Poll for Flag Challenge № 222: Atlantis

Which entry is the best?

  • Entry 1

    Votes: 6 21.4%
  • Entry 2

    Votes: 16 57.1%
  • Entry 3

    Votes: 6 21.4%

  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .
Challenge and entries
This was the challenge:
Flag Challenge № 222: Atlantis

Atlantis ... island of myth and legend. Your challenge is to design a flag for this fabled land.
You may use any Atlantis you want, from the original Greek stories to modern science fiction versions, or make up your own back-story.
(If you use one from a lesser-known story, a link to that story would be appreciated, just for interest, but is not mandatory.)

Here are the three entries:

Entry 1 said:
The Grand Principality of the Atlantides (O Grão Principado das Atlantidas)

The Atlantides is the great archipelago that sprawls across the triple junction between the North American, African, and Eurasian tectonic plates, and named for the belief that its many islands are the remnants of Atlantis. Despite brief colonies by the Phoenicians/Carthaginians (primarily Tyrax) and Romans (Tyrrhenium) lasting colonisation was only achieved by the Portuguese in 1500s, largely due to a hiatus of volcanic activity.
During the Liberal Wars the archipelago hosted the forces of Maria II and in reward was made into a royal principality under the crown of the Algarve and thereafter traditionally governed by the (newly created) Duke of Terceira Oriental.
Following the creation of the Portuguese Republic the islands were often the source of monarchial rebellion.
During WW2 the Atlantides would serve as a base for the Allies under lease by the dictatorship.
With the end of the dictatorship the archipelago gained its independence forming a constitutional monarchy. The administration debated becoming a full kingdom but with the newly appointed Grand Prince Duarte Pio, ironically of the Miguelist Braganza line, also claiming the crown of Portugal it was deemed too politically insensitive.

The flag of the Principality is a simple blue white echo of the Portuguese flag bearing the small Princely Arms. Said Arms were adapted from the Portuguese Arms with castles removed and the blue quinas turned green. There are 8 in 3 rows - 3 3 2 - said to reflect the 3 main divisions and subdivisions of the archipelago: Terceira Oriental, Terceira Norte, and Terceira do Sul.

View attachment 541735

[NOTE
Rather than go with a full Atlantis I have instead expanded greatly upon the Azores and mercilessly murdered butterflies (except for the interesting native species).]
Arms adapted from representation here by Bragancihno
Entry 2 said:
Confederation of Atlantis

It was in August 1871 that a united Atlantis could be said to exist once more. In the face of continued encroachment by Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, the archons and autocrats of the island of Atlantis, from the mountains of the north to the plains of the south, yielded to Atlantian nationalism to form the Confederation of Atlantis - a union of brother-kingdoms once more ruled from the ancient city of Poseidonis in shadow of the Trident Mountains. It had been nearly 2500 years since a mostly-unified Atlantis was ruled from Poseidonis, when the Ancient Atlantian Empire, consisting of ten kingdoms said to be founded by sons of Poseidon, had imposed its will over the Atlantic coasts of Iberia and North Africa until it was destroyed circa 600 BCE by a seismic sea wave caused by the eruption of the volcano internationally known as Cumbre Vieja in the Canary Islands.

The flag design reflects more on the ancient history of Atlantis than the modern state, with ten stripes and a sun with ten rays for the ten ancient kingdoms, and three blue circles within the sun for the three canals which ringed the ancient and modern capital city of Poseidonis.

