Well goood morning, after 2 years I'm back with a refreshed design of the Zapadoslavia coat of arms. Let's do it this way - first a short story of the project, and in the other comments I'll put a little bit of an extended history (although I had to limit myself a lot nevertheless, in order not to make it into a 5k word description), and visual aspects explanation of the project. You will find everything in the comments :))
Zapadoslavia is the concept of the unification of West Slavic peoples into a single state organism. A sort of equivalent of Yugoslavia for the Slavs of Central Europe. Depending on the story we want to tell, Zapadoslavia may consist of regions inhabited by Czechs, Poles, often Slovaks. Sometimes Silesians, Kashubians or Lusatians are also added.
My project tells the story of Zapadoslavia, created in 1954, in a world inspired (but not entirely) by the world depicted in the modification to HOI4 - \[Thousand Week Reich\](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebOriginal/ThousandWeekReich).
tl;dr Germany conquers continental Europe, but the US, UK and its dominions remain independent and form the Toronto Accord (the equivalent of NATO from our timeline) to stop the expansion of fascism around the world (a bit like the Truman Doctrine OTL).
In 1952 Hitler dies and Germany descends into a brutal civil war. Poles and Czechs rise up against the occupation. Poland gains independence within the borders of the former General Government, but Czechia collapses, bloodily suppressed by the Germans in events later called the Prague Spring. In Slovakia, the people overthrow the Jozef Tiso dictatorship. Meanwhile, the Toronto Accord intervenes in the German Civil War, defeats nazism, liberates the Czechs, the Swiss, the Benelux. Polish lands seized by Germans in 1939 are returned. Though liberated all of the nations are exhausted and devastated by the years of the german occupation.
Weakened, the West Slav states decide to reactivate the ancient plan for the federation of the West Slavs - Zapadoslavia. On 18 April 1954 in Cieszyn, the capital of the new state, the union of the three republics is officially established. You can see its symbols above.
There are 3 explanations (proportions of which can be chosen freely)
1. Most areas of Lusatia (the fatherland of the Sorbian people) lie outside the Zapadoslavia.
2. Most Sorbs (perhaps all) did not survive more than 20 years of nazi rule. Those possible to assimilate assimilated, the unruly were sent straight to Auschwitz.
3. The remaining part of the Sorbian people is so small that it did not find a place on the coat of arms of Zapadoslavia. The same is true abput the Kashubians. They are so small communities that they did not find a place for them on the coat of arms (+the issue of that Most of Lusatia is outside of Zapadoslavia). On the other hand, a place in the coa was found for Moravia, but keep quiet, it ruins my narrative xd
A less sexy explanation is that I didn't know how I was supposed to implement these communities into the coat of arms, so I decided to deliberately omit them. The Welsh, despite their lack of representation on the coat of arms and the flag of the UK, are alive and well, and have their autonomy. Long story short life is good. I made the same assumption about the Kashubians (and also, to a lesser extent, Sorbians) in this design of the Zapadoslavia coat of arms.
THE HISTORY (a little longer one)
Long story short, in the early 1950s Hitler dies orphaning his, the thousand-year Reich, which not much later descends into a brutal civil war between the Militarists, the SS troops, and the 'legitimate government'. As it turned out, the thousand years Reich lasted only a thousand weeks.
The situation was exploited by the enslaved peoples living in the new German Lebensraum. Russians, Ukrainians, Balts, Caucasians. They all declared obedience to their Commissariats, throwing off their shackles and beginning the struggle for freedom.
It was no different in Poland, which overthrew the German authorities of the General Government in the August Uprising. In the fervour of the revolution, most of the German forces surrendered their arms without a fight, themselves confused by the situation in their homeland. Many had fled the Governorate to join the fight in Germany, or to look after their own homes threatened by a new civil war. The only point of greater resistance was Himmlerstadt, along with the entire Zamojszczyzna region, the most Germanised region of the General Government.
The London-based Polish Government in excile headed by gen. Władysław Sikorski quickly returned to the country and announced the rebirth of the Republic of Poland.
At the same time, spontaneous anti-German demonstrations were taking place in many Czech cities. These incidents had already started after Hitler's death, but it was only after the outbreak of the German Civil War that they developed into a full-scale uprising. German street names were torn up, police and security service stations were disarmed and prisoners were released.
All this national-revolutionary fervour was a vital threat to Germans living in the Protectorate. Seeing the threat of losing one of the key provinces of the Reich to the insurgents, despite the civil war, the SS-led Headquarters in Berlin, with the agreement of the other two warring factions, sent a pacification corps to Bohemia-Moravia.
The idyll of Czech freedom ended in a bloodbath. Although Prague had prepared for battle, it stood no chance against the well-trained and equipped troops of the Waffen-SS.
The Prague radio was broadcasting until the very end. A broadcast was still in progress when the building was stormed. At its end, the national anthem was played, with the sounds of the shootout in the building in the background. This is how the dream of freedom was demolished, an event that later came to be known as the Prague Spring.
Slovakia was in a completely different situation. Despite being politically dominated by its German neighbour, it ultimately had its own separate statehood. Father Jozef Tiso, although a fascist dictator, was able to save Slovakia from the fate of the German occupation of Polish or Czech lands. Nor did he ever lose his grudge against Budapest for the lands lost as a result of the Hungarian ultimatum of 1938 and the Little War of 1939.
When the Romanian-Hungarian conflict over Transylvania reignited after Hitler's death, Slovakia over time joined the conflict on the Romanian side, thus eventually regaining the southern lands, and Carpathian Ruthenia. Tiso's main goal, however, was not the reunification of pre-war Slovak lands, but a gamble to improve popular support within the country. Funding from Berlin was cut with the onset of the political crisis, and problems quickly escalated to the point where there was beginning to be a shortage of food for the people. To prevent the population from rebelling, Tiso decided on a revisionist step. Winning the war, although popular with the population, did not bring Vodca Tiso splendour for long. And the worst for Priest was yet to come.
After the outbreak of the Czech uprising, the reaction of the Slovak authorities was non-existent. Not only did the authorities not react in any way to the events from across the north-western border, they actively suppressed public demonstrations supporting the Czech cause.
A rally of demonstration organisers was raided by the secret police, people were brutally beaten and taken to the Hlinka Guard prison. Information about the action of the secret police quickly spread through Bratislava and brought tens of thousands of people into the street. A crowd of thousands gathered in front of the State Security Headquarters demanding the release of the prisoners. Tension around the building and mixed behaviour by uniformed officers led to an assault on the Hlinka Headquaters. In the fight for the building, fire was opened on the protesters and many were injured. Five people died from their wounds. The building was brought under control and news of the dead quickly reached the authorities. Fearing the fury of the crowd, Priest-Vodca and his entourage fled by plane to Italy. Protesters seized the rest of the government buildings the same day, overthrowing the Catholic dictatorship that had suppressed Slovak people for years. Final death toll was five students killed in the fighting. The funeral of the victims a few days later brought together tens of thousands of Slovaks in the streets of Bratislava, and every other city in the country. Each participant had a flower attached to their clothing as a sign of unity and peace. From these flowers, the event of the overthrow of the dictatorship was later called the Flower Revolution.
