#darkest blue = 152636

[forgotteneabha]

The Arms of Calleary & Hanthom

Combined Arms of House Calleary of Hanthom

Azure (blue): truth and loyalty

Vert (green): hope, joy, loyalty in love

Argent (white/silver): peace and sincerity

Tawny/Tenné (orange/brown): worthy ambition

Ship: voyage, remarkable voyage, life, determining one's course in life

Wheel: fortune, torture/one prepared to undergo trials for their beliefs, steering, continuity/cycles, vicissitude

The Ancient Arms of Hanthom

Seahorse: martime success, good luck, fortune, fortitude, strength, power, courage; as "the dragon's bastard:" valour and protection, courage

Note: the division here indicates a maternal and paternal branch coming together, likely with the wheel (at dexter) being the paternal charge, and the seahorse (at sinister), being the maternal one, the grasping of the wheel can be seen in a number of different ways but generally it would be more or less read as willingly taking on or claiming a worthy and desired goal or duty and bringing that into your own protection/worldview/aim, etc. w the sinister overcoming the dexter, it may either indicate absolute partnership or even the bearer (child's) posthumous birth to the father or the mother carrying on boldly after the loss of her husband. so! lots that can be happening here!

The Ancient Arms of Calleary

Mullet/Star: celestial goodness, nobility, divine quality from above, mark of third son

Pearl: purity, honor, and virtue, that which is priceless beyond measure, that which the worthy choose to give their lives to seek

Moon: serene power over mundane actions, serenity

Shell/Escallop: protection of providence, successful leader, one who hasjourneyed far, traveler to far places, victorious naval commander

Fess: mark of naval service

NOTES:

so, since the malconaires, lorcans, and ormonds all have names that coincide w the name of their territory, i thought it could be interesting to build an in-world explanation for why it might be that the callearies do not preside over a place called calleary but, rather, one called hanthom, and, given that they also have claim to an as-yet unnamed seat in the north which is much smaller and in a state of disrepair to the point that it must be rebuilt before daring habitation (it also seems that the cold might be a factor here tbf), my thought was that perhaps there're a few things at work here! so i did some mock ups for us, and im eager to hear your thoughts! ;D

the callearies are maybe a newer house! we have established that the staffords and the malconaires and the lorcans are amongst the oldest houses in astaira, and perhaps the callearies aren't quite as ancient, but have roots in an older house that has, otherwise, gone extinct, namely: hanthom

alternately, or perhaps in a way that coincidences, there's the matter of the northern seat...maybe this is just an uninhabited place that roderick carved out of astaira...or maybe this is the og seat of the callearies from when they ~first became lords and was abandoned after they came into possession of the far more hospitable hanthom

so here's kind of what i was thinking: perhaps the last daughter of house hanthom wed a calleary and, thus, their child -- now a calleary of hanthom -- inherited both seats but, since calleary was both teeny and inhospitable, when the last lady hanthom died, the new lord/lady calleary brought everyone from calleary to hanthom and set up shop w their combined ppl living together

now, how do you do this? how do you make this work? never fear, ive got some notions abt all of this too! and it also (at least tries to) makes sense of why the last lady hanthom might choose a tiny random struggling house from the north w which to ally herself, knowing they'd be the future rulers of hanthom! and basically the answer is that house calleary had 1) v, v few ppl looking to them and 2) maritime knowledge of their own...it also brings in an atlantis/numennor/tomb of cleopatra/old valyria/pompei sorta myth bc i have zero self-control always dsklafjkdsjf are you ready?

ok, for i leap into this, side bar to tuck away/keep in mind: irl ancient celtic mythology, manannán is the irish god of the sea...and, originally, of the afterlife as well. why is that? bc the earliest celts believed that the afterlife was an island to which you could sail (this is why king arthur was taken to avalon on a boat -- the meaning was lost over time but it comes from this and there're some really interesting ancient myths abt sailors accidentally shipwrecking on the island of the dead and all kinda of wild things ensuing largely bc the ancient celts believed in reincarnation so it was a place your soul went and could return etc but then you go there w a living body and chaos ensues you get it laksjdfkljdsajf) so! i thought riffing off of this could be fun since we know astaira is lowkey fantasy ireland etc ;D and it actually sorta solved the puzzle in my mind of the connection to the north and the differing name so!! bear this in mind and now get ready #forrealizies

incoming thought: this story might be that of either the callearies or the hanthoms, actually...originally i was thinking the callearies but it might ~actually make more sense if its the hanthoms???? idk but either way imma refer to it as the callearies (bc either way their descendants are in fact our modern day callearies, if we go w this!) below ;D

im thinking that maaaaaybe...originally...they weren't astairan at all!! originally, the callearies from an archipelago somewhere off to sea, its location now lost

the callearies could have been kings, but im actually thinking that maybe they were just random sailors, maybe lords, but they were lucky bc while they were off at sea, their homeland was destroyed whether via volcanic eruption or tsunami/tidal waves or earthquakes or -- v possibly w a volcanic eruption -- all of the above!!!

many of the sailors and merchants and ships that were asail were crushed and drowned in the horrific storms and upheaval that came w the destruction of their homeland, but in the aftermath those that survived banded together into a ragtag fleet, set adrift in the terrific storms and desperately sailing towards land as their supplies dwindled

the survivors ended up banding together beneath the banner of the callearies, either bc they were surviving lords or simply bc they were simply charismatic/kept their heads on their shoulders/had the biggest ships/had a surviving captain/whatever!!!

when the fleet finally made land, the survivors spilled forth onto a spit of land and made a settlement there, grateful to have survived

this land was, of course, in astaira

they did their best to rebuild their culture, eventually coming into contact w other astairans, and -- being sea people -- quickly set about becoming trading and naval powers in the region

their lost homeland now survives as a mytho-historic atlantis/avalon-type myth in the collective minds of the astairans and many have sailed off into the horizon in search of the place, never to be seen again

now how does this tie into the hanthom-calleary thing???? trade!!! seafaring!!! im imagining the two co-existed for some time w one ruling the northern seas and the other the southern and yeah! while one ploughs the wintry northern seas, the other commands the summery southern seas. if you're house hanthom and you know ur abt to die out but you want someone to keep ur ppl alive and ur sea culture going etc, ur gonna want the other parent to ur heir/aka the future lords of ur spot, to be someone who knows the waters, gets ships, understands the needs of ppl who live off the sea, understand trade, etc etc etc, PLUS uniting their fleets and trade routes does exponentially compound the wealth, power, and influence of the combined house so ur heirs and ur ppl will be well off on a lot of counts!!!!

now, im thinking that, since the northern callearies only had a small number of ppl in an inhopsitable place, they probs brought all their ppl w them (at least who wished to go) and bing bam boom fast forward a couple centuries and you've got our kiddos!

anyway alksdjfkljdsf this is a lot and all of it frankly insane and yeah idk if we want any of this????????? but here we are -- lmk what you think!!!