Let's get started with some heraldry!

I've never been as into the Middle Ages as some people are, but recently I've been super-fascinated with heraldry. If you're doing genealogy or something and come across a description of a coat of arms and don't at least know the basic rules and terms of heraldry, you'll be utterly clueless. (Like I was at first.) 


Now, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of rules and terms, but I'll boil it down to the absolute basics. Obviously, the main part of a coat of arms is the shield, so I'll focus on that for now.
First, the tinctures (colors)

• Or (gold)
• Argent (silver)
• Gules (red)
• Azure (blue)
• Sable (black)
• Vert (green)
• Purpure (purple)
• Tenne (orange)
• Sanguine (blood red)
• Gold and silver are also considered metals, and can never be be used on top of each other. The background is called the field, so you can't have a gold field with a silver charge (symbol). The same goes for furs.

Speaking of furs...

• Ermine- white w/ black spots
• Erminois- gold field w/ black spots
• Ermines- black w/ white spots
• Erminites- just like ermine(s) but w/ a little red beside each spot
• Potent- pattern of Ts alternating between being right side up and upside down
• Vair- pattern of shield shapes, always blue and silver unless otherwise specified

Ordinaries (sections or dividers of the shield, they aren't just lines, they're wide enough to put a charge in)

• Chief- top 1/3 of the shield
• Fess- midde 1/3
• Bar- skinny fess, only about 1/5 of the shield
• Bend- diagonal line (It's important to know here that sinister means left and dexter means right.) A bend sinister goes from the top left corner to the bottom right. A bend dexter is opposite.
• Pale- line straight up and down through the middle
• Chevron- exactly what you think it is, a point pointing up in the middle of the shield
• Cross- basically a big plus sign that divides the shield into fourths
• Saltire- a big X

That's it for now. I'll update again later tonight, most likely, but I better cut this one off before it gets TOO convoluted.