A heraldic eagle displayed without feet or beak, used as a symbol in coats of arms.
From Middle French allerion, possibly from Old French ale (wing) combined with -ion suffix. The term emerged in heraldry during the medieval period to describe a specific artistic convention for depicting eagles.
The allerion is one of heraldry's strangest creatures—an eagle deliberately drawn incomplete, as if the artist forgot the important bits. Yet this 'broken' eagle became so standardized in medieval heraldry that it had precise rules, showing how humans turn limitations into traditions.
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