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hegetOkay, so heget's massive elf heraldry project is inching closer to phase one done (and I want to get as few phases in the process as possible).
In fact, now it is closer to "Actual Downloads" Stage. Which will have its own post. Because this is monstrous-long.
Severe Warning. Going to ramble, get technical, and have far too few pictures in ratio to the text.
The elven banner set meshes are complete, thanks to some shadow help from Sunni and her reminder that if you go back and edit to GMDCs of meshes that you've already Compressorized, you need to re-Compressorize those things or they will crash your game or not show up in the catalog. So for those:
- 2-Story Standing Banner (Master mesh)
- 1- Story Standing Banner
- 1-Story Wall Banner (1 tile, smallish)
- 1-Story Wall Banner (1 tile, but oversized to cover about 3 tiles)
- 2-Story Wall Banner
- The sigil on a free-standing wooden frame
What's the sigil, and why did heget have to make fancy new meshes for her elves' heraldric needs?
Because of headaches Tolkien designed for his elves. No ordinary heraldry for the peoples of Middle-earth, oh no. Except the dwarves. And Gondolin, and once you got to the kingdoms of men in the Third Age... But First Age Elves, they be a little different. Because the personal heraldry of the Silmarillion is based on designs that fit inside of a square logenze. That is a square tilted 45 degrees to make a diamond. Unless the person is female, then the design is a circle. And possible evidence says for some examples if the design is tilted again to make a square that would work as the house sigil as opposed to the individual. (Actually, just go to this site HERE. Most helpful, especiallly for me as I was starting out.)
But the big thing is all sigils and designs are created as to work in a perfect diamond (or a circle inside a diamond). And that makes things very awkward to fit a square logenze in a rectangle as most banner meshes for the Sims are.
*Also, the designs are perfectly symmetrical- unless they belong to men of the First Age, then the symmetry is only vertical.
I tried to work with regular meshes to fit my little diamonds into banner and tapestry meshes as close to square-shaped as I could find, but I was still loosing a lot of space in the corners. In the end I decided new meshes were the way to go.
So that's what that weird banner thing in my header is.
As you can see in that example, and here where I've photographed most of the early batch of finished recolors: le helpful picture, the elven banner has two design elements. First is what I've labeled the sigil: that diamond logenze in which goes the heraldric device of each character. Second is the rest of the banner, a.k.a. flag, the cloth part hanging from below the square to make it look like an actual flag.
Well, gonfalone. What with the standard on a crossbar hanging vertically and the device limited to only the under part of the flag. To save myself some effort and in a bout of (I think) cleverness, instead of just making the fabric some matcing color or not puting a lot of thought into this, I got creative. The banner designs would use more traditional flag designs or blocks of color, either striped or quartered or all the various blazons, yadda yadda. In short, something that would match and coordinate with the oft' too elaborate sigil. Something that that would work on a long rectangular banner mesh, or the caparison of a knight's charger, or anywhere where the full elven design would be impractical. Not every sigil needed its own seperate banner flag- when I could I tried to keep immediate family with the same. Ultimately that means the elven banners, with their two subsets of 'sigil' and 'everything on the banner that isn't the sigil', have some recolors that are only for the sigil, and some that have both. I'll be careful to label which is which when I photograph and upload it all.
Then I decided, okay, that means once I designed the device for each person needing one -and the device had its matching flag- I was open to recolor more mesh sets.
As of right now, all the elven banner recolors (barring me coming up with another design between now and the final upload, which let's face it is very likely with heget) done!
On the list:
- psychosims' flag set, with all it's reposited sizes. This was a non-brainer, considering it was my direct inspiration for the elf banners. Doing matching recolors in the flag designs. Done.
- hriveresse's reposited draperies from Eva's conversions of Luna Sims. Mostly because not all the time would banners be hanging tidily- for example had to have photoshoots of the ladies sewing these things. Again, a modified version of the flag designs to fit a square texture. (Thinking will do both elements. Have the PNGs all made out, just need to go in Simpe and make them.)
- lethe's banners. I have to do these things. Most sizes and recolors would get only the flag, but I think I can fudge some of the sigils as well- probably going to have to turn then 45 degrees...
- More wall banner and tapestry meshes... I doubt the Maxis castle set banner is going to work at all (though the kite shield shape means it's good for Gondolin). The SDA tapestry meshes have always been a favorite of mine, so some of those.
- Caparisons. Once I get those stupid meshes and the drivable car version working and perfected, the flag textures get slapped on as recolor set priority one.
- Anything else I can think of. The flag postion of hriveresse's military camp sets. Canopies. Table runners for the lords at the high feast...
Here's where heget indulges in her list-making tendencies. It's probably redundant to say, "Beware."
I will freely admit, if I haven't lost you at this point, here where I start rattling off names from the Glossary and multiple pages of Family Trees at the back of the books is where I likely shall. Unless you are also a person familiar with The Silmarillion. (If you're not, the thought process behind why on earth you've continued to read this must be bile fascination, amusement with the depths of my insane commintment to details, or a folorn hope for actual downloads.) I'll try to break the lists down, but I'd recommend following along with a family tree or chart off the net. There are several- though I will deviate and tack on additions for my personal game, which I hope to explain why as I set my 'hood up. (And once I start playing, let's see how much any of it lasts.)
