These are a tradition of the World Above. This is to say, Images of Officials, icons of office-holders.
Royalist society occupies many of the positions that would otherwise be religious or spiritual in nature. In some sense, the official images (for the devout) hold the position of reverential icons. Official Images might be released every few years, or once a decade, or just straight-up once, upon taking up the title. It is left to the discretion of the particular noble. But they must be released.
They follow a strict formula, designed to make them readable at a glance for anyone in the World Above.
Here is an example:
The middle of the image is, well, the Image, a depiction of the noble in question. It is idealised in some ways (perhaps your patchy beard will be drawn well and full, or we’ll ignore those pox-scars on your forehead), while entirely unidealised in others (perhaps famously, the great corpulence of Grand Duke Fioretto II of Draad is preserved unchanged in every one of his Official Images).
Below the image, the Title, on the first row, the Personal Names, on the second, and the Family Name, on the third. This latter is usually formatted as “Of House X”, even if most simply use them in the surname manner we’re more familiar with.
Above the image, their Coat of Arms, in a shield. This follows rules similar to our heraldry, and uses the same highly encoded descriptive language. Heraldry is assigned, remembered, managed and recorded by the Chantry. People think of it as an Arumite system, because it came from Arumell. The rules are standardised, but everyone has their variances:
Zzargod - The colours of Ciel (sky-blue) and Murret (Purple-red) are local to Zzargovi coats of arms. They add Cuivre (copper) and Cazarin (blue-green) to their list of metals.
Saral Sar - The colour Orange is local to Sarali coats of arms. They add Verdigris (grey-green) to their list of metals.
Serias / Defiance - The colour (or sometimes metal) of Cendreé (ash or iron grey) is local to Serias. The colour of Sanguine (blood red) fell out of favour some time ago, but is coming back among the Royalist Seriasi nobles and Signatories, to contrast the Defiant Green.
Arumell - Obey the rules they created - but use a lot of black, since that’s kind of the iconic Arumite colour.
Draad - They add Sacré (grey-blue) and Cazarin (blue-green) to their list of metals. The Count of the island of Capana inexplicably uses a Sarali orange. In the Hanchen Duchy and Duchy of Iridia, they add the colour Rose (pink).
Magnos - Add Cuivre, Cazarin and Sacré to their list of metals. The mostly powerless nobility of Magnos carefully follow the rules of Heraldry, the Heptarchs often don’t (and sometimes change their Coats of Arms, apparently?).
Kelkora - Kelkorans have Banners, which are not Coats of Arms, and they also don’t produce Official Images, except for the Governor in Okiri. So, whatever rules the Governor follows, all of Kelkora follows by default! How convenient.
All noble families and all Signatories have Coats of Arms. If a Signatory doesn’t already come from an armigerous family, they gain arms upon signing their Charter. They’re a matter of extreme gravity to the Nobility, and not so much to the Signatories. Most design them around the time of their Signature, have it dutifully recalled by a Chantry docent, and forget all about it until it jumpscares them on the lintel of their new house or at their wedding.
To the left hand of the Heraldry is the Symbol of Rank. They are as follows, in ascending order of seniority:
Scroll - Signatory - Those who pass Signatorial exams and sign a Charter become armigerous, but having an Official Image is an uncommon occurrence for Signatories - only for the High Signatories of each Charter, usually, and rarely for particularly prominent and successful individuals (for example, Signatory Kine, inventor of modern medical theory. His Image is still put up in public places around the Kingdom, especially in his native Vel Index).
High Signatories and Chartered Eyes (and one supposes, technically, Chartered Hands) receive the Scroll and Tassel.
Hand - Gentry - Those who were ennobled by the personal grace of the King. Vary wildly in their origins. Perhaps began as especially successful commonfolk who accrued wealth, those who performed some unforeseen act which the King greatly favoured, or families of more unusual origins - the founding figure of House Strelkov, a long-gone house of the Zzargovi Peerage, for example, was a gun-toting assassin of rebellion-organising Hedge-Knights. If there exists any noble family from before the King’s reign that has neither climbed the ranks nor gone extinct, their Images would bear this symbol.
Bell - Gentry - Those who were ennobled by their achievement of high office in a city. Becoming the mayor, the master of couriers, the keeper of weights and measures, &c, guarantees ennoblement, barring scandal. Since about the ~900s, with few exceptions, the power in the cities of the Kingdom has been stitched up between calcified and powerful blocs of gentry with no desire to see upstarts attain peerage.
Flower - Gentry - Only found in Saral Sar. Those who became members of the local gerousia, the Henuriad, are given this symbol. The exact flower varies based on which of the Sarali kabila they represent, or sometimes is a pun on their own floral name.
