| Grease Monkeys |
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Joined: October 30th, 2010, 11:57 am
Posts: 904
Location: Wandering among the star dragons
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Here's my post (Eek! posted late  ) Quote: A piece of fabric flown from multiple locations used to symbolize a country, place or person. When I say this, hopefully you know what I’m talking about. For those who didn’t guess it right away, I’m talking about a flag. Commonly used during the medieval ages for countries and even personal recognition (in the form of heraldry on a shield or caparison) flags can be a great way to add depth to your kingdoms and characters. You don’t have to make flags or heraldry; this is just something extra you can have fun with.
I’m sure most of you, if not all of you, have seen and know what flags and heraldry are. Thus, I’m not going to blither on and on about them. Instead, I’m going to give you a basic run-down of how to create flags and heraldry for your kingdoms and characters. By the way, in this blog post, when I say “heraldry” I’m referring to the part of heraldry that shows up on a shield or caparison.
To begin with, who are you making this design for? Choose someone or someplace from your story and then we can begin. I’m going to choose one of my Duvat tribes, the Uthaines. It helps if you already have some idea of what this person/place is like.
For a place: What are their beliefs? Are they peaceful or aggressive? What are some tokens they hold important (i.e. horses, dragons, swords, trees…)?
For a person: Does the person believe in anything? Is this person male of female? Do they have any symbols they hold important? What country do they live in (if you already have a flag for this country, it can influence the person’s heraldry)?
Like I said, I’m going to be working with the Uthaines.
The Uthaines are a desert tribe of Duvat. They are at peace with the Ashtain rulers, but do not join in the Ashtains’ wars. They are one of the leading Duvat tribes. For the Uthaines, family and heritage are important. They also hold horses and oh-jae in high regard as the beasts help them with hunting. They fear the theraquuae, but also respect it. They are one of the few Duvat tribes who have accepted the beliefs of the Ashtains.
There we go. I now have a very basic sketch of this tribe, enough to make them a flag or banner. As a side note, flags and banners are slightly different. Flags are flown horizontal so they wave backwards in the wind. These are normally long triangles or wide rectangles. Banners are hung down, or vertical, and are normally upright rectangles (though they can be triangles if you want).
Now that I’ve got my tribe, I’m going to select some colors for their flag. Since they live in the desert, I want to rule out any colors that can get easily lost in the landscape. These would be tans and browns, but also lighter blues. They respect the Oh-Jae so their flag could be orange, but orange is still hard to see.
This is where I normally bring out my trusted list of colors and what they mean; either to earth cultures or general feelings. I use this site and this site for finding this information.
I’ve already canceled out some colors, so let’s look at the rest (and keep in mind the person or place your choosing colors for). If I look at the color by culture chart, I’ll pay attention to the desert cultures mentioned (since my tribe lives in the desert). It looks like I may be working with red, green, blue or purple. I’ll have to choose only one or two of these colors and I want to throw in either black or white to balance things off.
If your land is developed to the point where you know the local plant dyes, you can easily narrow your list. I know there is a common plant in the desert that dyes cloth blue, so I’ll include blue in my color scheme. I’ll throw out green as there isn’t much green in the desert to inspire green in a flag. If I look at my other page, it’ll point out that red and blue are opposites. Blue is calming and peaceful whereas red is hot and stimulating. Because of this, I’m going to throw red out the window too. Purple is my last color and symbolizes virtue and royalty. Both are things I think the Uthaines want to display and the color of royalty ties in with their tribe’s higher statues.
Now, either black or white... Since they are currently ruled over by the Ashtains, I’m going to give them black. Later, when they free themselves of the Ashtains, this may change to white (which can add a nice bit of culture).
Okay! I’ve got my colors. The next part is where you begin designing. We’re not going to place our colors yet, in fact, it’d probably be best to work in grayscale with three shades (well, three for me). Pop open your short history sketch again and let’s begin.