There's this whimsical picture by eilian, that while not totally accurate to how I set my families up, nor their appearances or all details, it does cover a good majority of the cast, including Lord of the Rings, and is more than just a document full of names.
See it here, because it's about time I include an in-text visual:
And of course, there is this MASSIVE GENELOGY TREE PROJECT, which is a helpful if seriously overload of info source.
But enough!
The list of sigils so heget can decide what if left to do and how close she is to finishing the heraldry sets.
...actually that might need to be its own little post, that way I can show the designs and not just link to the gallery.
....Nah. You sat through this much. Let's go!
Okay, posting each design, but you have to imagine each of these tilted 45 degrees. On their side it really gives you a false impression of how it looks.
First up is the sigil for the Valar as a whole:
Oh Sweet Eru, this design. I'll make note of whenever the design you are looking at is an honest-to-goodness "Tolkien Original". There's only a handfull; this is not one. So really, it was heget wracking her brains for a vertical and horizontal symmetry to symbolize a group with 14 memebers who had a ruling body of eight. (There were 15 Valar, but one had to get himself ejected from the group for becoming the Big Bad.) In the end I made this monochrome thingie. I like. I think for each individual Valar (symbolized by one of the 14 dots) I'll color in their corisponding 'slice' with a themetically appropriate color. And for Almaren Academie (my first Valar home which functions also as a Sim University) I'll use just the outer part of the design & the inner-most circle as a simplified school logo. In whatever I decide the school colors will be.
Oh, look! Here I have it. Almaren was a island in the middle of a lake at the center of the world in its metaphorical springtime- so the device reflects that. (I always pegged a light spring green and blue as the college colors)
The flag for this crazy tasteless think is THIS bout of tastelessness.
Vanyar Elves:
Ingwe
High King of all the Elves, King of the Vanyar, by elvish rules of heraldry his design logically had to have the most points touching the edges of the square. And the Vanyar banners were noted in-text as white (though I could have sworn it was white and gold. Or maybe I'm just reading in the gold because these are the blonde elves). 32 points. Two variations because I couldn't decide which worked better. Very sunflower...
I'm going to cheat and have any sons of Ingwe (should be at least one) use whatever variation his dad isn't currently using. Because effort is saved and there isn't the sense from the story that any royal Vanyar hegemony is disrupted by family strife between father and son. We'll see...
HERE is what the flag is.
Indis
The sister of Ingwe (it says "kinswoman", it was either sister or niece and if I make her the sister it saves on number of Sims to create.)
Again, I took the design for Ingwe, did a few modifications like chopping it to fit into a circle, and then added some blue for reasons coming up.
Amarie
I'm adding her here under the Vanyar because she is one instead of grouped next to her fiancee. Completely made-up design, but at least the character isn't. About everything aside from her name will be, but that's tit for tat in the ladies department. heget's Vanyar will be the agricultural characters in the main neighborhood, owners of the 'dairy farms' and produce stands. That way Amarie, who never given the indication of being nobility, if coming from a prestigious Vanyar familiy of large land holdings and a wealthy dairy farm, can resonably be courted by the eldest son of the Noldor king's youngest son. And we've already had the debate on whether those flowers look most like clover or thistles. (I need some Tulip Grove colors. And I felt bad that Amarie was being left out for all that she has a name!)
HERE is what the flag is.
There's another Vanyar family whose daughter marries a prince, but I'll place her after her husband. Aside from that I think I'll need one or two more Vanyar noble families once I get in game, but they will likely be townies and if I make a playable family I'll think up a heraldric device then.
A Vanyar Noble
So here's one of the designs that I decided was 'Vanyar'. The color scheme is another one inspired by Tulip Build, and the motifs are sprouts- but also spear-like. And it is the Vanyar that serve as the army that finally defeats the dark lord, so for all the image of passive adoring blondes there is some soldieriness.
HERE is what the banner is.
Noldor (And some Teleri and Vanyar) Elves:
Finwe
Our first Tolkien original! And it's actually not 100% exactly like the design because at least some versions I've researched of this thing had more reddish shade in the middle. But the ugliness... So yeah, 16 points because dude was important, all the symmetry, pretty accurate to the winged sun idea. And thus this thing will get plastered all over any Noldor building. The matching flag,HERE, is that bright blue with dagged points in orange. IDK how blue and orange became Noldoran royal colors. Well, they are properly bright and tasteless (heget's Deep Elves are also her tacky elves).
Feanor
Original Tolkien design, which came out really nice as was the only one from the first five or so I made that I didn't have to go back and remake. This is the sigil of Finwe's firstborn son by his first wife, who I'm not bothering to make a sigil for. heget will refrain from long rants on characters in what is supposed to be only a list of which sigils she's done. But THIS GUY. Opinions, I have them. And if I was actually involved in the Silmarillion fandom, which I'm not, I'd boot myself out, because it seems I seem to mostly find the corners of the fandom that prefer his branch over his brothers'. Which, ummm... well, I have a feeling Sim!Feanor will be fun to play. I mean, he's one of the few Sims allowed to set himself on fire with the stove.
HERE is the flag.
Nerdanel
Feanor's wife, a smith and sculptor in her own right. And it ended up more cog-like than floral.
Mahtan
For completion's sake here is Nerdanel's father's sigil. Mahtan the smith is one of few elves to have red hair instead of blonde or dark. His nickname was copper-hair, so for the banners of his brood the primary color is copper. The cog-design and something vaguely flame-ish for the forges. Kirby dots! I also have plans for a few characters that connect to the nobility via Nerdanel's unamed sibling(s).
