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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!
You asked for our opinion of your idea for arms to match your 15th century German persona. Here is what we have found.
You describe your idea as "Per pale sable and gules two wolves addorsed argent a bordure Or in a canton sable a mullet of four points gules." This blazon isn't entirely clear; we're assuming that the wolves are rampant and that the canton overlaps the bordure. If we're right, the standard blazon would be "Per pale sable and gules, two wolves rampant addorsed argent within a bordure Or overall on a canton sable a mullet of four points gules." If we're wrong, please write us again to correct our misunderstanding.
There are several features of this design which are unusual for German armory and others which are not typical of period heraldic design at all. We'll discuss each of these problems in detail, and then suggest some designs that avoid them while using the elements you said were most important to you.
A properly-drawn canton covers a bit less than one-quarter of the area of the arms. If the canton in your design is drawn properly, then most of it lies on the black half of the field and is invisible. Drawing the canton so that it lies only on the gold bordure is incorrect, but drawing it so that it lies black-on-black is also incorrect. The canton must have good contrast with the background on which is lies.
In period armory, a canton with a charge on it was sometimes used as an "augmentation of arms", i.e. an addition to someone's arms which was added as a mark of special favor from a king. Placing the canton over a bordure strengthens the appearance that it is an augmentation, since it looks very much like an addition to an already-complete design. In the Society, the augmentation of arms is a form of award, and therefore any heraldic practice which appears to be an augmentation may only be used by people who have actually received an augmentation from one of the crowns of the Society. A charged canton may only be registered in the Society by the holder of an augmentation, and it should not be used otherwise.
We haven't found any examples of cantons in period German arms. We found several in Flemish arms [1], but these may be augmentations. In fact, we haven't found any examples of any kind of canton in period German arms. Because you wrote that it was one of the most important elements of your design, we'll include it in our suggestions below; but if you want your arms to match your German persona, you should re-consider using the canton.
The mullet of four points is very common in Society armory and in modern art, but it is almost unknown in period arms. We strongly recommend avoiding it. In addition, the red mullet lies on the black canton, which is a violation of the traditional "rules of tinctures" -- color on color. In most period arms, charges in one of the "colors" (red, blue, black, green, and purple) are placed on backgrounds in one of the "metals" (whitésilver, yellow/gold) for maximum contrast. Color-on-color or metal-on-metal are extremely rare and should generally be avoided.
Bordures are much less common in period armory than in Society armory. Since the bordure is not one of the design elements that interest you most, we recommend removing it. Doing so will allow the other elements to be larger and more clearly identifiable.
Taking all these ideas together, we suggest that you consider two simplified versions of your design:
Per pale argent and gules, two wolves rampant addorsed counterchanged
and a canton sable.
Per pale sable and gules, two wolves rampant addorsed and a canton
argent.
A plain canton is relatively common in period arms in much of Europe (though not Germany), but is almost unknown in Society armory. The first of these designs is somewhat preferable: The two-color divided field is not particularly common in period arms. But either design fits your period reasonably well. In case you are interested in registering your arms, we checked these designs for conflict with existing Society armory and found none.
We'd like to emphasize that the canton should cover part of the left-hand wolf. Here's a rough sketch of the first design we suggested:
black -->| | | WWWW |
canton | | | WWW | The W's are wolves
white | WW | WW | red
field -->| WWW | WWW |<-- field
with \ W W | W W / with
red wolf \ W | W / white wolf
The second design has the same outline, except the field is black on the left hand side, both wolves are white, and the canton is white.
I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Rouland Carre, Elsbeth Anne Roth, and Walraven van Nijmegen.
For the Academy,
Arval Benicoeur
References
[1] Walraven van Nijmegen, "Analysis, Armorial, and Ordinary of Armory
Recorded in Paul Bergman's Armorial De Flandre du XVIme Siecle" (WWW: Privately published, 1997).