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Melza
Description
The municipal coat of arms of the city of Melza, that also doubles as the basic (smaller) coat of arms of the City State and Barony of Melza.
A vert (green) lower third of the shield, with three argent (silver) waves, symbolising the great Melza river and its green banks, an argent city gatehouse with fortified towers standing on the green field, the towers adorned with or (golden) flags, all on a blue background, symbolising the city of Melza itself.
Background
Melza is the undisputed metropolis of the small monarchy, named after
the great river that flows through it, and if it didn't have an extended
rural territory, the country would almost be a city state, rather than a
small territorial state with an outsized metropolis.
Melza is the capital of the eponymous monarchy, specifically a barony,
and the seat of the barons of Melza. It is also one of the founding
members of the Urban League, an Aporuean international association of
city states or small territorial states with outsized capital cities.
Behind the scenes and inspiration
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The great coat of arms of the City State and Barony of Melza, with griffin arm bearers and the baronial crown crest.
The crown is a baronial one, since the local monarchy is ruled by a
baronial family (that is opposed to the idea of "upgrading" their
aristocratic status due to a local political tradition).
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Here's the coat of arms of Melza's Lord Mayor.
Keys to the city and all... The hat as the crest is indeed the sort of thing the Lord Mayor would wear on his head during ceremonial occassions.
Árast Atrav
Description
An azure (blue) background in the upper part of the coat of arms, depicting an argent (silver) town gate and town fortifications, and a crossed argent pick and hammer, traditional mining tools, and a gules (red) background in the lower part of the coat of arms, depicting an argent mining cart, argent mining lantern to the right, and argent mining lamp, both with a small or (golden) flame. Compare with the similar, but distinctly different coat of arms of Melza (with its more towering gatehouse motif for a metropolis, and riverside motif).
Background
One of the two towns that exist in the monarchy, in addition to the city of Melza. The mining town of Árast Atrav (pron. Aa-"rust" At-rav), or just Atrav for short, among locals. The larger and older of the two towns in the small Melzan monarchy, and the only other one to have city walls and fortifications.
Behind the scenes and inspiration
Árast Atrav in reverse (with a tiny exception) is Stará Varta in Slovak, which can be translated as "Old-Watch", "Oldwatch", or more loosely as "Old Stronghold". A reference to the fact that the town was fortified fairly early on, given its strategic nature as an important mining town with access to many precious mineral resources. (In Slovak, varta is a slightly old-fashioned word, meaning "watch post" or "watch garrison" and similar, and related to vartáš, the term for "watchman", which was in turn influenced by terms similar to "warden", "guard" in more distantly related European languages. It also has nothing to do with the similar-sounding word vatra, which means "bonfire", even though you could of course have a cozy hearth at your watchful stronghold.)
Just like one of the many inspirations for Melza is old-timey Pressburg/Bratislava, including some inspiration for the motifs in the city's coat of arms, so too do Árast Atrav's plentiful inspirations include the likes of Banská Štiavnica, right down to some inspiration for the motifs of the town's coat of arms.
Enemarp
Description
The coat of arms reflects the local natural springs of health-fortifying
mineral water, used in cardiovascular and digestive system therapy,
hence the argent (silver) stone well on a vert (green) ground, argent spa town pitcher and a stylised gules (red) heart on an azure (blue) background.
Background
One of the two towns that exist in the monarchy, in addition to the city
of Melza. The historically younger town, the more recent of the two
towns, and is a spa town at heart.
Behind the scenes and inspiration
Enemarp is a rare rural location outside of the city of Melza that is
serviced by the Swishtram railway, the urban rail network that largelly
focuses on the city itself, while conventional railways cover the rest
of the small country and international connections.
Enemarp backwards is Pramene, literally "Springs" in
Slovak. A fitting name for a relaxed spa town. On a sidenote, some of
the historical inspirations behind Enemarp are real world small,
long-lived spa towns like Korytnica (images) and Bardejovské Kúpele (images 1, 2).