HERE is the flag for all the copper elves. .
Other Mahtan relatives
Among the possible characters that are going to be the children or grandchildren of Nerdanel's hypothetical sibling are a very minor named character and my planned Noldor!version of the Tullys from Game of Thrones. (I planned AU versions of the Starks to fill in the spear-carriers of my elves, so I have to make the Tullys- and as Mahtan's family are the only confirmed redheads...)
So here is an alternate where the cog has become shapes of flame and calligraphy.
Feanor's Seven Sons
Laziness, I know, but hey! Think of how many of these things I had to design from scratch, plus the sons of Feanor moved in a tight-knit pack and were defined by filial piety. Dad's design, simplified a tad, using mostly the rainbow colors of his center doodly-do. So a quick rundown of the 6 sigils for 7 sons- and note that as princes only 4 of the points reach the edges instead of eight. First is Maedhros, eldest, the red-head. Maglor the calm dark blue, hinting something of his fate, Celegorm the hunter and lover of outdoors, Caranthir named so because of his red face (perversely he and his temper and tactlessness make him my more or less favorite), Curufin the literally mini-Feanor, and the twins. Amrod and Amras, our other red-heads, share a sigil. But then they shared a name and it works for them.
Curufin's wife
As I have a silly plan of doing one of those Bachelor/Bachelorette Challenges to pick the mysterious mother of Celebrimbor and therefore his unnamed wife, I don't even know if she will need or get one. Speaking of which:
Celebrimbor
Mister Ring-maker, do what your very own banner or using Grandpa's okay with you? The Feanorians as a whole use the eight-point star as a family crest anyway...
In the end I decided to take the center stars -symbollic of the Silmarils- and put them on a solid red/orange-red background. This will be the simplified banner of the Feanorian troops and what Celebrimbor can use on the rare days he feels like acknowledging his heritage. Just because he repudiated his father and uncles doesn't mean about a thousand years later he using the family crest Silmaril as a maker's mark and symbol on the Doors of Moria. Speaking of which, dwarf flags... They need to look completely different from the elves. Time to look up Persian banners.
Other married Feanorains we have footnote evidence for are Maglor and Caranthir and maybe one of the twins. I'm going to borrow characters and make Maglor and Caranthir's wives. Maglor's wife, I like the tragic idea of one of the ladies being at least half Teleri; he is the obvious choice. So Caranthir's wife (when exists) usually pegged as very Noldor and very pro-Feanor.
Caranthir's wife
Fiery Noldor noble family, from Formenos. Sort of says, "Here's an elf that has no trouble with arson and larceny."
The matching flag is THIS.
*Note for Other Noldor Banners: See at end of post. Most are random designs currently unassigned, with one exception. Am making basically ASoIaF Stark family and a few others as various elves to fill out some story and world-building gaps. Plus if I make Ned Stark a Noldor elf, even if I kill him, rules of elven immortality means I can use the Resurrect-o-Nomitron. (Noldo Elf Robb Stark is one of the unnamed ten that end up a werewolf chow with Finrod in the dungeon. Because I am awful.)
Findis
Finwe's first child by his second wife, Indis. Now her device does exist- and yes, it's relatively simple. Because I often make these things too complex (okay, yes, they do need to have some complexity, but still..). Findis, of the tiny amount we do know, doesn't need to be over-elaborate. Her name is the combination of her parents, she has no second name like her sister Lalwen/Lalwende (meaning laughter), she stays with her mother when the Noldor leave and she was more comfortable with her mother's Vanyar kind. Actually, to read between the lines, she was probably a shy girl- the first child of the elves' only second marriage of which was considered a bit scandalous. Her older half-brother was, to put it in the mildest of interpretations, an ass towards her and her mother (and as oldest she'd be without the support system of other siblings to back her up and her father probably spent less time with his daughters as oppsed to the sons - and he was biased towards the elder anyway what with the natural feelings of guilt about the dead mother...) So Findis doesn't want to stand out anyway.
I did make a seperate flag for her and her sister HERE, directly copied off the one for Finwe.
Fingolfin
Finwe's second son (son child/first son by Indis). Original Tolkien design. His banners were said to be silver and blue, so the flag portion will be only those colors and not pick up any of the gold or the bit of fiery sun rays of the sigil. 8 points make a king. More and more each day I imagine Fingolfin as the Stannis of his brothers. Only no crazy religion or shadow-babies and more epic duel that gets an awesome heavy metal song in tribute. He deserves the badass creed.
HERE is the flag for all of his line- unless noted.
Anaire
Fingolfin's wife, who may have been Vanyar or Noldor, and whom which I have created a backstory of which I've already exposed via my Sim creations. My answer to things is that Anarie's dad, a Noldor nobleman, partners up with Vanyar scribes (filling the role of medieval manuscript-producing monks) to handle all legal documents and books for the royal court, thus gaining him the influence to have his daughter noticed by the royal family and ultimately married to the serious second prince.
Her flag is THIS.
Fingon
Fingolfin's first-born son. Again heget cheats and modifies the father's banner to give the son something slightly different. Honestly these grandchildren would be using the devices of their dads, but it's too fun not to make individual designs. And that way the random members of the family that Tolkien does give sigils for don't stand out as much. Fingon's first decive only has the 4 points of a prince, but after Fingolfin is killed and Fingon declared High King in his place he bumps up to 8.
