Making a Lineage 2 clan crest
Lineage 2 clan crests are the small custom emblems that appear next to your clan name, on the clan window and above members in the world, and a separate ally crest marks every clan that belongs to the same alliance.
A crest is a bitmap image you paint yourself and upload through an in-game command, so any clan can carry its own insignia rather than a generic default. This page explains the exact pixel sizes and file format, how to create and upload both a clan and an ally crest, when each becomes available, and it settles the common confusion between “Lineage” and “clan”. It sits under the Lineage 2 gear: weapons, armor and items hub, next to the guides on Lineage 2 weapons and grades and Lineage 2 armor and sets.
Crest sizes and file format
The crest is a tiny image, so the whole art has to read at a glance rather than in detail. A clan crest is a 16 by 12 pixel bitmap, and the larger ally crest, shown for an alliance, is 8 by 12 pixels wide per the client’s insignia slot, with both saved as 256-colour uncompressed BMP files. Because the canvas is measured in single pixels, most makers design a bold, high-contrast emblem, a single letter, a simple symbol or a two-tone shape, since fine gradients and small text turn to mud at that scale.
| Crest | Size (pixels) | Format | Shown where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clan crest | 16 x 12 | 256-colour BMP | Clan window, name plate, clan list |
| Ally (alliance) crest | 8 x 12 | 256-colour BMP | Beside clans in the same alliance |
Any image editor that can export an indexed-colour BMP at exact dimensions will do, and many players use a small online crest generator that outputs the correct size and palette automatically. The key rule is to hit the pixel dimensions and the 256-colour limit exactly, because the client rejects files that do not match.
Making a clan crest step by step
Creating a crest is short once the file is right, and the process is the same on Interlude, Essence and most other versions of Lineage.
- Open an image editor and set a new canvas to exactly 16 by 12 pixels.
- Paint your emblem, keeping it bold and high-contrast so it survives at real size.
- Convert the image to 256-colour indexed mode and export it as an uncompressed BMP.
- In game, as the clan leader, open the crest interface or type the crest command and browse to your BMP file.
- Confirm the upload, then relog if the emblem does not refresh immediately.
Only the clan leader can set or change the crest, and the game imposes a short cooldown between changes so it is not swapped every minute. If the upload silently fails, the cause is almost always a wrong size, a compressed BMP, or an image saved in true colour rather than 256-colour indexed.
Ally crests and alliances
An ally crest works the same way but represents an alliance of clans rather than a single clan. Once an alliance exists, its leader uploads an ally crest and it appears alongside every member clan, so a group of allied clans can share a visible identity in sieges and mass PvP. There is a catch worth knowing: a clan must reach the level that grants alliance features before it can join or form one, and an ally crest only displays for clans that have actually accepted the alliance invite. The command flow mirrors the clan crest, but the leader of the alliance, not each clan, controls the shared emblem.
Lineage versus clan: what the words mean
“Lineage” and “clan” are not the same thing, and the mix-up is common because the game is named Lineage 2. Lineage is the title of the game and its world, the franchise NCSoft built; a clan is the in-game player organisation you create, name and lead, the group whose crest this page is about. So you play Lineage 2, and inside it you run or join a clan. The related terms stack up like this: a clan can grow through levels that unlock clan skills and passive buffs for members, it can run an academy to recruit and level newcomers, and several clans can bind together into an alliance. None of that changes the game’s name; it all happens inside Lineage 2.
Building a clan around the crest
A crest is the visible sign of a working clan, so it is worth knowing what sits behind it. You form a clan through the clan management interface, then invite members up to the current cap, and as the clan gains levels it earns clan skills, the passive and active buffs that reward organised play. An academy lets lower-level players join, level up and graduate into the main roster, which is a proof of a healthy, growing clan rather than a name held by one person. Clan reputation, earned from sieges and certain quests, is the currency that unlocks those skills, so an active crest usually signals a clan that is actually doing content together.
Because clans, alliances and sieges are the heart of the endgame, they behave slightly differently on each ruleset, which is one more reason to weigh where you settle. If your clan is built around older-school PvP and territory war, the trade-offs are covered in the guide to Choosing a Lineage 2 Interlude server.