FLAG CHALLENGE #261: Ad Diaspora Per Astra
The goal for this flag challenge was to create a flag for a diaspora group. They can be the result of migration, exile, war, or internal restructuring (e.g. the Inca or the Soviets).
The goal for this flag challenge was to create a flag for a diaspora group. They can be the result of migration, exile, war, or internal restructuring (e.g. the Inca or the Soviets).
Entry 1 said:The Goth-Thede
Sa Gutthiuda
The Goth-Thede (or Gothic People), are the descendants of the former Kingdom of Gothia that was located on the Crimean peninsula.
After the second Gothic migration to the peninsula, the Kingdom of Gothia Byzantium's most powerful vassal. Sometimes even dictating the empire's policy in the Black Sea. As the empire lost territory to the Ottomans Gothia began to assert its independence. By AD 1453, with the fall of Constantinople, the kingdom was fully independent. The kingdom's location survived as a local trading power, and while it was never very large its wealth grew due to its favorable location.
But, alas, while Gothia could fend off the distant Ottoman Empire it could not stave Imperial Russia off for long. In AD 1780 Russian troops conquered the capital of Theodoro. Thousands of Goths fled to the surrounding areas. Some chose to hide in other parts of Russia, while many found their way into the lands of the Holy Roman Empire.
For the next hundred and sixty two years, the Goths tried to blend into their new surroundings. But in AD 1942, the idea of a Gothia resurfaced. Many Goths simply share pride in their common heritage, but there are some that wish to recreate a Gothic state. Both these groups are known as the Goth-Thede, and their flag does not distinguish between the two ideas either.
The flag shows a double headed Gothic eagle, combining their Byzantine heritage with that of their Germanic roots. Inside the eagle is a wagon wheel representing the great distances the Goths have traveled since the fall of Theodoro.
M0tty. Heraldic-Charge-Wheel. 17 November 2011. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Héraldique_-_meuble_-_Roue.svg. Accessed 16 January 2022Snoodspirit. Gothic flag. 18 October 2016. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gothic_flag.svg. Accessed 16 January 2022.
Entry 2 said:The Müntzerites
1524 would see the outbreak of a wave of revolutions throughout the German lands which together would come to be grouped under the umbrella of the so-called Peasant's War, an important chapter in the broader Protestant Reformation. A combination of economic grievances against the nobility and religious dissent against both the Catholic Church and magisterial reformers led by Martin Luther would inspire harsh responses from the secular and religious authorities, with the nobility mobilizing to crush the peasants even as their many disparate revolts began to cohere into a mass movement united behind radical reformer Thomas Müntzer. Stressing that the end of the world was nigh and that it was the duty of true believers to usher in the coming world, Müntzer did not claim to speak for the people, who governed themselves democratically in open defiance of the feudal system. The conflict would last only a year as the nobility was able to marshal a more professional army to great effect, the better to exploit the Peasant's Army's lack of cavalry, artillery and effective training. Though many were slaughtered in the aftermath, Müntzer was able to feint, allowing the majority of his followers to escape* at the expense of his own capture, torture and dismemberment. Left to their own devices, opposition from the nobility as well as both the Catholic and Protestant religious authorities would force the Müntzerites into over a century of harsh semi-nomadic existence, though a yearning for religious liberty would see the majority of the movement resettle en masse in the New World, where they would become a crucial influence on later radical political and religious experiments. The traditional symbols of the Müntzerites are the rainbow, symbolizing their covenant with God, and the peasant's boot, representing their humble beginnings and years of wandering.
*In the actual Peasant's War 100,000-300,000 of the rebels were killed, with the survivors arrested and taxed into oblivion. It was the largest popular uprising until the French Revolution (and fertile ground for AH possibilities, though there was almost no way they could have actually won)
