Some more Mars, more Overheaven. This time, I'm comin' at ya with all the flags of the Tharsis Commonwealth by 1999.
•The flag the Tharsis Commonwealth is basically a “remix” of the terrestrial American flag. The symbol with the red disk and white chevron, surrounded by thirteen stars, is taken from the mission patch of the Ares-5 mission, which landed the very first human on Mars; the “Shield of Ares” is also intended to serve as a “gender-neutral” alternative to the traditional astrological symbol for Mars, while also evoking a Spartan shield, and therefore, the Greek god of war.
•The flag of Alba has admittedly pretty bland symbolism. It was mostly selected because it looked cool. Though the
post-hoc rationalization is that the red triangle represents Alba Mons, the blue is for knowledge, the white is for hope for an optimistic future, and the two mixing represent how one is needed for the other. Or something.
•Borealia’s flag does a great job of telling you the state is at the Martian north pole, and doesn’t do much else.
•Columbia was settled primarily by Southerners and Chinese-Americans, and the flag of Columbia combines the “Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth” of the Republic of China, with (more subtly), the Confederate battle flag.
•The flag of Eisenhower draws most of its symbolism from the personal coat of arms of former US President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The blue anvil is a reference to the president’s surname translating as “iron-hewer”, while the five stars symbolize his rank as a five-star general during World War II. The Latin phrase “Pax Per Intellectum” translates as “Peace Through Understanding”, and is a motto associated with Eisenhower’s coat of arms.
•Named in honor of the first human to set foot on Mars,
Robert H. Lawrence, Jr, the basic design of Laurentia’s flag is meant to evoke that of Lawrence’s home city of Chicago, Illinois. Indeed, most of the early settlers in the state hailed from the Chicago area as well. While the flag of Chicago has four stars (one for the Great Chicago Fire, one for Fort Dearborn, one for the World’s Columbian Exhibition, and one of the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition), this flag has a fifth, for Laurentia.
•Located in Stickney Crater on Mars’ largest moon, Phobos, New Archangel was settled by large numbers of Russian-American, Ukrainian-Americans and Jewish
refuseniks who defected from the USSR in the 1970’s. The flag of New Archangel uses the colors of the pre-Soviet flag of the Russian Empire (yes, the red and blue are out of order, I didn’t really have a choice), with a proud all-American bald eagle in the style of the Great Seal of the United States. The shield on the eagle’s chest depicts Saint George (officially “Mounted Figure”, in accordance with New Archangel’s secular constitution) sinking a lance into the red dragon of communism.
•Back on Mars, we have the flag of New California, which clearly emulates the familiar Californian flag. Only instead of a California grizzly astride a small green hill, this banner has a majestic California condor soaring upwards, with a red arrow behind it.
•The flag of New Saigon obviously references the flag of the Republic of (South) Vietnam. The green bars on the top and bottom are meant to evoke the ribbon of the Vietnam Service Medal given to American soldiers who served in the Vietnam War. The red circle represents Mars itself, and the “Captain America” star and blue circle represents New Saigon’s status within the American/Tharsian experiment; additionally, the star, circle and the three red stripes form the roundel of both the US Air Force and the former South Vietnam Air Force.
•The flag of Olympus Mons. Not much to say here. A torch for liberty, orange for the Martian sky, and a red triangle for an inaccurate representation of the titular mountain, with some white for the snow and glaciers on the mighty Martian mountain.
•The flag of Pōmaikaʻi reflects its Hawaiian heritage with the red, white and blue stripes from the Hawaiian state flag, and the double-crossed paddles which symbolize the heritage of Martian-Hawaiians as explorers and voyagers, on not one planet, but two. And of course, the traditional symbol for Mars, which needs no introduction.
•The flag of the newest Tharsian state, Reagan, is...Republican.
•The flag of Roosevelt is a bit more creative, while still featuring the mug of its namesake dead president, FDR. Most of this state’s population came from, appropriately-enough, New York, and the colors of the flag recall the flag of New York City and of New Amsterdam which preceded it - blue, white and orange.
•Tempe was settled mostly by colonists from Ohio, and when the time came for them to adopt a flag, they decided to lean into their Buckeye State pride. The flag borrows the Ohio Buckeye symbol, surrounded by 17 stars, which represent Ohio’s status as the 17th state to enter the Union back on Earth.
•The flag of Valles Marineris is easily my favorite flag of the bunch here. The red-yellow-green-blue is meant to evoke an infrared elevation map, which I felt was the most apropos way to represent the largest canyon in the solar system. And high above the canyon we have a dark blue sky, and the Mariner 9 probe which discovered Valles Marineris in 1971, and is the region’s namesake.
•Vandalia was settled mostly by Texans and Japanese-Americans from Hawaii and California. The flag is mostly a stylized version of the Texas flag, though the abundance of white and red could be thought of as a subtle reference to the
Hinomaru, with stars and stripes instead of a sun. The first red star stands for the Republic of Texas, the second stands for the State of Texas, and the third red star stands for Vandalia.
•And finally. Zephyria was primarily settled by colonists of Cherokee, Pawnee, Navajo, Sioux, Choctaw, Blackfoot, Creek and Iroquois descent, and the state’s flag features a thunderbird on a red disk, surrounded by a stylized dream-catcher. Originally an Ojibwe craft, the dream-catcher became a “Pan-Indian” symbol in the 1960’s and 70’s, and variants of the thunderbird are found in the mythologies of Native American cultures all over the United States, from the Great Lakes to the Great Plains, and the Southwest to the Northwest. The flag is split in half with red and blue. Blue for Earth, red for Mars. The symbol is on the blue side, because Zephyrians will never forget their heritage and where they came from, even as the thunderbird looks to Mars for the future.
