Westeros — Sigils of the Great Houses of Game of Thrones

Aegon’s Conquest is the great redistribution of Westerosi heraldry. In the space of a few years it ended one royal line, stripped the crowns from several others and created a region that had no ancient arms at all. The realm it left behind holds nine regions — the north, the Vale of Arryn, the Iron Islands, the riverlands, the westerlands, the crownlands, the Reach, the stormlands and Dorne — and is still called the Seven Kingdoms, after the seven sovereigns who held Westeros on the eve of the invasion. Two cases run in exactly opposite directions.

Storm’s End: a new house with old arms

After the defeat of Argilac the Arrogant, the last Storm King, his only daughter Argella Durrandon was married to Orys Baratheon — one of Aegon’s generals, his closest companion and his rumoured bastard half-brother — who became the first Lord of Storm’s End. Orys took the sigil and the words of House Durrandon for his own.

So the crowned black stag on gold and Ours is the Fury are Durrandon inheritances, worn by a house founded in 2 BC. House Baratheon is the youngest of the Great Houses of Westeros, and its arms are among the oldest: through the female line they reach back to Durran Godsgrief, who founded the kingdom of the Storm Kings in the Age of Heroes.

Highgarden: an old kingdom with new arms

House Gardener had ruled the Reach since the Age of Heroes under argent, a hand vert — a green hand on white. Mern IX Gardener and his kin were killed at the Field of Fire in 1 BC, and the line ended there. Aegon gave Highgarden and the Reach to the Tyrells, who until then had been the Gardeners’ stewards.

The Tyrells did not take the arms with the castle. They brought their own golden rose, and the green hand of the old kings survives only in the name of a chivalric order founded in its honour, the Order of the Green Hand. Where Storm’s End kept a dead dynasty’s sigil, Highgarden buried one.

Crowns lost, arms kept

Elsewhere the devices stayed and only the crowns went. Stark and Arryn submitted, Lannister bent the knee after the Field of Fire, and all three were confirmed as Wardens over the lands they had ruled as kings. The direwolf, the falcon and the lion are therefore royal arms still borne by houses that no longer reign. The Martells kept theirs by a different route: Dorne stayed out of the realm for nearly two centuries and joined in 187 AC by marriage, which is why its princes kept the title as well as the sun and spear.

The one region with no inherited heraldry is the crownlands, carved out around King’s Landing from ground that had been contested between several kingdoms. It had no ancient house and so no ancient arms, and the three-headed dragon set over it was an import — the more so because the dragonlords of the Valyrian Freehold, whom the Targaryens came from, practised no heraldry at all.

Arms are worked hard in Westeros, and in that at least it behaves like Europe. They go on shields, on surcoats and above all on banners, which is why a lord’s sworn vassals are called his bannermen. A knight who wants to fight unrecognised rides as a mystery knight behind a blank or borrowed shield. The arms of the realm’s great men are gathered in rolls of arms, and highborn children learn to read them through a game called come-into-my-castle.

What does not behave like Europe is the grammar. Martin borrows the look of medieval European heraldry and quietly drops most of its rules, so the result sits closer to the early Middle Ages, before blazon hardened into a discipline: arms are described in plain English rather than in heraldic jargon, and a good many of them would never have passed a herald’s desk.

The rule of tincture is gone

European blazon forbids colour on colour and metal on metal. Westeros ignores it outright: House Waynwood sets black on green, House Kettleblack black on red, House Chyttering gold on white. Nor does Westeros keep the European habit of folding white, silver and grey together as argent — here they are three distinct tinctures, which is how House Stark can bear a grey direwolf on a white field and have it read as a contrast at all.

Some of the old vocabulary does survive. Furs are still used — ermine for House Rosby, vair for House Harte — but they sit alongside tinctures no roll of arms would accept: sunset, oak, sand, masonry, or the grey-green of House Reed.

Charges a herald would have refused

Real heraldry keeps its charges simple, because a shield has to be read across a battlefield. Westeros does not. House Manderly puts a merman on the field and House Umber a chained giant — figures European practice would only ever have allowed as supporters, standing beside the shield rather than on it. Others go further: the flayed man of House Bolton, the silk-swirled dancing maiden of House Piper, the fool of House Falwell. And the local wildlife arrives with the setting — the lizard-lion of House Reed, the weirwood of House Blackwood.

The seven-pointed star of the Faith of the Seven, borne by houses such as Templeton, is almost unknown in European arms; the flag of Australia is the famous exception.

Blazons that leave too much open

Because the descriptions are prose rather than blazon, many of them underspecify the design. House Blanetree bears “maple leaves, green and brown, strewn on a field of yellow” — which says neither how many leaves nor how they sit. Others produce arms that simply do not work at a distance: the fields of House Hayford bleed into one another, and House Lynderly is both busy and low in contrast. Set against them, House Footly — silver caltrops strewn on black — is exactly the kind of design a real herald would have approved.

