Weekly Flag Challenge: New Challenges & Previous Winners

[The Professor]

And the winner:

United Duchies of Cornwall and Cornwall
View attachment 580969
The United Duchies of Cornwall and Cornwall, commonly known as the Two Cornwalls, came about following the death of Mark V of Insular Cornwall (Sx: Cornweallas) without surviving issue and so the territories passed to Alan IV of Continental Cornwall (Gl: Cornouaille).

The Two Cornwalls consisted of Insular Cornwall on South West Peninsula of Great Britain and Continental Cornwall on the Lesser Britain Peninsula of Gaul, both linguistically distinct from their neighbours - Saxon-speaking Wessex in Great Britain and Gallo-speaking Normandy in Gaul - but speaking two dialects of the same Cornish language.

 

[UrbanNight]

Flag Challenge 232: Destination Moon

Create a flag for a colony on the Moon, that was founded by a private company but is internationally regarded as part of a country's territory, no matter how loose or firm the law may be 400,000 km away from Earth.

Submissions Close: 23:59 BST 20th September 2020

 

[UrbanNight]

@The Professor is the winner:

The United States Lunar Territory of Tycho Crater, or Tycho, was the first successful colony on the Moon not wholly formed from transient science or mining colonies. Its origins do lie with mining though with the creation of the US or American Lunar Mining Consortium, generally called LMC or LuMiC, as a mix of companies in association with NASA, with the purpose of mining Tycho Crater for helium and valuable minerals.
Its success came as LMC demand for workers impeded its profitability and a historic contract was made with the new Federal Department of Corrections who needed to deal with a growing population issue in prisons across the US. Thus in addition to the company habitats the Tycho Federal Correctional Institute was built to house the prisoners who would form part of the LMC workforce, their wardens, and associated families of both.
The Institute proved remarkably effective at rehabilitation and soon a large minority of wardens and LMC executives were former prisoners themselves.

The Flag of Tycho is based on the emblem of LuMiC - stars in a half ring over a crescent - with the addition of a voided orange star (replacing the letters LMC) in reference to the Institute. The field is deliberately white in reference to the colony's notion that life in Tycho is cleansing.

 

[The Professor]

Flag Challenge 233: Pax Goryomana

Create a flag, banner, or standard for an empire based in the Korean peninsula.

Submissions close: 23.59 BST Monday 5th October

 

[The Professor]

And the winner is:

Kingdom of Hanyo (韓遼, Hanyo)

Do you know what this place is, child? Your tutors may not have told you. We are outsiders, cornered in a foreign land. The vast steppes that we once called home are but a distant memory, robbed from us by the treacherous Jurchen usurpers. The people of Goryeo were hostile, eager to support any promise to drive out the 'barbarian occupiers'. And it is for these reasons we had to change, to spurn our heritage for another solely to ensure our survival.

Hanyo was not a name our forebears took when the vile, self-proclaimed emperor Aguda scattered our people. Some fled into the vast unknown, holding out in small fiefdoms in memory of the fallen Yo dynasty. Others sold their souls to the Jurchen mongrels, pledging their allegiance to the so-called Jin. We? We hid out in the mountains, in the ruins of what was once a formidable enemy. Goryeo, a land so defiant and inhospitable to us, it took many battles and deaths to bring them to their knees. We had sacked their capital, and brought the usurper king Hyeonjong in irons. But never did we imagine that our downfall would force us here, and that their former Jurchen tributes would grow fat with arrogance.

The people of Goryeo had long detested us. They despised our puppet kings, and they reviled the destruction of their homeland and freedom. For a long time, Dongran (東丹), as this kingdom was once called, was an imperial province in all but name. But then the unthinkable happened, and our beloved homeland was razed to the ground. Yayul Seupi (耶律習爾), king of Dongran and of distant blood to the imperial family, took up the mantle of the Yo, and sought to continue the legacy of our vanquished empire. But our enemies are many, both within and outside. Those that fled the imperial domains feared for their lives, and revolts were constant among the Goryeo peasants, aided by silver-tongued promises of freedom from Jurchen snakes. Buckling under pressure, our kings committed to the unthinkable. We pledged fealty to the Jurchens, and became tributes to the Wanyan jackals.

