Item from The Black Company by Glen Cook
The Black Company's banner — the one physical object that matters as much as the Annals. Where the banner stands, the Company exists. Where it falls, brothers die to pick it up.
The Company standard is the physical manifestation of the Company's identity — if the Annals are its memory, the banner is its presence. The standard-bearer's job is to keep it flying during battle, which is both ceremonial and tactical: soldiers fight toward the banner, rally around the banner, and know the Company still stands as long as the banner does. Murgen serves as standard-bearer alongside his role as Annalist, which makes him literally the keeper of both the Company's past (the Annals) and its present (the banner). The standard is replaced when destroyed but the continuity is what matters — it's the same Company, the same banner, the same four-hundred-year march.
A black banner — the Company's standard, carried by the standard-bearer into every engagement. The exact design varies across centuries of replacement, but the essential element is consistent: black, with the Company's sigil. It's battered, mended, and replaced when necessary, but the idea it represents is continuous. Croaker describes it with more affection than he describes most people.
Also known as: The Standard, The Company Banner, The Black Banner