Fingon's wife (Meril)
Yes, I imagine him as Gil-galad's dad for reasons I'll explain under Gil's entry. So I needed to make a sigil for her, especially as my personal idea is that she is the daughter of the local Sindar lord that Fingolfin and son set his kingdom up in, so theirs is a partially a marriage of state to solidify the situation.
I've uploaded later the device for her family- her father and uncle- of which I have not named yet but I'm currently calling the Mithrim after the name of the territory they hold. Also, as they are Sindar Elves (Grey Elves) and 'Mith' translates as 'grey', we layer the puns. Meril was the placeholder name for Gil-galad's mother as he was shuffled around the family trees, and it translates as 'rose'. The red flowers of her device might not be roses, but they are lovely.
Gil-Galad
Tolkien Original! (With a tiny bit of heget pizzazz) Putting him here as Fingon's kid for two reasons. First, he was listed as Fingon's son in the published Silmarillion and it makes sense for Fingolfin's grandson to be the High King following his father and uncle's deaths. And my other reason is that the blue and silver of Gil-galad device fits in with the dark blue and silver of the Fingolfinians, not the golds and whites and greens of the Finarfinians.
HIS flag is marginally different from the rest of the Fingolfinions.
Turgon
Modification, something close to Fingon, but with Anaire's red tossed it. Actually a nod to the Gondolin heraldry where Turgon is "sun, moon, and a scarlet heart".
Elenwe
Turgon's wife, died crossing ice land bridge. Also one of our other named Vanyar, but I'm listing her here. Completely my own design, but I tried to make something reminiscent of the following device. Her banner segment HERE is also heavily white.
Idril
Turogn and Elenwe's daughter- and a Tolkien Original. And a bit of a nightmare to make.
Flag is THIS.
Aredhel
Fingolfin and Anaire's only daughter. She and Galadriel are the only Finwion granddaughters, but while Galadriel was the tomboy wanting to rule a country as a prince in her own right and learning the art of sorcery and queenship, Aredhel lived with her brother Turgon and went hunting with her cousins and was also a wild rebel. Who only wore white and silver. Probably because she could afford the effort it'd take to have white linens.
Eol
A bit of a creeper, but like Feanor, I'll rant on him later. And I know I'm one of those rare Silmarillion fans that when you say, "Which insanely gifted but morally...not-clean Elven smith do you want more of?" I'm thinking "swordsmith from Nan Elmoth, not the Silmaril dude." The color motifs and the flag part of his banner are all covered more the section when I get down to the Sindarian elves, but as Aredhel's husband he's up here. And yeah, dark woods, the black sword, the Dark Elf.
Maeglin
Ah, you little sh*t. First time reading the Silmarillion I fell in love with Aredhel at first mention, perversely liked Eol (dwarves, wants the freedom to do his own thing, dislikes the Noldor- was rooting for you buddy until the possessive-boyfriend-from-hell and custody-battle-ending-in-murder stuff). Thought Tuor and Idril were sweet. Took one look at Maeglin and said to self, This is the villain you end up liking- as in a fascination more than fangirl. Don't like him. Refrain from spending thought on the traitor. Yeah, a few months later....
It helps that I picture him as the unholy cross between sheltered, naive, and earnestly pathetic makes-your-skin-crawl-creepy from a truly dysfunctional family and Iago (Othello version) in a Gondolin full of idiots.
Motif a mix of the parents.Banner is THIS. (His Gondolin baner is a sable field. Hint, people.)
Argon
Dude, you may or may not be Fingolfin's fourth kid. We'll see in-game how many time the chimes sounds. I can always rush you a sigil later.
Lalwen
Hey, back to the second generation Noldor royalty. Here is the design for Finwe and Indis's second daughter, who is possibly going to marry the father of a named Silmarillion character so I might be taking elements of her design and mixing them up for someone. See notes on Findis.
Finarfin
Woot! Another Tolkien Original! Here is the third son of Finwe. Finarfin is the equally blonde dad of Galadriel, and for the life of me I don't understand why he is considered the wimp out of his brothers. Maybe I was the few whose most visceral reaction first reading the novel was thinking the guy who turns back, admits he was wrong, and returns to face the people that his people and his brothers just slaughtered, to face the king of those attacked people -who is his father-in-law- and face his wife- daughter of said king, mother of all their children who didn't turn back with him- that guy! Finarfin who has to pick up the pieces of the left-behinds and ironies of ironies becomes the King of which his older brothers were fighting about. Forget the duels with the Bid Bad and the balrogs- this is the balliness that impresses me.
Rant over. The design on the left is the Tolkien colors, but I've seen it without the blue, and the one of the right is more unified and prettier. So my saying is that the one of the right is Finarfin's sigil when he's just the second son of Indis, staying out of family drama, and the blue is when he fills in for dead Finwe. (Spoiler!)
His flag is THIS.
Finrod
Finarfin's oldest son. All-around awesome guy. heget had the worst time ever making designs for the kids of Finarfin. Finrod's sigil finally ended up as this rather overwrought thing. It looks better tilted, and really I just wanted something in greens and gold with a little bit of silver because of this:
Finrod (Nom)
Okay- imagine the device flipped and rotated so the torch in pointing up. It's at the angle it is because of the direction the diamond square is mapped on the elven banner mesh. But this is a Tolkien Original, and it should look jarring compared to all the elven heraldry so far. Because it's not elven, really, but a heraldric device created for Finrod by the humans that he discovered and helped. Silver harp, burning torch, on green background. Once Finrod befriends the Men, all his banners in his castles will switch to this.
