we just got absorbed into wikipedia learning stuff about heraldry and holy fuck that's a lot of complicated and arbitrary rules and everything is in pseudo-french
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@Felthry I'm always surprised that lions and gryphons in heraldry have a very particular pointy shape and yey people manage to be very consistent with them
@Felthry I went down that rabbit hole a few years ago. The rules seem arbitrary, but there is a purpose to them. The whole point is to be quickly and easily identified at a distance, so folks could tell which guy in identical armour was which on the battlefield. The rules are meant to increase contrast and visibility between design elements to aid with this.
The reason it's all in Old French is that's what the English nobility all spoke when this was established as common practice.
@terrana That makes sense! I still wonder why the gryphons look so very upset, though.
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@Felthry They're supposed to look fierce. In heraldry, the griffin is a bold statement of power, as it combines the lion, the "king of beasts", with the eagle, the "king of birds".
Yes, I know, that's just how they thought back then.
@terrana https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/POL_Szczecin_COA.svg I dunno, this one looks like they just saw something surprising and disgusting, while also being bored. I'm not sure I get the "fierce" here.
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@terrana @Felthry Back in the 90s on FurToonia Muck I had a friend who was an Enfield. And was really happy to explain heraldry to you and tried to get me to pose rampant from them and all. (They had a bit of a crush.)
Unfortunately, this was very early web so there were, like, *no* good references with pictures, so we had to struggle to follow what they were talking about or what even an Enfield looked like.
also apparently gryphons in heraldry always seem to look very upset
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