Heraldry

Heraldry is the art of creating symbolic devices - coats of arms - to represent the citizens of Plort. Everyone, Baron, Knight, or Civilian, is entitled to a pair of heraldic devices.

Heraldry is also practiced in the lands of Weab, though not always according to the same rules as in Plort.

The college of arms of the Union of Plort is sited in Castle Maklaur, and is supervised by Baron Huinesoron.

The Two Styles
Heraldry in Plort uses two systems side by side, known as the Inglish and Alvish styles. Though not required, many people - barons, knights, and civilians alike - have a device in each system.

Armies, such as Cam’s Ofum Too, are granted Inglish shields. Ships, like the Aberration, are granted Alvish ones. Baronies use the emblems of their barons, while nations usually lack a coat of arms, instead using a flag.

Inglish Style
An Inglish-style coat of arms consists of a shield, in one or more colours, with bands of colour and/or images overlaid on it.

Shape
Traditionally, the shield shape is reserved for men, while women use an oval or lozenge (diamond)-shaped shield. However, in Plort, these rules are abandoned. Use whichever design you prefer.

Colours
In heraldry, ‘tinctures’ (the shades which a coat of arms can use’ are broken up into three categories: metals (gold and silver, or yellow and white), colours (blue, red, purple, black, and green), and furs (note that the colours of the furs are fixed). There is also one final tincture, ‘proper’, which indicates that an image should be drawn in its natural colours - so a mountain, for instance, could be grey and white.

Any portion of the shield can be in any tincture; however, there is a rule of tincture which states that ‘metal can never be placed on metal, nor colour on colour’. Thus, a band or image on the background must not be of the same kind as it (no gold crowns on silver), and any images overlaid on other images or bands must follow the same rule. Divisions of the background or images, however, don’t follow this rule, since they are side-by-side, not stacked. Furs may be placed on or under anything, as may ‘proper’-coloured images.

The 'Field'
The field is the background of your shield. It can be in any of the colours listed above. It can also be divided, or coloured in two or more colours. Divisions of the field can be in any colours.

Note that there is no black line between the colours on the shield - the two colours come into direct contact. An actual dividing line would be an ordinary.

It is possible to have a non-straight-line division of the field. See here for lines.

It is also possible to vary the field - that is, to fill it with a repeating pattern, such as an array of diamonds. However, in accordance with the rule of tincture, this makes it very hard to place a charge. See here for variation of the field.

Ordinaries & Subordinaries
Once you have a field (divided or otherwise), you may wish to add ordinaries. These are simple geometric shapes which are placed on the field. They have to follow the rule of tincture. In the image, the ordinaries are depicted in red (cross, pale, fess) or yellow (bend, chevron, saltire, chief). Note that there is also a ‘bend sinister’, which is the mirror image of the bend.

It is not required for an ordinary to have straight edges. For other forms which can be used for the lines, see here.

Subordinaries are smaller geometric forms, ones which do not cross the entire field. For more detail on these, see here. They also follow the rule of tincture.

Charges
Now the fun part! It is possible to place any image - living thing, technological item, whatever - on your shield, in pretty much any position. These images are called charges. If you have two charges, you may want them on either side of a division, or of an ordinary. You may even place a charge on an ordinary.

Charges follow the rule of tincture; however, if they cross a division or overlay an ordinary, they are allowed to be of the same kind as one of the sections they rest on. As noted, charges may also be coloured ‘proper’, though this is sometimes discouraged.

Some more discussion of charges, with some common examples, is found here.

Blazon
The blazon is the full description of your coat of arms. To see how it is formed, we will use an example.
 * 1) The colour of the field. In this case, it is simply black, or sable. A divided field would be listed from the top, then the left - so a shield divided horizontally in black and red would be Per fess, sable and gules.
 * 2) For each charge, an adequate description of its shape. An ordinary is simply listed by name: a bend. A charge may require a similar one-word description (a goblet), or may need to be qualified by attitude (see here) - thus, a lion rampant.
 * 3) For each charge, a description of its position or angle. In many cases this will not need mentioning - a single charge is assumed to be in the centre, while two charges either side of a division can also have their positions assumed, see step 4. However, in cases where the assumed order is not followed, description may be needed. ‘Above’ and ‘below’ are acceptable, as are things like 'in bend' or 'in chief'. In terms of angles, one may wish a charge to be tilted, top left to bottom right - in which case it would be described as bendwise. (The opposite is bendwise sinister).
 * 4) For each charge, a description of its colour. This may simply be a single colour - azure, say - or a combination, with parts specified. Note that the colour is listed after the charge description: so a quill Or with shaft argent (a gold feather pen with silver shaft).
 * 5) Finally, the pieces need to be put together in order. As with divisions, the order should be top > bottom, then left > right. It is also acceptable to use some prepositions - 'on' (on a fess sable, a duck Or - a gold duck on a black band) and 'between' (between an office chair sable and a cactus vert, a chevron gules - a red chevron between an office chair and a cactus - note the implied order, with the chair above, the cactus below).

Thus, the full blazon of our example would be:

Sable, between a Mallorn tree argent with leaves Or and a retort argent with contents gules, a quill bendwise Or with shaft argent.