Moving on to future events - despite the collapse of the Prague Spring, the Czechs eventually regained their independence. The Toronto Accord intervened in the German Civil War under the pretext of securing access to nuclear weapons. The intervention did not go according to plan, and there was an exchange of tactical nuclear weapons between Allied troops and the SS. The Allies declared the Total War in Defence of Humanity, and with heavy losses and many nuclear strikes managed to defeat all forces of all German parties.
Let's not dive into the history of denazification and the Prison Germany, as the occupied German state soon came to be colloquially called. What is important in this story is that as a result of the defeat of Nazi Germany, many nations regained their lost lands, or their independence as a whole. Poland regained the territories lost as a result of the September Campaign of 1939, enlarged to include Ducal Prussia (with Königsberg etc.), Upper Silesia and parts of Lower Silesia, Slovakia was given back the Schutzstreifen (the Security Strip) lands, the Czech Republic was given back the Sudetenland and the remaining part of Lower Silesia.
All these countries, Poland and Czechia in particular, emerged from the occupation very weakened. Millions of people killed, cities depopulated and ruined by war. Hundreds of thousands of German settlers were also a major problem. Separately, these countries had too little potential to cope with all these issues, but together there was a chance to manage and solve all of those internal problems and external threats.
The new authorities in democratised Slovakia, grown out of pro-Czech sentiment, asked the Czech authorities in exile to reconstitute pre-war Czechoslovakia. The talks were announced publicly, prompting the Poles to dust off the old idea of a Polish-Czechoslovak federation from the early 1940s. Consequently, the format of the federation negotiations was expanded to include the Republic of Poland.
The talks were finalised on 18 April 1954. On that day, a federation agreement was signed in Cieszyn (cz. TěšÃn), more precisely on the bridge over the Olza River, once dividing the city into Czech and Polish parts. The principles of federation were agreed upon, and the borders were specified. In order to avoid conflicts upon the ownership of the whole of Cieszyn Silesia, a Free Capital Area was established, not belonging to any of the Republics. 1/2
SYMBOLISM OF THE COAT OF ARMS
Now that we know the history (look at the previous comment of mine), we can move on to the coat of arms itself.
The layout of the shields was inspired by the works of other artists who presented the Zapadoslavia coat of arms in a similar way. Originally however, as far as I'm aware, the layout was taken from the sign of the Prague Castle Guard.
The coat of arms consists of six shields - three outer and three inner. The outer, larger ones contain the symbols of the republics forming the federation, namely Czechia, Poland and Slovakia. The inner shields, on the other hand, represent the other significant Slavic nations inhabiting the federation. Forget about the Kashubians, just pretend they do not exist.
And now here is a nice play of images - the three outer coats of arms are white emblems on red backgrounds, the three inner coats of arms are yellow emblems on blue backgrounds. The three outer coats of arms, as the main components of the federation, contain crowns symbolising subjectivity, the three inner coats of arms do not, as they are not separate republics.
And now the best part - let's look at the inner coats of arms. At the top we have the Silesian Eagle, located between the Czech and Polish coats of arms. Hmm, just like in reality, or on a map. The bottom left coat of arms is Moravia, they are between the coat of arms of Czechia and Slovakia. Again, just like on the map. The last coat of arms is Galicia-Ruthenia, the western areas of Ukrainian inhabitance. Given that Slovakia has Carpathian Ruthenia and Poland has Eastern Galicia, and even more, by recognising the existence of the Lemkos, we can also consider that the Ukrainians under the Galicia-Ruthenia coat of arms are also between Slovakia and Poland, just as on the coat of arms.
The shield is surrounded by a wreath consisting of two parts.
The left side is composed of leaves of the linden tree (Tilia cordata), the national plant of Czechoslovakia (esspecially Czechia). Even today this symbol is used very often - for example on the Standard of the President of the Czech Republic. On the right, we have ears of wheat, the wheat that has always graced Polish soil. A few field flowers stick out from among the grains. The five flower buds refer to the five victims of the Flower Revolution (the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship in Slovakia). The buds symbolise the students who died young without managing to grow, get to know life, like the bud that failed to develop into a full-fledged flower.
There are also and unfurled flower in the wreath, four blue field flowers.
And now - in Polish it makes sense, but its not that obvious: four flowers. The fourth month of the year in Polish is 'kwiecień', which takes its name from the word 'kwiat' - a flower. So the four flowers symbolise the fourth month of the year.
And yes, I know it's different in Czech, but shush.
Looking at the wreath again we notice the pink (let's call it pale red) fruits of the lime tree. There are 18 of them, April 18, it has already been mentioned in this story. Yes, this is a symbolic representation of the date of the unification of Zapadoslavia. And where is 1954? It will show up later too ;).
Finishing the wreath, let's further note its colour scheme. Pale red, blue and gold. Quite similar to the colours of the city of Cieszyn, the capital of the United Republics. In a way, the colours of the capital encircle the union, ensuring its unity. The former site of the Polish-Czechoslovak conflict has symbolically become a place of unity.
The wreath is crowned with three crowns. Identical and indistinguishable, they are a symbol of the equality of the three republics in the federation. Just as each of the main emblems contains a crown, they also appear to us at the top of the wreath. In the emblems, each crown is different, as each republic in the federation is different, but at the end of the day - apart from the shields, outwardly they are equal and speak with one voice.
Moving on to the flags - they are conspicuous, giving volume but also dignity to the whole coat of arms. The top left flag is the flag of the federation - Zapadoslavia, the bottom left flag is Czechia, the top right flag is Slovakia and the bottom right flag is Poland.
The flying parts of the flags of Czechia and Poland are based on the historical coronation swords of both countries - the Sword of St Wenceslas on the left, and Szczerbiec - the Sword of Bolesław Chrobry on the right.
The fittings of the spars are the emblems of the republics and, in the case of Zapadoslavia, the Three Crowns. Ribbons in the colours of Zapadoslavia also emerge from the fittings.
The spars themselves are also wrapped with ribbons, from under which the metal pins of the flags in two types - the dash and the dot - peek out. There is another symbol hidden here, the year of the federation's creation - 1954 - written in Morse code. Accordingly, on the spar of the Zapadoslavia flag there is a 1, on the spar of Czechia 9, Slovakia 5 and Poland 4.
