Commentary and the Decisions

Your submission will go through two levels of processing: Kingdom and Laurel. In the normal case where a submission works its way through without issues, a submission received by Lions Blood in January will eventually appear on a Letter of Acceptances and Returns around September. Most of the time is set aside to provide commenters sufficient time to discuss the submission, root out problems, and research options. The last couple months are spent proofreading the decision of Laurel, to ensure the decision is correct and well-reasoned, and that typos (in particular, in names and blazon) are corrected before publication.

Example:

Month  
Jan Paperwork received by Kingdom
Feb Submissions published for Kingdom commentary
Mar Commentary
Apr Kingdom decision made. Submissions published for Laurel commentary.
May Commentary
Jun ...
Jul Laurel decision
Aug Proofreading
Sep Decision published in a LOAR.

Any comments people make cannot be construed as decisions. Decisions about submissions are published by the Laurel office and the kingdom submissions herald, and based on discussion with a number of members of the College of Arms across the Society. Experienced heralds know to couch their discussions carefully. Those who are in a decision-making capacity will try very hard to avoid answering the question at all. Questions of offense, obtrusive modernity, or whether a submission presumes on names or arms we should protect, are answerable only by the Laurel office. These are not in themselves reasons for return by the kingdom submissions herald, though they may provide the opinion of commenters at kingdom.