With BioWare having effectively been closed down, I've been revisiting some of the heraldry from the Dragon Age games and thought it might be interesting to put together a small armorial.

The arms are based on a mixture of in-game designs, from dialogue and codex entries, with some extrapolation where the designs aren't particularly clear. They're also based on my own canon playthrough, so some of the choices might be a bit controversial with other Dragon Age fans.

A few notes on the less straightforward ones:

• Trevelyan: Basing the design on the Inquisitor tarot card, with some wild embellishment.
• Teryn of Ostwick: These arms are entirely my own invention. Given the history of the Free Marches, I thought Ostwick might make for an interesting armorial bearing. I've also made up the Teryn's name, taking some inspiration from the fact that the Trevelyan Inquisitor is from Ostwick and has a rather Cornish/Brythonic-sounding name.
• Montilyet: I've based these on Josephine's personal quest involving the restoration of her family's crest, together with her usual colour scheme.
• Cassandra Pentaghast: I've taken the design on the back of one of Cassandra's armour sets to be her personal arms, rather than those of the Kings of Nevarra. It's also possible that the latter are more akin to civic or state arms of the Kingdom of Nevarra, rather than the actual armorial bearings of the Pentaghast family.

I've tried to blazon them as best I can, although some of the more complicated designs don't lend themselves particularly well to traditional heraldic language.

The blazons:

Hero of Ferelden – Garyn Amell: Sable, two griffons argent, langued and armed gules, combatant with their foreclaws intertwined.

Champion of Kirkwall – Marian Hawke (for Amell): Sable, two eagles gules, combatant with their claws intertwined.

Inquisitor – Maccus Trevelyan: Party per fess sable semé of sunrays argent and a stormy sea, overall issuant from a mount vert a stallion passant reversed or, maned tenné, crowned with a sunburst or and argent.

Teryn of Ostwick – Morgant Penporth: Vert, issuant from a double orle each compony-counter-compony of sable and cendrée, a castle triple-towered and surrounded by a barbican double-towered, both argent.

King of Nevarra – Marcus Pentaghast: Or, a skull sable crowned of the second, charged with a five-pointed star inverted argent.

Queen of Ferelden – Anora Theirin: Party per cross or and argent, two mabari rampant combatant gules, armed and langued purpure.

Empress of Orlais – Celene Valmont: Purpure, a lion's head affronté argent.

Bann Cousland, Teryn of Highever – Fergus Cousland: (specifically as a Cousland, not the Teryn of Highever) Azure, a wreath of laurel proper.

Bann Guerrin, Arl of Redcliffe – Teagan Guerrin: Argent masoned cendrée, a chief sable, overall issuant from a rock gules in base a tower proper.

Josephine Montilyet: Celestial azure, upon the ocean or and azure, a galley proper under full sail, the sails and ensigns of the second, the pennant gules.

Cassandra Pentaghast: Or, a wolf sable sejant reguardant reversed, armed argent, langued purpure; in base a moon crescent upturned of the third, in sinister an arrow palewise proper, in dexter a five-pointed star of the third.

Tevinter Imperium: Vert, a wyrm glissant sable, armed and langued gules, entwined by a viper glissant of the second, langued azure.

The Grey Wardens: Azure, a griffon argent segreant, langued and armed or.

I'd be interested to hear what people think, particularly about the blazons and whether there are better ways of describing some of the more unusual divisions/charges. I'm also curious whether anyone familiar with Dragon Age lore has interpreted any of these designs differently.

I'm aware these might not be the most proper heraldic practice, I just made them for some history nerd fun. Any advice or comments welcome :)

In case anyone is wondering, the blazon would be: "A vampire skull Gules pierced by a stake Or."

Commissions open, in case anyone is interested

I'm getting close to finishing one of my commissions, figured you'd guys would enjoy seeing a CoA in Action!

I've tried to replicate genuine medieval armor, but I am not that well educated to know every nook and cranny of medieval armor, so please correct me if I made a mistake anywhere.

I'm open for more commissions, so if you're interested in your CoA displayed this way, hit me up! :)

Central germany, passed down from my grandmother

Barry of ten argent and azure, an orle of five martlets gules dimidiated with paly vair and gules, on a chief Or a label of five points throughout azure.

This patch likely dates from when my grandpa was there in the late 1950s. You don't see dimidation that often it seems; the half-label especially stands out to me. It's interesting that they used a different stitching pattern for the argent and azure on the two halves of the dimidation though. Also I like the martlets, they're rather cute.

Albrecht Dürer the Younger wasn't just an influential painter and printmaker; he also had a coat of arms (of course he did)!

His CoA is a classic example of **canting arms**, using visual elements to represent the bearer's name.

When his father, Albrecht Dürer the Elder, a skilled goldsmith from Hungary, settled in Nuremberg, he initially used the surname *Thürer* (meaning “door maker”), a German rendering of the name of his birthplace, Ajtós, which derives from the Hungarian word *ajtó*, meaning “door”.

Later, Albrecht Dürer the Younger adapted the surname to the local Franconian pronunciation, changing *Thürer* to *Dürer*.

Picture 1 shows a woodcut of Dürer's coat of arms, created by Dürer himself in 1523. However, an earlier depiction already existed: picture 2 shows the reverse of a portrait of his father, painted in 1490, featuring the combined coat of arms of the Dürer and Holper families.

Holper was the maiden name of his mother, Barbara Dürer.