Bastards Coat of Arms

[RagnorHill]

I was wondering what a Bastard carries for a coat of arms. Do they get a variation of their parents house, their own, or none at all?

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

There's a number of things they can do. They can invert the colours, like Daemon Blackfyre did with the Targaryen sigil. Or add a bar sinister, like Walder Rivers did (though he also inverted the colours), though this option might not be limited to bastards alone. Aegor Rivers, on the other hand, created a new sigil by combining the sigil of his highborn father with the sigil of the house of his highborn mother.

[The Twinslayer]

The Mystery Knight says it was common (but not universal) for bastards to reverse their family's colors:  "Daemon had used the three-headed dragon on his banners too, but he reversed the colors, as many bastards did." 

Another example is Jon Snow.  The Stark colors are a gray wolf on white field.  The Bastard of Winterfell could have have a white wolf on a gray field. That is why, when Mormont gives Longclaw to Jon, he replaces the bear handle with a white wolf:  "The original pommel was a bear's head, silver .... For you, I thought a white wolf more apt." 

It is also why the Old Gods sent Jon a white direwolf (Ghost) while the trueborn Stark children are sent gray wolves. 

[Vaedys Targaryen]

39 minutes ago, The Twinslayer said:

The Mystery Knight says it was common (but not universal) for bastards to reverse their family's colors:  "Daemon had used the three-headed dragon on his banners too, but he reversed the colors, as many bastards did." 

Another example is Jon Snow.  The Stark colors are a gray wolf on white field.  The Bastard of Winterfell could have have a white wolf on a gray field. That is why, when Mormont gives Longclaw to Jon, he replaces the bear handle with a white wolf:  "The original pommel was a bear's head, silver .... For you, I thought a white wolf more apt." 

It is also why the Old Gods sent Jon a white direwolf (Ghost) while the trueborn Stark children are sent gray wolves. 

What about Rickon? Shaggydog is black.

[The Twinslayer]

1 hour ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

What about Rickon? Shaggydog is black.

Shaggydog starts out gray but then turns black.  Here is how we meet Ghost:  "His fur was white, where the rest of the litter was gray."  This follows just after Jon makes the count (of the original five, gray direwolves) come out right by including the trueborn Starks and excluding the bastard.  Then he gets his wolf, with the inverted bastard colors.  The Old Gods sent gray direwolves to the trueborn children and a white one to the bastard.

Here is what happens to Shaggydog later:  "His fur had darkened until it was all black."  Why that happened should probably get its own thread.