Raise Your Flag

Two weeks ago, patch 5.10.2 added Guild Heraldry to the game, a feature that was originally intended to be part of 5.10 proper but then ended up being pushed back a bit. What is Guild Heraldry, you ask? Basically, it's what WoW has popularised as tabards, a way to create and show off a logo for your guild... except that we don't have tabards in SWTOR, even after this.

Where does this logo show then? Well, in your own guild window, in the guild inspect window that other people can see, and a teeny tiny version also shows next to your guild's name on the Conquest leaderboard if you make it into the top ten. Finally, you have the option to display it next to people's character names, because we clearly needed more stuff floating above our heads.

Mr Commando and I immediately set out to design a logo for our guild (conveniently enough, the design window can be accessed by all guild members at all times, they just can't save their creation without the proper permissions) but quickly disagreed on what it should look like. Also, I was reminded that my sense of matching colours isn't always the best, which in turn reminded me that we have some very artistic and creative people in the guild. So we decided to put the matter to the masses.

In the first round we had people submit their own banner ideas. There were a couple of obligatory jokey ones, but most were quite good. There was a lot of experimentation with different variants of planets, suns and stars to evoke that "Twin Suns" feeling but also some more original ideas, such as utilising the Aurebesh letter T. There was even some discussion on whether the logo should be starfighter themed - hardly anyone in the guild plays GSF, but the name Twin Suns Squadron has its origin in a fighter squadron from the old expanded universe.

Then the officer team picked some finalists, trying to represent a variety of ideas and we put the matter to the vote.

Funnily enough, the winner was the one on top, which was the very first idea I put together. All this effort to have a contest and then you just vote for the original suggestion? I mean, thank you for your confidence... I guess. (Plus there were the obvious "rigged" jokes since I'm an officer and the GM's wife.)

While the designing and voting was still going on, I also started inspecting other people's guilds on the fleet and in pugs to get an idea of what other guilds were doing with their logos. I'm afraid to say that sadly, the majority of them looked dreadfully boring. Every guild gets either a red Empire or blue Republic symbol on a plain black field as its default logo, and most guild leaders apparently haven't felt the need to make any great changes to this. On Imperial side, the Empire symbol is sometimes replaced with something else that's vaguely martial looking (such as a fist or a skull) but without any further adjustments. On Republic side, a lot of guilds just kept the Republic symbol and didn't do anything other than slightly adjust its colour.

There was some creativity on display though, which I thought would be fun to share on here.

I have it on good authority that chloroform isn't green, but that aside, I like how this logo conveys a mood. Smells Like Chloroform is an Imperial PvP guild, and just looking at that banner made me think of Operatives using their Toxic Haze ability on me.

This was the first guild I saw using the logo featuring planetary bodies partially eclipsing each other that I also used in my design and I think it's appropriate for the guild name.

Stroke My Wookie is the biggest Imperial guild on Darth Malgus, so big that its membership is split up into two separate guilds (both of which share the same logo). I guess if you're the biggest guild on the server you can get away with having a plain logo on a black background and still seem cool. Credit has to be given for using the Aurebesh version of the number five for its resemblance to the letter S.

This guild is jokingly named after something from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and since I imagine it would've been quite impossible to have anything resembling the actual Knights of Ni, going for an approximation of the St George's cross as worn by Sir Galahad struck me as a good solution.

I have no idea what this small guild is about- the name certainly sounds like something that would have a story behind it - so I can't exactly judge the appropriateness of the logo, but the chosen green and brown tones made me think of Kashyyyk (the Wookiee homeworld) and maybe that red X in the middle symbolises an explosion or some other negative thing that would give a Wookiee cause to wail? I don't know, like the first logo I posted above I think it just manages to convey a feeling.

This just amused me because of how they thought to use the planet icon to represent a cookie. It totally works too.

How did your guild choose its new logo?