Imagine a battlefield where two armies march under identical banners. Who is a friend and who is a foe? In the real Middle Ages you could be challenged to a duel for that: a coat of arms was the face of a family, and wearing someone else's was almost theft. We decided it would be the same in Alardon.
Free arms
When you open the editor, a green line glows above the tabs: "These arms are free: no one in the world bears them". You can ask the editor to suggest designs to your taste, and it will only show ones that are not yet taken. If such arms already belong to someone, the editor offers the closest similar ones, still entirely your own.
However many players come into the world, every house will have its own standard, recognised from afar.
Eight peoples, eight hands
Every people of Alardon has its own language of signs. Alardonians, Gorvens, Ruz, Skjars, Khazarites, Ashar, Thalassians and Senkai each brought their own patterns, beasts, weapons, birds and sun rays into heraldry. You can choose arms in the spirit of your people or mix them: history has seen stranger alliances.
Painted or stencilled
Charges come in two kinds. Stencilled ones are crisp silhouettes, as if cut from cloth and sewn onto the banner: they can be seen a hundred paces away. Painted ones have shading and highlights, as if a court painter had drawn them with a brush. Both styles are good, and every house has its own taste.
Arms that follow you
The arms you create do not stay in the menu. They appear on your shield, on a small round badge and on the banner seen on the world map. Your riders carry them into battle, and the horse's caparison repeats the same colours.
We keep adding charges and polishing the fabrics. In the meantime, try to imagine your own arms: which colours, which beast, which sign should stand above your house?
