Family House Symbols

[silvereagle2061]

 Are there symbols one can use to identify a family name? I would like to form my own symbol.

[Klythe]

    We see a hint of this in TNG: Firstborn...  But really there isn't much to say other than that.  Unless you look to FASA's RPG which had symbols for each major Klingon House.   So If your House has one... Feel Free to make it look vaguely Klingon...  Then no one can tell you otherwise, because it is the symbol of your House. 

[Kesvirit]

Making it vaguely Klingon may be difficult as Klingon is largely in the eye of the beholder. Having said that, here are some links to what I hope are some representative samples of house crests in different media:

House Sohalite (fan)
House Kasara (fan)

Two fan variants of House of Gorkon by Kristian Trigwell:
ex. A
ex. B

House of Duras (canon)
House of Martok (canon)

I encourage you to develop your own unique family crest, and urge you to keep the design simple and use clean lines. This will help insure that the graphic reduces clearly and will not become muddled or lose detail if you have pins, patches, insignia, or something similar made from it.

[KAllen]

The symbol of my House, House of bortaS, is based on the bass clef in music. We just made it "harder" looking than a simple rounded shape.  Fairly easy to reproduce for sleeve pins.

Design your own, and look in familiar places too for inspiration. My house leader and I both play bass guitar, so it was natural for us. Take a cool shape and make it "harder" looking.  Or turn it upside down.

KISS, not just the worlds greatest rock band, its Keep It Simple Stupid...best thing for designing symbols like that.

[Kesvirit]

Another thought on Keeping It Simple, S...s... (on second thought,  I'll not call someone stupid until they give me reason to }}: P) is to be sparing with the letters and glyphs. A few stylized ones will more likely catch the eye and make a bold impression than will trying to spell out entire words. And again, there is the reducibility factor.

K'Allen, do you have an image you can link to? I'm getting nowhere with a search engine.

Does anyone else have a house crest they want to hold up as an example? Or have advice to impart on design and creation? What was the thought process behind developing your crests?

-=- Kesvirit

[Kehlan]

the symbol of house Inigan is as follows:



the grey one is for my battle armour, the gold one is for my more formal burgundy uniform.  the symbol was chosen because the Klingon font on my computer renders the capital letter "I" as a sort of backwards "Y"

Its my feeling that badges for uniforms are very simple and distinctive.  they have to be if they are to be carved out of resin or metal.  When put onto banners they become more ornate and decorative, hence the difference between the two symbols for House Gorkon shown in the post above.

Kehlan

[KAllen]

Kes
Our house site is www.angelfire.com/trek/bortas Once you click "enter" the pix that shows up of 3 Klingons, I'm the one on the right, and you can see my House symbol on my sleeve.  I'm still unable to access the site from my home comp. but I can from my school...(something about cookies and stuff).  Which is weird because my school's isp supposedly filters out forums. If I could get on from home, I could post a pix of our House flag, which has our symbol on it.

[qoSagh]

FASA actually developed rule on how one got a symbol, but these are largely irrelevant since most of us portray our houses as being very old.

The house qlIStIy symbol is very simple and contains no actual words. It is the upward pointing blade of a levek, superimposed on a red komerex stella with both lower points pointing down, and the yellow center being a hollow ring instead of a solid disc.

The rationale for these elements was simple. The levek was because I wanted a blade and I thought that betleth's were (and still are) overused in house fandom house symbols. Plus the single central point aligns better with the top of the komerex stella than a wider multi pointed weapon would.

The red komerex is significant in that the symbol was created during the time TNG was the only trek on the air (first run) and they had pretty much adopted the all red color scheme by then. The two downward facing points were because my original Klingon membership was in the Karizan Empire which used this type of point, but was far more angular. I wanted to include that heritage but combine it with a more traditional image.

The yellow ring, that comes from the cover of a comic book that featured an all red komerex stella with the yellow ring and I thought it looked cool, so I adapted/incorporated that variation into the symbol.

[Klythe]

 
    Who are you talking to K'Allen?   Kes is an Okampa and these are not the Okampa Imperial Forums.  Klingons in fact have a decidedly anti-Okampa sentiment.  I may be reaching, but "Voltaire", the one who wrote "Worf's Revenge" (a Klingon rap) and the "USS Make Some *cough* 'Stuff' Up" *, a song about the Federation's abuse of techonbabble, also write this song called "Khest the Okama" *.    Please respect the names Klingons chose for themselves and do not substitute abbreviations without asking first.  (I made this mistake myself... I lost a bit of fur that day.  Fortunately she let me handle this).  Just don't or it, or I'll sing again...


*clears throat*

We were in the Badlands one day
Chasing B'Elanna and Chakotay
We were whisked into the Delta Quadrant
Parkhest, that's far away

I wanna go home
Please let me go home
I say khest the Ocampa
I wanna go home

The Caretaker had an array
That could get us home safe
But Janeway that ignorant slut
She blew it away

I wanna go home
Please let me go home
Drop me off at a wormhole
I wanna go home

So now I'm stuck here for years
In the Delta Quadrant I fear
With the Kazon and Hirogen
And a brother with pointy ears

I wanna go home
Please let me go home
Talaxian chicks are ugly
I wanna go home

So hoist up the aft nacelles
See how the warp core burns
Tell Janeway to go to Hell
I wanna go home


I wanna go home
Please let me go home
I say khest the Ocampa
I wanna go home

*(some lyrics altered to be appropriate to the forum)

[KAllen]

 
    Who are you talking to K'Allen?   Kes is an Okampa and these are not the Okampa Imperial Forums.  Klingons in fact have a decidedly anti-Okampa sentiment.  I may be reaching, but "Voltaire", the one who wrote "Worf's Revenge" (a Klingon rap) and the "USS Make Some *cough* 'Stuff' Up" *, a song about the Federation's abuse of techonbabble, also write this song called "Khest the Okama" *.    Please respect the names Klingons chose for themselves and do not substitute abbreviations without asking first.  (I made this mistake myself... I lost a bit of fur that day.  Fortunately she let me handle this).  Just don't or it, or I'll sing again...

Ah...ya might want to lay off the Bloodwine before posting...might make better sense that way. 'Cause I have no idea what you are rambling about, since its so on topic.

[Kehlan]

I'm guessing the complaint is that you hsortened "Kevirit" to "Kes"   Definitely too much bloodwine though, maybe Klythe should stick to terran drinks since bloodwine may be too strong..."

Kehlan

[Kesvirit]

Kes?  Has a timid, petite blond elf been spotted on the premises?

I shall have to have a short -- and possibly sharp  ::rests hand on pommel:: , depending on the answer I receive -- word with our head of Security. Situated as it is in the midst of potentially hostile territory, the Embassy's compound is a secure area. Comings and goings of non-Imperial subjects are to be closely monitored.

quoth qoSagh:  FASA actually developed rule on how one got a symbol, but these are largely irrelevant since most of us portray our houses as being very old.

Does anyone know what those FASA rules are?

-=- Kesvirit