Heraldry - Explanations of Violations

[Pryme8]

Ive noticed more often then naught, people have gross violations in the rules of heraldry when they make coat of arms and Fields of Heraldry. I mean there is master of arms for a reason... and even I have had lots of trouble with it... so here the first step to my Heraldry Cheat sheet... its not close to being done yet but I started taking some good chunks out of the pie.


Hope this help...

coatofarmscheatsheet.jpg

[- Max -]

If it's not for an historic map I don't really see the problem with some kind of eccentric coats of arms and heraldry, especially in fantasy maps. Btw thanks for sharing your work

[Pryme8]

your always always aloud to do what you want, as long as there is a reason for it... like lets say putting a metal on metal, would dignify a alignment to something more then wealth and would command extreme presence on the battle field. I mean the whole point of them in the first place is to identify your allies from the enemy, so even in fantasy they should follow a least a loose set of conventions in order to make your fantasy world more "believable".

And knowing the original rules may inspire some awesome things!

[Fub]

Thanks for this! The King Arthur Pendragon RPG has a good section on designing heraldry too.

One minor nitpick: Dexter is right, and sinister is left -- you have it reversed in your chart. But the latin names reason from the viewpoint of the person carrying this on his shield, whereas the english terms reason from the viewpoint of the person looking at the shield.

[Pryme8]

no dexter is the bearers right sinister is the bearers left.

[rdanhenry]

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, you can easily reference existing summaries (e.g., Heraldry). You might find that easier than recreating the work, unless creating a fictional alternative heraldry.

[vorropohaiah]

I'm actually in the process of researching colours/metals/furs, fields, ordinaries, sub-ordinaries, partitions, blazons, heraldic beasts etc. for a map I'm working on at the moment and want them to be historically accurate, in a manner of speaking.

always good to see something like this collected in one place

[Blaidd Drwg]

Very useful, thanks for sharing!

[Pryme8]

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, you can easily reference existing summaries (e.g., Heraldry). You might find that easier than recreating the work, unless creating a fictional alternative heraldry.

thank you Im gonna use this new information to work on my cheat sheet some more!

[Vellum]

Nice work on the quick tut Pryme8