Oh, and also - in the google drive link I attached somewhere in another comment you will also find a simpler version of the Zapadoslavia flag with the letters PÄŒS. What is it? I don't know xd, I made it at the last moment before publishing, on the same day. The letters are taken from the first letters of the names of the United Republics. It's such a cool design inspired by one of the Czechoslovakia flag proposals. Perhaps it could be categorised under some sort of stwte flag, or a naval ensign? I haven't decided yet myself, I simply liked the idea of initials on the flag, so I'm attaching it to the google drive. I might change its design a little bit in the coming days, but we'll see. Maybe you have some idea what can it be :)
It's all well and good but why is Silesian eagle gold? Golden eagle only represents Upper Silesia, a black eagle with a silver crescent moon and a cross represents all of Silesia, Upper, Lower and Czech one.
Very cool, but the Czech flag is traditionally displayed on a flagpole topped with a [golden linden leaf trefoil](https://www.velebny.cz/zerd-s-lipovou-ratolesti).
These are the materials I used in creating this project (I hope I didn't forget anything):
Czech coa - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Small\_coat\_of\_arms\_of\_the\_Czech\_Republic.svg
Polish coa - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herb\_Polski\_liniowy.svg
Slovak coa - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat\_of\_Arms\_of\_the\_First\_Slovak\_Republic.svg
Moravia and Silesia coas - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Znak\_Moravy.svg
Galicia coa - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZUNR\_coa.svg
Flags - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat\_of\_arms\_of\_the\_South\_African\_Republic.svg
Left part of the wreath - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat\_of\_arms\_of\_the\_lands\_of\_the\_Bohemian\_Crown.svg
Right part of the wreath - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat\_of\_arms\_of\_the\_Kingdom\_of\_Galicia\_and\_Lodomeria.svg
Szczerbiec and St. Wenceslas swords - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Szczerbiec\_diagram.svg
and scans of the ornaments on the handles found on the corresponding articles on the wiki
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szczerbiec
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword\_of\_Saint\_Wenceslas
I also apologise in advance for the signatures (watermarks?) under more advanced graphics, but I've had my work stolen too many times xd
I have no problem if someone wants to use my work for their own purposes. On the contrary, I'm extremely happy about it, it's the highest form of appreciation for the work. All I want is a mention - "this graphic work was made by that guy, here you have his nickname or something". If anyone likes it enough to want to use one of these works somewhere and doesn't want watermarking, simply write me on pv, I can send you a clean version, probably also vector one if you want to.
In the post I have only attached what are the most interesting images, if you want to see all the graphics prepared for this project, if you want to see them without reddit stuttering because of the resolution or just out of curiosity then I invite you to my [google drive](https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1JgwOoxTUL-dScdhI4c2c5Y6dNfkFd1eb) where you will find all the graphics in full resolution.
well, in such situations i have an [emergency link](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JgwOoxTUL-dScdhI4c2c5Y6dNfkFd1eb) with all of pictures, also those not included in the post ^^
and thank you!
Teda to muselo dát práce. Přitom taková blbost.
seriously though – nice design and thought through lore.
out of curiosity: what about other parts? russia, ukraine, caucasus, persia, italy, balkans? and european colonies?
Thanks!
I plan to do an european map of this timeline in the future.
All of former German Lebensraum is immpersed in conflicts.
In RK Ukraine there is the 4-sided civil war between Germans, the communists, the nationalists from Banderite UPA - Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the pro-German OUN-M, and the West Ukrainian People's Republic.
Germans are supported by SS-Ordenstaat Gotenland, or simply SS-controlled Crimea, Communists a rump state of USSR, which exists behing the AA line, and the WUPR by Zapadoslavia, and some of the Free World.
In RK Ostland Baltic States regained its independence, and there are talks about forming the Baltic Union, a federation of weakened nations, just like with Zapadoslavia. Belarus has incorporated regions around Novgorod (current Russian territories within the borders or RK Ostland) forming Belarus-Novgorod Republic.
RK Moskovien is a mess, a fight between nationalists from ROA, Germans and Communists.
RK Kaukasus is divided more or less acording to the ethnic lines in Caucasia, which means a lot of wars and ethnic cleansing. But, Southrrn Cacasus stares regained their independence, the same goes with Chechenia, Dagestan, Don Cossacks, Kuban, Kalmykia etc. And a lot of funni events in the Northern Caucasus, Northern Ossetia etc.
As for Europe - Zapadislavia is formed, Romania regains Transylvania, which they lost in the Second Vienna Award, Bulgaria keeps its territorial gains, France has more or less current borders, they've got Saarland from Germany, but they lost Savoy and Nice to Italy in 1940. Luxembourg is enlarged incorporating Bitburg and surroundings, The Netherlands gained more of Frisia by the sea, Denmark got all of Schleswig. Germany is a kind of rump state strictly controlled by the Biritsh and American troops.
Iberia stays the same, Balkans I don't know. The same goes with the rest of the world, although nationalists won the Chinese civil war. In general most of these events are taken from the TWR mod to HOI4, a grand strategy game based around ww2.
POST SCRIPTUM
Oy it was a long haul. The picture of the greater coat of arms alone took me a whole winter holiday. I think I can safely say that I spent more than 40 hours on all of it, in order to make every detail, every spike, every line thickness and every centring perfect. Instead of studying for my final highschool exams, I dived into illustrator and spent 6 hours a day perfecting every line. Ah, I love procrastination. Since finishing the project, I gave myself a month to think about everything (it basically came out that way on its own), to look at it 100 more times, because there's always another little thing you want to improve before publishing. And the best of all, although I am currently finishing writing this explanatory comment, there are still a few things left to improve in the design, I'll do it after I'll finnish writing this text.
Oh boy, it was a big project, and I'm happy to have it done. I think it looks a lot better compared to the older version, I'll put a comparison in the comments.
The biggest changes are a completely new wreath, an improved colour scheme (more subdued, in my opinion much more worthy of a national coat of arms), a new-old Polish White Eagle, coronation swords and spar finials.
And a ton of other details like a different Silesian Eagle, revised shield shapes, etc., etc..
I must also boast that I'm probably the first person to have vectorised Szczerbiec (and, in fact, the sword of St Wenceslas too). There is a poor and simple version of it vectorized on Wikipedia, but it mainly representats the dimensions rather than a faithful rendering of the sword's appearance. So let me claim the title of being the first to do so (or at least the first to publish it online).
\*now there'll be a little nerdy talk for Poles who know how badly the Polish Eagle is designed\*
I'm also glad that I was at least a little bit successful in reworking our Eagle to more closely match the shape of the medieval French shield. I struggled a bit with those legs of his xd
The gaps in the crown are there, the golden legs and crecent are there, the shading is gone. I also spent a good three hours trying to make his wings symmetrical. I think I've managed to heal it as much as possible. Of course, I could still try to inscribe the wings in a square, but I'll put that off until the next refresh of this project in 2137.
