Having always been interested in medieval history, particularly heraldry, and my fiancée (Linda) being both interested and adept in computer graphics, it didn't take long for us to hit on the idea of trying our hand at representing the heraldry of the Seven Kingdoms. Our first attempts were rather crude, and took quite a lot of time. But we kept at it, and we've improved quite a lot (we like to think) from those early days. This section has also grown into much more than just a showcase of the heraldry of the Seven Kingdoms; in the file for each house, you will find an overview of what so far is known about the house in question.
We have now completed all but 47 out of the 406 known arms. The list of known arms consists of the arms of 371 houses -- from major houses to houses we've yet to meet in the books -- as well as 10 arms of houseless hedge knights, 22 personal arms and the arms of 3 orders of knighthood.
It should be noted that, rather than striving for a perfectly accurate way of rendering these banners, we've decided to go for a somewhat 'fancier' style, which might be how they would be painted onto some document, though hardly how they would be represented on a shield. Consider it a representation of a waving banner, a shield and a badge all in one.
Acknowledgements
- Images marked © RMB were originally drawn in black-and-white by Richard M. Boyé.
- Images marked © MM were originally drawn in black-and-white by Mike Miller.
- Images marked © JP were originally drawn in black-and-white by Jason Poulis.
- Some images (in their unaltered stage) were obtained through and are Copyright © 2003-2005 www.clipart.com.
- Some images were scanned in from various books from Dover Publications.
- Some images were obtained through various sources of royalty-free black-and-white heraldic clip-art.
Important Notes
- The Heraldry may contain spoilers for all published books and stories.
- Please note that the following sections contain spoilers within the actual listings as well as, when it applies, within the initial file rather than in a specially marked spoiler file: Houseless Hedge Knights, Personal Arms, List of Changes.
- Whatever you see actually written in the books is canon. If you can't find these house names, place names, banners, or words in the published books, they are subject to change in the future.
- If a house is listed without a keep, it may not have one, or it may simply not have been named yet. In many cases, we do not know what the situation is, but if we do know, the information can be found in the file for that specific house.
- A house marked {like this} is a house that had died out by the time of the books. This does not, however, include houses which die out during the course of the books, and we also do not use this marker on personal banners.
- With two exceptions (the Targaryens are listed as the ruling house of King's Landing and we do add any lords created during the course of the books as well as any newly taken personal badges) the listing for each area presents the situation at the beginning of the books. See the List of Changes as well as the file for each House for up-to-date information.
- We have removed the markers indicating the ranks of various houses, due to the increasing complexity shown in the books and the lack of such information for many houses. For those houses that we have such information for, it will eventually be found in the file for that specific house. The houses are now sorted alphabetically in the list, rather than by known or presumed rank.
Index