Reduced to glorified Jurchen governors, our once proud people had been broken, battered and rejected. Scorned by the locals and mocked by our new overlords, the Yayul kings, bereft of their imperial titles, could only act as mere puppets in the Jurchens' power plays with the great Song. We were unused to the mountains, where herds were left wanting for pastures. Our language and script was incomprehensible to all. Worst of all, we have our backs to the sea, where escape was impossible. But time had a way of changing us, and our trials and tribulations humbled us to our hosts and former enemies. It was then we realized that we could never return to who we were. Our ancestors may harbour delusions of grandeur, of reclaiming our lost homelands in triumph, but we are no longer that naïve. We learned the Goryeo tongue. We settled among them in the farmlands, cities and mountains. We mastered the seas our forefathers once had deigned to touch, and we absorbed their wealth of knowledge and philosophies. By the time the Mongols toppled the Wanyan scoundrels, there was little left separating us from the natives. Those of our old brethren who remained in the steppes could no longer recognize us, but that is as it should be. From there, we built a kingdom worthy of our name, and engraved it onto this land for posterity.

My dear Iyeol (夷列), scion of the Yayul, look upon our banner and see. Do you hear it whisper our name, burning with a bright flame? I know not what will become of us, when the armies of Yi storm our walls. But the Khitan have survived far worse. We will survive this one.

- Queen Posok'wan/Pusuwan (普速完), speaking to Prince Yayul Iyeol/Yelü Yilie of Liao during the Siege of Kaesong (1392) by Joseon, epilogue of the Hanyo Sagi (History of the Korean Liao)

OOC Notes:

• The POD is the second Goryeo-Khitan War, where King Hyeonjong of Goryeo was captured at Kaesong rather than escape to Naju as per OTL. Establishing a Liao puppet state, Dongran later claimed the mantle of the Liao dynasty after the Jin conquered it, welcoming many Khitan exiles to Korea. Existing as a Jin tribute for most of its history, it switched allegiance to the Mongols, though was ultimately able to maintain its independence. Throughout this time, the Khitan exiles gradually assimilated into the majority Korean population, becoming the Hanyo or Korean Liao. It was only after the fall of the Korean Liao state to TTL's Joseon that the name came to be associated with the kingdom itself, to differentiate it from other Liao successors.
• The symbol on the Hanyo/Korean Liao flag is a stylized character of the Khitan large script 'Khita', meaning Khitan, modelled after the emblem of the OTL Joseon kingdom and intended to emulate the Taegeuk. In addition, the shape is meant to look vaguely like a flame.

 

[Remitonov]

FLAG CHALLENGE #NUMBER: 234

Banner of the Magic Maidens

Evil has arrived. Whether it is a swarm of alien monsters, an international crime syndicate, or malevolent demons from another dimension, the world is in danger of plunging into darkness, and the armies of nations prove incapable of harming the diabolical entities threatening humanity. But hope and justice may yet triumph, as rumours of young girls acquiring mysterious powers and weapons began to surface into the limelight. And all they need is someone to lead and organize them, an organization to turn a scattered group of defenders into a powerful fighting force - and a banner to go with it.

Design a flag centered around Magical Girls, whether it is for an international or national crime-fighting organization, a faction, or even a country run or inhabited by Magical Girl(s). The rules are as follows:

• The organization or faction must be based on Earth. No magic lunar kingdom, no spacefaring alien mascots running the show, you get the drill.
• There must be at least one element of the flag tying it to Magical Girls, based on the lore you have written. I am not asking for a full story, but some explanation is needed.
• The use of existing magical girl shows is currently forbidden. However, if too many have trouble coming up with entries, I may consider lifting that rule.

Submissions Open: Now
Submissions Close: 20th October, 2020, 2200 hours (GMT+8)

 

[Remitonov]

大勝者, @Jing_Jing ! :3

共産 奇跡 少女
KYŌSAN KISEKI SHŌJO
☭
Go~! Workers of the World! Go Go Go! Reach up to the Stars, Past the Earth and Mars! Grab your Scythe, grab your Wand! To GO GO GO Beyond~!