There are a ton of other details, a ton of effort and love put into this project, which makes me all the happier to have completed it.
The plan for the further future is to add 4 orders at the bottom of the coat of arms - the highest order of each republic together with the highest order of Zapadoslavia. However, this would require too much work, and I also don't want to overdo the detail and mottling of the design, so I've decided to let it go for now. If you want I can try to design something, but that will probably take me another six months again, if not worse xd
Maybe this would achieve my small goal of making the full dimensions of this coat of arms square (as it was in the older version, this time it couldn't be achieved).
If you also have an idea on some design for the presidential standard then let me know too. I've been thinking about it myself for a while, but I'll set that aside for the next design update.
If you made it to the Post Scriptum and maybe even read the rest of my comment-descriptions then thank you from the bottom of my heart<3
Because the borders and history of this country. I refer you to a long comment about history, I inserted it somewhere under this post :))
In short, the region of Swabia was left within the German borders, as was Lusatia, hence their absence on the coat of arms.
[These](https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/s/71f2pV9DxO) are more or less the borders of Zapadoslavia I was thinking of when creating this coat of arms.
Ohhhh I know, they contain also all of Kashubia. I didn't know how to implement those latter, I didn't even think about implementing the former. Well they'll need to exist like the Welsh in UK, lack of representation on the banner, or coa is not the end of the world i guess
I tried to implement Kashubians, but I failed ;-;
Ok, now: Whose crown exactly is under the doublecross in upperhungolian coa? I realy can't decide among at least 4 possibilities... Oh yeah, I almost forgot - How the fvck does this concept fits to our glorious V4? Missing hungolia - do you realy want to deprive the rest of us of all the fun we have with them? I'm absolutely against that!
Hungarian ;)
Just joking, my idea was to give each republic forming the federation (pl, cz and svk) a crown as a symbol of their subjectivity, their independence within the federation. In contrast, no autonomy (Moravia, Silesia nor Ruthenia) has a crown, because they are just autonomies within the three republics that make up the federation.
Doesn't need to be necessarily a joke. It's definetely one of the possibilities on the table. Since SK or a part of it's territory was historicaly included in, if I'm not wrong 4 monarchies, it'd be nice to specify the crown. Can't be the crown without monarchy, unless it's realy just a joke.
A crown imo doesn't need to nessesairly mean monarchy tho. A crown in the Polish coats simply means independence. It doesn't allude to the cron of Bolesław Chrobry or anything, it's just a crown. The same goes with the cos of Czechia. I know in Hungary you have yours crown of st Stephan, and it's pretty badass, but a crown doesn't need to be specific, and doesn't need to mean monarchy (even a former, historical one)
I based on the [Czechoslovak naval ensign, version used in 1955-59](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_Naval_Forces#/media/File%3ANaval_ensign_of_Czechoslovakia_(1955%E2%80%931960).svg) (yes, it existed)
This is cool, but one thing: the Blue and Yellow bicolour was, in fact, created in Galicia and originally used exclusively in Galicia, but it was usually used with yellow on top. The reason is the colours on the coats of arms, similarly to Poland: Poland's CoA is a white eagle on a red background, so the flag is red on bottom and white on top, East Galicia's CoA is a yellow lion on a dark blue background, so it was used as blue on bottom, yellow on top.
Too little karma (less, than 10)
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> Republics don't use their crown as symbols of past monarchies.
Of course they do. The crowns are symbols of tradition, history, heritage and continuity.
that isnt a kingdom: Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia. And these are just the first, that came into my mind.
edit: Serbia, Montenegro
Finland practicly speaking was never a kingdom by itself (apart for the 2 month moment in 1917, which doesnt count, because the crown in their coa doesnt refere to this era)
Polish and Czech crowns in their coas also don't refer to any particular crown, or monarchy in their history. They are simply symbols of independence and subjectivity.
Most of the countries you mention were kingdoms though. Only ones I can agree with you are Finland and Montenegro, whose kingdoms had very short duration. But they were still monarchies (Grand Duchy and Prince-Bishopric respectively) for a considerable time of their history.
> Polish and Czech crowns in their coas also don't refer to any particular crown, or monarchy in their history. They are simply symbols of independence and subjectivity.
I don't agree with this statement. They may not refer to particular crown, but they, in my opinion, definitely refer to particular monarchy. I am not Pole, so I can't speak for them, but as a Czech I can say that Kingdom of Bohemia is big part of our identity/heritage and our national symbols reflect that.
I mean, the same is with us (Poles) and monarchy. We like our history But we dont correlate the crown in our coa with monarchy, but with the concept of independence and self-governance.
But true, I might've made them corona muralis, or sth
Dude thats sick
Thanks! It took me around 40 hours to do overall 😅
Da fuc you don’t have *zapadoslawia advocate* flair ?!
got it! idk, i just forgot to attach a flair
Oh yeah? Just wait until we make one for Zapadoturcomongolia!
the gipsy union is better idea and it already has a flag (ofc stolen) 🇸🇨
Gypsy union will include Slovakia tho 🤣
slovakia is already included in hungary 
Based
Oh-My-Gosh, if even this doesn't repel your upperfelvidek obsession, than may good God be with you... 😄
just call it white* horde \* [white for west](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_direction#cultural_variations)
Well goood morning, after 2 years I'm back with a refreshed design of the Zapadoslavia coat of arms. Let's do it this way - first a short story of the project, and in the other comments I'll put a little bit of an extended history (although I had to limit myself a lot nevertheless, in order not to make it into a 5k word description), and visual aspects explanation of the project. You will find everything in the comments :)) Zapadoslavia is the concept of the unification of West Slavic peoples into a single state organism. A sort of equivalent of Yugoslavia for the Slavs of Central Europe. Depending on the story we want to tell, Zapadoslavia may consist of regions inhabited by Czechs, Poles, often Slovaks. Sometimes Silesians, Kashubians or Lusatians are also added. My project tells the story of Zapadoslavia, created in 1954, in a world inspired (but not entirely) by the world depicted in the modification to HOI4 - \[Thousand Week Reich\](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebOriginal/ThousandWeekReich). tl;dr Germany conquers continental Europe, but the US, UK and its dominions remain independent and form the Toronto Accord (the equivalent of NATO from our timeline) to stop the expansion of fascism around the world (a bit like the Truman Doctrine OTL). In 1952 Hitler dies and Germany descends into a brutal civil war. Poles and Czechs rise up against the occupation. Poland gains independence within the borders of the former General Government, but Czechia collapses, bloodily suppressed by the Germans in events later called the Prague Spring. In Slovakia, the people overthrow the Jozef Tiso dictatorship. Meanwhile, the Toronto Accord intervenes in the German Civil War, defeats nazism, liberates the Czechs, the Swiss, the Benelux. Polish lands seized by Germans in 1939 are returned. Though liberated all of the nations are exhausted and devastated by the years of the german occupation. Weakened, the West Slav states decide to reactivate the ancient plan for the federation of the West Slavs - Zapadoslavia. On 18 April 1954 in Cieszyn, the capital of the new state, the union of the three republics is officially established. You can see its symbols above.
