The Seal of the Obsidian Court
The trolls of PÈRYL are eusocial and live in a hive culture. As they are nominally mammals, they share this quality with naked mole rats. Awareness of this parallel among scholar-matriarchs lead to the adoption of the naked mole rat as one of the basal clan ancestors. Among the h' BchBrche, the trolls of the Black Isles, many of the matriarchs use variations of mole rate motifs in their familial crests, sigils, signets, and personal/house seals. This particular image is the seal of the Queen Regnant of the Black Isles. It depicts a mosaic-patterned mole rat with a jade stone eye, two tails, in bronze, copper, gold, and set on deep, near black, brown wood grain. The image hangs on flags and banners in the halls of the Obsidian Court. Prince-consorts are branded with the seal and dress in ways that expose the brand wherever it is located. Brown, earth tones, and brown gold are the preferred colours of the queen and the members of the court. Bearers of the seal (as standards, armour crests, and the actual seals) are easily recognized on the battlefield, were it not for their already massive size, because they stand out among the more cacophonous coloured, mishmashed palettes of the common soldiers and drones.
Item type
Jewelry / Valuable
Current Location
Current Holder
Related ethnicities
Owning Organization
Rarity
Unique to the nobility of the Black Isles, any lost sigil would be reclaimed at all costs. Should the person who lost theirs still lives, they would be tasked with its return, facing banishment otherwise. As such, the seals are beyond rare and perhaps number in the handfuls at most. As a symbol, they can be worn only by those designated by the Obsidian Court and almost exclusively restricted to those of the first generation of the Queen Regnant's issue. Banners, flags, standards, and pieces of armour with the seal's image on them, have indeed been taken as trophies by Ptarshakk, in particular by members of the Ptajma. It is unknown if any actual seals themselves are missing.
Weight
On average, a seal weighs less than half a pound. Larger ones considerably more.
Dimensions
Standard is about 8" x 5" x 1"
Base Price
In terms of actual cost of materials, perhaps 50-100 gold ptarars; actual value: incalculable.
Comments