and I needed my manual to be easily readable specifically for him.

Often times, the ceremonies include stage directions. Having heard heralds inadvertently read them, I knew that I needed to also put those in a different font, so that there was a visual cue that this was not something to be read, or read only to the Crown in sotto voce. And since the Crown needed to easily and quickly find their part on the page, I decided to format the ceremonies so that they were laid out as if they were a script, with labels. All the Crown's parts needed to be bolded, so that they were what leapt off the page most easily. As the herald, my attention would be largely on following the script, but the Crown, as stated before, needs to direct their attention back and forth.

Formatting the text of this book became a large focus on my early work on it, and a lot of thought went into making it as easy to use for the situation that it would be utilized in.

(to be continued...)

On Making a Vocal Herald's Companion

When I stepped down as Kingdom Signet, I was seriously ready to get back into vocal heraldry. It was always my first love, and the responsibilities of being a different office that also stood on the dais during court had pushed that to the back burner. It was time for me to resume the station I loved the most - Court Herald. I assembled my court book, my command station on-the-go, with everything that I would need to Be Prepared (thanks, Boy Scouts!).

I ran into a problem....

The book was too heavy.

Now, honestly, this problem has a standard solution, that is, to trim your book down to only the pages that you will need for court, and keep the rest safely in another book. But that didn't sound like a solution for me, since, possessed with a future vision, I could see myself getting to an event after the last one I heralded, and realizing that I hadn't put some critical pages back. Bad herald, not prepared!

I wanted something that was everything I needed, and nothing I didn't. I didn't need the whole Protocol Book. I didn't need the whole Pursuivant's Handbook. I didn't need the entire Boke of Ceremonies. Three books, and I only wanted part of each of them. PLUS, those books are all in standard letter format, and I wanted something that wouldn't throw my back out if I carried it all day long in my basket.

Clearly, I needed to make myself a Field Manual!

I decided it should be half-letter size. That's a very convenient size for printing, and I already had a nice, unused planner cover that it would fit in.

My plan had begun to coalesce. I sat down with myself, and thought about all the things that a vocal herald might do, or need to reference. It should have all the things I'd desperately needed at an event. Scroll texts. The Order of Baronial Precedence. How to order the thrones on the dais. The Oaths of Fealty.

It should be easy for me to read in low light at nearly an arm's length, because rule number one about vocal projection is "point your mouth at the people who need to hear you", and if the book was too close to my face, it would hinder my audibility.

And finally, I wanted a worksheet that I could write up the things I wanted to remember when I was sitting down after the event to write my Court Report.

(to be continued...)

MK50 Promenade Display

Heraldic Display!

It's part of what makes our game in the SCA so entrancing, right? Flags and banners, waving in the breeze, wafting gently above tents, lofted brazenly by columns of combatants on their way to the battlefield...

But what about when you've got a fairly modern venue, like a 4H Campground? How does one "medieval that up"?

When the Middle Kingdom 50th Year Celebration approached, the Event Stewards, Hadley and Maggie, reached out to get armory images from each of the Baronies. They had a vision for the event site's main walkway, called the Promenade. It was to be the main throughway for all the foot traffic on-site, and they had the opportunity to make it reflect the history of our Kingdom.

Together with Sir Omarad, they wanted to make flags to go on the light posts along the walkway.

Aren't they pretty? But it wasn't as simple as just getting an image from each Barony. To make them consistent, it was important to create each one to fit the particular height and width ratio that was needed.

I volunteered to make each of these according to Sir O's specifications, because I wanted them to be spectacular! Stupendous! Consistent!

To this end, because the images needed to be significant in size, I taught myself how to use Inkscape, which is a vector graphics program. Now, some of these images are quite complex, and well beyond my abilities as a beginning vector artist, so I entreated my friend Cormac Mor, who runs Poore-House.com, to let me use his armory images as a starting point for many of the charges. Not all, but quite a few are his actual art, vectorized.

Now, heraldic display depends on its container, and Master Cormac's images are in the traditional escutcheon shape. You can't just slap a plain escutcheon on a tall rectangle, and have it look good! Each device should be laid out to take as much room as available, and everything should be balanced and visible. These flags are significantly taller than the average escutcheon shape, so some layout work had to be done.

Bends needed to reach from corner to corner, even though the slant angle was significantly different than they are normally displayed. Shattered Crystal, with its little gems, normally has a much more square arrangement, and so each crystal had to be placed just so to take up the full space available to the whole charge group. Cynnabar, who normally displays their tower between the tips of its wreath, had the room to move that completely up and above it.

In the end, I did wind up creating quite a few of these completely from scratch, including the little castles for the Barony of Carraig Ban (so many little bricks!)

For my effort, we got a product that used the same wreath throughout, and had the same bold heraldic colors, and nice clear graphics. Sir Omarad added the little scroll that indicated when each Barony was created.

A team effort, and it came out as pretty as I imagined it.