Me too. And I picture it combined with nature and greenery as the name Arcadia suggests harmony with nature and untapped wilderness.
How do you think their flags look like? Arcadia I always pictured a simple flag like this sketch of one (Which someone who actually knows how to make flags instead of me can improve haha) with colors of purple, white and gold/yellow.
@Barroth_the_Mage I forgot to edit but haha but I fixed the clouds, made the wheat the same gold color, and enhanced the quality and sharpness.
Description
Purple I think represents some of their characteristics like power, ambition and wisdom. The gold is from the picture of Arcana we have in the stats screen and it contrasts nicely.
The eye is also from that picture along with the 7 4-pointed stars which I think are their central icons and symbols. Behind the eye is a shield which represents protection from danger.
Seeing as there are 3 eyes in that picture, there are another two eyes on the outstretched hands symbolizing welcomeness and community (To Arcadians I guess) but also surveillance.
Above the biggest eye is a symbol for ancient animism which they practiced via the Ishavak Faith.
There are also two clouds (Which could symbolize that the nation is currently a floating island and its current hidden and secretive nature (if we dig deep enough haha))
Both clouds have a gold symbol etched into them. One has a key and the other a quill. Both symbolize knowledge the pursuit of it (and of the Arcane) which is one of the central tenets of the religion.
If you want to make improvement on it, I’d suggest placing those two purple clouds above the shield, in way that is similar to those hands below the shield. That would make the symbol more symmetrical.
@Frieza
And it looks amazing!
The hands with eyes are open and welcoming but also watchful and cautious, and the clouds with a key and a quill symbolise the ideals they uphold.
I’ve always imagined Param as a very classic, Medieval European type of setting, with lots of fortresses! In my head it’s very focused on physically imposing buildings, and visually the opposite of the much more elegant buildings in Yotai.
I’m from Scandinavia, and there’s a lot of old churches from the Medieval times here, so in my head every small city in Param has its own church. I think they’d have a weaponhouse in the churches, too! (A weaponhouse/våbenhus is a little area in a church where the peasants would store weapons in case war broke out, and it was also used for women who had just given birth to wait until the priest could “cleanse” them.)
Yotai has also always been focused around Medieval China and Japan in my head, so I don’t have much more to add to that!
I think of Arcadia as looking more like the Achaemenid Empire and other Iranian architecture, though! Lots of beautiful carved stone and mosaics, and mashrabiya in both personal homes and public buildings!
Thanks for sharing that picture of a Scandinavian church. It’s beautiful.
While I agree that Param is undoubtedly fantastical medieval European-esque (specifically western European, like EvilCatPerson mentioned), I still think it has medieval Persian-esque influence. After all, the people of Param call themselves “Parami”, and that name is Persian/Iranian-esque. But of course, this is just my own head-canon.
Edit: Actually, I just remembered an important detail. The Parami names seem to be Spanish-esque. (Example: Leomar Nantael de Param) Spain, as we all know, is an European nation that has been heavily influenced by Middle Eastern cultures (Perso-Arab). Now this makes more sense to me.
I just tried this suggestion by searching on Ilya’s last name, de Alviar, and I’m getting a lot of Spanish and Portuguese (historical) people in my search results, so both of those countries fit in this origin!
The name Leomar, from what I can read, means sea lion in Spanish (my love for the imbecile grows).
Although, first names are a little more scattered, as Iver is Germanic (alternate spelling of Ivar/Yngvar among others), Ilya is Slavic, and Aunt Bess’s name is English (though derived ultimately from Hebrew).
Geographically, IIRC, Western Param, where Mendel and Silcur are, is described as sort of like a desert (semi-desert maybe?), and Spain is notable for having Europe’s only true desert, as well as large regions of semi-desert.
As @EvilCatPerson notes, the first names are more scattered, which is I think not unreasonable given that there seems to be more travel going on in Arvanand than you would expect from a society that largely relies on horses to get around, thanks to stuff like Spirit Gates.
For example, when I picked my new name during my transition, I choose a Slavic name, despite me being Dutch, while my (cis) brother has a Scandinavian first name.
However, given that most characters are nobles or descended from nobles, their last names are more geographically bound, so that would be (in real life) a more reliable indicator of their origins.
Ilya (Илья) is a popular male name in my country. The feminine counterpart of this name is Илия. In Russian, the difference is only one letter. But in fact it is the same name.
I can kinda read Cyrillic alphabets, and I know it’s not easy to transliterate them into English. So, basically, the masculine and feminine versions are slightly different in pronunciation?
Ilya and Elias(male Eli) are derived from “Elijah”, which originated from Hebrew’s “Eliyahu”.
Edit: Actually, female Eli’s name, Eliana, is also connected to the same etymology. “Eliana” is a modified portmanteau of “Elijah” and “Anna”, both of which are derived from Hebrew’s “Eliyahu” + “Hannah”.