Étilaks
Description
Argent (silver) rock cliffs on an azure (blue) background in the upper part of the shield, an or (golden) frame-saw, an argent-bladed and or-handled woodcutter saw for two woodcutters, an argent-bladed and or-handled bearded axe on the right and hand-axe on the left, on a vert (green) background, in the lower part of the shield.
Background
The village of Étilaks (pron. É-ti-"luck"-s), the larger of the mountain
villages. Étilaks is well-known for its logging, wood-processing,
woodworking economic tradition, as well as for some of its smaller rock
quarries, ones that utilize the abundant rocky hills and valleys
surrounding the village.
Behind the scenes and inspiration
Étilaks backwards is Skalité, translatable as "Rockham", "Rockville". Skalité is in fact a generic-enough-sounding name for a village, that there is a real world village of the same name.
Heraldic charges such as woodcutter saws and axes occur in the heraldry of several villages, e.g. Abrahámovce (the one in Kežmarok district, not its namesake in Bardejov district), or Poruba pod Vihorlatom (in Michalovce district, the village's name even referencing the cutting down of parts of a forest for the village).
Jáh
Description
A vert (green) meadow and hill (the hill on the right) in the lower part of the shield, with an argent (silver) stream flowing through the meadow, an argent roe deer doe running courant rightward on the meadow above the stream, an or (golden) background in the upper part of the shield, with two vert (green) non-identical deciduous trees, one on the hilltop (a beech), and one on the lowland below the hill (an alder tree).
Background
The village of Jáh (pron. Yaah), with its economy focused mainly on
agriculture, herding and various crafts, lies in a transitional area
between the lowland of the monarchy and the hillier upland that forms
the outer edge of the piedmont south of the country's northern
mountains.
Behind the scenes and inspiration
The in-joke in this case is that Jáh backwards is Háj,
literally "Grove" in Slovak. Self-explanatory, and hence the trees,
typical of the more sparsely wooded area, with a blend of woodlands,
groves, pastures and fields.
To my own surprise, I learned only after the fact that the village of Nižný Hrabovec, which is fairly familiar to me (as a village on a major route I often travelled) has a coat of arms with a surprisingly similar structure. A green meadow, with a wavy silver stream floating through it, and a leafy green tree growing on the meadow, on a silver background. No hills or golden backgrounds or silver does, but surprisingly similar. I suppose there's only so many ways you can depict a rural scene in a coat of arms.
Koraj
Description
An azure (blue) background, with an argent (silver) mountain stream flowing through a vert (green) mountain valley, between rocks and cliffs, vert (green) fir trees growing on argent (silver) tree trunks, and an or
(golden) squirrel and pine cone above the rest of the aforementioned
heraldic devices. While most of the devices simply portray the sort of
mountain valley Koraj lies in, the inclusion of the squirrel is tied to a
local legend.
Like most of the municipal coats of arms in the monarchy, this is a
"speaking" heraldic symbol, with Koraj originally the name of the stream
that flows through the eponymous village, itself named after that
mountain stream.
Background
The smallest and easternmost village of the Melzan monarchy, the small mountain village of Koraj (pron. "Core"-"eye").
As the local legend goes, permanent settlement in the area started to
take off when a local shepherd noticed a squirrel on the banks of the
stream, with a pelt tainted by small traces of golden colour, indicating
possible traces of gold, maybe even golden nuggets. This drew miners
and gold rush diggers to the location of the later village and their
presence helped draw in other settlers. Very little gold has been found
in the stream in the centuries since, though even nowadays, you
occassionally still see people trying to pan for gold in the stream.
Most of the local settlers, who quickly outgrew and displaced the
initial gold-seeker population, have instead focused on shepherding,
valley agriculture, logging and woodworking, and growing healing herbs
for sale (among pharmacies and herb-collectors).
Behind the scenes and inspiration
Given that the names of the villages and towns (aside from Melza) are all reversals of words from Slovak, the name of Koraj derives from jarok, "small stream", "small brook", "rivulet".