View attachment 592268
​

"To be a 共産奇跡少女, or Communist Miracle ☭ Girl, there are 3 tenets you must learn:

I. There is no such thing as Magic only the miracles that can be performed by those proletarian women who harness the innate inner power of the working class, the energy of Communism personified. The Workers' Spirit. These communist miracles are your power, but you must remember from where they derive: your devotion to the ideals of Marxism, Equality, and Sisterhood!
II. Your wand is your life, for a Miracle ☭ Girl's unique wand is what allows the power of communism to flow from within yourself and be rendered into the ability to shape and cheat reality as you wish. To break or lose your wand is lose that power, and to lose the ability to serve the State in its march towards the Stateless Utopia. Such a failure is unbecoming of a Miracle ☭ Girl. Keep your wand at hand and always well maintained!
III. Evil must be vanquished no matter where it hides or how it takes form. And evil is found in no greater way than in Capitalism and the exploitation of the Working Class. To destroy evil, we must destroy capitalism. Never forget this mission, but never turn away the chance to combat the woes of our civilian sisters- and brothers-in-labor!

These three tenets dictate what it means to be a Miracle ☭ Girl. Learn them. Study them. Memorize them. And in time, if you are worthy to wield this great power, you will even understand them."
~ Miracle-Marshal Nosaka Yunyun, Speech at the People's Glorious Miracle ☭ Girl Academy, Osaka, Japan, 1960

"I won't bore you with the science. Partly because I don't know it, partly because it doesn't matter. If procedure works, you get a Heart Gem. If it's stable, the gem gets to go in a wand you design. And with your wand you can do anything."
~ Miracle ☭ Girl Shūsui Aoi, Lance-Corporal, 1st Honshu Battalion, 1957

"A lot of civilians think it's a matter of point, mutter funny poetry, and shoot. But it isn't! Yes you have to aim, but it isn't just poetry, it isn't a magic spell. It's a poetic phrase we learn to evoke the correct image, the correct desire deep in our hearts, deep in the Well of Communism deep in our proletariat being. We call that poetic phrase a 気合歌詞 (kiai kashi) or a "power lyric". The desire of the power lyric, once it reaches that energy of Communism within, or 労働者気 (rōdō-sha ki), the Workers' Spirit, then flows into the wand. The wand... interacts with quantum particles in the right way, it turns desire into will, and will into action.

For example, watch as I point my wand and say the power lyric for making a blast of ice. Oh wondrous frost, or blessed chill, spring true the cold wind of entropy! See? See how this flower has been frozen solid so rapidly? Because I willed it, and but it only happened because of my true faith in the cause of communism. Hm? Why are young girls the bulk of our forces? Because women have more compassion and empathy for their fellow. It's simple biochemistry! And the youth are always the most fanatical, without the bitterness and cynicism so many adults get. Why would we waste time training old men, when they have the least natural talent for communist miracles? They can serve in the Workers' Liberation Army, like they have for years. And that isn't an insult! The WLA was the original backbone for the revolution in Tokyo, and what enabled the State to spread so far on land. Miracle ☭ Girls ensured victory in Tokyo and broke enemy militaries, but its the Army that did the heavy lifting.

Ah, yes. I have heard of this... Astolfo Martel. He knew his chances of being accepted, even with his talents, were slim. It's logical he would disguise himself. I fully support allowing males and girls past the prime ages to apply! I do. I just have doubts that he is really so... powerful. I think it might just be politics. But, hey, I might be wrong. I doubt it, though."
~ Miracle ☭ Girl Anastasia Serebrekov, Lieutenant-Major, 3rd Baltic Battalion, 2006

"Let this committee dismiss all concerns. Firstly, our research has shown that these... abominations called fascist thaumaturgy and liberal vodunology are both weak perversions of true communist miraclecraft. For the fascists, their thaumaturges claim they are drawing in Þrúð, a sort of divine energy from their racial gods. From this sentence, we see their lunacy. We already knew this when the fascist nations not only descended into paganism, but offically embraced a henotheistic doctrine that every fascist race possessed its own equally existent pantheon. The failures of their system against glorious communism drove them mad long ago. This madness means that when they think in devotion to their gods, they are unwittingly thinking about a greater good that binds all humans and makes them equal, as they are creations of the same divine. This is quite obviously a misinterpretation of the Workers' Spirit.

This is seen similarly in liberal vodunology. The voodoo-girls of the failing, corrupt democracies to the West claim that they use aether, a sort of energy field made up by lwa, a term once used by oppressed negroes for spirits, now reconstituted by bourgeois false science to mean the energy of a human 'soul'. Of course they cannot even agree on this, as all liberals are wont to argue. Some claim instead that lwa or souls are made of aether. Regardless, it is yet again a binding energy they call upon. The fascists believe they draw it from heavens, raining down as a blessing, while the liberals believe they pull it in from the air around them. Because of this, their magic is weaker, as their mental image is incorrect, as they should be drawing from the Workers' Spirit within, not anything without.

