Devices and Badges

Devices and Badges are two pieces of heraldry that can be passed within the SCA.

What's the difference?

A DEVICE, or your Arms, is the heraldry that represents you as a person. It's what you put on garb, your shield when you go off into battle, onto banners, and more. It represents YOU.

A BADGE is the heraldry that represents what belongs to you. It can be used as a favor that is given to those that fight for them in battle, or is put onto boxes, mugs, etc. It represents YOURS.

These two pictures here are of a Device and a Badge I just got submitted for a client. Notice that the two aren't exactly the same, but are similar. When they are fully registered, she will be able to use these two pictures for a multitude of things that both represent herself and what's hers.

You can learn more about various elements of Heraldry at http://heraldry.sca.org/!

Greetings from Emma the Herald!

Hello!!

I am Emma de Davyntre of the Stellar Kingdom of Ansteorra (this kingdom can be found in Texas and Oklahoma).
 I play within the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval reenactment group that has groups and communities all over the world!

I help others within the Society create their personal Coats of Arms, help with their chosen persona names, and aid in the creation of their personal Badges. I use a number of references and resources within the SCA community to help me with designs, to help to figure out if I'm not copying someone else's device, and to help with getting someone's device ready to be registered! 

If you would like to learn more about the SCA and find your local group, check out their website at www.sca.org!

We'll start things off with two of my first pieces of heraldry that I created. The green and black is my own, and the red and white belongs to my husband, Isaac.

Heraldry takes a lot of time to learn all of the terminology, so I'll break these two down for you!

Mine:

Per bend sinister vert and sable, a bend sinister between a triquetra and a tree blasted and couped Or.

Isaac's:

Per bend argent and gules, a sun and a talbot sejant counterchanged.

What does all that mean?

Per Bend - this means that the shield's background (field) is divided along the diagonal. Both of these devices are divided as Per Bend, only mine is divided on the opposite side, so it's called Per Bend Sinister (sinister meaning the Left side). Having just a Bend on a device is to have a thick line of whatever color following along the diagonal divide of the shield. Mine is called a Bend Sinister.

Vert, Sable, Gules, Argent, and Or are the terms that indicate the colors used. 

Vert = Green, Sable = Black, Gules = Red, Argent = Silver (white), and Or = Gold (yellow). We use 5 different colors (red, green, blue, purple, and black) and 2 different 'metals' (gold and silver) to indicate good contrast in the designs of our devices. Colors on Colors or Metal on Metal - Red on Black or Yellow on White - aren't allowed because you can't see them very well. So we do Metals on Colors - Green on White or Yellow on Blue - instead.

The triquetra is a popular Celtic knot, and one of my personal favorites, which is why I chose it. A tree Blasted and Couped means that there are no leaves, and it's cut off at the bottom of the trunk (no roots). Because my name is pronounced Dav-en-tree, I added the tree.

A talbot is the term used for a Dog. In Isaac's device, he preferred that his talbot looks like a modern dog breed, a Husky in this case.

Counterchanged means that the items on the device are the opposite colors - so a white dog on the red section and a red sun on the white section.

If that still doesn't make sense, stay tuned and keep learning along with me!

If you have any questions, comment below!