The Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium (KWHSS) is an annual interkingdom SCA event held in a different location every year with the purpose of maintaining the heraldic and scribal community through education and research.
Events are held in person every summer, and recent years have also seen us holding a Virtual Known World symposium each winter.
What is a Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium?
A Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium (or KWHSS, for short) is the annual meeting of the College of Arms of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Held sporadically in the 1970s, they have been an annual event since 1987. They typically take place over a weekend sometime in June or early July, and attract heralds and scribes of all levels from all over the Society.
Because travel can be expensive, and to give as many people as possible the opportunity to attend one, KWHSS events are held in different cities each year. Locations include Tucson, Arizona; Rochester, New York; Birmingham, Alabama; Ontario, Canada; and Las Vegas, Nevada.
What happens at a KWHSS?
Though each one is unique, the “typical” KWHSS consists of: sightseeing for early arrivals on Friday during the day; a social-hour on Friday evening; a Saturday schedule of classes on all aspects of heraldry, onomastics, and the scribal arts; and a Laurel “roadshow” meeting Sunday morning where participants can see Society-level commentary and decisions in real time with the goal of promoting understanding of the final stages of the registration process.
Friday sightseeing usually includes visiting important local sights, and often includes side trips to new and used bookstores and/or fabric shops.
The Friday evening social-hour is an informal social get-together (usually garb is optional), sometimes with a cash bar depending on the facilities available.
Classes on Saturday cover a wide range of topics related to heraldry, armory, onomastics (names and naming practices), and calligraphy and illumination. Refer to past proceedings to get an idea of the kinds of classes offered in the past.
The Sunday morning Laurel roadshow is a meeting where participants can see the final registration process take place. Laurel reviews the commentary and registers or returns submissions from one or two kingdoms. This is not a “demo” meeting in the sense of being something created for the KWHSS; the submissions are real, the commentary is real, and the items registered during the roadshow go into the Armorial and Ordinary.
Each year, a Proceedings is published, containing articles on diverse subjects related to SCA Heraldic and Scribal Arts.
Why should I attend a KWHSS?
The College strives to maintain the community necessary to foster growth and collaboration among heralds and scribes at all levels of the Society. KWHSS is the best place to further your knowledge, teach what you know to others, and create your own personal network.
Attending either KWHSS or vKWHSS helps you create and maintain personal working relationships with some of the most knowledgeable people in our organization. No herald or scribe knows everything, and by supporting each other in our research and educational endeavors we stay connected to the people who may have information we need to help a submitter or create a memorable scroll in the future.
How can I find out when and where the next KWHSS will be?
The dates and locations are posted on the KWHSS page on this site, as well as in correspondence from Laurel Sovereign in the Cover Letters of the monthly Letter of Acceptance and Return (LoAR).