Heraldry

Heraldry is an important part of the Seven Kingdoms feudal structure. Heraldry are used by the Royalty and nobility as sign of status, Coat of arms are commonly used by Knights in Tourneys and on the battlefields as a way to identify allied from enemy soldiers.

Heraldry in Westeros and in the real world

Overall, the heraldry of the Seven kingdoms seems to be quite similar to that of medieval Europe, at least in purpose. Dorne however seems to favor circular Coats of Arms that aren't widely seen anywhere else. There is little or no mention of the heraldic vocabulary of Westeros, either; in the real world those terms are subject to strong variation according to language, but Westeros seems to have a far more restricted set of languages and might well have an unified heraldic vocabulary.

Also, it is worth noting that real world heraldic rules and terminology seem to have little formal use in Westeros and may in fact be non-existent, including the well-known [w:Rule of tincture] that dictates that metals (argent and or, usually meaning white and yellow) shouldn't be used over metals, nor should "colors" (the most traditional being vert (green), goules (red), azure (blue), sable (black) and purpure (purple)) be placed over other colors either. It is possible and perhaps likely that GRRM wanted to depict an earlier medieval society, before the rules of heraldry were well-developed and well-accepted. Many of the available descriptions of Westerian Coats-of-Arms are notable in their lack of detail; for instance, House Blanetree's fails to tell us how many maple leafs the shield should have, and gives only the vaguest indication of how they should be placed.

In some cases this manifests in quite poor designs rendering them of little use for recognition on the battlefield:

• where fields 'bleed' into each other (eg. House Hayford
• or are complex and low-contrast (House Lynderly),

For practical reasons, traditional heraldry uses a very limited set of tinctures; it wasn't always practical or possible to reproduce subtler color variations in the numbers and time constraints found. Besides, coats of arms are meant to be recognizable from far away and are often employed in shields and other pieces of equipment that are subject to abuse, neglect and disrepair. Even today, many pigments show some degree of color degradation, often severe, when consistently exposed to sun rays, rain and other influences.

This limited palette is not the case in The Seven Kingdoms, where heraldic descriptions include ambiguous colours such as

• 'sunset' (eg. Dunk),
• 'oak' (House Sparr),
• or even very variable ideas such as 'grey' (House Volmark)
• or 'blue-green' (House Sunderly).

The use of words like 'oak', 'masonry' or 'sand' in the heraldic descriptions also complicates matters because it is uncertain whether these refer to a plain block of colour or an attempt to actually represent these materials pictorially, such as be painting the grain of the oak or the bricks of the masonry. Such detail would seem difficult to render on fabric surfaces such as flags, surcoats or the livery of men-at-arms or servants.

Many of the devices and charges used in the heraldry of Westeros derive directly from traditional sources and includes creatures such as lions, stags and birds, and symbols such as stars, weapons and ships. There are some notable differences in Martin's designs though:

• The common use of seven-pointed stars to represent the Faith of the Seven. Seven-pointed stars are rare in traditional heraldry and vexillology, with a notable exception being the flag of Australia.
• The use of very detailed pictures, particularly humanoid figures, such as the flayed man of House Bolton, the drowned man of House Sunderly or the silk-swirled dancing maiden of House Piper. In reality, these figures would be difficult to render on shields and flags with any accuracy or consistency.
• The use of creatures and figures on the shield that would normally only appear as supporters in traditional coats of arms, such as the merman of House Manderly or the giant in chains of House Umber.
• The use of Westeros-specific fauna and flora, such as the lizard-lion of House Reed or the weirwood tree of House Balckwood.

See also

• Show case of Coat of arms in use on the wiki and Houses of Westeros
• The Citadel Heraldry page.

Software

• Coat of Arms Visual Designer - Java-based
• Karl Wilcox's Draw a Shield is a great resource that accepts traditional heraldic descriptions. It also recognizes a few additional color names. For instance, it draws a pretty good draft for House Spicer's Coat of Arms when instructed with "paly of 8 vert argent a bend orange, three covered cups sable bendwise in bend".
  • Parker's Heraldry, a dictionary of heraldic terms, hosted by the author of the resource above and fairly well implemented in same
• pyBlazon Blazonry Server - another fine, easy to use resource
• HeDGe - Heraldic Device Generator - a bit limited, but fairly easy to use
• Puncher Heraldry Program - unfortunately rather buggy and limited
• List of Heraldry software, most links unfortunately obsolete
• Wikipedia Heraldry Portal: Software
• The Arcana Wiki: Coat of Arms