Somewhere Someplace

Heheheheha! Fools! You think I've been spending this time writing, "planning", or even *gasp* proof-reading? Oh, you fools, you miserable fools!

I've been making flags C:

You see, whenever I am not writing, I am either obsessively refreshing this fiction's page and tracking all of the hapless souls reading through this project (yes, you) or I am doing nothing at all, but when I am not doing any of that, I sometimes make flags! I am what some of the cool kids would call a...hobbyist 'Vexillologist' -- a, *ahem*, scholar of flags -- or more particularly, a hobbyist 'Vexillographer' -- an arrtisan of the flags. Which is a fancy way of saying I like to play around with shapes, symbols, and especially rectangles in photoshop and occasionally illustrator.

Anyway, periodic nonsense "chapters" like this will serve as a resource to view the concepts for whatever banners, flags, etc. of the many realms, fiefdoms, vice fiefdoms, vice sub-vice fiefdoms, and arising nations of this project's world (whenever I make them), alongside extra (maybe not informatively presented or...necessarily canon) tidbits of lore. There is a limit to my artistic capabilities, and I like to imagine that some of the flags have more complex designs which I cannot replicate; so, some of these flags aren't 'official' per se.

So far, I've made flags for some of the realms relevant to Coastfield's...predicament, those being Boundless Sea, Sealight, Oceanfield, Company-occupied Coastfield, and (more recently) Warmful Smile; I've also made flags for Strawberry (even more recently) and (now newly labeled as) Exiled Legion, amongst a couple of others.

Anyway! Flags!

Du(t)chy of Oceanfield (Ensign)

When asked to make a Far Western style ensign for his burgeoning navy, the duke looked to his carpet and saw... inspiration.

Oceanfield: basically Coastfield, but thicker and d(o)uchier. May or may not be colluding with the Guild for some hypothetical shenanigans, mayhap.

Petty Half-Kingdom of Sealight

(Banner)

(Ensign)

Once upon a time long ago, the Kingdom of Sunflower had a coastline. It was majestic. Glorious, even. Full of beauty and bountiful booty. Then Sealight happened.

May or may not have the strongest claims to inherit Coastfield, but the weakest interest to press it. Only wants Coastfield just to deprive it from Sunflower; it's said their primary export is the salt produced by Sunflower's landlocked tears.

Oned Baronies of Boundless Sea

(Banner)

(Ensign)

Ah... The Oned Baronies. What they lack in thick, pointy shooters they make up for in raw seamen.
And they're coming for a harbor near you.

May or may not be the United Company's biggest commercial threat on the western coast (I mean, just look at their flag).

Company-Occupied Coastfield

United Company seven-striped flag defaced by Coastfield's shield emblem. Totally just a temporary occupation guys, they swear...
Anyway, so...

Coastfield Occupation Authority™ (Ensign)

*Ahem*... Just a totally temporary naval ensign. Nothing to see here. Move along folks.

In search for the shareholders' quarterly nectar, they sail.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

One thing I wanted to do with these flags is give these realms common symbolisms to indicate shared history, customs, and especially dynastical intermingling. One reoccurring symbol you might notice is that boat, known as the "Child's Boat" -- if it looks like a child drew it, that's because it was drawn by a child -- the Child. It is a regional symbol of the northwestern coastal realms.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Another symbol you might notice is the anchored cross (which I shamelessly took from WikiCommons because I was too lazy to make my own anchor symbol), which is primarily shared between Coastfield and Sealight. Now, the idea of 'national' or 'country' flags is still a rather novel concept to the Central Continent. Heraldic banners were primarily used to denote dynastical affiliation and/or feudal houses. So Coastfield's coat of arms sharing that symbol with Sealight implies...

Free land? Yes? Sealight can into Coastfield?

ANYWAY MORE FLAGS!!!!!!!!!!