One regional difference

Shape is the clearest line on the map. Most of the realm bears its arms on an escutcheon; Dornish houses favour a circular field, a form barely seen north of the Red Mountains.

Eight of the nine regions are covered below. The Iron Islands are not: the ironborn houses are still to be drawn, and none of them appears in this atlas yet.

The North (12 houses)

The North wears its own country. Its devices are drawn from the land and from the First Men who settled it long before any herald reached Westeros: the grey direwolf of House Stark on a white field, the grey-green lizard-lion of House Reed, the merman of House Manderly, the flayed man of House Bolton. Beasts no European herald ever blazoned, on tinctures no European roll would name.

House Bolton of the Dreadfort House Cerwyn of Cerwyn Castle House Dustin of Barrowton House Flint of Flint's Finger House Flint of Widow's Watch House Hornwood of Hornwood House Locke of Oldcastle House Manderly of White Harbor House Reed of Greywater Watch House Ryswell of the Rills House Stark of Winterfell House Tallhart of Torrhen's Square

The Vale of Arryn (17 houses)

Two heraldic traditions are stacked in one valley. The Andals landed here first, and House Arryn — said to descend from the oldest line of Andal nobility — bears a sky-blue falcon against a white moon, blazoned bleu celeste, one of the few genuinely heraldic tinctures in the books. Beneath them sits House Royce, First Men since the Dawn Age, with black iron studs on bronze inside a border of ancient runes, and We Remember for words.

House Arryn of Gulltown House Arryn of the Eyrie House Baelish of the Fingers House Belmore of Strongsong House Coldwater of Coldwater Burn House Corbray of Heart's Home House Elesham of the Paps House Grafton of Gulltown House Hunter of Longbow Hall House Lynderly of Snakewood House Melcolm of Old Anchor House Redfort of Redfort House Royce of Runestone House Sunderland of the Three Sisters House Templeton of Ninestars House Waxley of Wickenden House Waynwood of Ironoaks

The Riverlands (14 houses)

The riverlands were never long their own kingdom. They passed between river kings, storm kings and ironborn until Aegon took them from House Hoare and gave them to Edmyn Tully. The arms remember the older claims: House Blackwood, river kings in the Age of Heroes, bear a dead weirwood on a black inescutcheon within an orle of ravens — one of the rare Westerosi blazons built from real heraldic ordinaries. Their house words have never been recorded.

House Blackwood of Raventree Hall House Bracken of Stone Hedge House Darry of Darry House Frey of the Crossing House Harlton of Castlewood House Mallister of Seagard House Mooton of Maidenpool House Piper of Pinkmaiden House Roote of Lord Harroway's Town House Smallwood of Acorn Hall House Tully of Riverrun House Vance of Atranta House Vance of Wayfarer's Rest House Whent of Harrenhal

The Westerlands (18 houses)

Gold country, and the home of the clearest grant of arms in the books. A kennelmaster of Casterly Rock saved Lord Tytos Lannister from a lioness, losing a leg and three dogs in the doing. Tytos gave him lands and a towerhouse, and the new House Clegane took for its sigil the three dogs it had lost, on the yellow of autumn grass — an augmentation of honour in all but name.

House Banefort of Banefort House Brax of Hornvale House Clegane of Clegane's Keep House Crakehall of Crakehall House Estren of Wyndhall House Farman of Faircastle House Greenfield of Greenfield House Kenning of Kayce House Lannister of Lannisport House Lefford of the Golden Tooth House Lydden of Deep Den House Marbrand of Ashemark House Prester of Feastfires House Sarsfield of Sarsfield House Sarwyck of Riverspring House Serrett of Silverhill House Swyft of Cornfield House Westerling of the Crag

The Crownlands (14 houses)

The one region with no inherited heraldry. Carved out around King’s Landing from ground several kingdoms had fought over, it had no ancient royal house and therefore no ancient arms, and the dragon set above it was an import. What surrounds it is a patchwork of lesser houses: Rosby, bearing ermine, one of the few true heraldic furs in Westeros, and Hayford, whose fields bleed into one another badly enough that a herald would have sent the design back.

