Aistorian Heraldry
Disclaimer: Karami is the Heraldry nerd, not me. All blazons are written by her and my writing is just from what I absorbed from her. Some of my understanding might be off!
Across the Erraldoi River from each other are two Cities. On the east side, Vannaleona, capital of Leone, seat of the Cruz family. On the West, Stenin, a major city in Steier, ruled by the Stein family.
The two coat of arms of these families face off, giving name to what was the Lion Wars, reflecting their opposed Heraldry. But times change, and neither of these regions are countries anymore. The Lion Wars ended with Leone being consumed by Esperada, and Steier eventually joined together with many other micro nations to from the kingdom of Bherigan. But the Coat of Arms remained. The Or Rampant Lion of Cruz, once the Coat of the Great Lion King Riyan vos Cruz, now held by Duke Edwin vos Cruz.
It is... a fun way to reflect the history of the world of the setting. So me and Karami sat down and helped me work out things. The rules of Heraldry generally exist for a reason. They must be clear, and describable. In periods without easy access to printing and copying, being able to verbally describe a Coa is important. This is a Blazon. So the rules in Aistoria are similar. There might be more colors (because colors were most limited by access to pigment), more patterns, but that mostly doesn't matter because the base is the same.
Some of the rule breaking is historic too. Bherigan as a region has lots of eastern european influences and one things the eastern europeans did was put black on red. This violates what's called the Rule of Tincture that says that a Metal (In this case, Gold and Silver... or, as they're called, Or and Argent can't be put on a Colour (in this case, Red or Gules). But the rule is broken a lot and this is a great example.
Anyways though, the Blazons for the Cruz and Stein Coat of Arms
Cruz: Argent, a cross cotised Azure, and overall a lion contourny Or
Stein: Gules, a lion passant and on a chief potenty Sable three hands of the first
To explain the elements, using the Cruz coat.
Argent or silver is... actually white. So a white field, and on it, a cross cotised azure. A cross is just what you think, and cotised means the little border outline thing. Azure means blue. This cross is referred to as an Ordinary which is one of the many kinds of shapes that can be put on a shield, along with Divisions and Charges. Speaking of Charges.
Overall a lion contourny or... Overall means just... big on the shield. Covering everything. Not stuck to a division or orindary. Contourney refers to the facing. "Facing to sinister" or Contourney. Sinister being "left" (from the perspective of the holder) because of course. OR being gold and so... a big gold lion facing left. It's technically rampant but a lion is assumed such unless said otherwise. This is a charge's "Attitude".
So... in modern plain english. On a white shield, a fancy blue cross with a gold pissed off lion over the whole thing... facing right*.
Or, to go with the idea Canting Arms or... kinda literal/visual pun names... Cruz is cross and Leone is Lion so... The Cruz's of Leone. Right there in the Coat.
Stein has a few other little elements. The lion is stated as "passant" or laying.. A chief is another type of ordinary -- a band on top -- and potenty refers to how the border is all fancy. "Three hands of the first" Refers to the first color, gules. The goal in a lot of heraldry was to not be too repetitive.
This is the Belarose Coat of Arms, the royal family of Esperada. It's on their flag, if you go back and check! Karami likes this one so much she might end up using it as her SCA heraldry but we'll see.
Per saltire Gules and Pean, on a saltire nowy or a rose of the first
So what's Per Saltire? Okay Gules is read, but what's Pean? Per Saltire is a type of division -- basically 4 diagonal quarters. And two of them are Gules and the other two are pean, a type of fur or pattern. Pean refers to or spots on a field sable. So those ermine shapes or spots in black and gold. Cool.
So further dividing this is an ordinary called a saltire or... diagonal cross, just like in the beginning. Only it is nowy or round in the middle, allowing for the rose to sit in nicely.
Here is House Brandt (A Brandt, Victoria, is Naomi's mom, for context). This is the first ahistoric one, but I'll give the historic version.
per pale argent fretty sable and purpure, an oak tree eradicated per pale purpure and argent
Eradicated here is an attitude for trees for uprooted. The two colors indicate that the charge is "counterchanged" or... well, side inverted. As for the ahistoric part? Fretty doesn't describe that boxy chainmail, but instead more of a garden lattice structure. One source called this "Chainy" instead but that has no historic context. It probably has some different type of name like... Linky ot something, idk.
A point Karami would make is arms don't change a whole much with time. Sometimes you have a tree cause someone 200 years ago liked a tree. Brandt purple hair is old so the purple is in there, but what was the tree about? Whatever. Also the Brandts own a little baronet in the mountains so their coat is a bit noiser than most. They didn't get first pick.
The royal family of Ramos has a lot of stuff. They absorbed many coats through marriage that have been marshaled together. They're a big rich royal family though so I wanted some big annoying coat and well....
quarterly, first gules, a wheel or, second argent, an imperial crown azure gilded or pearled argent, third paly bendy argent and sable, fourth per fess wavy vert and azure, a dolphin contourney or, overall an inescutcheon azure, a cross of four ermine spots argent within a bordure or
I will not try and walk through this cause yeah. But the visual story telling of this family that conquered through marriage is right their on the Connatian flag itself.
Finally we have the coat for the head of the Ivrea family in Galera (I've been loose with it but it's important to remember that ONE person has a coat that passes down. The family doesn't have the coat, only the HEAD blahblah marks of candidacy blahblahblah).
per bend sable and azure papellony argent, on a bendlet or three lozenges gules, in sinister chief a harp or
An important thing here is that the shield (or escutcheon) shape is not part of the blazeon. It is something you can change. The softer, femmey Ivrea family leads into a shield shape that is less aggressively militant because that's their vibe. But if a Ivrean male heir happened, he might want a more masculine feeling shield. Or not! Maybe in BE there is the gay shield shape that all the gay nobles know.
Relatedly, I think Vaniway has all circular heraldry, similar to the Japanese "Mon" marks, but assembled with traditional european heraldic words.
Anyways I don't strictly need these but wanted them for some of the flags and well... it's one of Karami's special interests and we had a lot of fun cranking out a bunch of them.
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Categories: Lore Journal : History