The United Explorers Guild
The United Explorers Guild (UEG) was founded rather by accident. Amerigo Vespucci was the young cartographer meant to chart out a rough map of the Columbias, but his voyage was cut short when a native raid resulted in the damaging of several ships and many of the crew. Forced to turn back to Europe to seek fresh sailors and supplies, the expedition was disgraced, and would not receive proper funding for some time. Disheartened, Vespucci eventually sank into a depression, and was drinking heavily when he invited several cartographers and sailors to come with him. The men agreed, and grew incredibly drunk. Come morning, after discovering they may or may not have set part of the tavern on fire, the group realized they had also drawn up a rather inarticulate charter. The opening line of this document, which itself is kept as almost equal holy writ as the guild's later, official charter contained the famous line: "You will not finance an expedition? Fine! We shall make our own expedition! With ventiuna and courtesans!"
After reviewing the document sloppily titled "A Charter for a Guild for the Greatest of Explorations, as written by Explorers united in Cause," the group realized that they had drafted a proposal to make an international guild for exploration and cartography, with the intent to draw all men of fortune and with a thirst for the unknown into their ranks, and monopolize the nations of Europe into using their services, securing decent payment, good equipment, and continuous exploration. Realizing that it was not the craziest of ideas, they decided to refine the proposition and pursue it. As several of the sailors were wealthy officers, and many of the cartographers came from aristocratic families that could afford to allow such pursuits, the pooling of resources was done with a fair amount of ease. Officially becoming the United Explorers Guild, the groups received their first job under the crown of England, and they provided a detailed mapping of the Northeastern Upper Columbia, discovering various lakes, ridges, and making contact with various tribes. While the Guild would fail to claim fame for proving the Columbias to be a separate continent entirely, they did gain fame for mapping the horn of Africa in detail and sailing all the way to India and beyond, mapping out Southeastern Asia, and their discovery of Vespuccia is perhaps their most well known feat.
The Guild became powerful, as they provided an easy way for young men in many countries to find adventure. No need to join the Navy, no need to attend expensive schools for cartography and herbology. They could join the UEG and receive an apprenticeship, learning all the necessary skills before being put on a crew and rented off to a foreign power. The Guild's true height would come in the 19th Century, as technology allowed for the exploration of the African, Pacific, Indian, and Amazonian interior, and the Guild's services were suddenly highly sought after. In the modern era, the UEG become more diversified and expansive, handling most Antarctican expeditions to keep the continent neutral from American, Danubian, and Wedayanese influence. Pursuits in the Great North have also been achieved, and the UEG not only found both poles, but had men stand on each simultaneously. The UEG is also still a place for young people to seek adventure, and it is common for young college students to join the Guild and travel the globe, setting up relief efforts and exploring jungles and natural wonders. And of course, the Guild is still ever pushing the frontier; as an international and neutral body, it is the primary exploration group for outer space. UEG satellites and probes are sent out regularly, and bases established on the moon are one of its many proud accomplishments, renting out the space to various nations for research, and UEG partnership is nearly required for any nation's space program to get off the ground. The Transnational Orbital Research Installation (the TORI or "tor-ee") is another Guild effort, a station that orbits the Earth and hosts scientists and cosmonauts from around the world. Recently, the Guild has announced Expedition Ares, a project for establishing manned bases on Mars.
The flag of the UEG is easily recognizable, but was for a time ever evolving. Initially a tailed red flag to serve as an ensign, the flag then gained the guild's name in various languages, usually with its motto "Terras Irradient" (meaning "let them illuminate the lands" in reference to Isaiah 6:3, but also a play on removing Terra Incognita from maps) somewhere on the map. Eventually standardized to have the guild name with the motto between the words in smaller font, what truly became the symbol of the Guild was the map. A gold map on black (another play on illumination) was put on the red, and it was constantly updated, often by the expedition itself, which would hire a seamstress to edit it as the discovered islands and coastline. When major expeditions came back, the flag would be updated, done with ease by the Guild's flowing coffers. Pictured is a flag from the voyage of the UEGS Vigilance, which discovered Vespuccia, sewing what they had guessed was the continent's shape onto the flag, along with several large islands north of it.
Republic of New Guinea (1968-onwards)
Instead of becoming part of Indonesia, Netherlands New Guinea maintains it's independence in the early 60's. In 1968, in order to further solidify it's status as an independent state from the netherlands, the state is renamed to simply New Guinea. Because of Pan-Papuan sentiments across the island, Australia grants independence to the eastern part of the island much earlier in this timeline, in 1972, which immediately unites with the western half. The newly united country is renamed the Republic of Papua. However, because of a theory that says that Papua actually means "negation of union" the name is changed back to Republic of New Guinea, or just shortly, New Guinea. Because of it's rich multiculturalism, influenced both from the indigenous population and the culture of the first world; and because of it's unique separation across the years, the flag has been designed in way to express these very things.
The field is split in 3 pales with the middle one being slightly wider. Each color denotes a heritage: the orange stands for dutch heritage, the red stands for english, and the black stands for the indigenous population. The three stars represent the original partition, each being placed roughly where the parts originally were. The land is colored yellow, which stands for prosperity.
Flag of the Republic of Sicily
The flag of a Republic of Sicily that emerged from a failing Bourbon kingdom. Cutting all ties with its various former monarchial regimes, it uses none of the traditional symbols or colors of the island. Instead, it uses the red/white/blue known from the American and French Revolutions, and depicts the island itself, surrounded by a wreath and topped by a star. The wreath is a (possibly misguided) nod to former Roman republican traditions, and the star represents the Sicilian people's desire for the freedom so long denied them.
New Deseret Collective
The labor unrest of the second McKinley term, the Global War of 1907-1912, the French Flu, and the Panic of 1917 proved too much for the cohesion of the United States of America, which functionally dissolved into feuding regional powers and confederations of states. One such is the New Deseret Collective, formed from the one-time states of Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. School children throughout the Collective are grateful for an easily drawn nation, but it's also an odd point of national pride - as the (roughly translated) motto goes, it's hip to be square.
Last edited:
