Flags of the Cities of Evanoch

So many details of everyday life are taken for granted in tabletop games. Until recently, I never took the time to plot out what the solar system that contains my homebrew setting is like. Until recently, I did not think too hard about the social expectations that cultural groups carry with them. And likewise, it took me years and years of writing about my homebrew setting and inspiration from my best friend to start working out who the powerful and renowned people are in my homebrew setting. These are big things. But small things slip by too--until very recently, I hadn't really thought about flags in my setting at all. It made sense that they would exist, but I never really imagined what they would be. And I'm very pleased to say that putting together these flags--one for each of the ten major cities in my homebrew setting--to the point that there was some real glee in designing them. So without further ado, here are the flags, what they are supposed to represent, and how they are produced. 

An edit of the map I recently made with the flags added. 

New Dalton

New Dalton's flag is a field of crimson with a black circle at its center; within the circle, the holy symbol of the Dalton Church of Pelor resides. The crimson field is meant to symbolize the strength and the blood of Daltoners; the black circle is supposed to resemble an eye--the eye of Pelor, which is always watching. The holy symbol itself is meant to mark the flag with a symbol that would be known as friendly to Daltoners. 

Typically, flags used by the army of New Dalton and by religious organizations will be very finely made and have rich detail on Pelor down to the facial expression. Flags made with time for extra effort but not expert skill tend to simplify the Pelor design to a simplified red sun, often the same color as the background. Hastily made flags, such as those made in times of war, are further simplified to just a black circle on a red field. 

Underhar

Underhar's flag has five stripes: two deep red for the bravery and devotion of dwarves, two deep blue for the heavens where Moradin resides, and one white stripe for the purity of Underhar. At the center of the flag is a simplified symbol of Moradin, the deity of the dwarves--the position of the holy symbol at the center of the flag represents Moradin's role at the center of dwarven life. Finally, the holy symbol is surrounded on left and right with black lions, the most fearsome animal in the geographical region of Underhar. 

Very officially-made flags, such as those for government buildings and and the Underhar city gates, are made with painstaking detail, each flag taking a seamstress dozens of hours of work. Less formal flags, like those for the dwarven armed forces and those displayed by the wealthy, simplify the lions to more abstract shapes more akin to a block stick figure and the holy symbol to a more geometric shape. Homemade flags and wartime flags tend to eliminate the lions altogether and simply show the five colored stripes with a grey T over a black X; it is against dwarven flag code to omit the holy symbol altogether. 

Kruush

Kruush's flag consists of a field of orange over a field of maroon--the maroon is meant to represent the sunset, and the orange is meant to represent the sunrise, both of which can be easily seen over the ocean from Kruush. At its center is a circle which represents the world of Grob Island, where Kruush is located: the circle itself appears as an island in the orange and maroon, and it is itself made up of light blue for the sky, a darker blue for the ocean, grey for the rocky island of Grob, and brown for the Groknog Mountains--the entirety of Grob Island contained within the sunrise and sunset.

The Kruush flag was deliberately made to be easy to produce. While more finely made flags (and there is no truly high tier of quality with Kruush flags, as the symbol is more important than the execution to orcs) will have the center circle round, more rudimentary flags will replace the circle with a diamond of the same colors in order to make production simpler. In times when flags are needed quickly, the fields or orange and maroon without the circle are made. 

Mishara

Mishara's flag consists of three diagonal stripes: one green (the green of the mangrove trees of the Lathien Islands, where Mishara lies), one deep blue (the waters in and around the Lathien Islands), and purple (the color of the night sky above the Lathien Islands). In the upper right corner, within the purple stripe, are three stars of diminishing size, meant to represent the three guiding lights of elven society: being onself, using one's mind, and following elven tradition. 

Finely-made flags of Mishara use precise shades of fabric to achieve the real colors of the Lathien Islands and respect a careful curve of the stars' light; more moderate flags use more approximate colors and simplify the stars to diamonds; flags made quickly will use any available green, blue, and purple, and will omit the stars altogether. The angling of the diagonal stripes is also variable--fine flags use a precise degree measurement, moderate flags try to use proportions for the colors, and emergency flags simply try to get the direction of the diagonal stripes right. 

