House Crest Patches

House Crest Patches were embroidered patches to be worn during public activities to verify the wearer's identity.

THE INSPIRING INCEDENT

In the city of Sapphirus, it was tradition for a couple centuries for one to wear their house crest on their sleeve whenever they go out into public. This was mostly due to a scare where a group of assassins managed to disguise themselves as members of a noble family to sneak in and kill their victims.

THE EMERGENCE AND FADING OF CRESTS

This prompted a rule for all citizens in Sapphirus to wear their family lineage on their sleeve, as these hand-embroidered patches were nearly impossible to replicate 100% accurately. These were all hand-made by the reigning godspeaker at the time.
The scares went away as the culprits were found, but the patches stayed for about a century, before most people dropped the whole thing. Since that point it is considered either paranoid or prideful to continue wearing your house crest in the modern day, but some simply do it out of habit.
It is most commonly seen in the nobles or those with important professions as a symbol of status.

Due to some rumors the crests seem to be resurfacing slightly, but they definitely haven’t come back full force. Unless another impersonation incident happens again, they likely won’t return for a long time.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CRESTS

The crests were all hand-embroidered by the godspeaker Aurora, who put his vast knowledge of secret codes and languages to use in making each individual patch.
Some crests had secret messages hidden under different threads. Some had Morse Code written in the shadows of a flower’s stem. Some even had stories written into them in a variety of ways, all squeezed into the simple house crests of each person in Sapphirus.
Usually these secret messages were unique to the family and individual, allowing those who knew what to look for to easily identify anyone who they met.

The crests were traditionally worn on the outside of the left sleeve, and holding your arm to your chest to let someone take a look at your patch was basically a new greeting. To this day some Sapphirians still greet their friends by gently holding their arm up. It is likely out of pure habit, but it is a strong habit indeed.