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The SLP Flag Thread

I had a dig through the flags folder, here's the best and worst of the bunch.

Firstly, two alt-US state flags that embrace horrific design to a realistic degree:

Mississippi
USC_sub_Mississippi.png

Tennessee
USC_sub_Tennessee.png
Both with a state seal slapped on that's appalingly difficult to sew up, and Tennessee even has a broad swath of beige in the middle. Not quite the seal-on-a-bedsheet - Pennsylvania, Georgia and Delaware kept OTL examples of these.

Three highlights, on the other hand. The first two I remain very pleased with, the third feels like a plausible design-by-committee flag that I'm happy to stick with but that I wouldn't actually like in real life:

Laurentia
Laurentia.png

A late 1950s design to replace the previous red duster-based flag. No prizes for guessing where this country can be found on the globe.

Malaya
Malaya.png
Almost OTL Malaya still including Singapore.

Oberrheinland
Deutsches-Reich_sub_Oberrheinland.png
A federal state of a parliamentary republican democratic Germany (itself formed following a revolution in 1908). Basically, a quartering of Baden and a simplified Alsace, but reversing Alsace to give a by-quarters saltire over all. Except for changing a bend to a bend sinister and removing all the supplementary charges it doesn't technically break any heraldic/vexillogical rules, but it still feels thoroughly wrong in a way that I'm very satisfied with.
 
I had a dig through the flags folder, here's the best and worst of the bunch.

Firstly, two alt-US state flags that embrace horrific design to a realistic degree:

Mississippi
View attachment 20548

Tennessee
View attachment 20549
Both with a state seal slapped on that's appalingly difficult to sew up, and Tennessee even has a broad swath of beige in the middle. Not quite the seal-on-a-bedsheet - Pennsylvania, Georgia and Delaware kept OTL examples of these.

Three highlights, on the other hand. The first two I remain very pleased with, the third feels like a plausible design-by-committee flag that I'm happy to stick with but that I wouldn't actually like in real life:

Laurentia
View attachment 20550

A late 1950s design to replace the previous red duster-based flag. No prizes for guessing where this country can be found on the globe.

Malaya
View attachment 20551
Almost OTL Malaya still including Singapore.

Oberrheinland
View attachment 20552
A federal state of a parliamentary republican democratic Germany (itself formed following a revolution in 1908). Basically, a quartering of Baden and a simplified Alsace, but reversing Alsace to give a by-quarters saltire over all. Except for changing a bend to a bend sinister and removing all the supplementary charges it doesn't technically break any heraldic/vexillogical rules, but it still feels thoroughly wrong in a way that I'm very satisfied with.
Now those first two are definitely realistic for US state flags!

I like the Laurentia one. As for Malaya, the modern South African style Y-shape is an underrated flag model I think.
 
Now those first two are definitely realistic for US state flags!

I like the Laurentia one. As for Malaya, the modern South African style Y-shape is an underrated flag model I think.
Aye, I think it's a very interesting division. I hope that's not just down to its rarity though. The Y itself (a pall) has featured in heraldry for a long time, you can blazon the South African variant as a pall fesswise. I'm also very partial to counterchanging, though that works best IMHO with only two colours and a fairly simple charge.

Tennessee's might be the most realistic fake State flag I've ever seen.
High praise indeed, thanks a lot!
 
Trying some flags to go with my Colonised Europe map:

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The Kingdom of Eire is a development of the old flag from the 1500s, as the country was never formally colonised but became a "protectorate". Changing tastes and cultural emphasis has seen the harp replaced with a 'modern' equivalent design.


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Orkadia uses the pictish eagle from Easter Ross's Clach an Tiompain as a central symbol. This was used by nationalists to symbolise the eradicated culture of Scotland pre-independence and sticks around. This shade of red is taken from the Swyss flag (as it develops here), which is used as the colour of European autonomy.



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United Camelot uses the same red. The central design is a simplification of the Winchester Round Table (which uses white and green), to fit with the stirringly patriotic name and implication of democratic brotherhood.

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Celtic Muscovy, homeland for celt-descended Russians (moved there as overseers by colonial powers) - deep blue is the associated celtic colour due to the Irish flag, while gold-ish is the 'Muscovy' colour from the embellishments on older Russian flags.
 
Some extra flags, this time getting my ugg on:

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The colonial-era flag for South Scand. Green became the flag colour for a number of colonies in Europe, representing the fertile land and people for the picking. Red symbolises the blood shed by the heroic conquering heroes. The tau cross is what, due to ITTL events, has become the commonly accepted Christian cross or, if you're a colonial power, that exotic symbol of strange Europe.