The presence of the squirrel was also somewhat inspired by the relatively rare examples of Slovak municipal coats of arms with squirrels, particularly that of the village of Kalinov (in Medzilaborce district) or the village of Brezovec (in Snina district) and by a real world medieval legend about the settling of the mining town Banská Štiavnica, where some shepherd or local supposedly saw a salamander or newt that was partly coated in flakes of gold and silver, luring in interested prospectors from throughout the kingdom, as the news spread. Regardless of whether the legend was based on an actual event, it was a good bit of inspiration for the backstory of the fictional Koraj and the squirrel in its coat of arms.
Ňolbaj
Description
An azure (blue) background with a vert (green) apple tree with an or (golden) tree trunk and gules (red) apples growing on the tree, the tree on a vert (green) meadow, with either an argent-or (silver-golden) billhook facing blade-left.
Background
The large village of Ňolbaj (pron. Nyol-"bye"), in the lowland and
slightly hilly parts of the Melzan monarchy, one of the most populous
villages in the state.
Ňolbaj is well-known as a major centre of fruit growing (especially of
apples and pears, but also other fruit) and orchards, as well as a
centre of wine-making and viticulture within the wider region. Another
significant landmark and claim to fame of Ňolbaj is an old local
monastery, with its libraries and fish ponds, which has also had a hand
in fostering the aforementioned orchard and vineyard tradition.
Behind the scenes and inspiration
As with the other villages and towns, the name is a hidden pun. The name Ňolbaj comes from the reversing of jabloň, the Slovak word for "apple tree", "appledore", so the presence of the apple tree is self-explanatory.
Strangely, as in the case of Jáh's coat of arms and its broad similarity with the coat of arms of Nižný Hrabovec, it's only in retrospect that I've remembered there's a real world village in Humenné district called Jabloň and its coat of arms is very similar in its basic idea to Ňolbaj's coat of arms. The central heraldic charge of the apple tree, at the very least. As I made up these villages and their names already well over a decade ago, I don't know if I subconsciously recalled the real world village at the time, and when I got to making the coat of arms, I accidentally thought of a very similar design for the tree. Either way, a fun coincidence, and if I accidentally made this village a bit of a nod to the name and coat of arms of the real world village, then all the better.
Ones
Description
A vert (green) meadow with an argent (silver) quern-stone, an azure (blue) sky background, a central figure of an or (golden) sheaf of hay, flanked by an argent (silver) three-pronged wooden pitchfork to the left and an argent scythe to the right.
Background
The very agricultural village of Ones (pron. O-ness), in the heart of the lowland breadbasket areas of the monarchy.
Behind the scenes and inspiration
Ones in reverse means Seno, i.e. "Hay" in Slovak.
Rátoch
Background
Behind the scenes and inspiration
Ynivork
Description
An argent (silver) heron, standing on its left leg, the right leg raised, looking rightward, the left leg dipped into the stylised azure (blue) surface of the Melza river, represented by alternating azure and argent waves. The background of the lower part is azure (blue), the bank of the river is vert (green) and the main background is azure (blue). The vert (green) background representing the banks of the river includes a stylised vert cattails to the right, and stylised vert short willow tree/shrub, sprouting vert shoots with argent (silver) buds or leaves, to the left.
Background
The village of Ynivork (pron. I-ni-vor-k), one of the largest villages of the Melzan monarchy, and also the main and largest of the villages on the shores of the Melza river.
Behind the scenes and inspiration
Something of a book end to Melzan municipal coats of arms: Because the village lies on the shore of the Melza river, its coat of arms shares the same river waves motif as the coat of arms of the city of Melza, acknowledging the geographic connection, with different tincture.
Ynivork in reversed order is Kroviny, which means "Shrubs", "Shaws". This refers to the shaws, shrubs, bushes and even reeds and cattails growing at various places on the banks of the river, in places where the banks are not covered by riparian forests or grassy meadows.
The depiction of the heron was somewhat inspired by some examples of Slovak municipal coats of arms with herons, particularly that of the village of Komárov, where the heron has both of its feet dipped in a stream or river, whereas I went for arguably the more frequent or equally frequent practice of depicting a heron or a crane standing on one foot. In this case, on one foot, but not on dry land, but in the water.
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Copyright
(C) 2016 - 2024 P. Molnár
(C) 2016 - 2024 Knight-Errant Studios
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