The following links are to pages that contain images that you can use to help design your armory -- this set of images are for insects as they are used in heraldry. Note that very few insects appear in heraldry ...

Instructions (please read):

• If you want to use this for your heraldic submission, or print it for any reason, click on the 'PDF File' link -- a new browser window will open, and you can print from there.
  • If you want to use the image for your own armory submission, these should be sized to be close to the submission forms, and you can trace over them. For straight lines you might want to use a ruler to help.

Note: These are not done yet -- the links are here to make it easier for Golem, rather than having to keep adding them ... this is a work in progress.

The descriptions of the charges below are all taken from The Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry ...¹, and rather than having a 'footnote' for each, we have one. Note that not all of the detail in the Pictorial Dictionary has been included in the text given ...

Annulet		An annulet is a plain ring; it is one of the more ancient charges, c. 1244, and was sometimes called a false (voided) roundel in the earliest blazons. In the English system of cadency, the annulet is the brisure of the fifth son.      Concentric annulets may also be termed vires: i.e., Three concentric annulets and Three vires are equivalent blazons.
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Billet		A billet is a brief letter or document. In period armory it is most often found strewn in a semy; this is its earliest usage, dating from c. 1255. However, billets are also found as single charges; such usage dates from c. 1295, in the arms of Gacelin      The billet is drawn as a rectangle, with no detail or shading, much like a polygon; it is upright by default. Period armory seems to have considered the billet equivalent to the delf and no difference is granted betwen them in Society heraldry.
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Cartouche		A cartouche is an oval or elliptical figure; its default posture is palewise. It is considered a shape upon which arms may be borne; thus, like the lozenge and escutcheon, its use as a charge must not have the appearance of arms of pretense.
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Delf		A delf is a shovelful of sod or dirt. It is found in the canting arms of Delves, c.1295; it was considered equivalent to a billet, in both blazon and emblazon.      The delf is always drawn in a highly stylized manner, as a square; and it's treated more as a polygon than as an actual object.
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Die		A die is a small cube used in games of chance, usually made of wood, bone, or ivory, with a different number of spots (1 through 6) on each side. Dice existed in period, both as artifacts and as heraldic charges; they were one of the few medieval charges that were always shown in trian aspect. When emblazoned, the numbers shown on the die are usually left to the artist -- though in one case, the arms of Ambesas (c.1275), for the sake of a cant, the dice are traditionally depicted showing a point of '1' (aces).
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Fret		A fret is an ancient heraldic charge, consisting of a bend and a bend sinister, interlaced with a mascle. It is sometimes blazoned a Harrington knot, in the mundane arms of that family. The fret evolved from the fretty field, when the edges of the field were misdrawn, around 1312; it was soon considered a charge in its own right, though still sometimes interchanged with fretty. For that reason, fretty and the fret are negligibly different in Society heraldry: Sable, a fret or and Sable fretty Or are treated as the same design.
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Fretty		Field treatment -- an interlaced field of bendlets and bendlets sinister. "'Fretty' is, by precedent dating from Bruce's tenure, an artistic variant of 'a fret', thus a single charge, and is typically the primary charge in a design where it appears on a field (rather than as a tertiary.)" -- Owen ap Morgan
		Argent fretty gules		PDF File
Gameboard		A gameboard is a square or rectangular piece of wood, with a regular pattern inscribed on its surface, used for playing certain board games. As shown in heraldry, they are equivalent to delfs or billets fesswise with detailing in a contrasting tincture.      The type of game must be specified with the blazon, since each game uses a different board. For instance, the backgammon board, with a pattern of triangles, is found in the arms of Pegrez, c.1584. (The game was played much as it is today, though it was called "tables" or "nardshir" in medieval times.) Any period gameboard may be used in the Society: e.g. the nine man morris board, with a pattern of squares.
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Grillage		Field treatment -- a set of pallets interlaced with a set of barrulets, basically a fretty field set crosswise. "I don't know for certain how 'grillage' is regarded, but I suspect it would be considered a single charge in parallel to 'fretty', even though there is no 'grill' to parallel the fret." -- Owen ap Morgan
		Argent grillage gules		PDF File
Gurges		A gurges is the heraldic representation of a whirlpool, by which name it is sometimes blazoned. It is found in the canting arms of Gorges, c.1255. The gurges is usually represented as a spiraling line from the center to the edge of the shield; it is occasionaly drawn as a series of concentric annulets, three or more in number, the outermost meeting the edge of the shield. The gurges was sometimes blazoned as a field division in early SCA blazons; current SCA practice makes it a charge.
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Lozenge		A lozenge is a rhombus shape. It is an early charge, dating from at least 1275. The lozenge is usually drawn with one axis longer than the other; that axis is palewise by default. It may also be found occasionally as a delf saltirewise. The exact proportions are determined by the composition of the device, and are left to the artist's license.      Variants of the lozenge include the mascle, a lozenge voided, dating to 1285; the rustre, a lozenge pierced with a circular hole; and the napkin, a charge from Saracenic heraldry, which could also be blazoned a lozenge ployé.      Some texts cite the fusil as a "skinnier" variant of the lozenge. This error was common until the last few decades, when thorough research proved otherwise. The medieval fusil was a segment of an indented ordinary: e.g. a bend indented and a bend of fusils conjoined were inerchangeable blazons. The fusil had no existence outside that usage, and its dimensions were not necessarily skinny. By contrast, the lozenge was an independant charge like any other.
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Polygon		A polygon is a closed gemoetric figure. Examples include the triangle, the pentagon, and the hexagon The are often drawn as regular polygons (equilateral, equiangular), though triangles are also found in isoceles forms. Polygons have a point to chief by SCA default; the exceptions are rectangular polygons, the billet and delf.
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Roundel		A roundel is an ancient heraldic charge, dating from the earliest records (1244); it is a simple circular shape. Roundels of different tinctures have special names: A roundel Or may be termed a bezant A roundel argent, a plate A roundel gules, a torteau A roundel vert, a pomme A roundel sable, a gunstone, pellet, or ogress A roundel azure, a hurt A roundel purpure, a golpe The use of these special names is discretionary; only bezant, plate, torteau and pellet were used in period blazons.      Also included in the roundel family is the fountain [this link is to the Architecture part of the template site], a roundel barry wavy azure and argent. Of SCA-specific variants, there are the t'ai-ch'i, a roundel per fess embowed-counterembowed argent and sable; and the roundel echancré, with three semi-circular notches.
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Valknut		A valknut is a Norse artistic motif, consisting of three triangles voided and interlaced. As an heraldic charge, it is unique to the SCA ...
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Footnotes:
¹ The Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry as Used in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., 2nd Edition, Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme and Akagawa Yoshio, 1992, self-published.

Disclaimer: All of these drawings are intended for use in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., specifically for heraldic purposes. However, these pages do not delineate SCA College of Arms or West Kingdom College of Heralds policy. All attempts are made when describing or portraying the elements of armory used in these pages to be as accurate to both medieval and SCA usage as possible, but if you are not sure, you should check with the College of Arms or the College of Heralds. You may use these drawings "as is" for the purpose of designing heraldry for use within the SCA with this understanding. All decisions by the West Kingdom College of Heraldry and/or the SCA's College of Arms regarding the depictions used on your submission forms supercedes anything found here.

Heraldic Templates