Random Heraldry generation

You play d&d right? You let players become lords when they hit ninth level right? You don’t? Well that’s just not right. Now that you’ve remedied that, let’s move on. I’m sure players will want to make their own coats-of-arms when they receive their patent of nobility but they’ll be at court and tournaments with all sorts of NPCs that have their own coats-of-arms! Now, you don’t have time to come up with a bunch of images do you? Of course not. That’s why I have a table to randomize the process!

Now you might be wondering what all this means and that’s why I’m going to explain each section!

Tincture Tincture refers to the colour – in traditional medieval heraldry, there was (largely) only 5 colours available with 2 ‘metals’. These colours (and metals) are:
Gules (red), from goules, referring to a piece of red scarf of sorts, from the same root as the English ‘gullet.’
Sable (black), from the colour of fur of a particular species of marten.
Azure (blue), ultimately from the Arabic lazaward, or lapis lazuli.
Vert (green), from the French for green.
Purpure (purple), from the Old French for purple.
Argent (silver, often rendered as white in art), from the French for silver.
Or (gold, often rendered as yellow in art), from the French for gold.
There is a rule to be followed with heraldry (and you’ll see it in most flags) that a colour can not be touching another colour, nor a metal touching another metal. This is why in a flag such as Norways, the red and blue are separated by white. An exception is red and black which occasionally mixed.
You can simply roll high or low whether your field (the background) or charge (the image) will be the colour and which will be the metal.

Charge I have broken it down into 5 categories – most of these should be quite self-explanatory as I’m sure everyone knows what a lion or sword looks like. Certain charges will need 2 different colours such as the cock or cocaktrice – usually their wattle, or the mermaid – their scales being different from the skin.
Whenever you roll a six, roll again but add another d6 into the mix – that’s how you get more than one image on the shield. If you keep getting 6s, eventually you’ll have to quarter your shield, a process referred to as ‘marshaling’ and it will grow into some historical examples such as the image below, coat-of-arms for Anne of Denmark, consort of King James VI.

Ordinary What is an ordinary? What does Chief and Pale mean? These are simple, geometric designs. I could probably find a good image online but I have a really shoddy hand-drawn one that I did so I’m going to use that.

Attitude An attitude is the pose that a charge will take. Obviously this applies to animals and not castles or swords or what have you. Because my artistic skills, as seen above, are horrible, I will not draw each and instead just tell you:
Couchant: laying down with all four feet flat on the ground, as the arms of Waterloo, Ontario
Courant: running or leaping, as the arms of CFB Shilo
Erased: just the head, as the crest of the Fraser Clan
Passant: walking on all fours, right arm raised, as the golden lions on the royal arms of England
Rampant: standing up on hind legs, as the red lion on the royal arms of scotland
Sejant: sitting; hind legs bent, forelegs straight, as the beaver (sort of) of the 98th Regiment of the US Army

For the birds:
Close: Standing still, wings folded, in profile, as the arms of Canterbury
Displayed: wings displayed to the sides, body facing forwards, as the flag of Albania
Recursant: view of the bird’s back as it dives, as the 38th Air Division Eagle
Volant: in flight, head up, in profile, as the arms of the 412 Squadron, RCAF
Pelican: the pelican has a unique attitude where it is close, but piercing its own breast with its beak. This is some sort of biblical reference if I’m not mistaken.

I hope that you can make use of these tables or perhaps have it inspire you to make your own. Heraldry is a fascinating topic and if you want to know more, check out your local library! Your librarians love to help you learn and are always willing to find a book for you.