
Jon Snow: "Most of the time, yes."

The various noble houses of the Seven Kingdoms use distinctive heraldry to identify families and individuals. These heraldic devices are also carried by armies on the battlefield as a sign of status, as well as allegiance to those noble houses.

Heraldic designs can vary widely. They may consist of a simple pattern of colors, but more often feature animals (either real or mythological) and/or physical objects. Specific sets of rules govern what form a heraldic design may take.

Only members of noble families have the legal right to formally display their own heraldry, though knights also gain this right after the conferring of their title: When a commoner or lowly mercenary gets knighted (even if he is only a poor hedge knight with no land and no right to sit in judgement), he legally becomes a member of "the nobility" and can invent his own personal heraldry. The followers of a noble family can also display that family's heraldry (i.e. Lannister foot-soldiers can carry banners with Lannister heraldry), but it is illegal for the smallfolk to simply invent and use their own heraldry.

The heraldry of each noble House is accompanied by a specific set of words, or "motto" that is unique to that house. These typically take the form of boasts or battle-cries, such as House Baratheon's "Ours is the fury!", or House Tully's "Family, Duty, Honor". House Stark is a major exception, as its words are not a boast but the ominous warning "Winter is Coming". House words do not typically appear on the heraldry itself, in both the books and the TV series.

Heraldry in Westeros and in the real-world

In the real-life Middle Ages, a formal set of rules governed heraldry designs:

The colors used in heraldry are formally known as "tinctures", and these are divided into three basic categories: "colors", "metals", and "furs".

  • Red, Green, Blue, Purple, and Black are considered "colors". Certain other colors, such as Brown, were added in later centuries as new dyes became available to Medieval Europe.
  • The two "metals" are Gold and Silver, though both of these terms actually encompass a spectrum of hues: gold, orange, and yellow are all considered Gold, while white and grey are both considered Silver.
  • "Furs" such as Ermine and Vair are technically patterns, not single colors, but are arbitrarily lumped in with colors and metals as a sub-set of "tinctures". Ermine is supposed to resemble the tail pattern of a stoat (specifically a stoat's winter fur, known as ermine), and Vair is supposed to resemble the belly coloration of a type of squirrel.
  • Each tincture officially consists of one specific shade with no variations; i.e. there is only one shade of Blue which can be used, with no variation between light blue and dark blue (which are fairly arbitrary labels in any case).

The most important rule of heraldry is the rule of tincture:


By this ruling, a design cannot be half red and half blue, or half gold and half silver. For example, the sigil of House Lannister is a gold lion (metal) on a red field (color). It would not be permitted to have a gold lion on a silver background, because silver is also a metal. Ostensibly, this is because heraldry is supposed to help identify different armies on the battlefield, and should be easily distinguishable at a glance.

There is a major loophole to the rule of tincture, however: An object may be depicted as "proper" - using the color it possesses in nature - regardless of what other tinctures it is touching. This explicitly allows the animal or object featured in a heraldic design to break the rule of tincture. For example, the sigil of House Stark is a grey direwolf on a white field, which would normally break the "no metal against metal" rule (since both white and grey are considered Silver). However, because direwolves are actually grey in nature, this is simply being displayed "proper". In contrast, it would still break the rule of tincture to put a purple direwolf on a blue background, because direwolves are never purple in nature, and a purple direwolf cannot plausibly be said to be displayed "proper".

A problem presented in both the A Song of Ice and Fire novels and the Game of Thrones TV series is that a specific terminology is officially used in heraldry - describing the different tinctures as well as design motifs - and this terminology only exists in the French language. The official names for the various tinctures are: Gules (Red), Vert (Green), Azure (Blue), Purpure (Purple), Sable (Black), Or (Gold), and Argent (Silver). Since French does not exist within this fictional world, it's not particularly logical to use this real-life formal terminology. For example, no one within the narrative would ever say to Tywin Lannister that the sigil of his House is "gules, a lion or".

Different versions of heraldic designs may be fitted into the available spaces on various objects, such as flags or armor. However, since these designs were originally painted onto shields, the official shape of an overall piece of heraldry is usually the shape of a shield, known as an escutcheon. This is the practice throughout most of the Seven Kingdoms, with the major exception of Dorne: Military tactics in the deserts of Dorne favor quick hit-and-run attacks, as opposed to columns of slow and bulky armored knights, who would soon suffer from lack of available water. Thus instead of using the full shields of heavy knights, the Dornish favor lightly armored and mobile riders who fight with small rounded shields. This is reflected in the heraldry of Houses from Dorne, which are officially in the shape of a perfect circle, not an escutcheon.

Younger sons, variations, and personal sigils


The personal coat of arms of Brynden Tully.

