Please report any problems or corrections to Pendar the Bard, former Rampart Herald
Last Updated: May 21 2002
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So what is a "weirdness"?
A "weirdness" in SCA heraldry is something that is "one step beyond period practice". Exactly what constitutes something qualifying as a weirdness has changed over time, particularly between the old Rules for Submission and the new ones instituted by Shayk Da'ud ibn Auda when he became Laurel in 1990. Therefore, I have only chosen to list the "weirdnesses" that I found from Da'uds first tenure on since those are closer to the standards that we currently use.
Please keep in mind that no list of weirdnesses will ever be exhaustive. Standards change over time and what is considered a weirdness will depend on the experience and attitude of the person ruling on the submission.
For the sake of convenience, I have chosen to summarize the exact weirdness rather than citing the whole precedent. This document is fairly large and using the entire precedent would make it difficult to read. The source of each item in the list is noted.
Having "two weirdnesses", in other words being "two steps beyond period practice" is sufficient to get a piece of armory returned.
I have only chosen to list "weirdnesses" having to do with armory as there are already sufficient lists for name weirdnesses at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mranc/sca/weirdness_table.html
and
http://www2.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/precedents/CompiledNamePrecedents/Weirdnesses.html
This may or may not be all of the precedents defining instances of armory weirdness, but they were all that I could find. If you know of more, please report them to me using the e-mail link at the top of the page. Thanks.
Remember that none of these alone is cause for return, but a combination of two or more of them in a single design is fatal:
A complexity count of eight. (LoAR 6/00)
Lightning bolts. (LoAR 2/94 p.22) and (LoAR 4/99 p.16)
Pawprints. (LoAR 7/96 p.19)
Lips. (LoAR 3/93 p.1)
A cross estoile. (LoAR 6/96 p.10)
A "delf ploye", aka a "napkin" (LoAR 8/01)
Astrological symbols as charges. (LoAR 6/00)
New world flora and fauna. (LoAR 9/97 p.8)
Coastal sub-Saharan flora and fauna (LoAR 8/99)
[A three-eared coney rampant holding a stick palewise ensigned with a reremouse displayed] "The 'bat-kabob' is a serious 'weirdness', which the three-eared bunny almost pushes over the edge of acceptability." (LoAR 12/91 p.11).
A mullet of six points elongated to chief and to base. (LoAR 3/94 p.2)
Eclipsing a sun; on a sun a roundel. (LoAR 7/96 p.21)
Heads other than leopards being jessant-de-lys. (LoAR 1/94 p.13)
Critters other than dragons and leopards breathing fire. (LoAR 8/01)
Framing an object with a serpent involved. (LoAR 2/97 p.21)
Framing one charge with another. (LoAR 6/00)
"Phases of the moon"- a roundel between a decrescent and an increscent. (LoAR 5/94 p.12)
Using what are normally central ordinaries as peripheral charges. (LoAR 9/91 p.16)
A wolf ululant (LoAR 10/00)
A critter statant affronty (LoAR 11/91 p.21)
A critter standing on a bar (LoAR 4/92 p.16)
A clenched hand, glove, or gauntlet. (LoAR 7/92 p.1)
Knots throughout (LoAR 6/92 p.5)
Double tressure dancetty braced (LoAR 7/86)
A chevron "debased". (LoAR 11/92 p.15)
Per chevron enhanced (LoAR 7/96 p.19)
Using a chevron as a secondary charge. (LoAR 7/96 p.21)
A chevron couched with secondary or tertiary charges. (LoAR 2/94 p.14)
Charging critters with chevronels. (LoAR 1/00)
Using two distinct charge groups as tertiaries on a single underlying primary charge; on a fess a dolphin naiant between two barrulets wavy vert. (LoAR 12/97 p. 9)
Conjoining two critters. (LoAR 1/00)
Three (charges) one and two. (LoAR 3/93 p.4)
Three (charges) in chevron. (LoAR 8/01)
Three piles inverted in point. (LoAR 5/94 p.6)
A bevilled field with charges. (LoAR 9/92 p.47)
Using a complex line of division other than embattled on just the upper edge. (LoAR 7/96 p.21)
A skull and a skull inverted on the same field. (LoAR 9/92 p.45)
Identical charges on the same field in two different tinctures. (LoAR 3/94 p.6)
The use of two colors of scarpes. (LoAR 7/00)
The use of the same charge in three different tinctures. (LoAR 2/ 98 p. 12)
Having fimbriating and cotising in the same tinctures. (LoAR 10/97 p.6)
Bordures per saltire of low contrast. (LoAR 7/99)
An ordinary surmounted by another counterchanged. (LoAR 8/96 p.5)
Counterchanging a bordure over a pile. (LoAR 7/01) It was previously cause for return.
Counterchanging a field treatment over a charge; Sable masoned, a pile argent masoned sable. (4/94 p.17)
Counterchanging a semy over an ordinary. (LoAR 2/92 p.23).
The combination of two different complex fields; lozengy and checky, bendy and paly, etc. (LoAR 10/97 p.10)
Gyronny of sixteen with a central charge. (LoAR 6/00)
An "x" and to dexter a "y". (LoAR 12b/93 p.11)
Unbalanced designs; usually 1 object on one end of the field and 3 or more on the other end. There are many precedents, most recent is Talore MacConlae on the LoAR 7/00.