Would any of you heraldry buffs care to hazard a theory about what the arms of the Great Families of Furyondy might be? I humbly confess to knowing next to nothing about heraldry but a description of them would be a tremendous visual aid to my current campaign.
They are mine, and not canonical by any means. Heraldry for provinces and cities is something that too many products, Greyhawk and otherwise, have left out unfortunately.
Heraldry doesn't just give us cool pictures to look at, but also tells us what color the uniforms are for provincial and national armies, and city guardsmen/troops, what pennants/flags look like, and possible symbols to be found on medals, awards, official seals, and other things. All of that is the reason why I like to include heraldry wherever I can. Heraldry is a very simple thing, but you get a lot of information from it. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Correct if I am wrong Ceb; even if they didn't wear the design per say. The provincial troops would wear the colour scheme another reason why the various coulors would have to be vibrant and hopefully distinctive.
I know in medieval britain - if the feudal militia under royal standard, they wore a surcoat (dont know the name) over the colours to donote royal command.
Of course many ways to show loyalty - Scots used bonnet badges; even certain vegation tucked in the bonnet band.
Provincial heraldry looks fine to me - distinctive and hopefully some meaning.
You are exactly correct. Colors will be vibrant and distinct so as to be easily identifiable on the field of battle, which is one of the main points about the rules of heraldry with regards to putting certain colors next to each other. Here is a nice excerpt from "Heraldry of the World"(Carl Alexander von Volbroth, 1979) which explains these rules:
"Gold and Silver are called metals and blue, red, green, purple, and black are called colours. Ermine and vair are called furs. In good heraldry colour must not be superimposed on colour nor metal on metal, but metal and colour should alternate."
If you follow these simple rules then any heraldry you create will be much more striking and distinctive, which is why the rules were written in the way that they were to begin with. The rules can of course be purposely broken(and they often are), as some combinations of colors do look good next to each other.
You are correct in that basic uniforms(simple tunics/surcoats are the norm) would just make use of the background colors of the heraldry. See this link:
You’ll note that I have named these archers “Crystalreach Regulars”. They are “regular army” and so they wear actual uniforms in the province colors, but they are a main line unit so their uniforms do not display the armored gauntlet clutching the crystal. The flag however should bear the armored gauntlet clutching the crystal, as flags are of course very important and should carry a literal representation of the heraldry. I just haven’t gotten around to painting it on there yet. But, a unit such as this shouldn't really have a flag bearer(or a musician) anyways. In most cases, it will only be the hand-to-hand anchor units and not missile troops that contain a flag/banner bearer and/or musician. Those things just go along with the Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules and so they are included for completeness. And yes, my other Bretonnians will be painted up as troops from Crystalreach and some other provinces too. Gotta have a few royal troops too of course.
Not all troops would even wear colors, just the regular army. The fodder units would wear "whatever", and just be led by an officer/command in colors. The fodder might tie cloth strips in their province colors to their arms or around their heads/helmets, paint their shields(if they even have paint), or wear clothing in the colors of their province if they even own any. That is about the extent of their effort. Basically, they would do whatever they could so that friendlies could pick them out as *NOT* being the enemy. More elite troops and officers would wear colors sporting the actual heraldic design upon the breast.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises
but a description of them would be a tremendous visual aid to my current campaign.
