IDEA: Coat of Arms / Family Crests of the Oblivion Community

[LHammonds]

I researched my family tree to find the coat of arms my father was talking about and found this:

 

 

 

I thought it would be cool to have a shield in-game with my actual ancestor's coat of arms. But as I did research, I found out that there are many variations because there is not a single "coat of arms" design for a family surname. They were tailored to individuals. So why limit myself to an ancient ancestor? I wanted to make my own and quickly came up with this rough draft:

 

 

 

Granted, this is a more up-to-date theme for an American but it could easily be adapted back to fantasy items (swords / armor).

 

Anyways, I thought it might be a cool mod if other members of the community submitted their ancestors coat of arms or created ones for themselves. Then place it in a single mod that adds a museum to display these shields along with a book that tells the background story for each one...what the symbols mean...how they related to the family...noteworthy deeds, etc. Maybe even have a vendor in the shop that will sell replicas of each set.

 

It would not have to be limited to just shield items, it could also include house banners, custom horse armor / clothing, NPC armor / clothing, mugs, books, weapon / armor racks, etc.

 

Experienced modders could submit custom objects and novice modders or anyone can just submit an image for somebody else to transplant onto a blank shield (although I think it would be appropriate that each submission have some homework done that explains the story, symbols, colors and whatnot for the coat of arms at places such as fleurdelis.com

 

Here is an example of what the symbols mean on the coat of arms I created above (although I have not created a story yet):

 

Colors

Red - Warrior or martyr; Military strength and magnanimity

Blue - Truth and loyalty

 

Symbols

Eagle - Person of noble nature, strength, bravery, and alertness; or one who is high-spirited, ingenious, quick-witted, and judicious; "True magnanimity and strength of mind" acc. to Guillim.

Helmet - When depicted on the shield, denotes wisdom and security in defense; strength, protection, invulnerability.

Sword/Dagger/Dart/Sabre/Scimitar - Justice and military honour (There is not one for an M16 but I'd guess it would go here)

 

Shield Division Style

Quartered - Unity and Balance

 

Raise your hand if you would be interested in contributing to this mod in one form or another.

 

WARNING:

 

Please keep in mind that you do NOT have to give your real name and for those minors, I encourage you to NOT give your real name.

 

For example, my last name really is Hammonds but doing research into the origins of this name, there are many different spellings. The most common is Hammond but more ancient variations include very different spellings such as Amon and thus, Amon could be used instead to keep my real name secret.

 

FYI - Here is the thread that prompted this: Hammonds Coat of Arms

 

LHammonds

[alex2avs]

This would be neat :)

I like the museum idea ... and this would have been a millionth member competition winner ^_^

Count me in. ;)

oh , yeah ... What did you used to create your coat of arms ?

[DagonTheranis]

My family has no coat of arms, but technically I can use the crest of Newcastle for one, as a member of my family was once mayor there.

[LHammonds]

What did you used to create your coat of arms ?

PaintShopPro 9.0 was my graphics editor. The image uses 15 layers and vector graphics for text and borders.

 

The helmet and M16 are models that were rendered in Blender.

 

The banner, torches and eagle were ripped from the Internet as temporary placeholders until I found something better that I liked.

 

I was going for more detail but these things need to be instantly recognizable from a great distance so I will be dumbing down the image and using more solid and brighter colors as well as wireframe designs. The text should really be the ONLY thing that requires somewhat close observation.

[Pronam]

The type/font of the text says a lot ...indeed.

I'll try and see if I have one in my family, otherwise I'll definitely create one.

 

I don't know what I can do to help, but any quests, scripts...those are my primary skills.

Other than that, I can't create anything more than my own coat/crest and try to get that on a pre-made shield.

[LHammonds]

I plan on creating a heater shield as a blank for use in this mod. This heater shield will actually be my digital copy of what I plan to create in real-life.

 

The font I used in my most recent WIP crest is "Kingthing's Petrock" which is the closest thing to what is used in Oblivion.

 

EDIT: To get the text to follow a pre-defined path, I use the following technique in PaintShop Pro: Curved Text

 

LHammonds

[Pronam]

I once spend hours retexturing when someone asked to change some signs...Those letters are awful to replicate.

Thank you for showing the font, that will make things a bit easier in the future.

[Gethesmain]

http://Gethesmain.deviantart.com/art/Raven...ariant-72975198

 

This is my crest, called "Weisshertz"

 

the bottom left one (the plain black and white one) is the original.

[Blacksnake89]

 

The Gaynor (Gainer) coat of arms

 

Colors:

Red: Warrior, millitary strength

Gold: Generosity and elevation of the mind

Green: Hope, joy, and loyalty

 

Herald:

Lion: Dauntless courage.

 

It'd be cool to see this on a shield, maybe even a cuirass.

[tullabee]

This is an excellant idea, however would you consider a structure based on the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) rules, ie.,..actual coats of arms based on heraldic rules? Duke Patrick, who I understand is an actual SCA King, would be the person to contact. The SCA coats of arms are actually registered coats of arms created by the participants and it remains their device for the rest of their lives. It would be nice to see a Heraldry website (perhaps with a person appointed as Herald as moderator) displaying actual coats of arms for players and it would certainly generate interest in the history of armoury. In addition, the artwork can be amazing. Please note, that the rules of heraldry are stringent, and the registration process can be lengthy. However, it would definitely be worth it.

I am not a modder but I think it would be difficult to reproduce an armorial device in the game, but a websight displaying each players Coat of Arms with a tutorial explaining how to create and register one would be excellant. Perhaps, of more interest in the game would be large animated flags and pennants for castles and strongholds.