Our findings confirm what we all knew. The thaumamädchens are barely able to send more than six bolts of lightning from their Wand-lugers, and voodoo-girls struggle to hit mach 3 on their power-brooms, let alone our bare standard mach 4 travel speed. Their miraclecraft is inferior, for they have not discovered anything but what we already know, misinterpreting it and utilizing it in such a fashion as to weaken themselves. And they must. For to recognize our science as correct is to admit the truth of Communism as the only moral, proper, and natural ideology of humanity. Which they will never do. The fools."
~ Elsa Degurrechaff, Representative for the Vienna Commune, Chairwoman of the State Committee on Foreign Miraclecraft, 1970

((Soooooo... I got the idea for communist magical girls and it kind of snowballed! The flag isn't necessarily for 'the State' but for the branch of the armed forces that is made up of magical girls! Also if it wasn't clear, the State is totally downplaying other ideology's magical girls, and the reality is that... well it's magic! You can't explain it really, but they are all really *really* trying to explain it.))

 

[Jing_Jing]

FLAG CHALLENGE #235:
Gunpowder Treason and Plot

In 1605, a group of Catholic radicals planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament, which had in them almost all Bishops of the Church of England, and King James IV & I. They planned to kill these people and then uprise in the Midlands of England and install James’ daughter Elizabeth as a Catholic queen. In real history this plan failed.

Create a flag for a country from a timeline in which the Gunpowder Plot succeeded without a hitch. The conspirators kill Parliament, the King, and the Anglican Church hierarchy in one fell swoop and install the King’s daughter, whom they intend to bring up as a Catholic. From there, run wild!

A few rules:
I. The flag does not need to be England’s, however, to give you some direction, the flag should be of a nation directly impacted directly by this alt-England (e.g. a colony, a region of the empire, an ally, a direct enemy, etc.)
II. There may not be any other Point of Divergence for the timeline.
III. For the purposes of making things more interesting than plain English flags, the flag must exist at least 50 years after the PoD.

Submissions Open: Now
Submissions Close: November 2nd, 2020 @ 23:30 (GMT-5)

 

[Jing_Jing]

This challenge’s winner is @Xanthoc !

The Royal Union of the British Isles and the French Marches

“Since the Black Day of 1605, England has been dead. On that day, the Midlander rebels claimed that a divine act had smited good King Saint James. They quickly kidnapped the Princess and coronated her before the ruins of Parliament, the ashes not yet cold. Her Majesty Elizabeth II, a name no doubt only kept to appease Protestants and keep confusion high as they seized control.

The valiant protestant forces made a key mistake in those first few days. First, they waited, hoping for more information on what had occurred before striking. Second, they could not agree on who to support. Some wanted Henry as the logical heir, others spoke of controlling young Charles. Some even focused on ‘rescuing’ Elizabeth from the clutches of the new government, but keeping her as queen to ensure a more stable government. A government that had, of course, promised a new Parliament. A Parliament that took years to arrive due to war, and one that arrived no more powerful than the Estates of France...

...As the war stretched into years, we saw many heroes rise. Henry swearing to avenge Charles, Cromwell valiantly at his side, the tragic charge of the Presbyterian armies at Hadrian’s Wall. All, alas, for not.”

- Theodore Perkins, Lecture at the Royal Dutch University of New Anglia​

“The wedding truly was the deathblow. The end of nearly ten years of conflict. That Elizabeth, the Summer Queen, was wedding a Frenchman did not escape notice. Some were upset, but most saw the real meaning. César de Bourbon may have been a legitimized bastard, but he was still the French King’s brother, and so he would bring with him into the marriage the promise of French troops. General Cromwell and Henry the Pretender had already fled. The Henricist cause would endure for years, mostly in Scotland, but the aid of the French finally brought the peace.

From the Irish relief in Wales, crushing the bulk of the Puritan King’s Own Regiments, to the Scottish implosion in 1611, the war had been bloody and contentious. For years the Protestants endured, but the end result was obvious. The Catholics had come to rule England again, and the efforts of the Papacy were effective, convincing many Anglicans to see the similarities in doctrine that helped to convert many Englishmen who had lost the will to fight fate.

The wedding was peaceful. It was public. And it was jubilant. A sign of the future. Few understood just how impactful it would be.”

