Welcome to the online version of the heraldry help files. Since heraldry is such a graphical entity, the pages will, undoubtedly, help you a lot more than the text-only version. So, without further ado, let's begin!!

Quickie heraldry: If you don't want to worry about learning much, the easiest way to create your coat of arms for the Knights Guild of Three Kingdoms is to do the following:

1. Pick the background colour
2. Pick either a division or ordinary and its colour (optional)
3. Pick some cool looking charges
4. Mail the guild herald with your choices

Please note: Heraldry is NOT a resume; it is a method of recognition. Just because you "fight, heal, live on a hill, and once killed Tiamat" doesn't mean your heraldry should have a "sword, dove, hill, and dragon."

First things first! When we are dealing with a shield, we must realize that it is divided into 9 parts. A whole lot of the stuff we will be doing will be based in whole or in part on this 9 piece example. Imagine that this is someone else's shield and that you are looking at them holding it in front of them. Many parts of the shield have special names: 1,2,3 -- Chief 7,8,9 -- Base 1,4,7 -- Dexter 3,6,9 -- Sinister

These terms can be combined to indicate the positioning of the charges. Something in section 3 would be said to be in sinister chief or a vertical sword with it's blade pointing downward would be said to be pointing to base.

The way a shield is coloured in heraldry is determined by three different types of tinctures, which includes 5 colours, 2 metals, and a number of furs (these are more complicated so I've chosen not to include them in this -- if you want to use them, feel free to look them up on your own). In the language of blazonry, each of them are given special names, as can be seen in the table below (ie. black is referred to as sable). It should be noted that silver and white are interchangeable; they are essentially two versions of the same thing. So, if you see silver/gray colourations and white ones, imagine them being the same... but just presented differently to look prettier. The same goes for gold and yellow.

The Tinctures
Colours	Sable	Gules	Azure	Vert	Purpure
Metals	Or		Argent

While you could just have a shield that's all done in the same tincture, and nothing else, we would very quickly run out of shields. So, to differentiate between two people with Purpure shields, charges (images) are added to a shield. Since heraldry was developed to help people tell who were their friends or foes up close and at range, the shields had to look distinct. One way that this way done was by not placing a colour on a colour or a metal on a metal... because they just don't show up well. However, a colour can be placed on a metal and vice versa (this is known as the rule of tincture).

The easiest way to add a little spice to a plain shield is by adding a division to it. This is a simple line that breaks the shield into 2 or 4 parts, with different colours on either side of the parting line.

The Divisions
Plain	Pale	Fess	Chevron	Bend	Bend Sinister	Cross	Saltire

When you use a division, your shield become Per <division> <top/left tincture> <bottom/right tincture>. For example, the second shield in the Divisions table would be blazoned as Per pale Or and azure, and the third one would be called Per fess argent and purpure, and the fifth would be Per bend sable and Or.

If you want to go a step beyond divisions, you can start to add charges on top of your shield. The simplest type of charges are known as ordinaries. The ordinaries are similar to the divisions in that they are created by simple lines breaking up the shield. They are also very similar in their general geometric shape to the divisions.

The Ordinaries
Pale	Fess	Chief	Base	Bend	Bend Sinister	Cross	Saltire	Chevron	Pile	Pall

Beyond the ordinaries, there are subordinaries, which are mostly just thinner versions of some ordinaries. Then, there are the cool looking things like lions, dragons, and the other things the guild classes have been named after (in gtitle2). It should be noted that creatures, animals, birds, inanimate items, and everything else used in heraldry are symbolic looking, not realistic.

An excellent example of a shield is this dragon shield. It is very simple, would be easy to recognize across a field of battle, and obeys the rule of tincture (when you use a division on your shield that uses one metal and one colour, the shield becomes neutral, so a charge that covers the entire shield can be any tincture). It would be blazoned as "Per pale argent and sable, a dragon rampant gules."

The term 'rampant' refers to the position of the dragon. For the purposes of this website and for guild heraldry, I won't list all of the positions, since different types of animals have different ones, and inanimate items have different ones, etcetera.

If you'd like to look somewhere else to help you figure this stuff out, here are two excellent resources:

• A Heraldic Primer shows lots of pictures -- perfect for someone learning
• Francois Velde maintains one of the best single resources for heraldry on the web

Last updated: July 28, 2000
Comments, questions, and general email to Janet O'Neil.

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