Another CoA tool

[Sir Edward]

http://www.inkwellideas.com/coat_of_arms/free_coads.shtml

Requires java, but is a free design tool for making coats of arms. It doesn't look like it enforces the rules of tincture for you, so you have to keep that sort of thing in mind yourself.

[Sir James A]

I've used that one quite a few times. I made my current avatar with it. It's a great tool, considering it's cost.

[Sir William]

It costs???  I'll have to check this out; tomorrow most likely.

I bid you all Good Day.

[Sir James A]

It costs???  I'll have to check this out; tomorrow most likely.

I bid you all Good Day.

It was a bit of sarcasm on my part. The online one is free, but they do sell a "professional" version for $25. I have not used the pro version.

[Sir William]

Oh, got you...still, worth a look, no?  This is just another aspect to knighthood that I've never truly explored, being more enamored with the arms and armor aspect.  The heraldry is just as important, I'm finding out.

[Sir Edward]

Oh, got you...still, worth a look, no?  This is just another aspect to knighthood that I've never truly explored, being more enamored with the arms and armor aspect.  The heraldry is just as important, I'm finding out.

I think so. Granted, that's one advantage of portraying a Templar, Hospitaller, or Teuton, in that you use the order's colors and not worry about it. But if you weren't in a monastic order, as a knight you'd be looking to build a personal reputation and need to be identifiable on the field.

[Sir William]

And that's where I'm at now, or almost there.  I've yet to create a personal CoA, so this might be a good start for me, thanks for sharing.

[Sir Edward]

Some more heraldry programs. These are aimed more at kids since they're simplistic and not useful for our purposes:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/british_galleries/designa/coat_of_arms/coat_of_arms.html

http://www.alnwickcastle.com/flash/heraldry.html

[Sir Ulrich]

Made my coat of arms, it's a bit dark and gloomy but so is my persona

[SirNathanQ]

Explanation of the symbolism if you please?
And what happens to be your persona? 

[Sir Brian]

Well I hate to be bearer of bad tidings…but your CoA would be considered armes fausses (false arms) or armes à enquérir (arms of enquiry) because there are a couple of violations with the rules of tinctures. There is nothing wrong with sticking with what you’ve got as I made the same violations with my original CoA and only partially improved it with my more familiar CoA but they were still technically not right. I only mention it so you can be prepared to perhaps be called upon it. 

I really like the arrangement and your choice of a raven has lots of possibilities for finding a crest if you want to go with a great helm!

[Sir Ulrich]

My persona is a crusader sergeant-at-arms who became a knight on fighting in the holy land, the raven symbolizes his intelligence while the cross basically means he was a crusader. I kept it simple cause I prefer simplicity to being complex. Originally the black background was white but white looks horrible on me (not to mention gets dirty easily) so I made it black to look a bit dark. Essentially he wears historically accurate stuff only in darker colors to be a sort of black knight so to say.

[Sir Brian]

Ah so the actual color red has no significant meaning for you? In that case if you changed just the cross to yellow/gold (Or) then it would be well within the rules of tincture. You could go with a white (argent) cross but that runs the risk of being mistaken for a Hospitaller. 

[Sir Ulrich]

Well I just think red and black look awesome together, red cross over black is a Templar sergeant thing. I could go for a black cross over white with a Jerusalem cross over the black cross, but I want a raven in my coat of arms not another cross.

[Sir Brian]

Ah my bad then! I didn't catch the templar order in there. I wrongly assumed the crusader inference meant your personae served as a crusader in general and not in a specific order.