I've been giving a little thought to heraldry in the Third Imperium. Over thousands of years, the rules would likely have changed to some extent, but heraldry is also an extremely conservative field — even today there is a lot of pushback to the Canadian College of Heralds adding "copper" as a third metal, and I have seen salty comments about Eastern European heralds using sable (black) as a fur so they can put it over metals and colors.
In traditional heraldry, there are seven hues that have their own archaic, French-derived names, which are collectively called tinctures. There are two metals (gold/yellow [or] and silver/white [argent]) and five colours* (red [gules], blue [azure], black [sable], green [vert], and purple [purpure]). There's a few more, called stains, but they're really rare and there's a lot of conservative heralds who won't touch them, claiming they are too close to already existing tinctures. The most common stains are maroon [murrey], blood-red [sanguine], and orange [tenné].
An important point is that the achievement of arms is a verbal description: "argent, a tree vert" for example. Exactly how this is depicted varies from herald to herald; as with all graphic artists, they are given some artistic latitude. But the tincture can also vary — all the different shades of green are "vert" and so on. This is the argument against many of the stains — for instance, that murrey is too similar to the colour purpure, sanguine to the colour gules, and tenné to the metal or. As the whole point is for the arms to be distinctive, this is a valid criticism of new tinctures.
The primary rule of heraldry is the rule of tincture: you can't put a metal on a metal or a colour on a colour. This is because the main thrust of heraldry is to make a personal symbol that can be easily-distinguished at a distance. You have to register your arms with the College primarily so they can make sure it's not sufficiently-similar to be mistaken for someone else's; this applies on a national level, so that a German could have the same arms as an Englishman (different Colleges).
The Imperium has an Office of Heraldry (from T4 Pocket Empires and G:T Nobles) — it's part of the Department that handles trademarks, which is very appropriate, actually.
Anyway, the only canonical guidance I could find on the subject was in MT Imperial Encyclopedia. On page 29, it mentions that Porfiria, in 247, ordered that the Imperial Sunburst would have no official color, since some species have vision far enough off-spectrum to Humaniti that the color palette doesn't work. On reading this, I initially thought that meant she abolished the rule of tincture; but in thinking about it further, I could see the Office of Heraldry instead deciding that the heraldic tinctures can change, based on species. For a Vargr, perhaps gules and vert are different colours, as they are somewhat red-green colorblind. This widens the application of heraldry while maintaining conservative heraldic values.
The other thing I noticed is the following paragraph, which mentions that the different branches prefer specific colors of the Sunburst: red for the Scouts; yellow for the Imperial Navy; black for the the Imperial Army; and maroon for the Imperial Marine. This makes me think of gules, or, sable, and murrey, so I think murrey is probably a regular Imperial heraldic element.
The other thing I think would be added is a new metal. IMTU, that new metal is iridium. Unfortunately, iridium does not have a weird colour; it's basically a shade of dark orange silver-grey. Ashen-grey (called cendrée) is already a stain in some French heraldry, so there's already some historical authenticity for a grey. I add this to the Imperial heraldry IMTU.
Has anyone done anything else with Imperial heraldic rules? I imagine rockets (in French, fusée) becoming a common element.
* Note: I'm not British, but the US doesn't generally have its own heraldic traditions so I bow to the English rules and spelling.
In traditional heraldry, there are seven hues that have their own archaic, French-derived names, which are collectively called tinctures. There are two metals (gold/yellow [or] and silver/white [argent]) and five colours* (red [gules], blue [azure], black [sable], green [vert], and purple [purpure]). There's a few more, called stains, but they're really rare and there's a lot of conservative heralds who won't touch them, claiming they are too close to already existing tinctures. The most common stains are maroon [murrey], blood-red [sanguine], and orange [tenné].
An important point is that the achievement of arms is a verbal description: "argent, a tree vert" for example. Exactly how this is depicted varies from herald to herald; as with all graphic artists, they are given some artistic latitude. But the tincture can also vary — all the different shades of green are "vert" and so on. This is the argument against many of the stains — for instance, that murrey is too similar to the colour purpure, sanguine to the colour gules, and tenné to the metal or. As the whole point is for the arms to be distinctive, this is a valid criticism of new tinctures.
The primary rule of heraldry is the rule of tincture: you can't put a metal on a metal or a colour on a colour. This is because the main thrust of heraldry is to make a personal symbol that can be easily-distinguished at a distance. You have to register your arms with the College primarily so they can make sure it's not sufficiently-similar to be mistaken for someone else's; this applies on a national level, so that a German could have the same arms as an Englishman (different Colleges).
The Imperium has an Office of Heraldry (from T4 Pocket Empires and G:T Nobles) — it's part of the Department that handles trademarks, which is very appropriate, actually.
Anyway, the only canonical guidance I could find on the subject was in MT Imperial Encyclopedia. On page 29, it mentions that Porfiria, in 247, ordered that the Imperial Sunburst would have no official color, since some species have vision far enough off-spectrum to Humaniti that the color palette doesn't work. On reading this, I initially thought that meant she abolished the rule of tincture; but in thinking about it further, I could see the Office of Heraldry instead deciding that the heraldic tinctures can change, based on species. For a Vargr, perhaps gules and vert are different colours, as they are somewhat red-green colorblind. This widens the application of heraldry while maintaining conservative heraldic values.
The other thing I noticed is the following paragraph, which mentions that the different branches prefer specific colors of the Sunburst: red for the Scouts; yellow for the Imperial Navy; black for the the Imperial Army; and maroon for the Imperial Marine. This makes me think of gules, or, sable, and murrey, so I think murrey is probably a regular Imperial heraldic element.
The other thing I think would be added is a new metal. IMTU, that new metal is iridium. Unfortunately, iridium does not have a weird colour; it's basically a shade of dark orange silver-grey. Ashen-grey (called cendrée) is already a stain in some French heraldry, so there's already some historical authenticity for a grey. I add this to the Imperial heraldry IMTU.
Has anyone done anything else with Imperial heraldic rules? I imagine rockets (in French, fusée) becoming a common element.
* Note: I'm not British, but the US doesn't generally have its own heraldic traditions so I bow to the English rules and spelling.