- Michelle Latherby, The History of the English Realm, Viewbox Documentary series​

“The Wars of French Succession at last had a victor, and it was England. The Kingdom of France had practically collapsed, all due to the disastrous war with the Dutch and Prussians that England had dragged them into. By 1730, the first march had been established, a military zone of control formalized to try and find a balance between the English military, their Cesaristes allies, and local lords interested in maintaining their provincial privileges.

But with the Marches establishing a new and more harmonious government in 1735, the House of Stuart-Bourbon was ascendant. King Caesar I of the Isles was able to leave his daughter Marian an entirely new nation to rule. The Royal Union was established by reaffirming the ties between Britain and France. Marian married Louis-Philipe of Orleans, her second cousin, and with the blessings of both the Queen’s Parliaments and the Kings’ Estates-General, the kingdoms joined as one legal entity.

Of course this union would take years to become one nation. It would take two wars, immigration, linguistic changes, and the rise of a common rival in the Dutch-Danish alliance, to truly give birth to the nation we know today as the Royal Union of the British Isles and the French Marches...

...This azure banner has the crosses of England and Scotland, symbolizing the isle of Great Britain at the center of the Union. But the arms of the monarchy show all their possessions, and the extension of the English cross shows how the English Realm has stretched far and wide.”

- For Want of Will; The History of Western Europe by James T. Dupont​

 

[Xanthoc]

FLAG CHALLENGE #236 - Vexillum Monstrum

Make a flag belonging to a nation run by monsters!

We might be passed Halloween, but that doesn't mean the Spookiness has to end! November 11th is just October 42nd, after all. The nation in question can be something classic, like a vampire kingdom or a werewolf clan. Maybe a mermaid polis? Feel free to stick to the classics or do something more obscure; the nation also doesn't have to be controlled by just one race of monsters either. As long the population and government are made up of some kind of monsters, it counts!

Submissions Open: Now
Submissions Close: November 18th, 2020 @ 10:30 PM (MST)

 

[Xanthoc]

The winner is @BelfastBrawler !

Really like this challenge, here's what i came up with.

The Alliance of the Swamp Troll Tribes:
A loosely organized tribes of Trolls that inhabit the The Great Barrier Swamp.

The Great Barrier Swamp is a region between the Realms of Men, and the Realms of Unmen (or monsters, as often described) ,a land shrouded in mystery, believed to hold great treasures and greater dangers, as well as being the source of many evils, such as plagues, doughts and madness. An acient curse has poisoned the boundry between the two realms and turned it into an almost unpassable area of swamps, fens and quagmires. It is believed that it was done to separate the two realms, and protect the Realms of Men from venturing into the certain death, and prevent more evil from seeping in. Yet many explorers sought to cross it, hoping to . The few who returned spoke tales of meeting disfigured men, that while temepramental, and easily angered were not outright evil. These were thought to be Trolls. In reality they were men and women who dared to cross the swamps and became lost. Time has turned them into unrecognizable creatures and nearly wiped their memories of their past life, most of them being unable to remember anything before they came to the swamps, their skin became darkened like mud and tough like hardwood, some grew more eyes, limbs, or even heads. They were seen as abominations by those of the Realms of Men, they have proven themselves not hostile and thus were able to maintain some degree of relations with them. As time went on some noteworthy Trolls gained disciples, and followers, creating many tribes, and founding a new society. They often went to war with eachother, for reasons unknown to Men, eventually the strongest of them unified most of the Tribes into a loose coalition. This was seen as worrysome by the Realms of Men, fearing a potential invasion. Though fledgeling, the Troll nation would've been a formidable foe, a war with them would have meant countless losses for the Realms of Men. They sent an envoy of peace to the Trolls and acknowledged their owenership of the swamplands, in the exchange that no Troll should ever set foot outside them, though they have remained uncontacted since.
View attachment 598971

 

[BelfastBrawler]

Flag Challenge #237: No humans allowed

Seeing how the last challenge was Fantasy inspiried it seems only fitting the next one would be Sci Fi inspiried.

The challenge is to design a flag for a nation or organization that is run solely by non-humans. Anything goes, sentient AIs, robots, aliens, intelligent animals, etc. You can get as creative as you want. Maybe a society of mutants that are mostly human but are not seen as such by normal humans? Or a group of brains that were once human, but chose to ditch their bodies.

