Karl Wilcox
90 supporters
"That would be an ecumenical matter..."

"That would be an ecumenical matter..."

Oct 14, 2020

So I've been working on achievements...

Ecclesiastical Heraldry

Firstly, I'm starting to add ecclesiastical achievements (used by members of the church in their personal arms and also in the arms of their office). There are dozens of these, Wikimedia Commons is a good starting point but so far I have only implemented a few of the Roman Catholic achievements, described as follows:

  • achievement of a bishop

  • achievement of a priest

  • achievement of a canon

  • achievement of a vicar

  • achievment of a chaplain of his holiness

As I add more of these you may need to be more specific about so you can also say things like:

  • achievement of a Roman Catholic vicar

So that there is no confusion with other denominations. You can add a colour but you shouldn't really - these achievements already have correct default colours.

I'll keep adding more ranks and denomininations and post on twitter when they are done.

Helmet and Crest Positioning

Another long standing request is the ability to use the "Charge Adjustments" extension on some of the parts of the achievements. I'm pleased to say that you can now do this with the helmet and crest. Additionally, you can now also have a crest without a helmet. So for example, we can do things like:

  • Argent, mantling or and gules, helmet shown smaller and slightly raised

  • Argent crest a lion or shown larger

I'm also working on support for more than one helmet, these will be recognised but only the first one is drawn at present. Again, watch out on twitter for more announcements.

Adjusting the Shield

If you don't like the visual relationship between the achievement and the shield you can change it by using the same set of adjustments that you can apply to charges. So you make it smaller, or move it up or down, or even put it at a jaunty angle! For example, the following blazon:

azure a lion or

achievement with helmet

the shield shown smaller and turned to the dexter

Will produce the image here:

Thanks!

As always I am very grateful for all the suggestions and the contributions to the running costs, all proceeds go towards new features for DrawShield.

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