Vestry

Vestry's flag is a colorful array of rectangles laid out in a four by four grid with identically-sized but differently-colored rectangles at the five major intersections of the grid. This is meant to visually represent the government of Vestry, which consists of 16 districts, 4 districts, and 1 overall city, with each position helmed by an elected ruler. The actual colors used in the flag are not dictated by Vestry, with flagmakers free to use any colors they wish so long as the pattern is present. Further, people are incentivized to use scrap fabric for flags, so nothing is really used or wasted. The distinctive colors are meant to represent the colorful and unique contributions of all gnomes. 

Finely-made Vestry flags use the most colorful fabrics available and use careful cutting methods to ensure that each rectangle is identical in size and shape, sometimes even using patterned fabric to intensify the flag's appearance. More moderate flags might have less vibrant fabric or less geometrically accurate sizes and shapes. A hastily made Vestry flag might include several rectangles of the same color and irregular shapes, though the distinctive pattern will still be recognizable from a distance. 

Curagon

The flag of Curagon is a white field next to a purple field. These colors are meant to represent halfling values: the field of white represents peace, independence, and mercy, and the field of purple represents cooperation, community, and overcoming obstacles. On the field of purple are two white hands clutching each other, a visual representation of the values of the field purple with the values of the field of white represented amongst the purple. It is worth noting that Curagon has no official government, so uses of the Curagon flag have been relatively rare compared to other flags. 

Fine flags of Curagon will have a clean, bright white fabric and a deep purple fabric--the detail on the hands will be clear and obvious. Moderate flags will simplify the hands to a white circle and may use a more weathered set of fabrics. Lesser flags are simply made of whatever white cloth is on hand paired with purple cloth, with the hands/circle omitted entirely. Generally, when halflings have used the Curagon flag, they have been employed as healers for conflicts involving other groups, and the white-and-purple flag has come to be associated with non-combatant healers--attacking someone bearing the Curagon flag is considered impermissible, even in times of peace. 

Finiel

The flag of Finiel is split into four quarters: the lower left and upper right quarters are a deep, forest green, meant to evoke the Cosetta Forest where Finiel lies, and the upper left and lower right quarters are a stony grey, a color of stability and safety, meant to evoke the status of Finiel as feeling like home. At the center of the flag is a simple leaf design in a vibrant, lively green. This leaf, which in appearance is featherlike, is supposed to honor the Cosetta Forest and to show the vibrant life of Finiel, considered by many to be the cultural capital of Evanoch. 

Finely made Finiel flags are very detailed in terms of the leaf, down to the veins that spread through it. Some textile creators have come to specialize in creating the distinctive greens and grey of the flag, particularly competing over how vibrant the bright green can be. More moderate flags simply the leaf to a light green oval and might use duller colors. Hastily made flags and flags made by people for common use typically omit the leaf altogether, opting for simply the quarters of green and grey.

Ringsdale

Ringsdale existed for a while before formally incorporating as a city, and this flag was produced in the very modern era, millennia after many of the flags above were developed. The flag is three vertical stripes, one blue (for the river Oldoff that carries their trade to other cities), one white (for the snowy peaks of the Kallett Mountains, at the base of which the city lies), and one gold (for the success and wealth of the city). In the upper left corner, over the blue stripe, is a crossed dark grey pickaxe and hammer, a gesture to the mining and manufacturing that gave the city life. 

Fine Ringsdale flags depict the pickaxe and hammer in detail, with a delicate curve to the pickaxe's blade and a distinct spike on the back of the hammer--flags like these, which are mostly displayed by the wealthy of Ringsdale, require careful work from seamstresses, a profession not well represented in the industrial city. Much more common are more moderate flags, displayed by businesses and middle class folks, which simplify the pickaxe and hammer to a simple dark grey X. Simpler flags omit the design and just present the three vertical stripes. 

Talon Gorge

The flag of Talon Gorge, which rests at the top of a massive cliff overlooking the Empira Sea, depicts the rocky cliff face itself with a jagged line separating a deep blue for the Empira Sea and a deep green for the Liggen Forest in which the city is situated. On the left, in the blue field, is an elaborate compass rose, which is supposed to represent the sailing and trade gained from access to the sea. On the right, an emblem of growing leaves rests over the field of green, showing the plenty of the Liggen Forest and the life of those in Talon Gorge. 

