I’ve been refining my ideas on the two brothers who were cursed into were-bears and were-boars. As I mentioned on Friday (I think), I went with names that evoked the cursed animal-men that they and their kin have become. I decided to go a step further and link their specific houses to those animals— what more appropriate curse than one that turns the person into their symbolic self?
To that end, I found a heraldry generator and created a coat of arms for each brother:
Conceptually, what I have now are two brothers who were great warriors, confident and strong, and marked, perhaps from birth, with kindred to these two symbolic animals (hence their names). With such strength and prowess comes, potentially, arrogance and pride that could have been the tools of their downfall.
So I think it might come up in play, why are these two brothers from separate houses? Did the younger brother marry into a different house? Was there some great rift in a once-great house? Two brothers finding themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield?
Here’s the concept I’m working from: traditionally, much like royals will inherit titles prior to ascending to the throne (if they do), this valley culture uses symbolic animal houses, the animals chosen from birth, that they inherit, with some lands attached depending upon the birth position.
In this case, these two were twins and so they posed unique challenges that, unfortunately, the king was unable to navigate. The competition and tension between equal rivals drove a wedge in the court that was exploited by Bel-Kari.