I mentioned four things that have some significance to the Uthaines; family, horses, oh-jae and theraquuae. This is where I’m going to get a little abstract. There’s no straight up designs for family (I suppose you could put a picture of a family on your flag, but that’s a bit straight forward and flags are about symbols) so I have to think of a few things that represent family: love, unity, connected, together, strong, continuing.
Okay, I’ll stop there. Now, if I think of what shapes could represent these words, I get ideas for Celtic knots, and circles. Alright, I’ve got some ideas for that word. The other three things will be easier. They’re animals for I can take their shapes and also any patterns they have. I can also think of words that describe those animals and include them in the design. Horse: smooth, swift; oh-jae: enduring, watchful; theraquuae: strong, aggressive.
So, now I have a list of words, but I’ve yet to connect them to any symbols I can use on a flag. Find the edge of your box and step outside; it’s time to find those random shapes. Let’s start with choosing some words the Uthaines would want to display on their flag. I’m going to go with unity, enduring, and strong. Three good messages a tribe would want to communicate through their flag.
First word: unity. To repeat myself, I see unity as a circle, or a Celtic knot. More likely a Celtic knot, so I’ll go with that. I do a quick Google search for “family Celtic knots” and find two images (one & two) that look like, with some editing, they could work for my flag. You may notice, one of the pictures has a tree as a part of the design. I really like how this one joins my Celtic knots idea and the “family tree” notion.
Second word: enduring. Now, enduring can be somewhat related to unity if I were to go for Celtic knots again. Some consider trees to be a symbol of enduring and this ties in beautifully with my thoughts so far. Anyone seeing a Celtic tree knot yet?
Third word: strong. I don’t want to stray too far into using Celtic knots so I’m going to turn away from that. Instead, I’m going to use a simple pattern to depict this word. Two bands, running horizontal across the Uthaine flag to show they are strongly bound together.
I’d like to say at this point that all of this can be done in reverse. You can start out with a symbol in mind and then decide what it means to your people/person. You can also choose your colors after you make your design. Moving on…
I did some quick editing in Photoshop to those pictures I found on Google. This is what I ended up creating; a symbol that will work nice as the focus for the Uthaine’s flag.
You know what? We’re almost done! Remember the colors I chose at the beginning. Well, I brought them out again and tried a few variations of color. Such as: a blue tree, purple bands and a black field; a black tree, blue bands and a purple field; a purple tree, black bands and a blue field. Here is my final, colored, version. I can now add details as to the meaning behind this symbol. If you’ll allow me…
“The tree represents the Uthaine’s strong feelings about family, while the arc at the base symbolizes the sun rising everyday in the Great Silver Sea. The single, spear-tip-like root of the tree points to the ‘founding’ family of the Uthaines. This is the Agarag family from whom the Uthaine rulers descend. The tree symbol is black because of the Ashtains taking rulership from the Uthaines. When the Ashtains are finally overthrown by the Duvat, the tree is changed back to white. The blue bands symbolize the Uthaines choice to stand strong in peace rather than war and also how, as a tribe, they are bound together. The purple field displays the Uthaine’s rulers’ royal heritage and is a reminder of who they were before the Ashtains came.”
How’s that for adding depth to your world? Making heraldry for your characters and kings is just as simple! I hope my post has helped you and maybe even encouraged you to make your own flags and heraldry.
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I am Lady Vilisse Mimetes. Humble servant of the Lord our God and warrior in His name. Though my actions are feeble and prone to failure, I shall never falter in my call. I am pledged to combat those ideas that are rooted in mindsets that are contrary to my Master.
My name is outward proof of my promise to follow, closer and closer, the words and will of my Lord and Father.
note:
Vilisse is Quenya for a person's spirit or general personality.
Mimetes is Greek for an imitator or follower.
and so my spirit is one of a follower
Visit my revived, er.... dead blog! RSSharkey
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