The Flag of Sun-River-Land

Weekend Assignment #43: Congratulations, you've become your own sovereign state! Design a flag for the United States of You, using no more than three colors and one symbol (the symbol can be of any color). Explain your design choices. Don't worry about actually making the flag -- you can just tell us about it.

Extra credit: make a picture of the flag. Because, let's face it, that's time-intensive.

No, I didn't cheat.  There are only three colors here.  It's just that one of those colors comes in two shades in the Mâvarin flag.

Just in case I haven't already explained this to death, I'll mention again that Mâvarin is the name of the fictional country where my first few (unpublished) novels mostly take place. It really is my own personal country, because what I say goes in Mâvarin.  The characters don't know this, however. Don't tell them!  They like to think they make their own decisions, and so do I.

The design that takes up over half of the flag is the symbol of Mâvarin, the Sun and River.  It appears on the country's coins, the front doors of the Palace, Cathma's magic ring, Carli's old sword, the carpet in the Sun Room (until something goes wrong) and other places.  It depicts the sun setting on the River Misis - or perhaps rising from it.  It works either way, depending on which side of the river you live on.

The reason it's the symbol of Mâvarin is that when the Founders first came to the land of Varin (a name that means River-Land), they arrived just as the last of that day's sun illuminated the newly-discovered continent on the western horizon.  The native selmûnen soon showed the great river to the new arrivals, again at sunset.  The Founders added the Londran word for "sun" to the name Varin, and the new country called Mâvarin began.  That was nearly nine hundred years ago.

I know, I know.  With very few exceptions, you folks have never read the Mâvarin books, so you barely know what I'm talking about.  Just you wait, though.  Someday, you'll see them in the sf and fantasy section at Borders, Barnes & Noble or your favorite independent bookstore.  When you do, the chances  are excellent that the Sun and River will be somewhere on the cover.

Karen

More about Mâvarin: www.mavarin.com
Mâvarin short fiction: http://mavarin.blogspot.com (check the archives for June-September 2004).

P.S. Updates on past entries:

Holiday Trivia winners: I haven't forgotten you.  The final scores will be announced tomorrow.

My health:  I seem to be coming down with a cold or the flu.  So what did I have in October that left me with a lingering cough and ringing ear all this time?  Possibly Valley Fever, my doctor thinks.  Blood test results are pending.  The leg is slowly healing, but my doctor agrees that there's probably some arthritis there. I need to schedule some X-rays.

Ethics papers and stuff: I finally finished the last of the three papers for last night a couple of hours before class.  You'd like it - I ended up quoting Henry Higgins, Tom Jefferson, James T. Kirk, and Harlan Ellison to illustrate ethical principles.  The instructor liked my first paper, and I have high hopes that the rest of my learning team will participate more in next week's work.

The George incidents: I'll get to the rest of the two stories soon.  Stay tuned!