'On black, between a silver Mallorn tree with gold leaves and a silver/white retort with red contents, a slanted gold quill with silver shaft.'

''A note on simplicity: There are several things - notably lines, variation, and subordinaries - which I have linked rather than discussed directly. I consider these aspects to be overly-complicated. You can use them, but I would recommend avoiding them. It’s up to you.''

Special Note: Marizu Heraldry
The denizens of the Marizu League also make use of Inglish-style heraldry, and the fundamental rules for putting it together are the same. However, some of the specifics are slightly... different.

Shape
Marizu heraldry uses every shape you can imagine. Particularly popular are the heart and the five-pointed star.

Colours
The Marizu use a different set of metals and tinctures to everyone else. The most common colour is urpure. Out of a desire not to damage scholars who are studying the Marizu, these colours are represented in documentation by patterns on the normal tinctures and metals. Be aware that genuine Marizu devices are not so considerate.

The Field and Ordinaries
It is very rare for a Marizu device to use a simple straight line; virtually all divisions of the field and ordinaries use alternate lines.

Charges
The charges on Marizu devices tend towards the fantastic: unicorns, angels, pegagrypilisks and the like. The more bizarrely chimerical a beast is, the more likely it is to appear on a Marizu shield.

Alvish Heraldry
The Union of Plort has a second mode of heraldry, which is modelled on that used in Medellurth.

Shape
The Alvish rules of heraldry are simple: men’s devices are placed in a lozenge (diamond), women’s in a circle. As with the shape-rules in Inglish heraldry, Plort does not follow this - use either shape.

Rank
One of the core features of Alvish heraldic devices is that they encode your rank. The basic design of a device is a star - and the number of points that reach the edge designate your rank. Sixteen points mark the High King, eight significant lesser kings and queens, and four mark princes and princesses. In the Plort variation, eight points are used for barons, and four for everyone else. Sixteen points are reserved for the Protectors and Triumvirs of old.

Design
Although the ‘star’ design is a constant, it can be interpreted in many different ways. The House of Finwe tends to use images reminiscent of the sun, while Elu Thingol used the ‘winged moon’. Some designs show a flower, while others are simply abstract. They don’t even have to be a single unit - the ‘points’ in Gil-Galad’s design are independent stars.

The design is how you personalise your device: it is linked to you personally. Feanor’s and Beren’s devices both show Silmarils, for obvious reasons; Feanor’s also evokes the fire that appears in his name.

Colour
There are no limitations on the range of colours used.

Symmetry
Alven devices are symmetrical. Specifically, they usually have four-fold rotational symmetry.

Description
The descriptive language of Alvish heraldry is less restrictive than that of Inglish, but still has its own rules.

The first thing to describe in Alvish heraldry is the shape: lozenge, or circle. Since these are originally distinctions between men and women, the words are Ner (lozenge) and Nis (circle). In the event that the field has a distinct background colour, this will be appended to the shape, in English: Nis blue means a blue circle. A distinct border is a common feature on many shields, and is described similarly, using the word rena - Ner black, rena gold. The field shape is separated from the rest of the description by a colon.

The design of Alvish heraldry centres on the number of points, or nastar. Since these are often of different sizes, they are separated into major and minor points - or, to use the formal terms, alta and nica. Since each point design is repeated, evenly spaced, around the design, all iterations can be described simply by number: atta (two), canta (four), enque (six) or tolto (eight). In certain archaic contexts enenque, sixteen, may also be used. The first set of points should be defined as either tera (straight, indicating one is pointing straight up) or cuna (bent, indicating there is no vertical point; with canta points, this indicates an X shape). After this, point layouts are assumed: the second set sits in the spaces between the first, a third set would sit counterclockwise to the second, between it and the first, and a fourth would sit clockwise after the second, but before the first.

Note that the numbered points are assumed to be different; if 1 and 2 are identical, the counting would be different.

Since each set of points is separated by a semicolon, the left-hand design above would be described as: Nis white: canta nastar alta tera; canta nastar alta; canta nastar nica; canta nastar nica.

It is possible to have designs which are not counted as points, but take up positions as if they were. The word for these is miri ('jewels'), and replaces nastar in the description. Miri are neither alta nor nica, but require only a number.

Each set of points should be described in plain English, and as much detail as necessary. The point is described in the singular. As an example:

Ner black, rena gold: canta nastar alta tera, white feather with red marks and gold stem; canta nastar nica, gold nib of the feather; canta miri, golden elanor flower; canta miri, mallorn leaf being drawn in silver ink by the pen nib.

'A black lozenge with a gold border: four major points angled vertically, a white feather with red marks and a gold stem; four minor points, the gold nib of the feather; four jewels, a golden elanor flower; four jewels, a mallorn leaf being drawn in silver ink by the pen nib.

In many cases, there are elements of the design which are neither nastar or miri. For the most part, these sit at the centre of the device. They are described with the word indil, 'flower', in the singular. Being central, they can either be placed 'in fore' (foreground), 'in back' (background), 'between' two specified sets of points, or 'woven with' one or more set of points. An example: Nis sky blue, rena white: canta nastar alta cuna, a five-line staff on white ribbon enclosing a design recalling firethorn berries; canta miri, lotus flower pointing inwards; indil in fore, the twelve-pointed sun in splendour.