Younger sons of noble Houses may prefer to use their own personal sigils, which are often a slight variation of the official sigil of their House. Sometimes even the oldest son and heir, or even the current lord, may have his own personal sigil - this is simply a matter of preference.

For example, while the official heraldry of House Tully is a silver fish on a red and blue field, Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully uses a variant for his personal sigil, which contains a black fish (in reference to his nickname).

Euron Greyjoy's personal heraldry in the TV series has two variations; one is the standard Greyjoy heraldry of a gold kraken on a black field, but with a single red eye inscribed onto the head of the kraken. The other - featured on the trappings of his horse as he rides through the streets of King's Landing - is a silver kraken with a red eye on a black field (this is a simplification of Euron's more complex personal sigil in the books).


Acknowledged bastard children of a noble are not legally permitted to officially carry the heraldry of their noble parent's House. On the battlefield, they may carry a flag displaying the heraldry, or use weapons and equipment that display the heraldic symbol - but only as much as any common footsoldier in their noble parent's army may do so. If an acknowledged noble-born bastard began openly displaying the heraldry of their noble parent's House, specifically as a representation of themselves, they would face legal troubles and punishment. 


House Targaryen's sigil is a red dragon on a black field.



Before he joined the Night's Watch and forsook all family ties, Jon Snow was forbidden from officially "carrying" and displaying the Stark heraldry of a grey direwolf on a white field. One of House Stark's bannermen such as Ser Rodrik Cassel might physically hold a flag displaying the Stark heraldry, and even a common Stark footman might carry such a flag, so Jon may have carried weapons or equipment featuring the Stark direwolf. However, he was not allowed to use the Stark heraldry as a representation of himself, because this would essentially be making the false claim that he was a legitimized child who no longer bore the shame of bastardy.

Noble-born bastards are in a legal state between highborn nobles and smallfolk, yet unlike the smallfolk, acknowledged bastards are allowed to display their own heraldry - just not the heraldry of their noble parent's House. A very common practice in Westeros is for bastards to use the heraldry of their noble parent's House but with the colors inverted (which is known as "breaking" the design scheme). Neither the books nor TV series ever portrayed Jon Snow using any kind of heraldry before he joined the Night's Watch, but had he followed this custom, his personal sigil would have been a white direwolf on a grey field, the reverse of the Stark colors. Thus the discovery of the six direwolf pups by Ned Stark and his sons is all the more considered a sign from the Old Gods: not only were there two female and four male pups (to match the Stark children), but the sixth was an albino - physically resembling the white direwolf design that Jon would use in his personal heraldry. This is further signified when Lord Wyman Manderly dubs Jon "the White Wolf" during his election as the new King in the North. While he may not be aware of this custom, Robert Baratheon's bastard son Gendry inadvertently adopted it when he fashioned himself a warhammer; not only was this his father's weapon of choice, but the striking head of the weapon was made of black metal and adorned with a stag's head rendered in gold (the reversed colors of the Baratheon sigil). 

One of the more infamous examples of bastard heraldry is House Blackfyre, a cadet branch of House Targaryen. Founded by Daemon Blackfyre (a bastard son of King Aegon IV) over a century before the War of the Five Kings, the name comes from the Valyrian steel sword originally owned by Aegon the Conqueror. When he was legitimized, Daemon following the custom for bastards by inverting the color scheme of the Targaryen heraldry; instead of the normal red three-headed dragon on a black background, House Blackfyre's heraldry consisted of a black three-headed dragon on a red background.

Exceptions to Heraldry 

The Night's Watch

Jon and Benjen 1x03


The Night's Watch has no heraldic symbol, emphasizing its sworn duty not to get involved in petty political squabbles, but to defend the realms of men as a whole. The Watch's banners and shields are solid black, symbolizing the erasure of any House-based allegiance. Even the "uniform" of the Night's Watch consists of solid black clothing, hence the phrase "taking the black" as a euphemism for joining the order. Members from wealthier families often buy all-black clothing before leaving for the Wall, while poorer conscripts simply have their clothing dyed black when they reach the Wall (clothing which isn't always well-suited for cold weather). 
Night&#039;s Watch vows

Those who take the Watch's vows reject all heraldry.

Solid black specifically denotes the rejection of heraldry, and is not a "symbol" in and of itself, but the absence of a symbol. Even the seals on messages sent by the Night's Watch are simply made in black wax with no symbol on them. The wildlings have taken to calling members of the Night's Watch "crows", because like crows they are covered in black, but this is just a nickname - though it has also caught on south of the Wall; traveling Night's Watch recruiters such as Yoren are often called "wandering crows".