And speaking of which, HERE is the flag for all the Finarfinions.
Orodreth
This prince is either Finrod's brother- the peace-loving second son of Finarfin- or the son of Finarfin's third child. I can honestly work with either. I think it will boil down to whatever I decide the second kid looks like when I play whether he'll be named Orodreth or Angrod. As for the device, heavier on the white, the lotus-like flower is from the mom's design, and it really looks completely different at the 45 degree angle.
Angrod
The third (or second) son of Finarfin, named for his iron-strong grip, has two variations on a design because I couldn't make up my mind whether I liked the simplier or one with the ring more. But I like the geometric-ness of it.
Eldalote
Angrod's wife I doubt will be noble enough for a sigil. Plus I'll probably just pick an attractive townie and rename her. (I do have personal pet characterization that she's as equally bold and hot-headed as her husband and that she deals with large livestock- horses, cows, etc.. And refers to a certain character as a mule not as an insult. But still Angrod is hastily trying to repair the foot-in-mouth damage.)
Orodreth's wife
Okay, we know he has one because he has the daughter Finduilas. And in some writings Gil-galad is his son as well. So I decided the clever answer would be to make Orodreth's wife and Gil-galad's mother (Fingon's wife in this universe) first cousins. Thus she would be distant Sindar nobility. I'm still plotting what those branches of family trees will look like, but heget's answer to the expansion of the elven family tree is thus: Elu has two brothers. Olwe we will get to. The youngest, Elmo, is Celeborn's grandfather. Which means Elmo had to marry some Sindar maid in Middle-earth. This mysterious maiden will have a sibling, who has two sons, each son with have a daughter, and each daughter will marry a grandson of Finwe. Thus our lords of Mithrim. And in this case, we have the daughter 'Holly' who is not as pretty as her older cousin 'Rose'- but who marries the nicer prince. Actually, Orodreth (and his dad Finarfin) makes me think of Bertie who would later be King George VI. I imagine this lady would much like his wife Elizabeth.
Gil-galad being sent to safety with Cirdan will be accompanied by his aunt- and said aunt will be mistaken as his mom. Thus the textual confusion of who is Gil-galad's daddy?
Finduilas
The princess with the unfortunate love life. Oh honey, back away from the wild man with the talking sword. Finduilas Faelivrin is the maiden of courty love stuck in a love triangle and doomed to a horrible death, but at least she exits the story before the incest. And so help me, I would love to see a story where Tuor and Turin switched places...
Her sigil takes the golds and light yellows and green and some of the white of her father, plus the basic structure and art nouveau flower element from her mother's side. Screams princess.
HERE is the flag, because if Idril gets a unique look, Faelivrin shall too.
Guilin and Sons
Do I need a sigil and banner for her fiancee and his family? Gwindor is from a noble family in Nargothrond, he is Noldor, and yet I can't find the evidence of how- except he isn't related to the Finweans. Maybe his family was ennobled as part of the package of being the princess's lover?
Aegnor
Finarfin's youngest son, Aegnor, is one of heget's beloved tragic doomed lovers, but in the Silmarillion proper he's the one that makes a pair with Angrod as the two guys who are willing to bring the fight to the Big Bad and he dies in the Battle of the Sudden Flame. Dragons were involved.
Galadriel
Okay, my first attempts for her were more silver and gold, but I liked the cleaner geometric shapes of Angrod's design, I snuck in a circle of braided gold for pun, and the overall shape hints as a ring.
Galadriel as Artanis
I decided to go back and use the older idea for Galadriel's sigil for manyfold reasons. First of all, as I have allowed the concept of the elves' sigils changing along with changes in status, Galadriel who changes her name when she arrives in Middle-earth and seeks out kigndoms of her own has one of the strongest delineations of all the characters. Once her picks up her new name of Galadriel from Celeborn and declaring herself a Prince equal to her brothers the first sigil that uses the colors and flag of Finarfinweans in Beleriand makes logical sense. But before she's 'Maiden Crown in Gold' taking her silver-themed boyfriend across the Blue Mountains to form forest communes she's only the youngest Finwe granddaughter. Her original device, as we'll now call it, has its own unique flag HERE - because if Idril and Finduilas get their own things, so should Artanis/Nerwen/Altariel/Galadriel. Plus this way I can use the color scheme for the following device.
Celebrian
Galadriel and Celborn's daughter, born in the Second Age, but sneaking her in. A ring of silver flowers to match her name, and the white, pale yellows, and gold of her mother's device.
Amroth
Sneaking this one in. During my mostly fruitless quest to make the sigils of the golden children of Finarfin, this subdued greens with white flowers was one of the better of the lot, and I decided that it actually worked best for Amroth of Lothlorien. Which if not Galadriel and Celborn's son than was good friends with them and probably a godson. So he's allowed the Finarfinian center design.
He has his own flag though HERE
Olwe
Finally into the Third Group of elves properly. Still not 100% pleased with everything in this device, but hey, completely off the top of my head and has to be symmetrical both ways. Update: Edited the points so now it looks a lot better. But here, king of the sea elves. So the colors are very beachy. And 8 points. But relaxed about it.