Grand County of Warmful Smile (Unofficial)

Millennia of stylistic simplification and reductionism has reduced what had once been a complex, sophisticated symbol into two dots and a D. Warmful Smile's official banner is of the heraldic device of the ruling sovereign's dynasty and the coat of arms of the titular county, however this simplified banner was often used by merchants and traders to denote affiliation (and flaunt their access to lucrative violet-purple dye), and has since become an unofficial flag of Warmful Smile as a whole (though varying in exact coloring), particularly amongst its rising national identity.

Historians and memeologists would later speculate whether this banner was an example of proto-emoticon iconography; some scholars would also speculate hypothetical memetic, cognitohazardous properties, considering how uncanny the damn thing was and is.

Exiled Legion(s)

Simple, distinct, and pleasing to the eye. Alongside le tricolore des légions exilées, there are many variants used by the countless regiments of the four legions for battle and identification. Such as,

🤔🤔

Something something productive forces and alienation from the species being. Material contradictions accumulate; the dialectic is in motion.

OUREN STRAWBERRIE'S NATION! (Strawberry Restorationist Movement)

Behelde 'fore yee eyen, the gloryous flagge of ouren Strawberrie's restoration ond ouren soon to ben Rosefeeld Kyngdom resurrectode hwilc-by we! Letteth mayen none sufferen by elvish blooden!

The restorationists' flags exists in many varieties, owing to the non-standardized nature of the restorationist movement's iconography, banners, and even ideological objectives; however, at the very least the one thing all restorationists do share is that they are utterly incomprehensible to literally anyone else. Just speak normal tongue, dag nab it!

United Central Trade Company (Newly Provided)

There are two because I couldn't decide. The exact style of the Company's coat of arms* may vary, with the design on flags generally being simpler, but the essential design remains the same.

Per concordiam opes.

Founded in the aftermath of the Last Demon War and the Far West's 'Grand Intervention' as a charted consolidation of all the major trade companies to serve as the collective representative of Far Western interests in the Central Continent, the United Central Trade Company values cooperation™ and respect™ with the native realms to further its commercial operations and profitability. Besides occasionally bullying realms to deindustrialize, forcing supposedly unequal treaties, infrequent atrocities here and there, marginally more frequent atrocities against elves and nuisance races, usage of allegedly questionable labor, sometimes bombarding a coastline here and there (they probably deserved it), rather suspicious arms procurement and project developments, a peculiar relationship with raw resource extraction, and participating in the facilitation of the trans-oceanic slave trade, they are actually the least egregious compared to their next major competitors!

Because trust me.

They could be so much worse. They could be the West New World Company -- those guys are assholes**.

*Coat of arms visualization provided by courtesy of ChatGPT. Disgusting, I know. I lament and recoil.
**I was paid five platinum doubloons to make this statement.

Extras (Meaningless Concepts OR Foreshadowing Maybe Possibly???)

???

<-- Tricolor. May not be apparent in light mode. New phone. Who dis? 👀👀👀 ??? <-- Tricolor. May not be apparent in light mode. Rose fields bloom red from the blood of tyrants. ???

Knock. Knock.
What's there?
Fireworks going.
Fireworks going what?
Boom.

Servitium delendum est. Gentibus omnibus libertas sit. Sic princeps insaniae vovet.

???

*Snorts some pixie dust* Never mind that previous flag, yo.

Jura nostrum defendenda sunt. Libertas nobis, nec vobis. Sic pergant servi advenientes.

The New World might be a world 'new' and quite far, far away. But that doesn't mean they won't find innovative ways to make their problems your problems.

>????<

Natus ab igne infernale futuri. Vindicta contra mundum. Tot mortui innocentes pro nihilo praeterquam malevolentia cuiusdam nationis primordialis. Gloria recapienda pro omnibus Occidentis.

"Et cum litus novellum prospexerunt, Pater caeli fideles suos aspexit. «Ecce terra illa» inquit, «Patria Vestra est.»"

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Wait. Tinkercanny! What in the doodle-snap is this doing here?! How in the??

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