This flag, particularly in terms of the compass rose and leaf emblem, is quite complicated, and only the city government has any finely-made versions of this flag that represent the full detail of the official design. Most flags, like those used by average people and even some guardhouses are more simplified, replacing the compass rose with a simpler four-pointed star and the leaf emblem with a diamond-shaped leaf. Flags made more cheaply or quickly omit the jagged line and replace it with a straight one, making two identical fields of blue and green, and simplify the compass rose to a white circle and the leaf emblem to a white diamond. 

Torga

Torga's existence is built on its shipping trade, and when the city needed to develop a flag, they took inspiration from the flags used by sailors to communicate at a distance. Their flag consists of a red diamond in the center, with teal filling in the space to the lower left and upper right of the red diamond, and white filling in the upper left and lower right. Unlike other cities' flags, whose colors are meant to represent certain aspects of their culture or values, these colors are meant to be easily visible and distinguishable at a distance. 

The Torga flag was deliberately made to be easily reproducible. Fine flags use especially bright colors and durable fabrics, which must survive in the weather-by-the-sea city. More moderate flags may use less bold of colors or simple fabrics which may need to be replaced. Hastily-made and cheap flags will be made from materials already on hand, the exact color scheme may differ slightly. The Torga flag flying over a ship often brings merchants to the docks in expectations of a good deal.

There you have it--a guide to the flags of every major city in my homebrew setting. I actually ended up revising a lot of this guide as I went--moreso than normal. After creating the flags, I made some adjustments to make each one more distinctive--I was thinking about how in a tense situation, being able to quickly identify a flag would be important, and different cities wouldn't risk their flag resembling another's to avoid this kind of thing. And I also realized as I went that some flag designs were really complicated--the Underhar flag, the New Dalton flag, and the Talon Gorge flag all included really intricate details, and that level of detail wouldn't be realistic in, say, times of war, when flags would be in high demand and resources would be focused away from flag-making. So I ended up developing more simple versions as I went, something I didn't anticipate needing to do from the start. In fact, here's an array of the city flags in their most simplified forms so you can see how they're all trying to be distinct from one another: 

On a battlefield from a distance in the dark of night, you could still identify these flags. Initially, the Ringsdale and Mishara flags were really similar, and I had to make the Mishara flag's stripes diagonal to make the difference clear. I think this is a good reminder that things don't have to be set in stone, and constant revision is actually good for worldbuilding. (I've gone back and edited old articles that have info I want to change multiple times, for instance--not to mention, my dragons were all male until I got serious about planning for Of Gods and Dragons and realized I disliked that detail I wrote 15 years ago, so I changed it). 

A couple fun facts about making these flags: I deliberately made the New Dalton flag really visually similar to the Nazi flag given their belief system--this is just a little joke about Daltoners for me, but I think that the imagery will work on players on a subconscious or even conscious level. The Underhar flag was designed with the intricate detail of medieval heraldry, hence the bold colors, lion designs, and the equivalent of a family crest for dwarves in the center. Talon Gorge was one I had already designed in part--I had made a badge for Talon Gorge guards many years ago that used the blue-and-green jagged line design, and I brought it back for the flag--that's old work coming back to help now, which it often does. And the Torga design isn't just inspired by sailing flags; I literally took the naval flag for Foxtrot (the letter F) and added teal in two corners. This is basically another little joke for me, but I think that it does come across that the flag design is fairly naval in design. 

As always, I'm looking forward to using these in game, but in a way that differs from my usual excitement and anticipation. The potential of these flags is pretty considerable. If I were to use these flags in a campaign to characterize the cities, it wouldn't be long before the players gained knowledge of the flags and developed some real feelings about seeing each one. Imagine a crusader for true good spotting a New Dalton flag over a camp in the distance, or an injured wandered catching sight of a Curagon flag, or how an elven soldier in the War of Kraal would feel seeing a looming orange-and-maroon flag of Kruush headed their way. Flags are powerful in real life, and getting to put these to use is going to be a lot of fun--fun I can only have because I took the time to make them. That is as always the key--your homebrew world will always get stronger and realer the more time you give it. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: education in my homebrew setting, the value of an epilogue, and contributions to healing in my homebrew setting. Until next time, happy gaming!

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