House Bar Emmon of Sharp Point House Baratheon of Dragonstone House Baratheon of King's Landing House Brune of Brownhollow House Buckwell of the Antlers House Celtigar of Claw Isle House Darklyn of Duskendale House Hayford of Hayford House Massey of Stonedance House Rosby of Rosby House Rykker of Duskendale House Staunton of Rook's Rest House Stokeworth of Stokeworth House Velaryon of Driftmark

The Reach (35 houses)

The largest group in this atlas, and the most chivalric region of the realm. Its old kings, House Gardener, bore argent, a hand vert — a green hand on white — and claimed descent from Garth Greenhand, as a great many Reach houses still do. The line was extinguished at the Field of Fire and the green hand went with it, surviving only in the name of an order of knights. The Tyrells took Highgarden and brought their own golden rose.

House Appleton of Appleton House Ashford of Ashford House Beesbury of Honeyholt House Blackbar of Bandallon House Bulwer of Blackcrown House Caswell of Bitterbridge House Chester of Greenshield House Cordwayner of Hammerhal House Costayne of Three Towers House Crane of Red Lake House Cuy of Sunhouse House Florent of Brightwater Keep House Footly of Tumbleton House Fossoway of Cider Hall House Fossoway of New Barrel House Graceford of Holyhall House Grimm of Greyshield House Hewett of Oakenshield House Hightower of the Hightower House Kidwell of Ivy Hall House Meadows of Grassy Vale House Merryweather of Longtable House Mullendore of Uplands House Oakheart of Old Oak House Osgrey of Standfast House Peake of Starpike House Redwyne of the Arbor House Rowan of Goldengrove House Roxton of the Ring House Serry of Southshield House Shermer of Smithyton House Tarly of Horn Hill House Tyrell of Highgarden House Vyrwel of Darkdell House Webber of Coldmoat

The Stormlands (21 houses)

The stag of Storm’s End is older than the house that bears it. When Argilac the Arrogant, last of the Storm Kings, was defeated, Orys Baratheon married his daughter Argella and took the sigil and the words of House Durrandon for his own. House Baratheon is the youngest of the Great Houses; through the female line its crowned black stag reaches back to Durran Godsgrief.

House Baratheon of Storm's End House Buckler of Bronzegate House Cafferen of Fawnton House Caron of Nightsong House Connington of Griffin's Roost House Dondarrion of Blackhaven House Errol of Haystack Hall House Estermont of Greenstone House Fell of Felwood House Grandison of Grandview House Mertyns of Mistwood House Morrigen of Crow's Nest House Peasebury of Poddingfield House Penrose of Parchments House Rogers of Amberly House Selmy of Harvest Hall House Staedmon of Broad Arch House Swann of Stonehelm House Tarth of Evenfall Hall House Trant of Gallowsgrey House Wylde of Rain House

Dorne (16 houses)

The only region whose heraldry has a shape of its own: Dornish houses bear their arms on a round field, a form barely seen north of the Red Mountains. And the Martell sigil records a marriage. The Martells of old bore a gold spear; Nymeria and her Rhoynar bore a sun. When she wed Mors Martell around 700 BC the two were combined into a gold spear piercing a red sun on orange — marshalling, by any herald’s reckoning.

House Allyrion of Godsgrace House Blackmont of Blackmont House Dalt of Lemonwood House Dayne of Starfall House Fowler of Skyreach House Gargalen of Salt Shore House Jordayne of the Tor House Manwoody of Kingsgrave House Martell of Sunspear House Qorgyle of Sandstone House Santagar of Spottswood House Toland of Ghost Hill House Uller of the Hellholt House Vaith of the Red Dunes House Wyl of the Boneway House Yronwood of Yronwood

Why is it called the Seven Kingdoms if there are nine regions?

The name is a leftover from the eve of Aegon’s Conquest, when Westeros south of the Wall was held by seven sovereigns. Aegon took only six of them; Dorne stayed independent for nearly two more centuries and joined by marriage in 187 AC. The realm that came out of the Conquest is divided into nine regions — the north, the Vale of Arryn, the Iron Islands, the riverlands, the westerlands, the crownlands, the Reach, the stormlands and Dorne — but the older name stuck.

What is a sigil, and how does it differ from a coat of arms?

A sigil is the heraldic device of a Westerosi house — the direwolf of House Stark, the merman of House Manderly — and it works much as a coat of arms does in Europe. The difference is one of law rather than picture: the arms belong to the family, as in Germany or Italy, so every trueborn member may bear them, where English practice grants arms to one person at a time.

Can bastards bear their father’s arms in Westeros?

Sometimes, and with a difference added. Bastards may use their father’s arms marked with a distinction — most often the colours reversed — which is close to the marks of cadency real heralds used to set younger sons and illegitimate lines apart.

• George R. R. Martin — A Song of Ice and Fire
• George R. R. Martin, Elio M. García Jr. & Linda Antonsson — The World of Ice & Fire (2014)
• A Wiki of Ice and Fire — Seven Kingdoms and Heraldry

Last reviewed by the Emblema Mundi editorial team on 22 September 2026.