HERE is the flag.
Earwen
Olwe's daughter, she marries Finarfin and they have four or five children, the youngest of which is Galadriel. Again, I like enough of it not to bother trying to make something new for her.
Any other Teleri elves like Olwe's sons or other nobles I'll deal with later.
A Teleri Lord
Whirlpools, ripples, water reeds.
The color scheme and the general shapes for this random design are exactly the motifs I want for my subset of elves that live in the Blessed Realm of urban elf culture, but on the beach and piloting fancy swanboats. Whether or not I make a playable family that will use this banner, it remains that Olwe needs some underlings' heraldry to hang in his halls.
HERE is the coordinating flag.
Sindar Elves:
Elu Thingol
Alright! The matching Tolkien original counter-point to Finwe. Here is the winged moon of Elwe (Elu Thingol). I remade the design and added some elements because it looked far too plain if I just straight copied. Plus it severely annoyed me that Finwe had 16 points and Elu only had the 8 points like Feanor and Fingolfin when Elu was at least on the royal social standings of Finwe. So I snuck in the extra 8 points in a dark gray. And thanks to this device the royal trappings of my Grey Elves are several shades of silver to black- and bright aqua. Yeah. Thanks for that color choice.
Almost all the following flags for the Sindarian elves of the kingdom of Doriath use THIS or in the case of the king, THIS.
Melian
As an Original by Tolkien, the elaborate nature is something I can take no blame for. But since Melian is a Maia (a divine spirit), she gets the crazy. And you can probably tell this was one of my earlier works. (All of these are made on a square document with guide lines for the horizontal and vertical divides, and each elements is from cutouts of triangles, ellipses, squares, and circles flipped and mirrored until the shape is formed)
Luthien
Luthien gets two Tolkien original designs- both gorgeous and an effort to re-create. They are wildly different, though I'm assuming the white flowers in each are the niphredil that bloomed when she was born. I guess as 'A Very Important Character' she got two. Whatever. The walls of her suites in the castle are going to be the best. The left one- which shows up a lot on Silmarillion covers, is the base recolor for the elven banners- and the flag is THIS. The one of the right works with the flags for Doriath, so part of me wants to use the right design for her life as Princess of Doriath, daughter of Elf King Elu, and the second for her second life as mortal with Beren.
Nandor
Originally this was just a palette swap of this design in something more 'elven'. It sat around in my geometric heraldry folder asa random design until I was making banners and I used it and thought, "Okay, the Nandor. My Green Elves need a banner, and this is plenty of green." Art Nouveau pea flower became House of Denethor (The Original).
And THUS you see the second half of the equation.
Celeborn
So it's written that Denethor and all his nearest kin die in the first wars in Beleriand (the battle the Noldor ignore because they hadn't arrived yet and have we mentioned Tolkien's elves aren't perfect but often imperialistic racists that pay for that sin?) So he had to have kin- siblings and a wife and children. And a fan theory is that he had a sister that married Elmo's son Galadhorn, producing the two boys Galathil and Celeborn. Which I've adopted for my own. (Oh, the angst! Celeborn lost of all his family but this great uncle Elu and his brother to orcs. The he falls in love with that new tall blonde and he gets more problems.)
His flag HERE and that of his brother combines the Nandor with that of Doriath.
Galathil
As for Galathil, Celeborn's brother, I took Celeborn's device and fiddled. Somehow I think the new shape ended up very bird-like. And sword-like. He lived with the Green Elves away from the fighting on the rest of the landmass- which would make sense if he was considered family but not taken as thier king.
Nimloth
Galathil's daughter- she married Luthien and Beren's son Dior. Becomes Queen of Doriath. Why is there virtually nothing about Dior and Nimloth? Because they sound fascinating. Dior is technically the first half-elf or something. Nimloth's device was because the white flower I was building became too much for a possible Galdriel but perfect nearly on its own for the madien whose name literally means 'White Flower'.
And she gets her own flag HERE.
Galadhron (or Elmo)
Yeah, that guy I breezingly mentioned in passing -Galadhorn- father of Celeborn and Galathil, son of Elmo (not the muppet). He needed a sigil. Or maybe this is Elmo's device. Eh. The basic shape appears in the sons, and I even added some of the dreaded aqua. (That aqua is the real reason the dwarves murder Elu.)
Mithrim
Finally, the device of the fathers of our two unnamed wives. As lords owing fealty towards Elu I wanted their look to fit in stylistically.
Mirkwood
Another random design because I was trying to use certain color combinations that I opted to designate for a group of Wood-elves. In this case this is my catch-all for the line of Oropher-Thranduil-Legolas. Yeah, I personally care about these fellows only when they have a dwarf near them.
THIS is their flag, and honestly it's only in the Second Age that this family seperates into a distinct political entity.
Other Sindarian and Silvan lords- You get the strong feeling that the characters in Thingol's court- Daeron, Beleg, Mablung, Nellas- are either commoners or wouldn't need seperate banners. For the most part all those groups of elves are gathered under Elu in Doriath, wandering with the Green-elves, or Cirdan.
Cirdan
The shipwright had an easy time deciding on motifs to work into his device. Waves and a ship's wheel cover the bases- and I chose the colors deliberately. Gil-galad of those silver stars on a dark blue background was sent as a young child to foster with Cirdan for safety. So as much as Gil's device echos that of Fingon and Fingolfin before him, I also wanted parallels to Cirdan. Cirdan also mentors Earendil, so all three need to fit together.