The only rule should be that whatever entity you are creating should be sentient, but shouldn't make you think "that's a human" at first glance. (pop culture settings allowed)

Submissions Open
Submissions Close: December 4th

 

[BelfastBrawler]

View attachment 603187
The Brock Confederation is the nonhuman polity inhabiting/dominating the Meles star system.
The Meles system is unusual for its highly lagrangian set up with the Gas Giant Meles II-prime having terraformable planets/moons in its lagrangian points and was therefore assigned a priority settlement sleepship following discovery by the Terran Union.
Unfortunately, like most Gamma Class Sleepships the primary AI, the crew, and most of the genestocks, perished on route and the secondary AIs were forced to improvise uplift from their remaining supplies. With the system having the name Meles, badgers were designated the main stock to uplift from.
Successful colonies were established upon the trojans Meles II-L4 "Taxonia" and II-L5 "Wisconsin" which later colonised the remaining terraformed worlds including Meles II-L3 "Antimele" and the future capital moon II-L1 "Milly" which housed most of the AI and tech.

Congrats @The Professor for winning WFC #237!

 

[The Professor]

Flag Challenge 238: The Republic of Cityhaven

Design a flag for a city state that did not exist OTL and that espouses some ideal civic tenet.


Submissions Open
Submissions Close: 18 December 2020, 23.59 GMT

 

[The Professor]

And the winner:

Imperial City of Sankt Petersburg (1921-2005)

View attachment 609501

Context
The main idea behind this (which unfortunately i never had the chance to develop further), would be that instead of abdicating Tsar Nicholas II would rally his loyalists and secure Sankt Pertersburg, and maintain a hold of it through the entire civil war. Instead of reoccupying the revolutionary controlled land the Tsar would seek to turn the city into a stronghold, and defend the position under the idea that the revolution would fizzle out due to lack of organisation. This would later prove false as much like in our timeline the bolsheviks would assume control eventually. A siege that would spand multiple years would see no results for either side, the loyalist faction would endure anything, while the bolsheviks would continue pressing having secured control over the former Russian Empire. Foreign intervention was inevitable, as such The Helsinki Congress, an international assembly comprising representatives from multiple nations, took place, in 1920, to decide the fate of the civil war and ensure an end. It was here that it was decided that the city of Sankt Petersburg should remain independent. However most residents resented the idea, as most felt more sympathy to the bolshevik cause. Fearing a potential internal revolution, the Tsarists started purging the disidents, which caused multiple residents to flee to the Soviet Union, or through it to Finland; which were later captured and trialed as traitors, desertors and enemies of the state. The main class that remained within the city limits, as well as sought refuge in Sankt Petersburg were higher class citizens, busniess owners and landowners, a large portion being jewish as well, fleeing the communist persecution. Due to this the city-state became a strong commercial center, following its rebuilding after the civil war.

The city specialized gradually for finnancial services, especially in securities trading and banking, and would also ofen being described as "the second Switzerland" or "the eastern London". In stark contrast to the Soviet Union the city-state the majority of it's citizens would only be upper class and upper-middle, and this would be aided by an overall lack of taxation, as due to its small size, the state budget could be raised mostly through bonds, which also catalized the trading business. As such the city, and citizens, became associated with the finnancial industry, which would also lead to stereotyping in the foreign media, through association with its large jewish community. The citizens however embraced this identy, and would in fact welcome jewish refugees in the coming years, transforming its stereotypical population , into its own brand of community.

The city remained mostly neutral through the Second World War and the Cold War, though being more open to the western world rather than the third world, remaining a tsarist monarchy until the dawn of the new millenium, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Thus talks of reunion with the former nation begun. The city would reintegrate in the new Russian Federation in 2005, as a special administrative zone, while the tsar would abdicate, the family would retain a number of special privilleges.

Symbolism
The Flag is based on the original city flag of Sankt Petersburg, with red white saltire bearing its dominant colors, the saltire being the symbol of Saint Andrew the Apostle. The blue field was added to complete the pan slavic colors scheme, and also to contrast the red flag of the bolsheviks. The double headed eagle would be added after the armistice, to symbolize and reinforce the idea that the tsar officially governs the city-state. The flag would continue to be used as the city flag after its integration in the Russian Federation.

Congratulations!

 

[BelfastBrawler]

Flag Challenge #239: Naturally Natural

This one is pretty simple. Create a flag that includes an animal or plant, not commonly seen on flags or coats of arms. Common animals for example are eagles, lions and horses and common plants are palm trees, oak trees and also laurels. Other creatures that do not count towards the challenge are humans and mystical beasts( dragons, and stuff).
There aren't any rules as to what the flag can represent, and it can contain one or more motiffs of your chosing, as long as at least one fits the challenge.

