Thread:Mechemik/@comment-1082330-20190115171033/@comment-1082330-20190116224157

I see a lot has happened here since I last checked in; my apologies for my late reply!

@Ruttou — It seems as though Mechemik's restoration of the files (thanks for that!) makes them available on the Polish wiki as well, a nice usability fix from the site since I was last active around these parts, so you should be able to directly use them from pl:Plik:COA La Valette.svg, pl:Plik:Clan an Craite (round).svg, and pl:Plik:Clan Tuirseach.svg.

The colors I used on the La Vallettes' shield and the black in the an Craites' were those from my own palette, while the red on the an Craites arms used the red from WappenWiki's palette. The color for the Clan Tuirseach shield, on the other hand, I took directly from the concept art, simply because it was such an odd tincture (heraldically-speaking) that I didn't know exactly what to do with it (Azure tends to be darker, while Bleu celeste tends to be lighter).

I have no particular issue with whatever particular shades anyone wishes to use, and if anyone wants to change them, they can certainly feel free to (or you can shoot me a message and I'll do it if you're not comfortable with SVGs).

I put the scroll on the La Valettes' shield because that's how it was depicted in the existing file. It's been so long since I played Assassins of Kings that I can't honestly remember how it looked in-game, so it could be that you're right, and this was meant to be placed 'over' the shield, rather than being part of it, but it looked from the existing file that, unorthodox though it is, it was actually meant to be part of the emblazon—hence my inclusion.

It's also worth noting that I couldn't fully make out the text that was on there, so while I did my best to recreate it, it's likely wrong. If anyone has an image that more clearly shows it (or can point me to where to find it in-game), I might be able to correct it.

Regarding the tincture and the lozengy variation, well, as I say, my memory from the game is quite sketchy, so you could very well be right. I've also not read the books, so if there's anything about the arms there, I'm not familiar with it. If there's a desire for it, I could upload a red version either in place of or in addition to the green and gold lozengy one.

The Skelliger arms definitely pose issues when it comes to making them fit with heraldic norms. Standardizing the Tuirseach arms to a more traditional heater shield seemed reasonable to me, but I didn't really know what to do with the tincture (as mentioned) or with the charge (nor am I even sure what it's meant to be— a lion? a dragon? a bear? The latter seems most likely…). Contrariwise, I'd originally uploaded a heater-shaped version of the an Craite arms, but decided in the end to use the round shield instead. I don't know that such had ever been used in traditional heraldry, but it has been seen in modern heraldry (examples [ ), which perhaps made the idea more palatable to me. The concept art also appears to depict a triangular formation of dots to the upper left and right of each ship, which I'd left off mine simply because I couldn't decide whether it was mere [[wikipedia:diapering|diapering]], or whether it as an integral part of the emblazon, but they seemed too small to be properly blazoned as pellets.

All in all, if you do want to move towards vectors for the Skelliger arms, I feel a balance ought to be struck between making them fit æsthetically with the other arms and keeping them true to the original concepts. I certainly don't feel too much focus should be put on making them heraldically 'normal'—after all, who's to say that any of the heraldic norms of our world apply to that of the Witcher, on Skellige or on the Continent? Just my twopence, anyway.