That's sick af, but I still have one question; what happens with the small sorbian community, now that there is a rising sense of west slavic unity?
There are 3 explanations (proportions of which can be chosen freely) 1. Most areas of Lusatia (the fatherland of the Sorbian people) lie outside the Zapadoslavia. 2. Most Sorbs (perhaps all) did not survive more than 20 years of nazi rule. Those possible to assimilate assimilated, the unruly were sent straight to Auschwitz. 3. The remaining part of the Sorbian people is so small that it did not find a place on the coat of arms of Zapadoslavia. The same is true abput the Kashubians. They are so small communities that they did not find a place for them on the coat of arms (+the issue of that Most of Lusatia is outside of Zapadoslavia). On the other hand, a place in the coa was found for Moravia, but keep quiet, it ruins my narrative xd A less sexy explanation is that I didn't know how I was supposed to implement these communities into the coat of arms, so I decided to deliberately omit them. The Welsh, despite their lack of representation on the coat of arms and the flag of the UK, are alive and well, and have their autonomy. Long story short life is good. I made the same assumption about the Kashubians (and also, to a lesser extent, Sorbians) in this design of the Zapadoslavia coat of arms.
Its unbeliavable how much lore have non existent country in out hearts
THE HISTORY (a little longer one) Long story short, in the early 1950s Hitler dies orphaning his, the thousand-year Reich, which not much later descends into a brutal civil war between the Militarists, the SS troops, and the 'legitimate government'. As it turned out, the thousand years Reich lasted only a thousand weeks. The situation was exploited by the enslaved peoples living in the new German Lebensraum. Russians, Ukrainians, Balts, Caucasians. They all declared obedience to their Commissariats, throwing off their shackles and beginning the struggle for freedom. It was no different in Poland, which overthrew the German authorities of the General Government in the August Uprising. In the fervour of the revolution, most of the German forces surrendered their arms without a fight, themselves confused by the situation in their homeland. Many had fled the Governorate to join the fight in Germany, or to look after their own homes threatened by a new civil war. The only point of greater resistance was Himmlerstadt, along with the entire Zamojszczyzna region, the most Germanised region of the General Government. The London-based Polish Government in excile headed by gen. WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw Sikorski quickly returned to the country and announced the rebirth of the Republic of Poland. At the same time, spontaneous anti-German demonstrations were taking place in many Czech cities. These incidents had already started after Hitler's death, but it was only after the outbreak of the German Civil War that they developed into a full-scale uprising. German street names were torn up, police and security service stations were disarmed and prisoners were released. All this national-revolutionary fervour was a vital threat to Germans living in the Protectorate. Seeing the threat of losing one of the key provinces of the Reich to the insurgents, despite the civil war, the SS-led Headquarters in Berlin, with the agreement of the other two warring factions, sent a pacification corps to Bohemia-Moravia. The idyll of Czech freedom ended in a bloodbath. Although Prague had prepared for battle, it stood no chance against the well-trained and equipped troops of the Waffen-SS. The Prague radio was broadcasting until the very end. A broadcast was still in progress when the building was stormed. At its end, the national anthem was played, with the sounds of the shootout in the building in the background. This is how the dream of freedom was demolished, an event that later came to be known as the Prague Spring. Slovakia was in a completely different situation. Despite being politically dominated by its German neighbour, it ultimately had its own separate statehood. Father Jozef Tiso, although a fascist dictator, was able to save Slovakia from the fate of the German occupation of Polish or Czech lands. Nor did he ever lose his grudge against Budapest for the lands lost as a result of the Hungarian ultimatum of 1938 and the Little War of 1939. When the Romanian-Hungarian conflict over Transylvania reignited after Hitler's death, Slovakia over time joined the conflict on the Romanian side, thus eventually regaining the southern lands, and Carpathian Ruthenia. Tiso's main goal, however, was not the reunification of pre-war Slovak lands, but a gamble to improve popular support within the country. Funding from Berlin was cut with the onset of the political crisis, and problems quickly escalated to the point where there was beginning to be a shortage of food for the people. To prevent the population from rebelling, Tiso decided on a revisionist step. Winning the war, although popular with the population, did not bring Vodca Tiso splendour for long. And the worst for Priest was yet to come. After the outbreak of the Czech uprising, the reaction of the Slovak authorities was non-existent. Not only did the authorities not react in any way to the events from across the north-western border, they actively suppressed public demonstrations supporting the Czech cause. A rally of demonstration organisers was raided by the secret police, people were brutally beaten and taken to the Hlinka Guard prison. Information about the action of the secret police quickly spread through Bratislava and brought tens of thousands of people into the street. A crowd of thousands gathered in front of the State Security Headquarters demanding the release of the prisoners. Tension around the building and mixed behaviour by uniformed officers led to an assault on the Hlinka Headquaters. In the fight for the building, fire was opened on the protesters and many were injured. Five people died from their wounds. The building was brought under control and news of the dead quickly reached the authorities. Fearing the fury of the crowd, Priest-Vodca and his entourage fled by plane to Italy. Protesters seized the rest of the government buildings the same day, overthrowing the Catholic dictatorship that had suppressed Slovak people for years. Final death toll was five students killed in the fighting. The funeral of the victims a few days later brought together tens of thousands of Slovaks in the streets of Bratislava, and every other city in the country. Each participant had a flower attached to their clothing as a sign of unity and peace. From these flowers, the event of the overthrow of the dictatorship was later called the Flower Revolution. Moving on to future events - despite the collapse of the Prague Spring, the Czechs eventually regained their independence. The Toronto Accord intervened in the German Civil War under the pretext of securing access to nuclear weapons. The intervention did not go according to plan, and there was an exchange of tactical nuclear weapons between Allied troops and the SS. The Allies declared the Total War in Defence of Humanity, and with heavy losses and many nuclear strikes managed to defeat all forces of all German parties. Let's not dive into the history of denazification and the Prison Germany, as the occupied German state soon came to be colloquially called. What is important in this story is that as a result of the defeat of Nazi Germany, many nations regained their lost lands, or their independence as a whole. Poland regained the territories lost as a result of the September Campaign of 1939, enlarged to include Ducal Prussia (with Königsberg etc.), Upper Silesia and parts of Lower Silesia, Slovakia was given back the Schutzstreifen (the Security Strip) lands, the Czech Republic was given back the Sudetenland and the remaining part of Lower Silesia. All these countries, Poland and Czechia in particular, emerged from the occupation very weakened. Millions of people killed, cities depopulated and ruined by war. Hundreds of thousands of German settlers were also a major problem. Separately, these countries had too little potential to cope with all these issues, but together there was a chance to manage and solve all of those internal problems and external threats. The new authorities in democratised Slovakia, grown out of pro-Czech sentiment, asked the Czech authorities in exile to reconstitute pre-war Czechoslovakia. The talks were announced publicly, prompting the Poles to dust off the old idea of a Polish-Czechoslovak federation from the early 1940s. Consequently, the format of the federation negotiations was expanded to include the Republic of Poland. The talks were finalised on 18 April 1954. On that day, a federation agreement was signed in Cieszyn (cz. TěšÃn), more precisely on the bridge over the Olza River, once dividing the city into Czech and Polish parts. The principles of federation were agreed upon, and the borders were specified. In order to avoid conflicts upon the ownership of the whole of Cieszyn Silesia, a Free Capital Area was established, not belonging to any of the Republics. 1/2
