Confederation of Vandalia
With their foundations set by pioneers, prospectors and settlers of the Appalachian Company in the late 1690s and early 1700s, three separate colonial ventures were set up in a region that would somewhat later be dubbed
Vandalia. (The name was purportedly chosen due to queen Charlotte's family tree going as far back as the ancient Vandals.) The three colonial territories were known as
Westsylvania (in north Vandalia),
Anneland (named after
Queen Anne, in central Vandalia) and
Whartonia (named after
Joseph Wharton, in southern Vandalia). By 1760, all three colonies became administered jointly under the newly formed regional administration of the Royal Dominion of Vandalia. When the Great North American War broke out in 1796 and many former royal dominions and colonies strived for independence from Great Britain, Vandalia was not far behind. Late in their independence war, the three colonies decided to reform the dominion into a confederation, with each of the three territories being semi-autonomous within the newly formed republican state. Westsylvania was renamed to New Sylvania and due to pronunciation drift in the local dialects, Anneland often became pronounced or even abbreviated to "Anland". Though geographically more distant and not in the immediate neighbourhood, some of the Confederation of Vandalia's traditionally closest and most dependable allies are the member states of the New England Coalition (which includes the Commonwealth of Massachussets, the Republic of Vermont, etc.).
The three argent stars and three vert ferns that are the centerpiece of the flag refer to the three former colonies/provinces that form the region (and now independent state) of Vandalia. The three stars are, by Vandalian vexilological tradition, three particular famous stars of the northern hemisphere: Sirius, Polaris and Rigel. The ferns represent the natural riches and beauty of Vandalia's mountains, forests and countryside - ferns are found virtually all around Vandalia and symbolise bounty and plentifulness, as they always procreate via myriads of spores.
In addition, the ferns are also a reference to William Weston, one of the most successful and skilled of Vandalian guerilla fighters, who became a key leader in local irregular warfare against British and loyalist forces during the Vandalian War of Independence. There are many accounts of him wearing a plume of small ferns on his hat. Also, according to many Vandalian folk legends and tall tales, Weston and his militiamen often favoured the tactic of hiding in the fern underbrush of forests, or even wearing freshly picked fern on their clothing, in order to plot and prepare ambushes of enemy troops more effectivelly. Though certain local species of fern - such as the more taller
Dryopteris marginalis - might add a grain of truth to these legends, whether Weston and his soldiers ever used these tactics in the exact manner described remains questionable and unanswered. Nevertheless, the legends firmly entered the Vandalian popular imagination and earned Weston the folk nickname "Ol' Bill Ferny".