House Valika- that flying creature

[Bast]

Sooooo... I 've been bored and done all the crests for all the Southern Noble Houses, while likely typoing all over the place on Arm because my keyboard and wacom tablet hate each other. I'm still working on doing a set of nobles from all playable noble Houses I just got a little side tracked and decided for future art projects I would be doing myself a favor by doing the heraldry for each of the Houses. I've got all nine but I'm having a creative block on decided what do with the 'flying creature' between two cactus's in house Valakia emblem.

Where I am now:



In my delirium and frustration the other night I decided it should be the Flying Spaghetti Monster. While yes I know his great noodleness isn't very Arm. I've actually grown to like this version a great deal. Particularly the way his great noodly appendages caress the cacti lovingly.

-ramen

So I'm currently open for thoughts and suggestions. What do you think the odd flying thingy between two cactus's should be? Vague mutli-winged air elemental ish being is the best I've got not..aside from FSM

[FantasyWriter]

I've always seen it as a sand bat, probably because... sand bats and cactus people.

[LauraMars]

a giant flying sack of obsidian coins

[Bast]

a giant flying sack of obsidian coins

I like this 

[valeria]

I always kind of thought it was a silt flier for some reason.

[Agent_137]

hm so the docs say "a winged creature hovering between two cacti."

Winged creatures mentioned in the docs:
* dune vulture
* silt hawk
* silt flyer
* barakhan liizards

I also dug into the dark sun creature guide and found some other options:
* Aarakocra - vulture people
* Cloud Ray - gargantuan manta-ray of the sky
* Kestrekel  -  vulture-looking bird-thing

Other ideas would be pretty much any winged mythological animal, since this is heraldry.

Or mix and match any animal with one that has wings, which is what half of the animals in the above link are anyway.

Winged kank!

[FantasyWriter]

Roc.

[Bast]

Agent your awesome thank you! Think I'm gonna go  Kestrekel, I'm trying to steer away from the birds of prey (roc's included) just because they all have similar profiles and Rennik's is a hawk



I just think they would look to similar and you can't really convey size well on an emblem unless I had like...screaming people in their talons or something

[Agent_137]

cool, glad I could help. I just googled kestrekel and found a little back story that would explain why they're used.

http://www.lomion.de/cmm/kestreke.php

Wild kes'trekel are impossible to domesticate. Those hatched from stolen eggs make excellent watch birds. In such cases, the kes'trekels' cowardly nature loses out to their defensive nature. Many merchants rely on the squawked warnings of their avian sentinels.

[Beethoven]

My personal opinion is that it should be something that's kind of hard to discern, which would be why it is described vaguely as a "winged creature."

[Bushranger]

I really like the Flying Spaghetti Monster too! Totally should be the "Flying Creature" for the Valika!

[Talia]

Let's make it a serpent.

Also, I went to look at staff-side documentation for this stuff, and...wow. It's fucked-up, you guys. It pretty much doesn't match player-side documentation at all. For Valika it says: "Green and silver, their emblem an upturned hand, wrapped about with a strand of ivy." WTF. (The staff-side documentation is probably older than some players, and probably it was just someone's brainstorming idea, and never got corrected when the actual documentation went on the website.)

[WWYD]

Isn't that the Fale emblem?

[Bast]

Let's make it a serpent.

Also, I went to look at staff-side documentation for this stuff, and...wow. It's fucked-up, you guys. It pretty much doesn't match player-side documentation at all. For Valika it says: "Green and silver, their emblem an upturned hand, wrapped about with a strand of ivy." WTF. (The staff-side documentation is probably older than some players, and probably it was just someone's brainstorming idea, and never got corrected when the actual documentation went on the website.)

Thats Fale...>.>

Also your the boss the snake it is!

[Bushranger]

"Green and Silver. The emblem of noodles wrapped around a ball of minced scrab meat floating between two cacti." - Fixed.

[Bast]

"Green and Silver. The emblem of noodles wrapped around a ball of minced scrab meat floating between two cacti." - Fixed.

hahahha I would like to point out that all the holes in logic and science as also easily explained by FSM. Sky is red which would mean no/low oxygen in the atmosphere..why? The touch of His noodly appendages...Giant bugs, when we all know insects don't get that big without high levels of oxygen that would kill humans...why? The touch of His noodly appendages..Whats past the silt sea? You'll never know because their are secretly pirates out there. The same pirates that have likely prevented Zalanthas red sun from baking the world. As all Pastafarians know there is a direct link between global warming and pirates.

[Talia]

Isn't that the Fale emblem?

According to the staff-side documentation (which is, again, super-old and clearly never got updated and synced correctly), it is: "Purple and green, their emblem a vast mansion, its doors decorated with a pair of crossed steel swords. Variant: a woman's hand, holding an overbrimming wineglass, surrounded by a coil of ivy."

But I'm taking the player-side documentation as the actual game documentation at this point. Meaning...the staff-side documentation is wrong.

[Talia]

Thats Fale...>.>

I know, right?!?! Very close. Too close.

[MeTekillot]

Fale's emblem did use to be a sword thingie, though, at least?

[Gaare]

Thank you Bast!

I still enjoy AD&D Dark Sun materials;

Sun Drake


Kes'trekel

(From new monster manual: http://burntlands.wdfiles.com/local--files/gadventure-journal/KestrekelSmall.jpg)

Air Drake


Ptrerrax


Razorwing



Edited to add: Ah, Agent_137 mentioned them above.

[Desertman]

Let's make it a serpent.

Also, I went to look at staff-side documentation for this stuff, and...wow. It's fucked-up, you guys. It pretty much doesn't match player-side documentation at all. For Valika it says: "Green and silver, their emblem an upturned hand, wrapped about with a strand of ivy." WTF. (The staff-side documentation is probably older than some players, and probably it was just someone's brainstorming idea, and never got corrected when the actual documentation went on the website.)

The fact you did not know this as a staff member adds a bit of mystery back to the game for me.

I have no idea why, it just does. It makes the game feel "big" for me again for some reason.

[Bast]

comments?

[BadSkeelz]

Looks cool (they all do) but isn't a flying serpent a northie thing?

My own reading of a "winged creature hovering" is of a hawk-like silhouette, particularly as some hawks can legit hover for a short time.

[Talia]

The fact you did not know this as a staff member adds a bit of mystery back to the game for me.

I have no idea why, it just does. It makes the game feel "big" for me again for some reason.

Most of the virtual world is heavily undefined and undocumented. Which on the one hand is pretty neat, because if we want to bring something "new" into the game from the virtual background then we can just document it and build it out. On the other hand it's not neat because documenting and building out is a lot of work!

There's certainly plenty of "room" left in the game world. It's just a matter of building it out in a manner and at a time which makes sense. E.g. if right now we are wanting to consolidate the playerbase, then building stuff that will scatter players around the world doesn't make a lot of sense from a game design perspective (despite the fact that it might be cool stuff, or that some people would enjoy it, or that it is virtually already in the world).

Looks cool (they all do) but isn't a flying serpent a northie thing?

My own reading of a "winged creature hovering" is of a hawk-like silhouette, particularly as some hawks can legit hover for a short time.

There's a winged snake that's in the north but there's no reason that the south couldn't use a fantastical image of a winged serpent in something.

Unless Bast wants to make it a FLYING SPIDER, which I would totally get behind. It sounds kind of awkward and I would probably also then be tempted to put them in game...

Hawk is Rennik, as noted, and I think less duplication of stuff is better. I'm still annoyed that Borsail and Tor are so close in their colors.

[Marauder Moe]

Unless Bast wants to make it a FLYING SPIDER, which I would totally get behind. It sounds kind of awkward and I would probably also then be tempted to put them in game...

Nope... it's fine.  That won't be necessary.  Right, Bast?  RIGHT?!