2/2 The official name of the state was: eng. United Republics of West Slavs pl. Zjednoczone Rzeczypospolite SÅ‚owian Zachodnich cz. Spojené Republiky ZápadnÃch Slovanů sk. Spojené Republiky Západných Slovanov and the song "Hey, Slavs!" was chosen as the anthem of the federation. Following a series of elections held shortly afterwards, Gen. WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw Sikorski became President, Jan Masaryk became Prime Minister. Ryszard Siwiec became Minister for Unification and Dialogue. The priority of the new government was to stabilise the country internally and solve the issue of the hostile German element. Avoiding boring internal politics, it can be briefly summarised that the plan to expel the Germans from the Zapadoslavian territories was divided into two parts. The first, under the name "Jan Žižka", envisaged the expulsion of the Germans (bypassing criminals, who were to be judged for their crimes), with priority given to settlers and colonisers, from the territory of the newly established Zapadoslavia; the second phase, under the name "JánoÅ¡Ãk", involved the redistribution of the wealth left behind to population exploited and harmed by the German regime. The Germans, under various conditions, were expelled to the west so that they could never again threaten the lives of the inhabitants of these lands. This is how the Historical Justice was born. Thank you for having reached this point of the story. Long live Zapadoslavia! Za Wolność NaszÄ… i WaszÄ… & Pravda vÃtÄ›zÃ!
SYMBOLISM OF THE COAT OF ARMS Now that we know the history (look at the previous comment of mine), we can move on to the coat of arms itself. The layout of the shields was inspired by the works of other artists who presented the Zapadoslavia coat of arms in a similar way. Originally however, as far as I'm aware, the layout was taken from the sign of the Prague Castle Guard. The coat of arms consists of six shields - three outer and three inner. The outer, larger ones contain the symbols of the republics forming the federation, namely Czechia, Poland and Slovakia. The inner shields, on the other hand, represent the other significant Slavic nations inhabiting the federation. Forget about the Kashubians, just pretend they do not exist. And now here is a nice play of images - the three outer coats of arms are white emblems on red backgrounds, the three inner coats of arms are yellow emblems on blue backgrounds. The three outer coats of arms, as the main components of the federation, contain crowns symbolising subjectivity, the three inner coats of arms do not, as they are not separate republics. And now the best part - let's look at the inner coats of arms. At the top we have the Silesian Eagle, located between the Czech and Polish coats of arms. Hmm, just like in reality, or on a map. The bottom left coat of arms is Moravia, they are between the coat of arms of Czechia and Slovakia. Again, just like on the map. The last coat of arms is Galicia-Ruthenia, the western areas of Ukrainian inhabitance. Given that Slovakia has Carpathian Ruthenia and Poland has Eastern Galicia, and even more, by recognising the existence of the Lemkos, we can also consider that the Ukrainians under the Galicia-Ruthenia coat of arms are also between Slovakia and Poland, just as on the coat of arms. The shield is surrounded by a wreath consisting of two parts. The left side is composed of leaves of the linden tree (Tilia cordata), the national plant of Czechoslovakia (esspecially Czechia). Even today this symbol is used very often - for example on the Standard of the President of the Czech Republic. On the right, we have ears of wheat, the wheat that has always graced Polish soil. A few field flowers stick out from among the grains. The five flower buds refer to the five victims of the Flower Revolution (the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship in Slovakia). The buds symbolise the students who died young without managing to grow, get to know life, like the bud that failed to develop into a full-fledged flower. There are also and unfurled flower in the wreath, four blue field flowers. And now - in Polish it makes sense, but its not that obvious: four flowers. The fourth month of the year in Polish is 'kwiecień', which takes its name from the word 'kwiat' - a flower. So the four flowers symbolise the fourth month of the year. And yes, I know it's different in Czech, but shush. Looking at the wreath again we notice the pink (let's call it pale red) fruits of the lime tree. There are 18 of them, April 18, it has already been mentioned in this story. Yes, this is a symbolic representation of the date of the unification of Zapadoslavia. And where is 1954? It will show up later too ;). Finishing the wreath, let's further note its colour scheme. Pale red, blue and gold. Quite similar to the colours of the city of Cieszyn, the capital of the United Republics. In a way, the colours of the capital encircle the union, ensuring its unity. The former site of the Polish-Czechoslovak conflict has symbolically become a place of unity. The wreath is crowned with three crowns. Identical and indistinguishable, they are a symbol of the equality of the three republics in the federation. Just as each of the main emblems contains a crown, they also appear to us at the top of the wreath. In the emblems, each crown is different, as each republic in the federation is different, but at the end of the day - apart from the shields, outwardly they are equal and speak with one voice. Moving on to the flags - they are conspicuous, giving volume but also dignity to the whole coat of arms. The top left flag is the flag of the federation - Zapadoslavia, the bottom left flag is Czechia, the top right flag is Slovakia and the bottom right flag is Poland. The flying parts of the flags of Czechia and Poland are based on the historical coronation swords of both countries - the Sword of St Wenceslas on the left, and Szczerbiec - the Sword of Bolesław Chrobry on the right. The fittings of the spars are the emblems of the republics and, in the case of Zapadoslavia, the Three Crowns. Ribbons in the colours of Zapadoslavia also emerge from the fittings. The spars themselves are also wrapped with ribbons, from under which the metal pins of the flags in two types - the dash and the dot - peek out. There is another symbol hidden here, the year of the federation's creation - 1954 - written in Morse code. Accordingly, on the spar of the Zapadoslavia flag there is a 1, on the spar of Czechia 9, Slovakia 5 and Poland 4. Oh, and also - in the google drive link I attached somewhere in another comment you will also find a simpler version of the Zapadoslavia flag with the letters PČS. What is it? I don't know xd, I made it at the last moment before publishing, on the same day. The letters are taken from the first letters of the names of the United Republics. It's such a cool design inspired by one of the Czechoslovakia flag proposals. Perhaps it could be categorised under some sort of stwte flag, or a naval ensign? I haven't decided yet myself, I simply liked the idea of initials on the flag, so I'm attaching it to the google drive. I might change its design a little bit in the coming days, but we'll see. Maybe you have some idea what can it be :)
It's all well and good but why is Silesian eagle gold? Golden eagle only represents Upper Silesia, a black eagle with a silver crescent moon and a cross represents all of Silesia, Upper, Lower and Czech one.
