The View from Valehaven is pleased
to announce the start of a new feature series, A Call to Arms, the aim
of which is to showcase the different heraldries in the Realms. Every
group and many organizations, guilds, and individuals have distinctive
and different heraldries, and sometimes the outsider can't help but
wonder what those heraldries mean to the people who bear them - what
does the heraldry represent? How did it come to be? What is the story
behind it? And so started the idea for this series. It is our hope at
the View that we can all learn a bit more about each other, our game,
and our history along the way.
[Editor's
note: if you are interested in submitting an individual, nation, guild,
or group heraldry for the series, please email Jen
(areni.daru@gmail.com) or any other View staff member]
House Griffindor
by Alex "Sir Lucas" Newbold
1)
What does this heraldry currently represent? (ie: a nation, an individual, a
group, etc)
House
Griffindor, a household dedicated to protecting the common folk of the Realms.
Those without someone to protect them. Originally intended to be a team of
folks from Chimeron who worked together. Not a separate nation, or even
fiefdom. But things change when the Queen gives you land. After you
announce the household, at royal court, while you’re still on stage, in front
of everyone.
2) Please describe your heraldry for us.
A
Griffon, its claws spread and its head lowered in a defensive stance.
With the Chimeron Rowan branch underneath, to show connection to the Kingdom
that we owe fealty to. The griffon even has a name, with a backstory from Chimeron
history. I’d elaborate more, but a lot of the details are part of the
petitioning process to join the team.
3) Give us some background. How did your heraldry come to
be? Who or what created it?
It was a
brainstorming session between Jason Rosa and myself. He drew the Griffin,
as I can’t draw. The Rowan Branch was established many years prior.
4) Why was this heraldry chosen to represent you? What is
the symbolism behind it? What was the inspiration behind the design?
I wanted
a Griffin, I’ve always liked them as fantasy monsters. They seem more
noble to me than a dragon, and to be honest no one else was using one in-game
as their heraldry at the time. The name came about, because I am terrible with
names. I had just gotten a copy of the first or second (I forget which)
Harry Potter book, most of my friends had never heard of them (most likely
because we were in our early to mid 20’s and not 11 years old). The
series was fairly new, and even some of my perspective household members hadn’t
heard of it yet. So we used the name as a placeholder, and it stuck. But
we spelled it differently, just to mess you up.
5) How long has the heraldry been in the game? Has it
changed at any time since it was first created?
2001 or
so I believe was the debut. It started as tan on a green tabbard, we had a
swell banner too. Someone stole it at Queen of Hearts that year, we never
saw it again. But then the second batch of tabbards were made, and white was
used instead of tan (tan hides more dirt than white), plus the Eagle's Rook
tower was added as a background due to Eagle's Rook swearing to us that year at
Feast of Chimeron. That has since been removed in the most recent batch
of tabards (except for a couple, for personal reasons), but I believe the
change to white stayed.
6) What do you hope seeing this heraldry means to the
rest of the Realms?
It has always been my hope, and will always be my hope, that people wearing the
tabbard are seen as emissaries of Chimeron. People to be trusted, counted
upon in times of need, and of integrity.
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| Members of Griffindor, plus Monique by Jesse Gifford |