Star Of Confusion

Heralds of yore have tended to be a bit inconsistent in their terminology around some of the common charges - in particular there are various pointy things that are described as "stars", "mullets" and "estoilles", often in contradictory ways.

DrawShield, being a computer program, isn't happy with ambiguity so I've had to define these terms a bit more precisely, however I haven't explained these things very well, an ommission I hope to rectify now!

Mullets

In DrawShield, mullets are always straight sided, rotationally symmetrical pointed objects. There are quite a few variations but the important point is the straight edge and equal length pointed arms. Here are most of them:

Estoilles

Estoilles are heraldic stars, they are always shown with wavy, equal length pointed arms, DrawShield currently supports estoilles of 6 and 8 points. I can add others if required, especially if someone can show me a heraldic precedent.

Stars

DrawShield uses the term "star" to always mean a modern style of astronomical star with different length arms (a bit twinkly). It is actually part of the "Retro Sci-Fi" extension and doesn't have any heraldic precedent

Other Stars

Just for completeness, there are other types of "star" supported by DrawShield as well:

Compass Star - this is the pointed pattern from the inside of the compass rose

Comet Star - this just another name for the comet, which is star with a long wavy tail

Star of David - this is the 6 pointed symbol formed of triangles

Warhammer star symbols - there are various star-based symbols available in the Warhammer 40K extension, but these must always be given their full name, for example "chaos star symbol", "symbol of the star phantom" etc.

Conclusion

I hope that I have achieved a balance between heraldic authenticity and useful extensions to allow a broader range of charges to be drawn. Of course, you may disagree, or have your own ideas. Please let me know in the comments!