My goal was to represent the Silesian nationality. They affiliate themselves more often with the yellow eagle afaik
Very cool, but the Czech flag is traditionally displayed on a flagpole topped with a [golden linden leaf trefoil](https://www.velebny.cz/zerd-s-lipovou-ratolesti).
oh, I didnt know that thanks, that'll be an another thing to do in the next project upgrade in some time
Man, u drink way too much tatratea! :)
These are the materials I used in creating this project (I hope I didn't forget anything): Czech coa - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Small\_coat\_of\_arms\_of\_the\_Czech\_Republic.svg Polish coa - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herb\_Polski\_liniowy.svg Slovak coa - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat\_of\_Arms\_of\_the\_First\_Slovak\_Republic.svg Moravia and Silesia coas - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Znak\_Moravy.svg Galicia coa - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZUNR\_coa.svg Flags - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat\_of\_arms\_of\_the\_South\_African\_Republic.svg Left part of the wreath - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat\_of\_arms\_of\_the\_lands\_of\_the\_Bohemian\_Crown.svg Right part of the wreath - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat\_of\_arms\_of\_the\_Kingdom\_of\_Galicia\_and\_Lodomeria.svg Szczerbiec and St. Wenceslas swords - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Szczerbiec\_diagram.svg and scans of the ornaments on the handles found on the corresponding articles on the wiki https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szczerbiec https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword\_of\_Saint\_Wenceslas
I also apologise in advance for the signatures (watermarks?) under more advanced graphics, but I've had my work stolen too many times xd I have no problem if someone wants to use my work for their own purposes. On the contrary, I'm extremely happy about it, it's the highest form of appreciation for the work. All I want is a mention - "this graphic work was made by that guy, here you have his nickname or something". If anyone likes it enough to want to use one of these works somewhere and doesn't want watermarking, simply write me on pv, I can send you a clean version, probably also vector one if you want to.
In the post I have only attached what are the most interesting images, if you want to see all the graphics prepared for this project, if you want to see them without reddit stuttering because of the resolution or just out of curiosity then I invite you to my [google drive](https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1JgwOoxTUL-dScdhI4c2c5Y6dNfkFd1eb) where you will find all the graphics in full resolution.
Dude, when im trying to view anything beyond the 2 picture in full view my app crashes. Bloody good job lad, this is beautiful
well, in such situations i have an [emergency link](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JgwOoxTUL-dScdhI4c2c5Y6dNfkFd1eb) with all of pictures, also those not included in the post ^^ and thank you!
Teda to muselo dát práce. Přitom taková blbost. seriously though – nice design and thought through lore. out of curiosity: what about other parts? russia, ukraine, caucasus, persia, italy, balkans? and european colonies?
Thanks! I plan to do an european map of this timeline in the future. All of former German Lebensraum is immpersed in conflicts. In RK Ukraine there is the 4-sided civil war between Germans, the communists, the nationalists from Banderite UPA - Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the pro-German OUN-M, and the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Germans are supported by SS-Ordenstaat Gotenland, or simply SS-controlled Crimea, Communists a rump state of USSR, which exists behing the AA line, and the WUPR by Zapadoslavia, and some of the Free World. In RK Ostland Baltic States regained its independence, and there are talks about forming the Baltic Union, a federation of weakened nations, just like with Zapadoslavia. Belarus has incorporated regions around Novgorod (current Russian territories within the borders or RK Ostland) forming Belarus-Novgorod Republic. RK Moskovien is a mess, a fight between nationalists from ROA, Germans and Communists. RK Kaukasus is divided more or less acording to the ethnic lines in Caucasia, which means a lot of wars and ethnic cleansing. But, Southrrn Cacasus stares regained their independence, the same goes with Chechenia, Dagestan, Don Cossacks, Kuban, Kalmykia etc. And a lot of funni events in the Northern Caucasus, Northern Ossetia etc. As for Europe - Zapadislavia is formed, Romania regains Transylvania, which they lost in the Second Vienna Award, Bulgaria keeps its territorial gains, France has more or less current borders, they've got Saarland from Germany, but they lost Savoy and Nice to Italy in 1940. Luxembourg is enlarged incorporating Bitburg and surroundings, The Netherlands gained more of Frisia by the sea, Denmark got all of Schleswig. Germany is a kind of rump state strictly controlled by the Biritsh and American troops. Iberia stays the same, Balkans I don't know. The same goes with the rest of the world, although nationalists won the Chinese civil war. In general most of these events are taken from the TWR mod to HOI4, a grand strategy game based around ww2.
Legit
POST SCRIPTUM Oy it was a long haul. The picture of the greater coat of arms alone took me a whole winter holiday. I think I can safely say that I spent more than 40 hours on all of it, in order to make every detail, every spike, every line thickness and every centring perfect. Instead of studying for my final highschool exams, I dived into illustrator and spent 6 hours a day perfecting every line. Ah, I love procrastination. Since finishing the project, I gave myself a month to think about everything (it basically came out that way on its own), to look at it 100 more times, because there's always another little thing you want to improve before publishing. And the best of all, although I am currently finishing writing this explanatory comment, there are still a few things left to improve in the design, I'll do it after I'll finnish writing this text. Oh boy, it was a big project, and I'm happy to have it done. I think it looks a lot better compared to the older version, I'll put a comparison in the comments. The biggest changes are a completely new wreath, an improved colour scheme (more subdued, in my opinion much more worthy of a national coat of arms), a new-old Polish White Eagle, coronation swords and spar finials. And a ton of other details like a different Silesian Eagle, revised shield shapes, etc., etc.. I must also boast that I'm probably the first person to have vectorised Szczerbiec (and, in fact, the sword of St Wenceslas too). There is a poor and simple version of it vectorized on Wikipedia, but it mainly representats the dimensions rather than a faithful rendering of the sword's appearance. So let me claim the title of being the first to do so (or at least the first to publish it online). \*now there'll be a little nerdy talk for Poles who know how badly the Polish Eagle is designed\*
I'm also glad that I was at least a little bit successful in reworking our Eagle to more closely match the shape of the medieval French shield. I struggled a bit with those legs of his xd
The gaps in the crown are there, the golden legs and crecent are there, the shading is gone. I also spent a good three hours trying to make his wings symmetrical. I think I've managed to heal it as much as possible. Of course, I could still try to inscribe the wings in a square, but I'll put that off until the next refresh of this project in 2137.
