This is a conflict checking walk-through tutorial. Permission to use this tutorial, including adaptations of it, is granted provided you credit me as a source including my web site URL. Danr Bjornsson, http://www.willadsenfamily.org. ----------------------------------------------- The tutorial uses a proposed device of: Per pale Or and vert, a raven displayed contourny sable and a wolf courant argent. The reference for this part is the Rules for Submission, located here: http://sca.org/heraldry/laurel/rfs.html, specifically chapter X. Even if you think you know the answer, it's good to check the rules because you can avoid errors and surprises that way. The following is a procedural instruction, not a guarantee; I might miss something. The submissions process ensures it gets looked at by lots of people to help prevent such errors. Start with the master index here: http://www.wgz.org/heraldry/OandA/ordinary/ There are search forms but they are unreliable for conflict checking. The Master Index lets you find not only the exact thing you seek but also things similar to it. The Master Index is the way to go with conflict checking, if you have Internet access. It is the most updated listing possible, i.e. only recent and ongoing submissions are absent, whereas the printed listings used at most consult tables cannot be up-to-date, and a search-string search of an electron copy of the database has a higher chance of missing something than this method. When conflict checking, you do your checks against the primary charge. The primary charge is the thing that lies directly on the field and is in the center of the shield. In your case, there is no ONE primary charge, there is instead a primary charge GROUP (a raven and a wolf). So we have to check birds and dogs. Click the letter B for Bird, and you will see a long list of "B" things. If you went to R for Raven, it would refer you back to Bird. What this tells us is that ravens conflict with other birds. In fact, the listing for Bird shows a lot of different Birds - Displayed, never mind birds of other types: Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Argent Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Azure Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Fur Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Gules Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Multicolor Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Or Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Proper Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Purpure Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Sable Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Vert The reason the index breaks it out in such detail is to keep the pages at manageable size -- Birds Displayed are more popular than, say, Turtles. Your bird is black, so we start with black displayed birds, i.e. Bird - Whole - 1 - Displayed - Sable . Clicking that link shows us that there are 149 registered instances of black birds in the displayed posture. You scan through this list, looking for anything similar to yours. Different people do this differently -- you can look for similar postures, similar tinctures, or similar fields as you go, and when you find similarity you look at that item more closely for other similarities, to make sure there are 2 Clear Differences (CDs). For a review of differences, look here http://sca.org/heraldry/laurel/what.html or read the rules for submission, Section X. Scan through the list of 149, looking for canines of any color, similar fields, and/or instances where the black bird is paired with any white object to create a primary charge group. If none of those occurs in a given entry, you can be sure of sufficient difference. Where some or all of those occur, look more closely. There are a lot we could look at, but I will grab a few with these 3 characteristics to illustrate the process: Here is one with wolves: Alicia FitzHugh of Ravensworth The following device associated with this name was registered in January of 2001 (via An Tir): Or, a raven displayed sable and on a chief azure three wolves passant argent. Count the CDs: Gold field (1 CD), black raven, a chief (1 CD), three white wolves (1 CD), wolves are passant (1 CD). More than enough CDs. Here is one with a white object: Silesia The following device associated with this name was registered in May of 1999 (via Laurel): Or, on an eagle displayed sable a kleestengl, with a cross issuant to chief argent. Important non-SCA arms Counting CDs: Gold field (1 CD), a white cross (1 CD). The kleestengl on the eagle is a tertiary charge and doesn't count as a difference, but you still have the 2 CDs you need. I have no idea what a kleestengl is. Konrad von Krixen The following device associated with this name was registered in May of 1999 (via Artemisia): Paly bendy argent and vert, a double-headed eagle displayed and on a chief sable three chalices argent. Counting CDs: White and green field (1 CD), a chief (1 CD), three white chalices (1 CD). No CDs for the eagle having two heads. Kara Ljotsdottir The following device associated with this name was registered in September of 2000 (via Meridies): Per bend sinister azure and argent, a wolf statant ululant contourny argent and a bird displayed sable. 1 CD for a different field, 1 CD for the posture of the wolf. Ragnar the Wolf The following device associated with this name was registered in October of 1993 (via the East): Per chevron azure and argent, a chevron counterchanged between two wolves rampant contourny argent and a raven displayed contourny sable. 1 CD for the field, 1 for the # of wolves, 1 for the chevron. That's the end of the list for black displayed birds, per the criteria (same field, wolves, and white co-charges) we were using. Now, do the same for white wolves, by backing up to the master index. Wolf leads you to Beast-Dog. There are 4 listings for single white wolves: Beast - Dog - 1 - Argent - Couchant Beast - Dog - 1 - Argent - Passant Beast - Dog - 1 - Argent - Rampant Beast - Dog - 1 - Argent - Sejant None of these describe the posture of yours, so look at the two most similar (rampant and passant). I find a dog courant under the listing for Passant, so that means courant is similar to passant (no CD) and that is the list to use. The list contains 111 items. Scan through this list looking for displayed birds, black objects, and similar fields, in much the same way you did while looking through the black birds. I didn't find anything worth mentioning that wasn't already found in the search of black displayed birds. Since wolves and birds are popular charges, passant is a popular posture for dogs, displayed is a popular posture for birds, ravens are usually black, and white is a popular color for wolves, why was there no conflict? Were you lucky? Did we miss something? Logically, based on how CDs are defined, the two searches above should have caught any registered heraldry similar to your proposed device -- by looking for similarity to 2 data points and not finding it, we proved that all the registered stuff is at least 2 CDs off (unless we missed something scanning through the 2 lists). Just for fun, I also checked the listing for Field Division - Per Pale - Or and Vert. It is very unlikely this would find any conflict the other two searches would not have detected, but is a way to cross-check our work. Wow -- there are only 44 such field divisions. A quick CTRL-F search tells us there are on occurrences of the words displayed, passant, or courant in the list. Thus, we can be fairly confident that our search was accurate and that your device is (probably) clear of conflict. I hope this walkthrough helps you understand conflict checking. Draw your device, color it in, and stare at it for a day, week, or month to ensure you still like it. Danr