Chelseannans, despite only a few of them being able to claim any kind of nobility, past or present, for themselves (and those who did generally lived in cottages and mansions outside Port Chelseanna), had a strange fascination for heraldry. Virtually any resident family in town had its own coat of arms that they prized as a symbol of their honor, and many individuals in each family had a personal variant of the family blazon; some went as far as getting their coat of arms tattooed on their skin. It had started as a way for the different generations of immigrants, especially from Carmelyn and Arium, to maintain a portion of their identities; and naturally, as soon as it became clear that the tourists loved it, it turned into a business.
Funded by the town itself, the Duchess Chelseanna Heraldic Museum had at some point in the past been a large, three-story limestone house near the
Cancello del Passeggero, having belonged to one of the most successful artisans on the island before the complete redesign of the community as a touristic attraction. A booth, manned by a jovial halfling, stood next to the door. Upon paying the ten-Crown entrance fee (five for children), visitors would be admitted into the building. Guided tours were available every brightening, two candlemarks after rosyun; an afternoon at the Museum was almost
de rigueur for the average visitor.
The exhibits were carefully lined up, some hanging from the walls, some resting on the tiled floor, and some on display on cordoned pedestals. There were shields, pieces of light armor designed for fencing, crests but also much stranger items decorated with coats of arms, ranging from embroidened bridal gowns to chamberpots. There were paintings and sculptures, plaques and sundials, coffins and female undergarments, all arranged in such a way as to elicit the maximum amount of surprise when walking into the next room, in perfect Chelseannan style.
Of course, some peculiar little workshops were strategically placed next and opposite the Museum. One shoppe offered people to 'discover their own coat of arms' by looking names up on ancient registers of sorts, others were engravers, enamel painters, embroideners and decorators that could add one of these symbols to pretty much any common item, be it a weapon or a teacup. They were a series of unrelated businesses that only had one thing in common: none of them were very cheap.
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