View attachment 542309

More backstory to come whenever I figure it out
Entry 3 said:
Atlantian Diaspora and the Autonomous Republic of Atlántis (La república autónoma de Atlántis)
(Note: There are references to multiple fictional texts that are either related to Atlantis or inspired by them.)
The Atlantean archipelago is a cluster of small islands located in the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantean archipelago was originally an island roughly 697,000 km2 in size. It sits on the Antediluvian continent, which broke off from the European Continent during the Paleocene, roughly 60 million years ago. Most of the island's unique flora and fauna died during Eocene–Oligocene extinction event. The first humanoid inhabitants was a group of Neanderthals about 41 thousand years ago. Around 40 thousand years ago, the first homo sapiens arrived on the island. The neanderthal and homo sapiens populations did interbreed, leading the modern descents of the island to contain 6% neanderthal DNA, as opposed to the 1-4% in the rest of Eurasia. Around 2900 BCE, the first cities were founded on the island including Atalantë, Avalon, Dinas Ffaraon, Baltia, Meropis, Norumbega, and Themiscyra. By 2500 BCE, the first Kingdoms are formed including the Kingdom of Atalantë, the Kingdom of Meropis, and the Queendom of Themiscyra. Around the late 1300 BCE, the nation-states on the Atlantean Island collapsed, devolving into civil war. The Bronze Age Collapse would occur in 1200 BCE and groups of people from the Atlantean Island banded together into raiding bands of pirates, collectively known as the "Sea Peoples", began to raid the Mediterranean Sea and the collapsing states on the coasts, including Egypt and Mycenaean Greece, where they would capture some people and bring them back to their home island. By 900 BCE, the "Sea People", some nobility from Atalantë, and a small group of Mycenaean and Egyptian slaves would form a Kingdom of Atlantis, often just called Atlantis. By 743 BCE, they had reunited the entire island under their control, including the ancient city of Atalantë, which was restored and rebuilding into the legendary city that is mentioned in Herodotus' Atlantis.
Atlantis would conquer across the Mediterranean Sea, until they suffered from both a defeat by the Delian League in 461 BCE. In 444 BCE, an earthquake would occur in the ocean somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, which would cause a massive tsunami to crash into the Island of Atlantis, which sent the entire Kingdom to be washed beneath the waves. Some small cities would survive on the highest parts of the island, what is now the Atlantean Archipelago. While the colonists on the mainland would eventually be assimilated into the surrounding tribes, kingdoms, and city-states, these Atlantians would survive on the island chain, forming a small island confederation that would last until they were conquered by Spanish in 1493, after they were fully rediscovered by Christopher Columbus. The island inhabitants would be dispersed away from their home islands, some ending up in the Spanish colonies in the America, others in Spanish African colonies. The Atlantean colony of Opar, located in Western Africa, would remain a small local power before being "rediscovered" by British Explorer Earl John Clayton Greystoke in 1888.
Due to a large influence of the Mycenaean and Egyptian Slaves brought from their homelands, the religion of the Atlantian people is a mixture of Atleantean, Mycenaean, and Egyptian religions. The religion's main four deities are Poseidon, god of the sea who eventually would become a mythical founder of the city, the war goddess Appollymi, and Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing and knowledge, and a trio of lesser deities that includes Dagon, a corruption of the Mesopotamian fertility god into a deep water god, Mother Hyrda, a multiheaded serpent headed goddess that is said to hunt in the flooded remains of the Kingdom of Atlantis who serves as the goddess of storms, and Cthulhu, a dragon-squid like being that serves as the god of nightmares. During the 1880s, some scholars attempted to rebuild an Atlantean culture that was derived from sources that originated in the city of Opar and the Atlantean Archipelago. By 1900, a small movement of Atlantian descendants began to push for more rights, especially to practice their traditional religion. To this end, a flag was made to unify the movement.
View attachment 542279
The red on the flag represents the tsunami that sunk Atlantis and the blood of those lost, the stars represent the islands that survived the catastrophic event, and the yellow represents a bright future and reunification of the Atlantian peoples around the world.
The movement would gain traction throughout the 20th century, leading to Spain creating the autonomous republic of Atlántis in 1984 which would use the Atlantian diaspora flag. A large amount of Atlantian decedents would return to the island and create an Atlantian Renaissance, with novels, plays, poems, music, paintings, films, and a few cartoons being created from 1984-2012.
While some would historically attribute their survival of the islands during the Flooding of Atlantis to the gods of Atlantis, some modern theorists belief that extraterrestrials saved the few islands, hence why the flags stars seem to show a triangular UFO with a tractor beam pulling seven stars from the sea. This theory is regarded as nonsense by Atlántian historians.
Good luck to all the contestants!
 
Number 2 really reminds me of an Atlantis setting and flag I made to go with it years ago using a 3 ring emblem. The 10 stripes to represent the 10 kingdoms is a nice addition that I never thought of!
 
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