When South Scand becomes independent, nobody could agree on the new flag so you get THE FLAG DESIGNED BY COMMITTEE:


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The layout is the same because it was the only way to shut everyone up. The colonial green is replaced by Swyss red. The cross colours are all four of the demands for what to symbolise: white for peace, purple for prosperity, blue for the sea, black for mourning the colonial oppression. People want to change it but they don't know what TO.
 
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The flag of Frieland, originally used by insurgents - the symbolic Germanic eagle on a Swyss red shield. The colours were intended to symbolism future prosperity and how Germany mourns its time under occupation. For simplicity sake, they copied the old Saxony flag's layout and slapped an eagle on so flags could be done in a hurry.


Then independent Saxony just slapped the eagle on their old flag, because the eagle was what Germanic nationalism meant now:

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Bavarhine argued about whether to just reuse the old Bavarian flag or be more aggressively tubthumping, and thus Flag By Compromise happens:

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The white of the pre-empire flag has been replaced by Swyss red and the white moved to the shield. Which means the symbolism of the shield is now completely wrong.

Lubuz (corruption of Lubusz) is the bits nobody else was interested in and became an independent state almost by accident. Their flag is basically "well bugger, just slag the eagle on something I guess":

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The black eagle is white in Lubuz due to the large, intermingled Polish population - a nod to that heritage and the old Banner of Poland.

Up north, Haarlem just use the old "Prince's Flag" while the the Hanseatic Federation have gone for:

EYKsQQ6WsAI08Rj


ITTL, the tricolour is a symbol of a union. The European red and the colonial-descended green are united in/by/for prosperity. (Think of the symbolism of the Irish flag but "harmony" replaced with "MONEY")

EYKu6SLWsAMQZqI


Samiland uses the same tricolour setup, but they do have the white of peace. The sun symbolism comes from the same cultural and religious background as the sun-symbol on the OTL flag, and the red-white-blue from that flag too - but the shade of blue is lighter because the deep blue is celtic symbolism ITTL.

And then there's the Swedish People's Republic. They harken back to the old legend of the Swedish flag, that a crusader saw a golden cross in a blue sky. It's a symbol of the mighty Swedish race. It's a symbol of where they stand on matters of religion. A symbol of grim intent.

They didn't know "a cross" meant a different shape back then than it does now:

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NEW DAY NEW FLAGS, this for the countries that stayed independent or are still occupied:


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Crete uses part of the old Kingdom of Candia coat-of-arms as its symbol, and purple to show its good fortune in managing to avoid being conquered. (A combination of luck and diplomatic wrangling)



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New Danorway [Iceland] used to just use the Danish flag. Over time, the white cross became black to mourn the lost homeland. Centuries of political and cultural drift turns a cross variant into a heritage symbol rather than religious or nationalist, then changes its shape, and the colour became orange to show off some new dyes.

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Balkan Turkey is the old colonial flag of the whole region - the Turkish flag in corner but reversed, colonial green, and the old Serbian eagle to represent the region (whether that makes sense for the WHOLE region or not). The eagle is now white, to show peace under Turkish rule. It stopped being red when that became the colour of independence.


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The Sicilian Protectorate uses an old design scheme and part of the colour from an older Sicilian flag, with green instead of red. The Moroccan flag takes the upper quarter to show its patronage.

And then there's THE UGLIEST FLAG YET for the International City of Sligeach:

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"We want to symbolise prosperity, fertile ground, and peace, and we should also have something about celtic heritage. Should we use the city's coat of arms? Also, there should be the symbol of internationalism" (the four-point star, ITTL)

And a committee of very rich people had a lot of time to argue about this and could pull in favours, so the flag had to use EVERYTHING

For contrast to that and Balkan Turkey, the flag of the Balkan Republic:

EYPiSZZWsAYLyHo


a tricolour based on old flags and coats of arms, deliberately leaving out any religious or regional symbolism - ANY symbolism - beyond that. IT'S JUST A DULL FLAG DON'T GET OFFENDED WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO ARGUE
 
FLAGS FOR THE FLAG GOD

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Flem eventually became a neutral protectorate, a buffer between imperial holdings, and the flag is the old duchy coat of arms. The lion is white over black to symbolism peace and neutrality.


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Burgandy merges part of the old pre-imperial flag with part of the colonial-era flag, as it's still got a large colonial-descended population and elite. But it's independent now!


