In the old chronicles an army is not recognised by faces. From afar, through dust and smoke, only one thing can be seen: the banner above the heads. It tells you who is coming: a friend, a neighbour you should never trust, or a stranger best avoided. That is why the banner was one of the first things in Alardon we wanted to make truly beautiful.
A rider instead of a picture
We searched for a long time for the right way to show a coat of arms. We tried a flag on a staff, a castle wall, a camp on a hill at sunset. In the end we chose the most honest option: a rider standing on a dark stone floor. He holds the standard in one hand, a shield hangs at his side, and his horse wears a caparison. Change a colour or a charge and everything changes at once: the cloth, the shield and the caparison.
The light is alive: it slides across the folds of the cloth, glints on the gilded finial of the staff and casts shadows on the stones. The cloth sways gently, as if a draught were moving under the vaults.
How a coat of arms comes together
The editor is split into several tabs, each responsible for its own part of the standard. You can go through them in order, or pick a ready design straight away and adjust it to your taste.
First comes the field, the background of the arms. It can be divided by stripes, a cross, wedges or a chequerboard. Then the charges: beasts and birds, weapons, plants, signs, buildings and legendary creatures. They can be dyed part by part, outlined, made larger or moved. The final touch is the trim: a thin line, a wide band, teeth or a fringe.
Colours the dyers really had
We deliberately chose muted, fabric-like colours: madder red, woad blue, ochre, linen, marsh green. A medieval craftsman dyed wool and linen with what the land gave him, and we wanted the banners of Alardon to look like real things, not like flat colour on a screen.
What comes next
This is a work-in-progress version and there is still a lot to do: we are finishing the fabrics and the models of armour and horses. But the main thing is already clear: your standard is not an icon in a menu, it is something your people carry. It will be seen on the battlefield, on shields and on the world map. Tell us in the comments under the video which arms you would choose for your house.