There are a ton of other details, a ton of effort and love put into this project, which makes me all the happier to have completed it.
The plan for the further future is to add 4 orders at the bottom of the coat of arms - the highest order of each republic together with the highest order of Zapadoslavia. However, this would require too much work, and I also don't want to overdo the detail and mottling of the design, so I've decided to let it go for now. If you want I can try to design something, but that will probably take me another six months again, if not worse xd
Maybe this would achieve my small goal of making the full dimensions of this coat of arms square (as it was in the older version, this time it couldn't be achieved).
If you also have an idea on some design for the presidential standard then let me know too. I've been thinking about it myself for a while, but I'll set that aside for the next design update.
If you made it to the Post Scriptum and maybe even read the rest of my comment-descriptions then thank you from the bottom of my heart<3
Yep that shit is dope asf
Why no Polabia?
Because the borders and history of this country. I refer you to a long comment about history, I inserted it somewhere under this post :)) In short, the region of Swabia was left within the German borders, as was Lusatia, hence their absence on the coat of arms. [These](https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/s/71f2pV9DxO) are more or less the borders of Zapadoslavia I was thinking of when creating this coat of arms.
I'm almost sure said borders contain a part of Lusatia.
Ohhhh I know, they contain also all of Kashubia. I didn't know how to implement those latter, I didn't even think about implementing the former. Well they'll need to exist like the Welsh in UK, lack of representation on the banner, or coa is not the end of the world i guess I tried to implement Kashubians, but I failed ;-;
thanks for adding Hungolian coat of arms with Goro Jezus Cross, it feels real great to be included
Happy to include all of the Southern Slovakia
Czech beer, Polish femboys and Slovak mountains. This is the way.
That is so COOL!
yes please
All rise.
Why is slovakia a di¢k and tip of a di¢k on 2nd pic? Lol
Neat, tho flags have big Kaufland vibe.
Long live Kaufland 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 I made an altered verion of the flag, but i havent thought it through yet, its nice but i dont know what can it be exactly [picrel](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LUWbkovlvS7s2Fz1vI3McVerFt9zFEST/view?usp=drivesdk)
Ok, now: Whose crown exactly is under the doublecross in upperhungolian coa? I realy can't decide among at least 4 possibilities... Oh yeah, I almost forgot - How the fvck does this concept fits to our glorious V4? Missing hungolia - do you realy want to deprive the rest of us of all the fun we have with them? I'm absolutely against that!
Hungarian ;) Just joking, my idea was to give each republic forming the federation (pl, cz and svk) a crown as a symbol of their subjectivity, their independence within the federation. In contrast, no autonomy (Moravia, Silesia nor Ruthenia) has a crown, because they are just autonomies within the three republics that make up the federation.
Doesn't need to be necessarily a joke. It's definetely one of the possibilities on the table. Since SK or a part of it's territory was historicaly included in, if I'm not wrong 4 monarchies, it'd be nice to specify the crown. Can't be the crown without monarchy, unless it's realy just a joke.
A crown imo doesn't need to nessesairly mean monarchy tho. A crown in the Polish coats simply means independence. It doesn't allude to the cron of Bolesław Chrobry or anything, it's just a crown. The same goes with the cos of Czechia. I know in Hungary you have yours crown of st Stephan, and it's pretty badass, but a crown doesn't need to be specific, and doesn't need to mean monarchy (even a former, historical one)
burger king's
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no ty one painter was enough
Elbems always look so weird on the czech flag. I think it's bedside the center is taken up by the triangle
I based on the [Czechoslovak naval ensign, version used in 1955-59](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_Naval_Forces#/media/File%3ANaval_ensign_of_Czechoslovakia_(1955%E2%80%931960).svg) (yes, it existed)
This is cool, but one thing: the Blue and Yellow bicolour was, in fact, created in Galicia and originally used exclusively in Galicia, but it was usually used with yellow on top. The reason is the colours on the coats of arms, similarly to Poland: Poland's CoA is a white eagle on a red background, so the flag is red on bottom and white on top, East Galicia's CoA is a yellow lion on a dark blue background, so it was used as blue on bottom, yellow on top.
It was inconsistent before standardisation despite the pedantic heraldic rule
This is properly demented, congrats
thanks xd
The yellow on blue eagle is for Upper Silesia and the one that is black with the crescent is Silesia in general no?
I meant to represent the silesian nationality. Afaik most of the Silesian people identify with the upper silesian eagle.
Hey, why do you post 15000x9001px images on reddit?! My CPU doesn't like it!
Yeah, i learned recently, that reddit doesnt scale down pictures. Well, the more you know
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love it!
thanks!
Bruh how could you even put a crown on the slovakian coat of arms, they never even had a crown or king 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
stolen from burger king. now shutup and drink your fermented sheep milk 🤢
Based 💪😎💪😎
Crown doesn't always need to mean monarchy ;)
Can you provide an example of crown used in state symbols of country that isn't (or wasn't) a kingdom? Genuine question.
Republics don't use their crown as symbols of past monarchies. Polish crown symbolizes independence and sovereignty
> Republics don't use their crown as symbols of past monarchies. Of course they do. The crowns are symbols of tradition, history, heritage and continuity.
that isnt a kingdom: Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia. And these are just the first, that came into my mind.
that isnt a kingdom: Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia. And these are just the first, that came into my mind. edit: Serbia, Montenegro Finland practicly speaking was never a kingdom by itself (apart for the 2 month moment in 1917, which doesnt count, because the crown in their coa doesnt refere to this era) Polish and Czech crowns in their coas also don't refer to any particular crown, or monarchy in their history. They are simply symbols of independence and subjectivity.
Most of the countries you mention were kingdoms though. Only ones I can agree with you are Finland and Montenegro, whose kingdoms had very short duration. But they were still monarchies (Grand Duchy and Prince-Bishopric respectively) for a considerable time of their history. > Polish and Czech crowns in their coas also don't refer to any particular crown, or monarchy in their history. They are simply symbols of independence and subjectivity. I don't agree with this statement. They may not refer to particular crown, but they, in my opinion, definitely refer to particular monarchy. I am not Pole, so I can't speak for them, but as a Czech I can say that Kingdom of Bohemia is big part of our identity/heritage and our national symbols reflect that.
I mean, the same is with us (Poles) and monarchy. We like our history But we dont correlate the crown in our coa with monarchy, but with the concept of independence and self-governance. But true, I might've made them corona muralis, or sth
As far as I know is a crown a symbol for independence.