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Ciclavex's Graphics Thread

More flags for everyone!

Or, at least, everyone in FMS' South America. Explanations spoilered below.

South America Flags.png

Brazilian Federation - The flag of the Brazilian Federation is in the traditional colors of the Kingdom of Portugal - blue, white and red - which was the colonizing power. The cross in the middle is an inversion of the seal of the Royal Military Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the rump of the Knights Templar which were preserved in Portugal despite their suppression elsewhere; the order was deeply involved in the formation of the Portuguese colonies in both America and Africa, and reflects both this history and the Brazilian states' staunch, even fanatical, Catholicism.

Kingdom of Grao Para and Kingdom of Maranhao - Grao Para (or, as it stands today, the government-in-exile of Grao Para, as the lion's share of the country is under Venezuelan occupation and administration) and Maranhao have shared a single royal dynasty since the two kingdoms' formation upon their joint independence from Portugal. Though attempts to create a full, formal union between the two countries have always failed (though, in practice, Maranhao has always been the dominant partner in their personal union), their flags are near-mirrors of one another as a result of their shared government, heritage and history. The flags' figures of eagles represent the separate sovereignty of the two kingdoms, while they fly together in formation to show their accord despite their separation. Red is seen as the traditional color of Maranhao, while black is seen as the traditional color of Grao Para, and so these colors take prominence in their separate flags.

Republic of New Granada - New Granada's flag is the most distinct of the Spanish-speaking nations of South America; the flag is a black cross - resembling Nordic cross flags, and believed to be directly inspired by the flag of Denmark as flown in the former Danish West Indies - on gold. Gold was the background color of the old Spanish Empire's flag used in the Americas, which inspired that use of color, while the black of the cross was meant to represent liberty -- taking its cue from Ayiti, and its own abolition of slavery in the earliest years of independence. The Sun of Inti - a symbol of revolt against Spain which is found on all Spanish-speaking South American countries' flags - is very different from its portrayal elsewhere, having been reduced to an eight-pointed star in the center of the cross following the bitter fight with Peru for its separate independence.

Kingdom of Pernambuco - The flag of Pernambuco was inspired by the flag of the Belgium (now the flag of the Batavia, less the shield in the center), which was a political inspiration for the structure of the early kingdom after its independence from Portugal as well as a major trading partner. The three colors of the Pernambucan flag - gold, white and red - have no fixed meaning, but the color scheme was likely inspired by the colors used in the Sun of Inti in Spanish-speaking South America. The shield reflects the House of Wittelsbach, the country's present reigning dynasty.

Kingdom of Peru - The flag of Peru has the Sun of Inti - a symbol of revolt against Spain - in the center. The gold sun has eight red beams shining out from it, which number's symbolism has been defined in many contradictory ways. The sun is in white, a color representing peaceful union on land under the sun, while the blue represents the Pacific which dominates the life of many Peruvians, who live on its coast -- though, originally, the blue on either side represented the Pacific and the Caribbean, reflecting its original claim to represent all of Spanish-speaking South America.

Royal State of Quito - The flag of Quito has the Sun of Inti - a symbol of revolt against Spain - in the canton, while the main field of the flag is blue; though Quito is not part of Peru, it shares the same monarch, and its flag very much resembles the makeup of the various regions of Peru; which, in many ways, Quito in practice treated as, despite its practical sovereign status going back to the earliest days of independence. The blue is said to represent the sea, which dominates much of the population's life.

Republic of the River Plate - The flag of River Plate was inspired by those of Pernambuco and Sao Pedro, as well as to a lesser extent Batavia, representing River Plate's desire for independence with the rest of South America. The colors white, purple and gold have had many meanings assigned to them in the few decades of Platinean independence; originally, they were most commonly cited as a union of the colors of England and Spain, the two colonial powers which had ruled River Plate over the centuries.

Republic of Sao Pedro - Sao Pedro's flag is an oddly misshapen three-part flag. The original flag at independence was inspired by that of the Kingdom of Belgium at the time, though without a shield (so more closely reflecting modern Batavia) and using the colors white, blue and green, which had no specific meaning at the time. The even three-colored flag was abandoned for the flag's current shape in the late 19th century, distancing it from its Belgian influence, while the color blue was replaced with black, and the colors were defined to represent the white, Black and Indian populations.

