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Author Topic: Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms  (Read 705 times)

VABritto

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Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms
« on: January 26, 2020, 08:06:12 pm »

I think it would be interesting to actually see family symbols and heraldic devices that are actually personally owned. We already have family heirlooms. It could follow a similar principle and dwarves simply tending to have their own marks on their armours and clothing when you look at them.
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SixOfSpades

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Re: Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2020, 03:32:04 am »

Would tie in very nicely with dwarves changing (or adopting) their surnames, if that ever becomes a thing. If you go through a significant enough life event (essentially, your own fame eclipses that of your forebears), you start your own house complete with surname & symbol.
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voliol

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Re: Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2020, 03:54:17 am »

+1 As long as it doesn't pop out from nowhere. A dwarf could come up with its own of course, but some kind of creative process should be involved, as with any other picture (except those directly designed by the player).

Valuing family, power, eloquence, decorum, artwork could make a dwarf more likely to create/commission a symbol, so could personalities of high confidence, vanity, ambition, immodesty, pride or art inclination.

Nordlicht

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Re: Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2020, 06:31:26 am »

Would go well along with an overhaul of the symbol generation. It could be more detailed and maybe use heraldic descriptions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazon


It's basically made to create a proper image form a text description, so it would be a perfect fit.

Late Edit:

Found a generator where you can enter Blazon descriptions to generate a shield.  Just add it for your entertainment:

https://drawshield.net/create/index.html?blazon=Counter-vair.%0A%0A//%20created%20by%20Drawshield.net/random


« Last Edit: January 27, 2020, 06:37:23 pm by Nordlicht »
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voliol

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Re: Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2020, 07:52:02 am »

Blazonry is nice, but in its pure form requires experience to read, it and is also oddly culturally restrictive. A reworked symbol generator should support other types of (semi-)heraldic symbols.

VABritto

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Re: Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2020, 11:15:20 am »

+1 As long as it doesn't pop out from nowhere. A dwarf could come up with its own of course, but some kind of creative process should be involved, as with any other picture (except those directly designed by the player).

Valuing family, power, eloquence, decorum, artwork could make a dwarf more likely to create/commission a symbol, so could personalities of high confidence, vanity, ambition, immodesty, pride or art inclination.

One thing that would probably be common is a craft's mark of sort. If a Dwarf becomes a legendary craftsdwarf/woodworker/mason/blacksmith etc he could develope a personal mark that he puts on his works.

So you'd have something like:

"This is a steel greatsword crafted by Urist McUrist. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. [Description of the sword here...] ... Etched on it is a lion. The lion is crying. The lion is holding cheese. This is the personal mark of Urist McUrist, called The Seed of Memories. " Or something like that.
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Azerty

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Re: Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms
« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2020, 02:45:05 pm »

It would depend of the civilization.

In some, such emblems would be clan-level; in others only nobles could have them. There's plenty of variation for this.
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VABritto

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Re: Personal and Inheritable Coats of Arms
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2020, 03:49:47 pm »

It would depend of the civilization.

In some, such emblems would be clan-level; in others only nobles could have them. There's plenty of variation for this.

Definitely. It can give a lot more color to the world and personality to certain groups and people
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