Here are some some links that may be useful in seeing what is common.
Flags with animals
Flags with plants

Submissions: Open
Submissions close: January 11th

 

[BelfastBrawler]

And the winner is:

"...For all the tea in China"

Really simple design using Tea leaves on a green (i.e. ethnographically neutral) background, however, the banding across the bottom shows the "5 nations" of China (lifted directly from OTL Five Coloured Flag. Tea leaves were chosen due to the importance to the Chinese economy of the vast exports of tea to the world (mainly the British Empire and also you cant really have an Opium poppy on a flag, or can you?). Anyway, Tea also plays a ubiquitous part in the culture of all nations of the Chinese Republic, and so serves as a commonality for the continued union of the 5 peoples.

View attachment 615515

Congrats!

 

[Slartibartfast]

Flag Challenge #240: Colour blind

Something I live with is colour-blindness, in particular the colours Red, Blue and Green cause me great trouble. As it happens, the vast majority of OTL flags contain these very colours. This challenge is to design a new flag for an OTL country without using the colours Red, Blue, Green and, for added fiendishness, no White either!

It can be any OTL country with any colour scheme (except the aforementioned) and any design or symbolisms.

Good Luck!

Submissions: Open
Submissions close: January 27th

 

[Green Painting]

The Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Dixieland

Black for the free black people who joined the Black Emancipation Army.

Cross for faith, around which the Emancipation Army was organized.

Wheat for a country of free, small farmers the revolutionaries envisioned, and its 22 grains the 22 states* that formed the Dixieland ITTL. View attachment 621698

In a world in which the American Civil War ended in a bloody draw, and the Confederacy, through sheer luck and a string of wise decisions, preserved its independence, and even managed to conquer and annex California. The Treaty of Washington was signed in 1865, to acknowledge the South's independence, after which occupied Washington DC was returned to a humiliated Union.

Over time, the United States gradually lost its interest in reunifying the country and abolish slavery. People in the US, the CS, the whole of the Americas as well as in the old world started to consider the Dixieland a whole different nation vis-a-vis the "Yankeeland".

The peculiar institution of slavery, on the other hand, was not abolished by some kind southern veteran, as per often suggested in other AH novels. Instead, it persisted throughout the late 19th century, and even found a new life in the mines of California.

Contrary to popular belief, resistance to the CSA did die down by 1870. The legendary Newton Knight, often thought to be immortal, in reality succumbed to his gunshot wound and was then buried by his friends while escaping CS pursuers. A runaway slave bandit named Saul was captured alone in the Appalachians in 1869, and was hanged in Richmond. It was not until the 20th century did people, blacks as well as poor whites, started to rebel against the CS system.

The Dixie-Mexican War was a quick conquest, when the entire nothern Mexico was annexed by the CS, but it was also when famous bandit/freedom fighter Marcus Garvey found a potential ally.

TTL Garvey was a much more nuanced and pragmatic man. He called for the overthrow of the CS system and its platations. And in its place, a country of self-sustaining white and black farmers. Wheat-farming would be the prefered lifestyle, in contrast to cottons-farming and mining, which is associated with slavery.

The incoming World Wars One hit CS society hard. when independent white farmers returned from military service in northern Mexico, spending years fighting Pencho Villa's guerilla tactic, they often found their land annexed by Slave-owners' estates. Many joined the already-present black guerrilla fighters in the Rocky Mountains.

In 1921, a provisional revolutionary government was declared for the new “republic” in the Rocky mountains. Would it survive? Or would it be pacified like other revolutionaries?

*Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Arizona, North California, Central California, Baja California , Sonora, Chihuahua, and Sierra.

Since @Slartibartfast seemed to be away, I’s again pronouce myself the winner.

 

[Green Painting]

Flag Challenge #241: Wish we were the good guys.

Create a flag for an AH state, appearing around the same time frame and space of an OTL state.

That OTL state must be considered morally flawed or evil by standard of the time, and the TTL state that you created in its place doesn’t need to be perfect, but it must not possess the most flawed/evil traits of that OTL state.

This challenge is NOT meant to defend the evil actions of that particular OTL state. You could, for instance, create a non-slavery CSA (and its flag), but you could NOT claim that the OTL CSA wasn’t for slavery.

Submissions: Open
Submissions close: February 17th