His flag HERE has the quartering of Elu Thingol's Sindarian but not the checkered black and gray. Cirdan's group were Sindarian, but had different motivations for staying and while he was an allied or feudal lord under King Thingol, there is always a seperation in the text that speaks of some political anomynity on his part. With some variation it is also going to be the starting point for the hypothetical college hood of my elves and later humans stuck in Beleriand. As they live on the other side of the ocean, they can't attend Almaren Academie.
Edain (aka Men):
House of Beor
Oh boy. Well, this is a Tolkien original, and the colors where hard to guess at, which is bad when the design itself was easy to do. I settled on colors that also appeared in Finrod's, because it makes sense- these are his humans. (Though amongst themselves I'm taking the nods to Scottish highlands and running with them. Above are the colors of the clan chief of the Beorings' tartan, but other patterns will come.)
House of Hador
Conan the Colour-blind! This Tolkien original wins the 'heget's opinionated decree of worst color choices for a device, ever'. And just guess which of the Three Houses of the Edain (aka first 3 tribes of men to wander into Beleriand) was my least favorite even before I saw what they were working with?
Actually, the people of Hador are the blonde, most Viking or Northern Germanic like of the groups, and the Viking clothing I'll be using for those Sims prove that they liked bright, often garish colors. And nothing says Proud Warrior Race Guys like a bunch of spears.
House of Haleth
Last of the three houses, a Tolkien original- though to keep the vertical symmetry and because frankly it looked better without it, I edited away the green lines across the tree trunk. Yes, if this was properly tilted like it should be on the meshes, you can clearly see it is a tree with fruit or nuts, and in the background a swath of green with two white flowers. House of Haleth is named after the woman that leads their tribe after her father and twin brother are killed in an orc attack. She repluses the attack, gathers her people and relocates them twice, makes very sharp and sassy diplomatic remarks to Elven Kings, had a bodyguard of ax-weilding maidens, and was all-around awesome. Haleth obviously also made sure her human group had a decent device.
And bad heget, I still have Beren's personal sigil to make. Good thing I have a long time before his is needed. Nor have I decided on the accompanying flags. Time to pull out the Tartan Maker!
Earendil
Last of the original Tolkien designs- Earendil, father of Elrond, son of Idril and Tuor. Mister Evening Star, the greatest mariner and herald to the Valar. Tri-color narrow blue stripes for the flag, see HERE.
Random Unassigned Devices:
The majoirty of these will go to Noldor nobles- though only a few to playable families. The following devices mostly are to give downloaders some extra color and non-character-specific options. Also they will work to fill out and clutter the walls of throne rooms and to hang in community lots that aren't owned by any particular family to give the illusion that they do belong to some noble. Some are really old designs I made, and I weeded out the ones that still worked. Others are brand new as of last night.
Winterfell
Okay, this sigil does pair up to a family. In our discussions of ASoIaF I talked about how I would fill out my themed hoods by taking characters from other media and adapting them to the theme- and that the natural response after reading and watching that series, Game of Thrones,was you wanted to take the Starks and put them in authorial witness protection program. Except the world of the Silmarillion is just as strong on the "Everyone Dies" front as Westeros- only I'm allowed to revive elven characters without issues. So the other noble Noldor family in proto-Formenos aside from the family of Caranthir's wife will be a clan of suspiciously familiar elves led by a Boromir look-a-like. ;)
Had to have some elves take full advantage of the rocking wolf toys.
This banner isn't a direwolf, but there are lots of white and grays. I do have a rather long and thought-out story for this family, but their real purpose is to be the background characters in screenshots and part of the outsiders and lower-deck view on the soap opera that is House of Finwe. I've spoiled a little of my plans for Alcar aka Robb. It'll be fun to see if as I start playing who else will get recognized as a transplant.
For the flag, see HERE.
Purple
Oh, this one. Very pretty, very purple- and I hadn't the chance to use much purple, thistle, or lilac before. Also a design that could possibly work for any of my Calaquendi elves: it has enough white to be a Vanyar, the geometry is Noldor, and the grace and lightness can keep it Teleri. If it ends up for anyone, it'll probably be a mixed family.
Its flag is also very purple, see HERE.
Emerald
Another simple banner, definitely a Noldor this time. I have to stop myself to not overload these devices. This time I think I did a good job staying clean and un-cluttered. And a black and dark green was a requested color combination.
Its flag HERE is also simple.
Red Loops
The design is limited to a circle, which means this one is for a hypothetical female. I could make jokes about the use of dark red and crimson meaning this is for the elf equivalent of the 'Lady in Red'.
I guess we now know which faeries abducted Bella Goth...
The matchingflag is HERE.
Hummingbird
I wanted more floral designs and more with the evergreen and aspen and reds. I was thinking Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, hence the fushcia flower. What I ended up with makes me think of something altogether else. That red star, the atomic symbols, the fatigue green, and the industrial deco lines...Maybe if I keep calling it hummingbird it's start to look more 'mellon' instead of 'comrade'. Funny how your brain works.
The matching flag is HERE.
Berry Blush
Two original designs- the first is an old effort, the second new.
