Two bars gemel (Period)

The term “gemel” means “twin”, and was the medieval term for what is today blazoned a “bar gemelle” or “bar gemel”:  a twinned bar, i.e., two bars adjacent.  The illustration shows two bars gemel (four bars total).

In Society armory, other ordinaries may likewise be gemelled.  An ordinary gemel looks no different from that ordinary voided, but the usage is not the same:  an ordinary gemel has no charges in its interior.  It is considered a single, self-contained unit.  See also fess, ordinary.

Brunissende Dragonette bears:  Per fess sable and gules, a bar gemel argent.

Willmar Grimsdyke bears:  Azure, two bars gemel Or.

Fess of five fusils (Period)

A fusil, in its correct medieval sense, is a single segment of an indented ordinary:  i.e., a “fess indented”, a “fess fusilly”, and a “fess of five fusils (conjoined)” were equivalent blazons and yielded the same emblazon (as illustrated).  The fusil can thus have no independent existence outside an indented ordinary.  Medieval blazons called a single geometric rhombus shape a “lozenge”, and never a “fusil”, no matter what its proportions; current Society blazons follow this precedent.  (Nonetheless, some early Society blazons followed the Victorian assumption that a fusil was a “skinny lozenge”:  an independent charge, somewhat narrower than a lozenge.)  For related charges, see lozenge.

Flaunches (Period)

Flaunches (singular “flank”) are heraldic ordinaries, issuing from the corners of the chief, and proceeding in circular arcs to base.  Their origin is obscure:  they’re said to represent the gaps in a lady’s sideless surcoat.

Flaunches always occur in pairs; there are no single flaunches.  They were sometimes charged in period, the earliest instances dating to c.1460, with the arms of Greyby [Hope 62].  Flaunches may therefore be charged in Society heraldry.

Some texts consider flaunches to be sub-ordinaries, but Society heraldry doesn’t recognize that distinction.  Flaunches do share the restrictions on other single-sided ordinaries, however:  they may not be voided, cotised, or fimbriated.  There are no diminutives of flaunches in Society heraldry, nor may they be borne enhanced.

Karen de Wyvern bears:  Erminois, a pair of flaunches purpure.

Chad MacBean bears:  Sable, flaunches argent.

Kat’ryna Neblaga Volchkova bears:  Vair, flaunches gules.

Fess (Period)

Dance (Period)

The fess is an heraldic ordinary, a horizontal stripe across the center of the shield.  Its diminutive is the “bar”, or in extreme cases the “barrulet”; Society blazonry does not recognize any other terms for the fess’s diminutives.

The “dance” is another name for the fess dancetty; some texts hold that it was an independent charge in medieval times.  The term is authorized for use in Society blazonry, in the hope it will reinforce the medieval definition of “dancetty”.

Bar gemel (Period)

Humet (Period)

The “bar gemel” (literally “twinned bar”) is visually equivalent to a fess voided; medieval heralds also blazoned it simply a “gemel” or “gemelle”.  Unlike the fess voided, it is considered an independent charge, and no other charges come between its two halves.  (The spacing for “two bars gemel” will be uneven, unlike the spacing for “four bars”.)

In like manner, the “humet” is a medieval name for a fess humetty; the term is not much used today, since other ordinaries may also be humetty.

Fess nowy (Period)

Fess enarched (Accepted)

The “fess nowy” (literally “knotted”) doesn’t refer to a peculiar knotting or fretting, but is used in the sense of a knot of wood:  a circular node or lump at the fess’s center.  Examples have been found in 15^th C. heraldic texts; the treatment is permitted for Society use.

The “fess embattled” is embattled only on its upper edge, unless specifically blazoned “(embattled) counter-embattled” or “bretessed”.  The “fess enarched” curves to chief unless otherwise specified; it was originally meant to depict the convexity of the shield, and consequently carries no heraldic difference from the plain fess.  The “fess doubly-arched” is not permitted.  See also wall.

The King of Atlantia bears:  Per pale argent and azure, on a fess wavy cotised counterchanged a crown vallary Or, overall a laurel wreath vert.

Brunechilde de Ravenel bears:  Azure, a fess Or cotised argent.

Robert Conyers bears:  Per pale argent and azure, a fess counterchanged.

Gwen Hir bears:  Azure, a fess fusilly argent.

Marcus Tullius Calvus Cambrensis bears:  Or, a dance sable.

Cadan Sacart bears:  Vert, two bars engrailed Or.

Duban O’Guinn Silverwolf bears:  Vert, three bars gemelles argent within a bordure ermine.

Ruaidhrí Mac Diarmada bears:  Argent, a fess nowy azure charged with a plate.