Tassel - Gentry - Those with an ancestor who held high office in the service of a “high” noble and were ennobled because of it. As of the year 1000, those who held high office in a Charter (or perhaps the Chantry, though that organisation is secretive as ever) could also qualify for this. If you were such a successful Signatory that you were ennobled, your descendants’ Images bear a Tassel - for example, House Kine of Vel Index).
Sword - Gentry - Those who achieved nobility by military service. Many of the oldest families of Arumite, Dradian, Sarali and Seriasi gentry bear this symbol, which paints a picture of history all on its own. Once associated closely but briefly with the Knightly Orders, and very rarely newly given since their Rebellion.
Stirrup - Count - The first and largest section of the “high” nobility, everyone in the World Above is familiar with the Official Image of the Count who rules the place where they live (unless they live in the personal demesne of a higher noble, anyway). Counts are the first rank of the Nobility given the right to raise their own military forces, which historically, they have happily used to advance the King’s interests. The War of Defiance is the first major aberration in this process.
Branch - Heptarch - The Seven Heptarchs of Magnos are each permitted to bear the symbol of the branch. They use this as a shared symbol when it’s to their advantage to be separate from Magnos, instead of perfectly contiguous with it.
Three Arrows - Governor - This symbol is solely given to the (rather luckless) Governor of Kelkora, who resides in occupied Okiri. Their job encompasses attempts to control the Kelkoran population, plans fruitless invasions of the cities in the north, and desperate hope that they never manage to cut off the High Road back to Arumell. Unfortunately for the House of Zhēn, the current Governors, the War of Defiance has done just that, and now they’re locked within the walls of the besieged old capital.
Flame - Duke - The curling ducal flame comes from an old, contested association of fire with leadership and law. Currently, this symbol appears on the Images of the six Dukes and Duchesses of the World Above: Saral Sar, Hanchen, Iridia, Atiy, Mesia, and (still, for the moment) Defiance, once Serias.
Axe-Head - Baron - Once there were a great many Barons in the world, but now this symbol is only borne by the Barons of Zzargod, the so-called Sacred Arcanists, of the House of Fiathri.
Flame and Crown - Grand Duke - Appears on the Official Images the one and only Grand Duchy in the world, Draad. The gilded Images of the mighty House of Hongliang hang in the Lineage Hall of the Palace of Boars, and any passerby can pay 10 talents to come in and see them.
Crown - Viceroy - If you ask the Scribes, there have only been two Viceroyalties in the History of the Kingdom. The much older, and much more obscure, was the Hanchen Viceroyalty. It was incorporated into Draad some time around the year 1000, and was ruled by House Dizhen. The other was the Viceroyalty of Arumell, destroyed just last year by the Arumite Revolution. The rulers of Arumell, House Geberic, are fled, arrested, or - in the Viceroy’s case - sent to execution by order of the Nova Senate.
You may notice the ranks narrow precipitously towards the top, and did so even before the War of Defiance. For all the hundreds of houses of gentry and their myriad rolls of arms, there are three families in the highest three ranks. Gossips report a persistent anxiety of those nearer the King - he lives on, and does not die. Does it seem like he’s slowly getting rid of us?
Left of the Symbol of Rank is the Oeil, a crying eye. This is the King’s most famous symbol, and here indicates his support for the depicted noble. Not enough time has really passed for any openly Defiant Official Images to exist, but you might suppose the Oeil will be replaced with something like the Bow of Defiance, or the starburst logo of the Nova Senate in Arumell.
On the right hand of the Heraldry is the Symbol of Peerage, which is simply where you are a noble. It will be the Seal of Draad, or the Heptagon in Magnos, etc. Before it became Defiance and was adorned with the symbol of the double-bow, the Symbol of Peerage for Serias was a golden goblet. Signatories, as subordinates of the King, use the Visage, the sun with two weeping eyes, one of his own symbols.
Right of the Symbol of Peerage is the Goutte de Sang, a drop of blood, indicating the heredity of the position. For Signatories (and members of the Henuriad), this is instead the Memento Mori, a skull, indicating it dies with them.
Finally, below the Oeil and the Goutte de Sang / Memento Mori, there are the Supporters, two columns of illustrated symbols. These are, for higher nobility, depictions of the primary products of a given County, Duchy, Barony, &c, and are intended to display what this noble contributes to the Kingdom. For Dukes and higher, the Supporters take on a symbolic aspect, and display intention, areas of focus, and areas of particular pride.
For the Gentry, Supporters are usually two pedestals, capped with symbols of their business or deeds. For Signatories, they are a pair of podia, with the symbol of their charter on the right, and a symbol of their home city or county on the left.
Here are a few more examples:
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