The older one I was displeased at how it looked with rotated the proper 45 degrees, and it languished at the back of the folder until I chose it as my icon when doing long rambling world-building posts for my Dreamwidth. Then it grew on me, and as I worked on new devices I took this color scheme -borrowed from the Tulip Build sets- and did a floral device to match. Here's the rose design that poor Meril doesn't get. Except I think this is more Vanayar than anything.
Now it looks like two members of a noble house- the main family and then one of the daughters, I guess? If the colors weren't all wrong I could say this could be the banners for anyone wanting to assign Sim-Elf-heget one.
The matchingflag for the two is HERE.
Kitsune
I was given a color scheme of orange and black and white and sand. It was vaguely bird-themed. But when I got to making floral shapes for the outside of the circle, that design morphed into a little fox face before my eyes. Too cute, had to continue it. So in the end I had a device that I named after the mythological tailed foxes, the kitsune. I have no idea what type of elf will snag this device. An awesome one, I assume.
The matching flag is HERE.
Victorian
An old effort by heget that surprising does look okay on the elf banner mesh- and as the color scheme comes from Marina's Victorian build sets, the palette is refresheningly different. Overall this device is most similar to Melian's, so I guess a Maia can claim it.
The HERE is the matching flag.
Blue
Last, perhaps least, is another old design using the color scheme that would later go to Anaire. The design itself is geometrical. Okay, every single one of these could be described as such. I don't know. It's not quite Eqyptian or Near Eastern. It's still an elf, but for what, I don't know. But still passable to be included in the content.
HERE is the matching flag, but again Anaire's device could equally work. Except this isn't connected to her in any way.
Yeah, that's about it.
And pass this point we are into the Second and Third Age, which with all the white trees and horses on fields of green work just fine on normal meshes and have been made by other folk.
Also recolors for the elven banners are some of andavri's Albion heraldry (but only the elf banner because it's not needed for the rest) and one to round out the Plumbob Keep set.
Wow, it's late. And this is long. Update, Again: Thanks for bearing with me. We are pretty much done.
I'll upload the meshes and their recolors soon.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-19 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-19 08:43 pm (UTC)Elven Heraldry. There are some rules (which I have broken a smudge) to these things, but they are certainly not real-world heraldry laws of tincture and such. Those I am, sad to say, pretty clueless. In fact I had to start familarizing myself with some basic vexillology images just to get started on the 'flag' portions of the banners.
Again, Third Age banners are going to have the things like the White Tree of Gondor, Rohan's horse on a vert field, Dol Amroth swan boat, White Hand of Orthanc.... Okay, seriously, was the red serpent of Harad the only Lord of the Rings banner in the novels that wasn't a white device on a colored field?
(But hey, now my user icons make more sense, right?)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-20 04:05 am (UTC)Some of these would make VERY pretty rose windows, and there's a Dark Project mesh for that. (I think also possibly a Kativip one, but I don't remember.)
(And white on a colored field is because there are two metals (white and yellow) and five tinctures (red, blue, green, black, and in the High Middle Ages, purple (even later on, you get even more colors, like sky blue, orange, carnation, and brown)) and you can only put a metal on a tincture or a tincture on a metal. This is because of contrast; the original purpose of heraldry is so you can look at a warrior's shield and know who he is (and thus if you're supposed to attack him or not). Why Tolkien keeps using argent charges on tincture fields instead of Or or colored charges on metal fields, I have no idea... but modern license plates use the same type of color theory for high readability.)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-20 04:42 am (UTC)(And seriously, only when I started listing them out did I notice that. Okay, it's not like there were a lot of countries, but still.)
Oh yes, the complications in geometry...
The lack of any color rules does make me force my own connections and limits- mostly trying to shy from too-bright shades (That Aqua! That is not a plant-based dye!) and using the Tulip Grove sets that coordinate with some building recolors. And trying to make the family connections as obvious as possible. It's the rules about the numbers of points per rank that I'm breaking every once and a while, but I'm freakish about getting the symmetry.
(The one that I was afraid to attempt out of all those above? The Harp.)
That's the funny thing about heraldry's real battlefield purpose (and I'm a military buff, so my only interest in any real world heraldry would be for the war and not the lineage books)- and as it was pointed out, a square logenze is not a shield shape. And the designs were far too complicated for quick indentity (And don't give me bull about superior elven eyesight), so the conclusion is the elf heraldry here did not start as battle-field indentitifaction but the personal sigils of suburban politics divides. Which story-wise, if we take this to be the invention of the city-dwelling, living-in-peace and (re-?)inventing swords only when tensions between the branches of the royal family boiled over into violence...
Yeah- that's why I ended up making flags using a bit of the colors from each sigil. Because not only would the solid blocks of color be easier to work with but they'd make more sense as troop banners.
For Example: The design for Elu (the black and aqua/turquoise) is that overly fancy 'winged moon', which is perfectly fine hanging in his throne room. But the battle standards and the design draped over the caparisoned horses will be just this: http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g443/heget/Elf%20heraldry/banner_linenpanelelu.png
I know the Dark Project Rosette I'd have to deal with the stonework lacing of the window itself, so not sure how mangled the devices would end up. Plus, only a few of them are proportioned to fit in a circle...
no subject
Date: 2013-01-20 05:08 am (UTC)I am so, so glad I get to stick with the seven High Middle Ages colors and their planetary associations (man, astrology gets into EVERYTHING in the Middle Ages. That's why they added purple), although I admit I have been sticking with relatively simple designs of solid field and contrasting charge.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-02 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-07 02:43 pm (UTC)