![]() As many commoners have no surname at all, even this minor inheritance serves to put lords' bastard children slightly above the average peasant in terms of social standing. Northmen used "Snow", Riverlanders used "Rivers", Crownlanders used "Waters", etc. There is another marker of bastardy in the series used by acknowledged bastards of nobles, whether they possess arms or not - a special surname based on the region of birth.Daemon Blackfyre, founder of the Blackfyre dynasty of pretenders to the Iron Throne, is a bastard son of King Aegon IV and took a black three-headed dragon on red (the reversed Targaryen sigil, a red three-headed dragon on black) as his family's sigil.Additionally his sword Longclaw has a white wolf pommel, it originally had a bear (House Mormont's sigil) but Jeor had it changed so it would be a more appropriate gift to Jon. Had Jon used his family arms it would have had a white wolf, which is why it's significant that his pet wolf Ghost is an albino.However, Walder Rivers, a highborn acknowledged Frey bastard son, has both the bend sinister and the reversed colors. There is no evidence of Ramsay Snow, bastard son of Roose Bolton, being armigerous before he was legitimized Ramsey briefly used the Bolton arms before that and Roose took serious offense and told him not to. Not all bastard children, even noble-born acknowledged bastard children, are armigerous: Jon Snow, for example - though he is a highborn, acknowledged illegitimate son of a lord, is only entitled to the black shield of the Night's Watch since he joined the Watch (and this applies to every member of the Watch, no matter what their status is). The bend sinister was also known, but isn't always used the reversed color pattern is used nearly always.A Song of Ice and Fire uses a typical pattern for noble-born, acknowledged bastard sons that use a coat of arms - their noble father's coat of arms with the colors reversed. ![]() In general, though, an illegitimate child would have no right to bear or inherit the arms of either of their parents at all, no matter how they differenced it (however, an illegitimate child may apply for a grant of arms - or, if a minor, the parent may do so for him - and may request that it be based on the parental arms but the rest is up to the Heralds' College).
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