After I made the coat of arms for another one of my roleplay characters,
Winston Archambault-Brewer, I got into a Harry Potter RP and
decided to make arms for Henry Whalley, the father of the character I’m playing.
Henry is a Cartomancer and Games Merchant with a shop on Diagon Alley called
Giddy Goblin Games, which has been run by the Whalley family for generations.
Henry’s son, Theodore, is not very distinguished and does not have a coat of
arms of his own, and since Henry is very much alive, he has yet to inherit the
arms you see here. He would however, be entitled to use these arms if
differenced by a
label of three points,
which would indicate that he is the first son of the bearer of the original arms.
Blazon
Special thanks to u/The_Failord on Reddit for suggesting a blazon when I
posted the design on the Heraldry Subreddit.
Arms
Argent, on a bend Sable between two wands of the same bendwise tips to chief
and to base two horse heads conjoined of the field.
Crest
On a wizard’s hat Gules, a raven proper contourny.
Motto
MANUS TUA NUMQUAM MONSTRANDA. This Latin phrase means “Never show your hand”.
Symbolism
Two horse heads
The two horse heads represent chess knights, in reference to the business of
selling games. They are mirrored so as to resemble the face cards in a playing
card deck.
Two wands
Representing cartomancy and the merchant’s profession, the two wands represent the Tarot card, the Two of Wands, which depicts a merchant with the world in his hands.
Bend Sable
The diagonal bend represents Diagon Alley.
Crest
I had this idea that among Wizards in Britain that the pointed hat would be
standard helm, instead of a knight’s helm, and that the bearer would change the color
of the hat based on the house they were sorted into. Red (Gules) for Gryffindor,
Blue (Azure) for Ravenclaw, Or (Gold) for Hufflepuff, and Vert (Green) for
Slytherin.
That being the case, I’m not sure what the Raven is for, because I originally
put that in to represent Ravenclaw. I thought maybe the crest would be determined
by the house of the person the arms were originally granted to, but that would
all British wizards use one of only four crests and that’s not exactly interesting.
