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The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?
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Author:  Dreadnought [ Sun May 31, 2015 2:33 am ]
Post subject:  The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

One of the organisations outlined in the new Players Guide is the Knights Capellar.

And it has this to say about their symbol:

After a ceremony and all-night vigil at the Capellars' headquarters on the isle of Barada, the initiate takes up the distinctive accoutrements of the Capellars - a slender, slightly curved sword and a white surcoat adorned with an eight-pointed purple cross.

It is also mentioned that the Capellars take a somewhat heterodox approach to the True Faith, and to some extent engage in practices that are not quite in line with common True Faith beliefs.

In one of the Blood Sword books (The Demon's Claw), we are given a bit of information about the Capellar's as well:

You ask Tobias the significance of the eight-pointed indigo star which the knights of his Order wear on their tabards.

Now, the Capellar symbol is described in two slightly different ways - as an eight-pointed purple star, and as an eight-pointed indigo cross. As somebody who pays a lot of attention to the heraldry of Dragon Warriors, I got thinking about this during the writing of the Players Guide and came up with this design for the Capellar symbol.

Attachment:
CapellarStarCross.png
CapellarStarCross.png [ 1.79 KiB | Viewed 12498 times ]


I think this symbol can be easily seen as either a cross or a star by those who desire to interpret it in either way. In a context of the Crusades where most Knights are wearing a cross of some sort, and the other orders are most likely all wearing crosses of particular colour/design it would easily be seen as a cross. But those Capellars who are less enamoured of the True Faith, can see it as the star.

Dave Morris has seen the design and liked it. He said that having a design that looked a bit cross like made sense, because why would you want to risk a charge of heresy for no good reason. For me, his opinion matters a lot, enough that I thought I'd put the image online.

Author:  Damian May [ Sun May 31, 2015 5:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

Looking at that design it would definitely come across more cross like on a tabard as the centre was forced out by breast plate and the ends taper around the chest.

Author:  Cobwebbed Dragon [ Sun May 31, 2015 9:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

I imagined something like the attached image. But then I'd forgotten about the paragraph in Demon's Claw, which makes it sound more star-y, than cross-y.

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Cross.png
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Author:  Cobwebbed Dragon [ Sun May 31, 2015 9:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

And I've also drawn this style pointy cross, but I promise to stop now because I'm all polygon'd out.

Attachments:
Cross2.png
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Author:  wimlach [ Mon Jun 01, 2015 10:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

I guess they had this in mind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_cross

Symbol of the 'Knights Hospitaller'.

Sound familiar?

Author:  Thorak [ Thu Jun 11, 2015 5:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

Cobwebbed Dragon wrote:
And I've also drawn this style pointy cross, but I promise to stop now because I'm all polygon'd out.


Really like this one! You could describe that as either a cross or a star and no-one would contradict you.

Author:  Starkad [ Sat Feb 24, 2018 4:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

Just messing around, really. Trying to get a hue approximate to "indigo" as per the description - "from the eight-pointed indigo cross on their chests" (DW book 6, page 225).

Attachments:
Maltese Cross Indigo (sm).jpg
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Author:  Acoma [ Sat Feb 24, 2018 5:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

I really like that: it works as a star and a cross and actually looks really good!

Author:  Starkad [ Sat Feb 24, 2018 8:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

Quote:
I really like that: it works as a star and a cross and actually looks really good!

Thank you. :) It's a Maltese Cross - used by St John's ambulance service* (amongst others) and, as it fits the description in the book, makes me wonder if Dave Morris originally thought of this as the design. Wimlach refers to it in an earlier post.
* Theirs is a white cross on a black background (sable, a Maltese cross argent).

It's very similar to the design proposed by Dreadnought - simply "sharpen" the points and widen the centre a bit and you're there. As tabards and banners would be individually hand-stitched, it is entirely possible there might be a slight variance from knight to knight. Perhaps some knights favour the design that looks more like a star, while others favour the cross? Little things like that might be a clue of tensions within the Order (and may provide a hint to perceptive characters as to the allegiance of the knight they're dealing with)...

Author:  WodenKrait [ Sun Feb 25, 2018 9:03 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Capellar Star - or is it the Capellar Cross?

For what it's worth, a design exactly half-way between the Maltese Cross and Dreadnought's design looks like this:

Attachment:
Capellar StarCross_Small.png
Capellar StarCross_Small.png [ 43.42 KiB | Viewed 10691 times ]


Regards,

-Kyle

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