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Times of conflict and struggle are over for now. A king chosen by all his people, crowned in the fires of war against foreign invaders, has decreed a time of peace and celebration. 

In the Tourney, five noble houses come together to compete in contests of grand melee, single combat, archery and the mighty team joust. Men, women and knights all are equal in the Tourney. 

These houses are they who rose with the king to the land's defence, ennobled for their courage and sacrifice. 

House Briar
The royal house led by the King. Formerly a minor family of the woodlands, when crowned the King took the briar- a thicket of thorns, roses and undergrowth- as his sigil. The golden bear is his personal emblem. The sea green 'fur' with golden embellishment represents his wife. This house's team captain is Arthur, the Winter Prince. 
House Fen
Old friends and fierce allies of the Briars, this house is not a family but represents all who live in the fenlands- marshy reed beds and vast flat fields as far as the eye can see. Their colours, gold and bronze stripes, represent the
towering reeds of their home. Their captain is Vesta, First Archer of the Marsh. 
House Sciro
Formerly peasants from the western hills, this house proved their mettle when they held the west without aid for an entire winter. They are resourceful, fierce, and dogged by rumours of witchcraft. Their colours are two ravens perching upon a field of steely grey. Their champion is Rikr, the Rook. 
House Carina
Wealthy and splendid is the Carina family, revelling in their long and storied history of trade, learning and exploration. When the invaders came from the eastern sea, this house initially claimed to welcome them in. When the enemies back was turned, they burned the foreign fleet and cut off any retreat by sea. Their colours are for sea, sky, and the golden stars that guide them. Their captain is Admiral Atticus.
House Highmoor
When the Briars rose to the throne, someone had to fall. The former king was of this house, but when he saw that the defence of the realm was best laid in others' hands, he renounced the crown and put the choice of his successor to a witan (a council of noble advisors) who elected the Briar family to reign. Their colours are green and black for the dour north moors they call home. Their captain is also the head of the house, Princess Iona. 

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And here are the teams! This has been my starting point for the fiction because it's important when designing anything faction- or team-based to make sure each one has a very distinct identity. 

Medieval heraldry (banners, shields, coats of arms, livery, all of it) was purposefully used to identify men in crowds and knights on battlefields. Only a small slice of the population could read, and it was much faster to identify a Lord by his livery than a written sign. 

Coats of arms as we think of them today are most often specific to individual people. Here I chose to stick to one per house/team to keep it as simple as possible. (Game of Thrones was also successful in this way, keeping 1 banner per family. We can all see that Targaryen dragon coming a mile away and know what's up.)

I should put up a poll sometime after I've drawn up the knights on each team, see who you all are rooting for! 


To help me build up this heraldry, I used a superb (if a little dated on the interface) site called Drawshield. It's got a function to build your own livery and learn about each feature on coats of arms! https://drawshield.net/

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Comments

Romulus

Forgot to say that I loved reading the little snippets of story from your world you share through the banners, awesome work!

Anonymous

I love this already, the thought process for each of the crests is so choice