Fleet Heraldry

Fleet ships are all assigned a unique heraldic device.

History

This came about... when? And inspired by what? Old as the establishment of Fleet, certainly.

This means Fleet has artists on staff, so talk about them.

Modern

The artists who create (and the archivists who maintain) the heraldry library for Fleet work out of the the Domi Remyfield Archives on Selnor. Heraldic devices must be drawn by hand. The framework for each ship class is duplicated from the original drawn (by hand) after the ship class's approval, but new devices must be drawn by the Fleet artist. The slight imperfections are considered necessary (and often have names: "Oh, yes, the destroyer shield's bottom right bobble," or "the coffee spike").

Once the ship's device is drawn, however, it can be reproduced digitally.

Use

Coat of Arms on battlecruiser bridge deck

The finished coat-of-arms is incised in a plaque that's hung on the ship's bridge, beside the largest conference room. This is known as the builder's plaque. It remains with the ship until it is retired or destroyed, at which point its plaque (if it is recovered) is returned to Fleet for hanging in its archives (in the antechamber, and down the hall to the library). If a new vessel is commissioned with the same name, it is issued a new builder's plaque (since the coat-of-arms will have changed to reflect the new vessel's build date). If a ship has multiple plaques in the archive, the most recent one is displayed unless the ship is of historical significance; the latter will merit a display with ship's history in the museum portion of the archives.

Other places the ship's device is commonly used:

• Official documentation
• Uniform patches
• Formal dinnerware
• Ship's linens

The ship's coat-of-arms is also painted onto the wall of "receiving" areas (where Pads are, or holds that accept passenger shuttles) and on the floor of the bridge.

In group settings, the coat-of-arms is used in competitions and wargames, as part of leaderboards.

Personal Uses

Personnel jackets will display the coat-of-arms of the person's current assignment.

Captains of ships will have a lance alongside their arms.

Design - Ships

Template Frame for a battlecruiser's coat of arms

Each ship's device is assembled from a template that indicates the ship's commission date, enrollment date, commissioning shipyard, service history, ship's class, and ship's service (Fleet, FIA, etc), in addition to its unique charge.

Shields

Each class of ship is assigned its own shield shape.

• Warcruiser - Tower Shield
• Battlecruiser - Spiked Heater
• Scout - Kite
• Courier - French base
• Destroyer - Wankel
• Corvette - Round
• Long-range Scout (deprecated) - Oval

Historical Note: When Fleet sold off some of its surplus long-range scouts to the Eldritch to form the core of their navy, the Eldritch took elements of the original ships' heraldic designs and incorporated them into their new ship's coats of arms.

Crests

Crests are used to indicate the service the ship is assigned to.

• Fleet - Eagle
• FIA - Owl
• SF - Falcon
• First Voice - Dove

Mantlings

Mantling, Top: Indicates crew type (feminic, masculic, mixed; single-race, multi-Alliance-race, with allied aliens; with or without Platy navigator)

• Platy Navigator: A grouping of three lozenges representing the Platies, one large flanked by two small
• Normal Navigation: Circuitry patterns

Mantling, Bottom: Indicates shipyard that built the current vessel (on the left), and ship home starbase (on right)

Scrolls

The largest scroll, centered beneath the shield, is the ship's name (does not include the originating tags, like 'UAV').

On either side of the scroll, the left end of the scroll will have the ship name's enrollment date (the date indicating when the ship's name was first used for a commissioned ship); the right end will have the present carrier of the name's commissioning date.

Charges

The one unique element in each ship's device is their charge, which is specially designed for them and usually illustrates the ship's name.

Lances

The coat of arms associated with a captain's direct communications or documents has a lance, and there are specific meanings to the lance type and decorations.

Optional Elements

• Ships that have been involved in multi-species initiatives with allied partners will have Supporters: one silhouetted alien, one silhouetted Pelted.
• Ships that have taken part in first contacts can use a coronet above the shield. A gem will be added to the crown for each first contact they participate in.
• Ships that take part in major battles are denoted by crossed swords, which are placed where the helm would ordinarily go on a heraldic device.
  • Special: Ships that took part in the First Chatcaavan War's major battles receive the crossed swords, but one is a sword and the other is four parallel claw marks.

Design - Starbases

As Fleet assets, starbases also have heraldry (which is reproduced in simplified format on starship devices in the home base mantling). Starbases always start on a round field with a bisecting line representing the accelerator. Smaller circles embedded on the edges represent the age of the starbase, with the first five sector starbases showing two circles, the remaining core starbases with one, and remaining starbases with none.

Charges are set on top of the round to identify the specific starbase, and this is sufficient for the ship coat of arms.For standalone service (not as part of a starship coat of arms), starbase coats of arms include mantlings representing the Fleet base's particulars.