Coats of Arms

Kresslack

So I have this idea (partially inspired by Game of Thrones, for any who watch), to make Coats of Arms perhaps a bit more interactive and RP potential. As it is now, you can just look at any CoA and tell immediately who it belongs to, without having to do any actually probing to discover this. To me, that takes out the whole fun of them. CoA shouldn't be immediately recognizable, especially if you've never seen it before. 

It might seem like a lot of keep up with without such an option, but I think it would add a new depth to the skill and craft that goes into making them, and wearing them proudly. So I'd like to propose removing the specific identifications of CoA's and give just the actual CoA description. 

For example, if someone is wearing a tabbard embroidered with a CoA, you see the CoA but you would have to make inquiry or do some research to discover which organization bears those arms. Make sense?

Open to discussion and thoughts on this.

Korben

I like the idea, but only for organizational CoAs. Personal CoAs have two problems, there's too many of them and they're transitory. Family CoA's worked IRL (and in GoT) because family members come and go but the family itself lasts, if not forever, for a very long time.

Aerek

While I'm not against the idea itself, I have a minor gripe about how long folks' in-room descriptions have been getting lately. I'll walk in and go "F--- me, there's 9 people here," but really it's just one person with a raised hood, using a pose, on a mount, wielding two custom items, one of which is emblazoned with their own CoA. Change the CoA bit from "the arms of X" to "Sable, a chevron Or, with a Playboy bunny in base and the Jesus fish in sinister chief" and we're looking at a paragraph just for one person.

Never mind doing research and making inquiries about the CoA, I'd have to do research and make inquiries about who's standing in the room with me.

Jurixe

My only concern with this would be that the arms would, as Aerek said, be really long. Having 'a silver jousting cloak with the arms of the clan of House Nithilar' is already long, never mind 'a silver jousting cloak with the arms per saltire Purpure and Sable, a panther rampant Argent'. I'm not honestly really in support of this idea for that reason.

Kerria

I agree with Aerek on that one...

Even with recent heraldry "upgrade" things are running so very slow. I wonder how will this would affect heraldry?  

Jhaeli

I like the idea, if a workaround for overly long room descriptions was found. It's one of the reasons I don't have anything emblazoned now.

Bluef

Instead of "a silver jousting cloak with the arms of the clan of House Nithilar," I'd really like to see "a silver jousting cloak with heraldric arms." This would cut down on the in-room description and take away a lot of text from a person's personal description as well. Then upon closer inspection (probed) of the cloak you might see this line after its examined description:

It bears a silver panther rearing one leg on the ground, on a purple and black background divided by two crossing diagonal lines. 

I still like the idea of heraldric lines in the honours, and perhaps there could/should be a compendium of them that heralds can access in Delos (for a fee), but running with Kresslack's idea then I'd also like to see the HERALDRY WHO list go away from general access. Imagine the plots that could unfurl when an item bearing a CoA is left behind at the scene of some event. Heralds might even become useful again (after CoAs are registered that's it for us - we're sort of like totemers in that regard). it sounds fun!

Kerria

I fear that 'for a fee' would end up costing so much that no one would want to use the Heraldry system at all. "Oh he/she has an CoA.. that's nice."

Bluef

Kerria said:

I fear that 'for a fee' would end up costing so much that no one would want to use the Heraldry system at all. "Oh he/she has an CoA.. that's nice."

Well, there's already a pretty hefty fee for emblazoning and registering arms themselves is downright expensive. It's worth it, of course, but does that mean that the registry of who holds what arms should be public knowledge beyond an honours line? I'm not sure. I think it would be very cool to make this information accessible to heralds only, even if there isn't a fee in place. Then with some changes to the way arms appear, etc. it could open up some neat possibilities for roleplay, which Kresslack has already mentioned.

Nim

Aerek said:

While I'm not against the idea itself, I have a minor gripe about how long folks' in-room descriptions have been getting lately. I'll walk in and go "F--- me, there's 9 people here," but really it's just one person with a raised hood, using a pose, on a mount, wielding two custom items, one of which is emblazoned with their own CoA. Change the CoA bit from "the arms of X" to "Sable, a chevron Or, with a Playboy bunny in base and the Jesus fish in sinister chief" and we're looking at a paragraph just for one person.

Never mind doing research and making inquiries about the CoA, I'd have to do research and make inquiries about who's standing in the room with me.

This is a legitimate problem that, as you mention, already exists in spite of whether or not this idea goes through, and I think should therefore be solved, again regardless of whether this idea goes through.

I can think of several solutions, but perhaps a new topic should be created to address it.