Heraldry

The various noble Houses of Retlegia use distinctive heraldry to identify families and individuals. These heraldic devices are also carried by armies on the battlefield as a sign of status, as well as allegiance to those noble Houses.

Heraldic designs can vary widely. They may consist of a simple pattern of colors, but more often feature animals (either real or mythological) and/or physical objects. Specific sets of rules govern what form a heraldic design may take.

Only members of noble families have the legal right to formally display their own heraldry, though knights also gain this right after the conferring of their title: When a commoner or lowly mercenary gets knighted (even if he is only a poor hedge knight with no land and no right to sit in judgement), he legally becomes a member of "the nobility" and can invent his own personal heraldry. The followers of a noble family can also display that family's heraldry (i.e. Gallister foot-soldiers can carry banners with Gallister heraldry), but it is illegal for the smallfolk to simply invent and use their own heraldry.

The heraldry of each noble House is accompanied by a specific set of words, or "motto" that is unique to that House. These typically take the form of boasts or battle-cries, such as House Gallister's "Hard as the Sea", or House Blackwolf's "Fight with Honor".

## Heraldry in Retlegia

The colors used in heraldry are formally known as "tinctures", and these are divided into three basic categories: "colors", "metals", and "furs".

* Red, Green, Blue, Purple, and Black are considered "colors". Certain other colors, such as Brown, were added in later centuries as new dyes became available to Medieval Europe.
* The two "metals" are Gold and Silver, though both of these terms actually encompass a spectrum of hues: gold, orange, and yellow are all considered Gold, while white and grey are both considered Silver.
* "Furs" such as Ermine and Vair are technically patterns, not single colors, but are arbitrarily lumped in with colors and metals as a sub-set of "tinctures". Ermine is supposed to resemble the tail pattern of a stoat (specifically a stoat's winter fur, known as ermine), and Vair is supposed to resemble the belly coloration of a type of squirrel.
* Each tincture officially consists of one specific shade with no variations; i.e. there is only one shade of Blue which can be used, with no variation between light blue and dark blue (which are fairly arbitrary labels in any case).

The most important rule of heraldry is the rule of tincture:

*Metal shall never be put on metal, nor color on color.*
By this ruling, a design cannot be half red and half blue, or half gold and half silver. For example, the sigil of House Gallister is a gold lion (metal) on a red field (color). It would not be permitted to have a gold lion on a *silver* background, because silver is also a metal. Ostensibly, this is because heraldry is supposed to help identify different armies on the battlefield, and should be easily distinguishable at a glance.

There is a major loophole to the rule of tincture, however: An object may be depicted as "proper" - using the color it possesses in nature - regardless of what other tinctures it is touching. This explicitly allows the animal or object featured in a heraldic design to break the rule of tincture. For example, the sigil of House Brackwell is a silver sword on a red and gold field, which would normally break the "no metal against metal" rule (since both silver and gold are both metals), but because swords are grey, it is counted as "proper". In contrast, it would still break the rule of tincture to put a purple sword on a blue background, because swords are never purple in nature, and a purple sword cannot plausibly be said to be displayed "proper".

### Younger sons, variations, and personal sigils

Younger sons of noble Houses may prefer to use their own personal sigils, which are often a slight variation of the official sigil of their House. Sometimes even the oldest son and heir, or even the current lord, may have his own personal sigil - this is simply a matter of preference.
For example, while the official heraldry of House Harclay is a white stag on a green and black field, Lord Colton Harclay uses a variant for his personal sigil, a black stag on a black and gold field, which is now the sigil of his branch of House Harclay (House Harclay of Bravefork)

### Bastards

Acknowledged bastard children of a noble are not legally permitted to *officially* carry the heraldry of their noble parent's House. On the battlefield, they may carry a flag displaying the heraldry, or use weapons and equipment that display the heraldic symbol - but only as much as any common footsoldier in their noble parent's army may do so. If an acknowledged noble-born bastard began openly displaying the heraldry of their noble parent's House, specifically as a representation of themselves, they would face legal troubles and punishment.

Noble-born bastards are in a legal state between highborn nobles and smallfolk, yet unlike the smallfolk, acknowledged bastards *are* allowed to display their own heraldry - just not the heraldry of their noble parent's House. A very common practice in Retlegia is for bastards to use the heraldry of their noble parent's House but with the colors inverted (which is known as "breaking" the design scheme).

One of the more infamous examples of bastard heraldry is House Redfyre, a cadet branch of House Goldfyre.

## Exceptions to Heraldry

### The Kingsguard

Members of The Kingsguard are noted for their white cloaks and gold armor with white enameled decoration. In the novels, when individual members of the Kingsguard participate in private events such as tournaments, they bear only solid white heraldry on their shields and banners. Indeed, *only* members of the Kingsguard legally have the right to carry shields and banners emblazoned with all-white heraldry. They formally renounce their familial and political allegiances when they join the order.

The Kingsguard *as an institution*, however, does have a symbol, a triple-pointed crown made of swords, representing the crown of the King of Retlegia. This design is engraved on their armor, and appears on their banners when leading the king's armies in war, acting officially in their capacity as Kingsguard.