"You have earned no less than the full measure of retribution for your injuries and atrocities against us. We are tired and re-casting sprues into ball, so lest you come to deliver us more lead or coffee, you may speak only to the mouths of our cannons. No free man in Vastmark shall hear you."
—Karl Vaningen
Vastmark, officially the
Gothalian Commonwealth of Vastmark (
Vastmark Gothalian: Гоѳалиске Гемеенѳинг Вастмаркс [goˈðɒːlɪskɪ gɪˈmeɪnθɪŋ ˈvɔstmɑrks]), is a country in northern Ulera.
Gothalian Commonwealth of Vastmark
Гоѳалиске Гемеенѳинг Вастмаркс
"Вит енн стандаѳ"
"We yet stand"
Government
Federal Presidential Republic
Capital
Vytburg
Languages
Gothalian (Official)
Nordic languages
Demonym
Vessian, Vessish
Currency
Vessian Snejth (Ꞓ)
Preceded by
Colonial Vastmark
Inspired both by the Taminil Revolution and their Declaration of the Rights of All Men, as well as
Skorbund history of democratic or semi-democratic things/folkmoots, but equally tempered by having witnessed excesses of revolutionary government under the first provisional Taminil republic
The Vessian flag, often referred to colloquially as the musket banner (
Gothalian: мöскет-банд [ˈmøːskɪtˌbɔnt]), is highly unusual for its usage of text and depiction of a musket. Flags with swords are not uncommon in
Aresra or southern
Eussis, but Vastmark’s is unique among national flags in depicting a firearm.
The blue and white were the dynatic colours of the Lodovigians, a
Skorbund dynasty which ruled the state of
West Dvekmenia from 923 to 1101. They were chosen to represent the ancient heritage of the Gothalians, and also their power and defiance against the Rossans, as the Lodovigians ruled over a mostly
Dvekmenu polity in much of modern Ros. The words “Фрее Мäннер Ней Еескунѳ”, meaning "Free men don't ask", were adapted from a reply Armond Gehler gave to Admiral Scharhenko before the Battle of Kaldhaum in response to Scharhenko’s demand that they surrender due to the illegality of their actions ("Закона знаю, ілі свободни чоловіки не прохотають.", "
I know the law, but free men do not ask.". Gehler's words were themselves adapted from
Moterâc: “Free men owe none but their Creator ask of leave for their own defence.” The text is written in fraktur as that was the common style of writing at the time in both Gothalian and
Rossan, though the thita (ѳ) at the end of Еескунѳ was replaced with a thorn (þ), adapted from the Skorbund runic alphabet to further illustrate their heritage and distance from Ros and the Dvekmenu peoples. An early version of this banner without the musket was flown from the fort at New Telos (Friskstath) during the siege of the city during the Vessian Revolution. When Rossan forces shot down the flag, a militiaman named Jan Frisk raised the banner back up tied to his own musket. Frisk himself was killed during the siege, but the banner remained flying from his musket through its end. Frisk and his bravery became a martyr for the rebels (New Telos would later be renamed Friskstath after him), and his musket was added below the words to represent the colonists' perseverance and sacrifice, and to symbolise what they were willing to do to be the free men Gehler’s words above proclaimed them to be; the words are a declaration, and the musket represents their willingness to back up their declaration.
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