Kingdom of Venezuela - The flag of Venezuela has the Sun of Inti - a symbol of revolt against Spain - in the canton, with a red cross - resembling Nordic cross flags, and believed to be directly inspired by the flag of Denmark as flown in the former Danish West Indies - on blue. Though Venezuela is no longer part of Peru and hasn't been for well over a century, its flag very much resembles the makeup of the various regions of Peru; unlike New Granada, which fought for its independence, Venezuelan separation from Peru was quite gradual -- though made a fait accompli by New Granada's separation, Venezuela still pledged its fealty to the king in Lima for decades until its independence was declared and quietly recognized, and so there was less desire or will to assert a change in the flag already adopted as a Peruvian region. The colors have never been formally assigned a meaning, but red and blue are often said to represent the rich land and the bountiful sea.
 
More flags! More flags! Get your flags right here, European countries!

Europe Flags.png

Kingdom of Albania -- essentially identical in function if not in form to OTL, because both are based on the same banner which Skanderbeg rose in revolt against the Ottomans in the 15th century, long before the point of departure.

Republic of Austria -- This is your flag on Catholic hyper-republicanism. Designed as deliberately different from historical Austrian flags as possible, to disassociate the country with its monarchical - and particularly Habsburg - history, gold and blue here are representative of the Virgin Mary while the cross is representative of Christianity.

Kingdom of Batavia -- The OTL Dutch flag, except the proportions have changed. Batavia is the successor state of the historical United Provinces just as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the flag has survived in some form to the present in both timelines.

Kingdom of Bavaria -- The OTL Bavarian flag, though rendered differently than is usual in OTL modern times. The Catholic branch of the House of Wittelsbach continues to dominate essentially similar territories it did historically in an unbroken continuity to the present.

Republic of Brandenburg -- This flag is based on the historical flag of the March of Brandenburg, which had a crowned red eagle superimposed over a flag of black and white stripes. As OTL, this flag became increasingly rare as it was substituted with the flag of Ducal Prussia over the 17th century and then the TTL unrecognized Kingdom of Prussia (as IOTL it went unrecognized for decades), which was a black eagle. When Poland-Lithuania seized the Polish territories back from the unrecognized kingdom in the 18th century, the Hohenzollerns kept the Prussian flag and continued in their pretense to Prussian territory (though no longer the royal title there) until the dynasty expired in the male line the mid-twentieth century. The Republic that replaced it abandoned any claim to Prussia - having been backed by Poland-Lithuania - and revived the old Brandenburgian symbolism. They replaced the black-and-white stripes with a bicolor of those colors, removed the eagle's crown and replaced it with a laurel wreath to symbolize the republic's replacement of the old kingdom.

Kingdom of Circassia -- The Adygeans - or Circassians, to use their historic OTL and TTL normative name in the West - consolidated ITTL as the Russian Tsardom crumbled for the last time, but while Poland-Lithuania was occupied with their Baltic frontiers. The Caucasian country's flag reflects the symbolism of their Turkic Muslim neighbors, being as most Circassians are also Muslim and have been under Turkic cultural influence since long before the point of departure. The colors have no particular meaning, but are the traditional banner the dynasty which formed a united state.

Kingdom of Denmark -- The OTL Danish flag, apart from its proportions. Long predates the point of departure.

Kingdom of England -- The OTL English flag.

Kingdom of France -- The historic flag of the ancien regime in France, which has continued without break to the present ITTL.

Kingdom of Georgia -- The OTL Georgian flag. In the same period, in part in reaction to Circassia, the squabbling ethnic Georgian states took advantage of Persian and Ottoman weakness to consolidate once again into a single kingdom which, with fits and starts over the years - the crumbling of the greater Ottoman Empire and colonization of Persia being most helpful - remains united. Both TTL and OTL, the flag is that of the historic Kingdom of Georgia before it splintered in the late medieval period.

Commonwealth of Hungary -- This flag is derived from the OTL and TTL Hungarian coat of arms, having been adopted as a national flag after the expulsion of the Hapsburgs.

Republic of Iceland -- The OTL and TTL flag of Denmark with its colors reversed; it's really that simple.

Kingdom of Italy -- The original intent was that Italy's flag would be a blue cross on a white field, but when the kingdom consolidated in the early 20th century, the new king and his weak centralized state failed to establish a strong "Italian" army, with the various princes still effectively providing troops on an individual basis along with mercenary troops primarily hired out from the wreckage of the old Habsburg dominions, which the king enlisted into his personal army in Modena rather than to the royal army, meaning they did not use that Italian flag. However, the efforts to form a united Italian navy were successful, and, over the decades, ultimately Italy came to be identified by the Naval Jack rather than its original flag, and so it was adopted as the flag of Italy.

