Wooden Shield

Wooden Shield

“Show me your shield and I’ll tell you who pays you.”The wooden shield is the most common shield among men. It is made of linden planks glued cross-grain, covered in rawhide or canvas, and rimmed with iron. It stops a cut, splits under an axe, and any garrison carpenter can make a new one for a few coins.
Its painted face is the first thing anyone reads on a battlefield. The soldier carries his lord’s arms, the militiaman the colors of his town. The rules of heraldry (the art of composing and reading coats of arms) exist so that arms can be read from afar. Metal never goes on metal (gold and silver), nor color on color (red, blue, black, green), and that is what lets the lion stand out from its field at fifty paces. On the road, a shield leaned against the counter tells the innkeeper who he is dealing with before anyone gives a name. A mercenary repaints his for every contract. Scrape an old company shield and you find beneath it, layer after layer, the colors of every master it has served.