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France has dropped the fleur-de-lis as it became a symbol of capitulated client monarchy, but kept the old flag colours (with blue changed to lighter) with added Swyss red. The tricolour and religious symbols in white are about unity and peace in France, an aspiration by nationalists that hasn't quite worked out.


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Galicia reuses an old colour and Swyss red with the saltire - St Andrew being a popular saint of the region. Any other regional symbols are left out as they were used in colonial-era flags and are duly tainted.


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South Grenada's flag is a variant on the old colonial one, due to population demographics: fertile green, the blood spilled retaking it after the first Emirate, and the cresent and star. This last bit is larger and central in the independent flag as it's the Islamic Grenada vs the protestant north.


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The flag of North Grenada is the old insurgency flag, the Burgandy Cross of olden times (though it would not be called that now) in mourning black. The black-on-white made it simple to make during the war for independence.
 
A concept I just did for the other place on an alternate Rhode Island flag.
sample4.png
With some minor modifications, mainly to get the blue a consistent hue, it could be just as decent and simple as the current flag. Plus it provides a more direct Revolutionary connection, since it's based on the Revolutionary War-era regimental flag, with the shield from the Governor's Standard (minus the scrolls stating "STATE OF RHODE ISLAND" and (as per the current state flag) "HOPE", our state motto.
 
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A concept I just did for the other place on an alternate Rhode Island flag.
View attachment 22415
With some minor modifications, mainly to get the blue a consistent hue, it could be just as decent and simple as the current flag. Plus it provides a more direct Revolutionary connection, since it's based on the Revolutionary War-era regimental flag, with the shield from the Governor's Standard (minus the scrolls stating "STATE OF RHODE ISLAND" and (as per the current state flag) "HOPE", our state motto.
Really wish we could adopt this IRL. It's more interesting than the current flag with just the shield.
 
Really wish we could adopt this IRL. It's more interesting than the current flag with just the shield.

I like the current flag, too. It's inoffensive and delightful, though if my concept were adopted there's a great chance one of the big no-nos of flag design (no words) would be violated with the retention of the scroll with "HOPE" on it.
 
I'm actually quite proud of this flag I've been working on for the last little while, a new iteration on an older concept I've had for the United Republic of China, both the precursor to and the province of the United Earth in Star Trek.

China ST 50p.png

It's modeled on a hybrid of the symbolism of the Five Races Under One Union flag of the Chinese Revolution of 1912, with the symbols of both the Great Qing preceding it and the People's Republic of China succeeding it.

The five colors represent the traditional Five Peoples of China - the Han, the Manchus, the Mongols, the Tibetans and the Hui. The five stars both have that original meaning, but intermixed with one another to show the interlaced nature of the Chinese people, as well as representing the Five Elements: Fire, Earth, Wood, Metal and Water.

The dragon is an ancient symbol of China, of course, and this usage is inspired by the Qing dynasty's flag, as well as other historical use of the dragon to represent China and Chinese culture, nationality and sovereignty. The dragon also has four of the five colors representing the Five Peoples, being already surrounded by the fifth color, representing how all of the peoples together make a single China.

In-universe, this flag was modeled on the use of various Five Races Under One Union flags that became common as a unity symbol during the mid-21st century Chinese Democracy Movement that finally ended the one-party rule of the Communist Party in mainland China, and created China's modern democratic government, which adopted the name the United Republic of China to commemorate the reunification of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China together with the former British and Portuguese territories of Hong Kong and Macao, under a single Chinese government system for the first time since the Qing Dynasty.
 
I'm actually quite proud of this flag I've been working on for the last little while, a new iteration on an older concept I've had for the United Republic of China, both the precursor to and the province of the United Earth in Star Trek.
That's a great flag indeed for a FH post-Communist China. It would also work great in the setting of The Expanse.
 
The dragon is an ancient symbol of China, of course, and this usage is inspired by the Qing dynasty's flag, as well as other historical use of the dragon to represent China and Chinese culture, nationality and sovereignty. The dragon also has four of the five colors representing the Five Peoples, being already surrounded by the fifth color, representing how all of the peoples together make a single China.
I understand why you have the multi-coloured dragon, but I'm not 100% sure that works. The linking of all the peoples is already symbolised elsewhere and I find, personally, that the dragon looks a bit weird. That said, as Alex R notes above, it's very realistic that such a choice might be made - and the flag is still excellent.

(Please don't take this comment amiss - I mean it as constructive criticism which you are, of course, free to ignore - it's your design!)
 
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