The Kingsguard

Jaime kingsguard promo


Members of the Kingsguard are noted for their white cloaks and gold armor with white enameled decoration. In the novels, when individual members of the Kingsguard participate in private events such as tournaments, they bear only solid white heraldry on their shields and banners. Indeed, only members of the Kingsguard legally have the right to carry shields and banners emblazoned with all-white heraldry. Somewhat like the Night's Watch, they formally renounce their familial and political allegiances when they join the order. Unlike the Night's Watch, however, the all-white banners of the Kingsguard are technically not considered to be a rejection or absence of heraldry, the way black is.

The Kingsguard as an institution, however, does have a symbol, a triple-pointed crown made of swords, representing the crown of the King of the Andals and the First Men. This design is engraved on their armor, and appears on their banners when leading the king's armies in war, acting officially in their capacity as Kingsguard.

Jaime Lannister Season 4


The novels have given conflicting statements about Kingsguard heraldry, saying at times that they are the only men in Westeros legally allowed to display solid white heraldry, but at other times also saying that the symbol "of the Kingsguard" is a golden crown encircled by seven silver swords, on a white field. The apparent explanation is that the crown and swords are the symbol of "the Kingsguard" as an institution, but in private events such as tournaments, Kingsguard are not representing the king, so they display only solid white heraldry - given that they have formally renounced their prior family allegiances. In the books, Jaime Lannister flagrantly violated this principle by wearing armor decorated with golden Lannister lions while in Robert's Kingsguard, even though multiple characters point out that he shouldn't be allowed to do this (Robert can't complain because he is dependent on Jaime's father for financial support).

The TV series modified the "Kingsguard institutional symbol" from the novels, and that modification has changed form over the course of the series: when it debuted in Season 1, it appeared as a triple-pointed crown with no swords. This continued until Season 4, when without explanation all of the Kingsguard shifted to using a new symbol of a triple-pointed crown shape formed by three interlocking swords symbols. The symbol did not change in-universe, this was simply a retcon: even carvings in the White Sword Tower and The Book of Brothers (a decades-old book) appear in Season 4 with the new symbol. The TV series has also not directly established that the Kingsguard are the only group allowed to display all-white heraldry at tournaments.

The North


The Vale of Arryn

The Vale of Arryn was the first place in Westeros that saw the arrival of the Andals six thousand years ago, and knighthood has been a key force in the region ever since. Many noble houses of the Vale prize their pure Andal bloodlines, and the Knights of the Vale are famed fighters throughout the Seven Kingdoms.

The Riverlands

The Westerlands

The Crownlands




The Iron Islands

Euron Greyjoy has his own personal sigil in the books, and Season 7 of the TV series introduced a simplified version. In the books, it is a red eye (with a black pupil), which is surmounted by a black crown being held aloft by two black crows (the background color isn't described). This is wordplay on his nickname, "Crow's Eye". Season 7 of the TV series also introduced a personal sigil for Euron, but because he isn't missing an eye in the TV version and is never called Crow's Eye, the crow element was removed, and just combined with the regular Greyjoy heraldry: as a result, Euron's personal sigil in the TV version is a gold kraken on a black field, with a third red eye inscribed onto the head of the kraken.

The Stormlands


A widespread fan assumption for some time was that because the Baratheons were not kings like the Durrandons had been, they stopped using a crown on their stag sigil, and just used a plain stag for the next three centuries - and only recently re-added a crown to the stag, after Robert's Rebellion when Robert Baratheon overthrew the Targaryen kings. However, when the Baratheons make appearances during the Tales of Dunk and Egg prequel novellas (particularly Lyonel Baratheon), they are consistently described as used a crowned stag, even though the Targaryens are still the royal family and they are not. Asked about this in 2015, Elio Garcia (owner of stated that according to materials that George R.R. Martin sent him when co-writing the World of Ice and Fire sourcebook, the Baratheons indeed always used a crowned stag sigil, starting from when Orys founded House Baratheon and exactly copied the Durrandon heraldry, through Robert's Rebellion.[1]

The TV series, however, contradicted this in Season 1's "The Wolf and the Lion": when Bran Stark is being quizzed by Maester Luwin on the heraldry of the Great Houses, he explicitly says that the Baratheon stag only has a crown now, after Robert Baratheon became king. It isn't clear if this was a deliberate change for the TV continuity, or more probably, if the TV scriptwriters also made the common mistake of assuming the Baratheons didn't use a crowned stag before Robert seized the Iron Throne. The practical result of all of this is what exactly Baratheon heraldry should look like in any potential live-action adaptation of the Tales of Dunk & Egg prequels, with or without a crown.

The Reach


Beyond the Seven Kingdoms






Image gallery

Behind the scenes

Jim Stanes heraldry


Heraldry behind the scenes 1



Stanes described the process of physically making the heraldic banners:




Heraldry behind the scenes 2

Concept art of the Lannister lion sigil.

Heraldry behind the scenes 3

Concept art of the Stark direwolf sigil.



In the books














See also
