Obviously multiple people can have multiple pet peves.

I for one could care less about heraldry, it neither bothers me nor interests me. Something like autoclass (well more the lack of drawbacks to being a rogue and the house system in general) however makes achaea almost impossible for me to play now.

To each their own.

Clearly the worst thing about Achaea is that it spawned Lusternia.

I would really hate if Lusternia became anything like Achaea. I love it here right now, but I don't like a lot of what Achaea is anymore. If we do have Heraldry I would hope it was in addition to a trade skill we already have (like Aramel suggested) or part of a new trade skill. Paying for a trade like that would just be annoying. It's not all that great of a skill to have by itself. I'm with Aison though. Some people just have no colour sense. I'm all about ignoring the people who use hideous colours in their banners.

It wasn't really that people had no sense of style... they just had no idea what the eff they were doing.

I don't see the point. Want a Coat of Arms banner? TAILORING TAPESTRIES. Make one! Want a Shield with your coat of arms... make one. Is it that hard? Custom designs are like 15k. Don't tell me Great Houses and Banner houses can't afford their own cartels (cause they can)

Tapestries are an Artisan's thing.
It's 5k for a private design with an official coat of arms.

Was heraldry free? Should it have been?

Heck, if anyone with supplication were so inclined, they could afford their own cartel in about 3 weeks of work.

I can't remember if it was 100cr for the license or something like 250-500k for it. Either way, it was expensive.

200k.

But you can probably get a private design made for you by your friendly local craftsman for 5000-10000, and that lasts forever, so what's the problem?

(That's of course just the design, not the item itself. But the point is, you don't need to buy a whole cartel.)