Republic of Norway -- Just as OTL, this flag is a combination of the flags of Denmark and Sweden, albeit a far less elaborate and creative one.

Osmanli Sultanate -- This is based on one of many Osmanli banners over the centuries, in which the crescent-and-star was a recurring motif, but green and red were both used roughly equally for the field, and white and gold used roughly equally for the crescent-and-star - up into the 19th century. ITTL, green and gold won out, respectively.

Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania -- This is the historic flag of the Commonwealth, having been regularized and with its coat of arms removed. It is based on the same origin as the OTL flag of Poland, but OTL Poland dropped one of the red bars when the present flag was created in the 20th century in order to distinguish their flag from that of OTL Austria.

Republic of Portugal -- Blue and white are the traditional colors of Portugal, both ITTL and IOTL. The TTL Portuguese state preserved these colors after the overthrow of the House of Braganza - unlike OTL Portugal - though, like OTL Portugal, they kept the badge. A "Scandinavian" cross is used here, but the Portuguese Republic ITTL did not derive its use from Scandinavia, but from two American republics which inspired their founders, which used it at the time -- New Granada and Venezuela.

Federation of the Rhine -- The flag of the Federation of the Rhine is derived from the Coat of Arms of the Knights Teutonic; this was adopted because, when the Federation was formed, the former-Imperial princes wanted a flag that symbolized all Germans - as, at the time, it was not yet clear that only one of the secular Princes-Elector would be part of the Federation. They also wanted to avoid any Imperial symbolism, as the princes of the Federation wanted a clean break with the old Empire -- albeit one that does not in any way even remotely resemble a clean break from OTL's perspective.

Kingdom of Roumania -- The flag of Roumania was conceived by its first king, George I, a Hanoverian exile who was born and raised in England. At the time when he grew up, though still only in intermittent use, the pre-1801 OTL Union Flag or Union Jack had become reasonably common in royal contexts as King James III fought - in vain - for a policy of unifying his three kingdoms into a single realm. In the same vein, Roumania was forged of two traditionally separate principalities - Moldavia and Wallachia - joined together to form an English-backed buffer state between Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire. Though crosses are not traditional in local vexillology, he took the traditional colors of the two principalities - black and white for Wallachia and gold and red for Moldavia - created two cross-flags to represent the two principalities, and then combined the two flags into a Union Jack of Roumania. In doing so, he combined the English and Scottish variants of the Union Flag back in ESI into a single flag, with neither flag receiving prominence over the other -- he being aware of both variants, as his mother was Scottish. Though the new flags of Moldavia and Wallachia were never popular and were abandoned entirely after his death, his somewhat awkward Roumanian Union Flag long outlasted the flag it was based on in its home country.

Republic of Saxony -- The Saxon Republic, when it was formed, took the three colors traditionally used by the House of Wettin - gold, black, and green - and created a simple cross flag, like so many cross flags in Europe, proclaiming them the colors of Saxony rather than the colors of the House of Wettin; conveniently, or inconveniently depending on your point of view, this leaves an unspoken claim to the various Saxonies in the Federation of the Rhine just across the border from the Republic right in the flag.

Republic of Serbia -- This flag is based on one of several flags of the medieval Serbian Empire; the colors, if they had any meaning, are lost to time.

The Shamkhalate -- The Shamkhalate is a Turkic Muslim state in the Caucasus; like other Turkic states, both TTL and OTL, it uses the symbol of the crescent and, influenced by the Osmanli, also uses a crescent-and-star symbol. The colors have no particular meaning.

United Kingdom of Sicily -- The United Kingdom of Sicily - much like the OTL Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - is a union of both of the Kingdoms of Sicily - the one actually owning Sicily, and the one historians usually call the Kingdom of Naples. As a result, it uses traditional medieval and early modern flags of the two kingdoms quartered with one another. The Capetian Angevin flag was selected for Naples as, though the present dynasty is not descended from the historical Neapolitan royals, it is also Capetian dynasty which is a cadet to the House of France.

Republic of Spain -- This is a somewhat more creative flag created in the aftermath of the fall of the Habsburgs, around the same time as Austria. The flag represents the sun setting over the ocean as the dark of night begins to settle, with the setting sun bearing the words of the motto - historic in both IOTL and ITTL, and restored ITTL - Non plus ultra: Nothing Further Beyond. The flag was adopted and motto readopted as a renunciation of Spain's claims to global empire or universal monarchy, and therefore a renunciation of the House of Habsburg, who changed the motto in the first place to Plus ultra, to reflect those very claims.

Republic of Sweden -- The OTL flag of Sweden, which hasn't changed since the point of departure in either timeline.

Kingdom of the Czechs -- This flag recalls the traditional Flag of Prague, created originally by the Hussites but which continued under Catholic use both TTL and OTL (and, indeed, was ironically flown against the Swedes in 1648, despite having proto-Protestant symbolism -- the oldest surviving example of the Prague flag both OTL and TTL is in a Swedish museum). This particular flag was conceived and put into effect during the Global War, after the overthrow of the old Republic of Bohemia, and uses the Flag of Prague's symbolism (though it is quite distinct) to reflect the uprising of the Sixth Defenestration of Prague that began the process of forming the kingdom.

Most Serene Electorate of Venice -- The OTL flag of Venice, which hasn't changed since the point of departure ITTL, despite the republic falling and a Habsburg monarchy being imposed -- as, despite being a Habsburg state, it was explicitly separate from Austria and Spain and the Venetian Habsburgs asserted - and continue to assert - their separate status through means such as preserving this flag and other traditional Venetian symbolism.

Federation of the Volga -- This flag was created when the federation was formed in the 20th century to represent the various boyars and city-states of what was once the Russian Tsardom; the colors are those of historic Great Novgorod, representing the federation's shared republican heritage, while the saltire resembles the X in a chi-rho, representing the federation's shared Orthodox Christianity.

Republic of Zaporizhia -- The Zaporizhian Republic is a successor state to the historic Cossack Hetmanate, which reasserted itself in with the collapse of Russia, and, though ultimately brought to heel by the Poles, was never annexed directly into the Commonwealth. The flag remains the same as there is a clear succession of states from the old Cossack host to the modern republic.
 
House of Bourbon (FMS)
Because I am apparently insane, I have made a family tree of the monarchs of France and Navarre of the House of Bourbon in Fashions Made Sacred, along the same lines as the one I did of the monarchs of England, Scotland and Ireland of the House of Orange up-thread.

Be careful, it's a big one.
 

Attachments

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Europe, 1939 (OTP)
1630262388939.png


This is an extremely rough map (maps are not my specialty by any stretch of the imagination) I have made of Europe in 1939 in the world of my story "On the Precipice", which I may be rebooting soon.

The states on this map are:

Republic of Austria
Republic of Bohemia
Emirate of Bosnia
Tsardom of Bulgaria
Republic of Croatia
Kingdom of Denmark-Norway
French Empire
Associationist Republic of Germany
Kingdom of the Greeks
Republic of Hungary
Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Naples
Republic of Nitra
Kingdom of Poland
Kingdom of Portugal
Russian Empire
Republic of San Marino
Kingdom of Sardinia
Principality of Serbia
Kingdom of Sicily
Kingdom of Spain
Kingdom of Sweden
Republic of Turkey
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Principality of Wallachia
 
Oh wow I don't like that Greece!
My general thought on the matter is that the Ottoman Empire ended up aligned with France, as it always naturally does, and the United Kingdom and Russia did not like France controlling the path to the Black Sea, and so there was a war over it to secure international, peaceful access through the Bosporus

This was the solution ultimately presented when the British Empire's Greek client's army found itself in possession of Constantinople and 100% was not having any bullshit about international administration of the territory.

But, yes, it's not the prettiest solution for anyone involved except possibly the King of the Greeks.
 
Europe, 2018 (The Last War)
Having been inspired by working on the above, below is another extremely rough map that I've only just finished for my vignette, The Last War, which is the world wherein World War I never happened.

Utopia map.png

The states of Europe in 2018:

Republic of Albania
Principality of Andorra
Republic of Armenia*
Kingdom of Belgium
Republic of Bulgaria
Caucasian Federation*
Free Republic of Constantinople
Republic of Crimea
Kingdom of Denmark
Workers' Republic of Estonia
Republic of Finland
French Republic
Republic of Georgia^
Workers' Republic of Germany
Greek Republic
Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Iceland
Kingdom of Italy
Commonwealth of Lithuania and Latvia
Republic of Liechtenstein
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Kingdom of the Netherlands
Kingdom of Norway
Commonwealth of Poland
Republic of Portugal^
Republic of Romania
United Free Democratic Republic of the Russias*
Republic of San Marino*
Kingdom of Serbia^
Spanish Republic
Kingdom of Sweden
Swiss Confederation
Tripartite Monarchy of Austria, Bohemia and Croatia
Republic of Turkey*
United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland
Vatican City



* - not a member of the United States of Europe
^ - suspended from attending the Senate of the United States of Europe in Strassburg
 
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