SENATE VOTE ADVISORY SESSION
So! I’ve built you geezers a fancy new Senate house so you can stop squatting in the Imperial Palace, and now it’s time to demonstrate I wouldn’t have been better off betting all that coin on the Blues instead.
Of course, it’s also been about oh… let’s see, Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, it’s 1094 now so that’s… 1,121 years since you last had to use your brains for anything. And you’re the new Senate Constantine convened when he built this place, so you’ve never used your brains for anything.
Anyway, I found some pretty wild scrolls in the library I seized from the Doukessa of Crete when I threw her in jail, so it’ll take a lot for me to let a bunch of Senators get within spitting distance of actual power. So let’s start slow, and see if I can trust you morons with anything.
Tell them, Daddy!
I was getting to it, sweetheart. That’s my daughter, Iouliana. Three years old, and probably already smarter than the four hundred of you put together. Anyway, Iouliana told me that that big two-headed eagle we’ve been putting on all our flags? It’s the Palaiologos family cipher! I didn’t believe it– especially since from the foundation of the empire to now, there’s never been a Palaoilogos emperor, and there’s certainly no reason to expect there will be one in the future– but I had some people look into it and, stone the crows, she was right! Anyway, that asshole, the Doux of Epirus, is a Palaiologos, so we won’t be having any of that on our flags and shields.
My first thought is to replace it with a simple Chi Ro. Come out here and show them your flag, honey!
I also made a diorama of what the year 1066 might have looked like if a nefarious time-travelling Palaoilogos hadn’t gone back and replaced all our flags!
(With barely concealed alarm) Er, yes. Thank you, dear.
Anyway, I happen to like it– nice, simple, recognizable, brings to mind the good ol’ days without being encrusted in a bunch of pagan bric a brac or obsolete Latin slogans. Latin! Like Greek hasn’t been the language of civilization since, well, since forever.
But I suppose it’s still a tad old-fashioned, isn’t it? So I’m giving all of you a chance to try to do better than that. Or maybe just tell me my flag is already great, you can do that too. Still, make some flags and I’ll let you vote on ’em. Unless you put an aquila or “SPQR” on them, in which case I’ll have you executed for apostasy.
Also, in your capacity as an advisory body: You might be aware that this just happened:
Now, the plan was to just wait after long enough had passed after our truce with Rum that we wouldn’t look like assholes when we call up Kaiser Hank and the gang to declare war and take some more of their stuff, but suddenly that’s out the window and we share a lengthy land frontier with the most powerful empire in the east. So if you want to prove you can give some advice as an advisory body, try giving some advice.
Do that right and I might even let you vote on something next time.
All right, enough faffing about! Let’s put this to a vote.
(OOC: I’ll be able to clean up and resize whichever wins, so don’t let formatting or whatever influence your vote– just the concepts)
A: The Chi Ro
PROS: Simple. Strong brand recognition. This particular design literally made by a member of the Komnenos family, so an excellent source of brownie points for a Senate hungry for legitimacy.
CONS: So AD 310s.
B: The Actually A Flag
Thanqol posted:
Flagchat:
I have no historical basis or anything for this, I just thought the colours looked pretty.
This one’s a bit communist-y, but so were the original Roman flags I guess.
EDIT: The red symbolises the clay that was unjustly stolen from glorious srjba
PROS: Unique; a new flag for a new era. Second variant will look great after the inevitable victory of Communism centuries from now.
CONS: Purple dye still very expensive; usurpers might steal it and fashion it into a crude imperial cloak.
C: The Labarum
JT Jag posted:
The Chi Rho is a proud symbol, but one I fear may lack the imperial majesty required of the arms of the Roman Empire. On its own, at least. What I suggest is that we go by a true symbol of antiquity, the one proudly used by Constantine the Great himself: the labarum.
The labarum, of course, was Constantine’s personal military standard, a symbol of the might of the Empire at its peak. The only question here is how one might go about turning it into a banner for the empire. My suggestion is approximately this:
If anyone wants to take a better shot at this idea feel free. I think I kind of mangled it.
edit: I decided to put a few more minutes into it, here’s a much improved version.
PROS: If we’re going to harken back to Constantine, we might as well go all the way, right? Since Constantine totally had a vision from God and used this banner at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in an event that was in no way apocryphal.
CONS: Constantine didkind of murder half his family that one time. Three discs call to mind Constantine’s three useless sons.
D: The Laurel Wreath
StrifeHira posted:
All right might as well put words into pictures:
New flag idea. Chi-Rho with laurel crown, gold border. Though I’m liking that labarum idea too, maybe throw that on?
PROS: Call to mind imperial glories to put those westerners on notice, but with a Chi Ro to remind everyone who’s still boss. Attractive gold border.
CONS: Laurel wreaths? Ancient traditions dating back to the dawn of the Greek peoples? A longstanding symbol of Roman military prowess? Sounds awful… pagany, doesn’t it?
postscript: there was no in-character post to that effect, but D won and this became our flag:
