Choose up to two colors:Eventually some people begin to talk about your lack of a coat of arms. Others see heraldic coats of arms as an irritating fad that nobility from various regions impose on one another. However, there is information that can be communicated through a crest if you know how to use the symbols properly. A good crest can tell someone who has never met you the most essential parts of your life story.
Heraldic symbolism is a field of near infinite complexity. This will give you a basic understanding of the most common symbols.
Choose up to two colors:
Red: courage, military prowess, strength
Maroon: endurance, triumph over adversity, patience
Orange: ambition, creativity, intellect
Yellow: hope, joy, peace
Green: prosperity, luck, reverence for nature
Blue: loyalty, honor, piety
Purple: magic, wisdom, curiosity, scholarship
Silver: wealth, mercantile achievement, pride in craftsmanship
Gold: royalty, divine power, righteousness
Black: prudence, diplomacy, political power
Choose up to three symbols from either category:
ANIMALS
Apex Predator: This is used to convey strength, nobility, and courage. It is common for many noble houses to feature one excessively. Classically trained heraldic scholars take care to investigate a house displaying a predator, as the wheat must be separated from the chaff.
Examples: lion, bear, tiger, owlbear, troll, predatory dinosaur, and umber hulk.
Large Game: This type of animal is used to convey endurance and heartiness. Larger game animals often appear on houses that hold harsh and unforgiving lands. There is also the suggestion of reverence for nature and a suggestion of a connection to druidic power.
Examples: deer, elephant, rhinoceros, and leaf-eating dinosaur.
Beasts of Burden: This generally suggests a connection to a background in production. Farming, milling, and even mining families that have risen to prominence often display a beast of burden to allude to the labor that brought them prosperity.
Examples: ox, horse, golem, and animal skeletons.
Winged Predator: Classically this is used to signify a connection to wisdom and justice. Houses affiliated with law enforcement often display raptors, but an explicit connection to law enforcement is not necessary. One just needs to value justice as a virtue to display a raptor.
Examples: eagle, falcon, bat, griffin, and dragon.
Blessed Beast: This suggests a connection to religious traditions. A family with prominent clerics and paladins typically bears a symbol of a creature connected to healing, rebirth, or duty.
Examples: unicorn, phoenix, and angel.
Scavenger: This type of creature became popular as mercantile families began to become politically prominent. Many noble houses saw rich merchants entering the political sphere as an affront to tradition. Some mercantile houses embraced that hostility and requested nontraditional animals be added to their crests. Today a scavenger represents canny negotiation, tenacity, and ambition.
Examples: crow, rat, hyena, vulture, gelatinous cube, and goblin.
Sea Creature: Heraldic traditions featuring symbols related to the sea could very well be an entire area of study. These symbols started appearing on the coats of arms of coastal noble houses and became extremely popular when wealthy maritime merchants were able to afford commission of their own crests. Families that worship ancient gods seem unable to resist alluding to their worship through symbols. Fish, crustaceans, cephalopods, and marine mammals have diverse and parallel meanings that rival the traditional land-based counterparts.
Examples: fish, lobster, crab, squid, and starfish.
Undead/Aberration: This suggests a connection to arcane studies and the mystic arts. It is often used by wizards, sorcerers, and magical theorists. Aberrant creatures are intimidating to those not schooled in heraldry, but seeing one on a crest simply means the family practices magic or values curiosity and scholarship.
Examples: shoggoth, eye tyrant, skeleton, mind devourer, and aboleth.
Titan: The oldest royal families and wealthiest merchant houses have worked tirelessly to distinguish themselves from what they see as imitators. In many places there are strict laws regarding which creatures are acceptable as heraldic symbols. Gaining the right to include a titan on a crest takes unimaginable political maneuvering, power, dazzling wealth, an ancient bloodline, or divine intervention. There are strict laws against adding a titan to a crest without permission. In many cases a titan crest is the most valuable thing a family owns, worth more than its land and armies.
Examples: dragon, purple worm, and tarrasque.
OBJECTS
Swords: The appearance of a sword is usually an allusion to military conquest and practice in warfare. Families with military officers, or that hold land won through bloody conquest, typically have a sword.
Shield: This usually refers to the possession of a particularly impressive fortress or castle. This is seen as a subtler indicator of strength in land. It is not uncommon for a family that invests pride in a fortress or castle to simply add the silhouette of its property to the crest itself.
Mace: This is an indicator of religious service or high station within a church. It is common for a mace to appear on the crest of a family that includes a well-known paladin. It is somewhat less common for this to occur if a family member is a cleric, but a mace can be found in both cases. A mace is almost always accompanied by a holy symbol or is held by an aspect of the deity the family worships.
Bow: The crests of hunters, rangers, druids, and other wood-dwelling noble houses typically include a bow. It is a solid bet that a house flying a bow on its flag or crest will own large swaths of forested territory.
Hammer: Mining and laborer families are traditionally fond of hammers. It used to be much easier to identify a mining linage, but many laborers have attained wealth and fame through adventuring and acknowledge the work of their ancestors by including a hammer in their crest.
Dagger: This particularly threatening image is used by families that have built a reputation for shipping, trade, or transportation. Caravan drivers used to cut the hands off highwaymen and nail them, along with their weapons, to the sides of their carts to discourage ambushes. The first merchants to win the honor incorporated this grim warning into to their symbols. Families that made their fortunes though conducting trade in urban centers also use the dagger to warn rivals about the price for dealing in bad faith.
Compass/Gear/Clock: Architects and engineers will often include a tool of their trade in their crest. Traditionally minded houses will choose easily recognizable tools, while newly wealthy engineering houses choose esoteric tools to distinguish themselves.
The final step to creating a crest is the inclusion of a phrase that indicates the attitude or mission of your house. The meaning in these is usually fairly self-evident. However, an additional layer of meaning is hidden in the language a maxim is written in. Originally heraldic mottoes were simply written in a noble’s native tongue. However, in the era of mercantile houses and wealthy adventurers, the appearance of language became something of a fashion statement. Some houses will feature a language that no one in the house has ever spoken fluently. Here are some of the most common languages that appear on crests and their meaning.
• Dwarfish: tradition, work ethic, trade.
• Elvish: beauty, royalty, reverence for nature.
• Draconic: ancient bloodline, arcane study, vast wealth.
• Orcish: military power, reverence for strength, tenacity.
• Infernal: reverence for law, diplomacy, reliability.
• Celestial: piety, royalty, honor.