Swords
The sword is a knight’s primary weapon but more than that it is his badge of office and tool by which he is able to uphold his vows to defend the weak and needy. The sword however becomes more than just a weapon but a metaphor and an actual catalyst for divisiveness when it ignites a veritable civil war in the Seven Kingdoms. When King Aegon decides to pass on the fabled long sword Blackfyre to his more militarily inclined bastard son rather than to his legitimate but scholarly son. Many in the kingdom felt that the sword symbolized the authority of the king, so the act of bestowing the sword was one of the impetus from which infamous Blackfyre Rebellion had sprung from. Ser Duncan’s sword is an appropriate symbol for who he is and what he stands for: his is a nondescript sword that he inherited from Ser Arlan and having lacked proper training he weilds his sword rather clumsily, ironically becoming more effective as a fighter once a sword fight has degenerated into a brawl--a metaphor for his roughshod but practical sensibilities.
Shields and Sigils
The shield, like the sword, is a knight’s primary means of defense, more that that however the shield is also a knight’s primary means of showing his allegiance and identity. Knights of renown are often given monikers based upon their personal sigil emblazoned on their shield, and many of these sigils on shields also tell of deeply personal stories of the knight possessing it. Ser Raymun Fossoway, not wanting to be associated with his dishonorable cousin Ser Steffon, paints the apple on his shield green rather than maintaining their clan colors of red on a gold field. In doing so he also sets into motion a schism within the Fossoway clan. Lord Gormon Peake has a sigil of three black castles on a field of orange, which Egg explains is no longer the case as the Crown, for his clan’s participation in the Blackfyre Rebellion, had confiscated two of these castles.
Dragons
The Targaryen clan is still very much in power in this era and their clan symbol, the dragon, is everywhere in the Seven Kingdoms in one form or another. In “A Knight of Seven Kingdoms,” however, dragons have all but gone extinct, the great wyrms only remembered in dusty books and songs. In AKOSK dragons are present only in the form of dormant dragon eggs presented to each of the heirs of the ruling Targaryen clan. In a similar fashion, the House of the Dragon is much like its’ sigil: a mere shadow of its’ former glory relying on political subterfuge and cloak-and-dagger maneuverings to maintain its’ power rather than sheer charisma and dragonfire like the Targaryens of old.
