#gelyn

So this was author's description of Carthya's flag: The Carthyan flag has three gold stripes across the upper third. In the center of the flag is the king coat of arms. The Carthyan crest is in the shape of a blue shield with a gold stripe running horizontally to divide the upper third. The right side of the stripe bears an image of the king’s ring, and the left has a knot. The uppermost of the crest is held by a falcon, The bottom third has a griffin bearing a laurel around its neck. A bottom banner lists the words "Egolath & Corodir", meaning Duty and Honor.

So I think Carthyan flag looks like this perhaps based on the description.

And Bymar's flag's description was: Bymar's colors are blue and white. The flag is divided into four squares, blue and white on the top and white and blue on the bottom.

So Bymar's Flag

And Mendenwal's flag was said to be like this: The colors of Mendenwal are yellow and white. Mendenwal's flag is white with three yellow stars in row in the center.

Probably Mendenwal's flag is like this

And Gelyn's flag was said to be like this: Gelyn's colors are yellow and green, the flag of Gelyn is yellow with a green rectangle in the upper right corner.

Gelyn's Flag could be like this

And Avenia's flag description was like this: Avenia's flag is entirely red with the black emblem of the pirates at the center, to acknowledge them. And we know pirate symbol is an X with a sea serpent angled northeast and snake angled to north west. ( I couldn't do that very well but it is mostly like this. I don't know if it's correct. I took direction of the heads)

Oh man, I know I've mentioned that I was a huge rairpair Gelyn shipper in 2016 so seeing them together I ascended!! I have so many happy memories from that part of my shingeki experience! Mike and Nanaba was my life. Petra and Oluo too. Still are. I recently dropped my wallet on those plum wines showing them on a date.

Obviously it's not ship confirmation because it's not romantic but it is very much relationship confirmation because these people were close to each other and to Levi. It was such a gift seeing them all together at the end of the manga.

And here's a second fanfiction I've written, for the iconic Ascendance Trilogy of course. A story that I'll probably never finish because I get distracted and I procrastinate so yeah. Brief context is that Gelyn is beginning its long rumored assault on other countries for territory expansion, and has shockingly attacked the city of Isel, where Tobias happened to be working as a doctor {I won't explain why he's in Isel because that'll take far too long}. From within the carnage, Tobias wasn't found, and Jaron is desperately searching for him with the hope that he's still alive. Of course credit to my girl @ascendance-clubhouse for the Gelynian plotline is hers.

So here it is:

The sea was restless at this seemingly cursed witching hour, her billows pummeling the oaken hull of a lone ship, as if a warning. Alabaster sails were looming upon the masts, weaving with the mist like a phantom, searching, undeterred. 

The Ashen Hymn thrust onwards despite the rushing swells, their foaming rage lurching onto the bow and showering the helm where the captain bitterly stood. 

Captain Erick Loman's countenance appeared forevermore plastered in a grimace, muted curses dripping from his mouth with each strained creak of the vessel. 

His ship. His beloved Ashen Hymn. And King Jaron Eckbert was trying to pulverize it. 

Despite all that he'd witnessed, Erick was convinced Jaron possessed nothing more than spasmodic luck, and if said serendipity was exhausted on this day, Captain Loman wouldn't hesitate to perform a mutiny. 

Jaron could read all such thoughts from Erick's expression as if it were an open book. 

If not clashing with the dismal circumstances, Jaron might've even been amused.

On the contrary, a harsh scowl engraved itself in the young king's countenance as he scoured the murky horizon; the fog was undeterred, though, and Jaron squinted to distinguish the ghostly silhouettes tricking his vision. 

Isel lay in ashes several leagues to the south of them now, attempting to gather from the rubble what remained of their lives. Jaron was certain the wretched scar etched into the land by King Edward's advocates would not soon be healed. 

Yet another war waged within Jaron's mind, for the captain of his guard entreated him to remain and regroup with the others, but here he stood upon deck, traveling further and further from Avenia's coastline.

Guilt's canons were far more powerful it appears than reason's voice, for he was pursuing a dead man. 

"On starboard tack, adjust the sails, stay towards the east!" Jaron barked above the gale, the wind whistling passed his ears, and tousling his disarray of bronze curls. 

"King Jaron, may I have a word." Erick entreated placidly then, although his teeth were clearly gritted. 

"You may." 

Hands clasped at his spine, Jaron gradually marched towards the helm, during which time Erick had begun to scowl. 

"You are aware of what lunacy this is, Jaron, and I speak that as a statement rather than a question. The closer we draw towards the coastline the more likely Gelynian scouts will catch sight of us. Can you imagine Edward's glee upon learning the King of Carthya has been delivered to him on a silver platter? Are you even listening to me?" 

Despite Erick's attempts to get Jaron to look in his direction, the young king stared passively into the mist, a bold flash of determination glossing over his eyes. 

Jaron had already made up his mind, and a mountain couldn't so easily be moved. 

An exasperated huff was expelled from Erick's mouth, and regardless of Jaron's unyielding stance, the captain continued, 

"It's one thing to go waltzing through death's door on your own, but it's an entirely other matter if you're dragging a whole crew with you." 

Erick's voice melded into the background as Jaron's gaze shifted to the deck, a flaxen haired boy wielding a shortsword coming into his line of sight. 

Fink whirled the blade through the air, striking the wind with unexpected fluidity. Roden's guidance had clearly been helpful, for not too long ago Fink bumbled about with a sword as if he wielded a flopping snake. 

Erick wasn't wrong, there was much to lose if the tables were turned. 

"What offer was granted all crew upon this ship?" Jaron articulated, salty spray trickling from his chin. 

Captain Loman muttered incoherently beneath his breath, no doubt something not fit to be shared, before answering, "I'm aware that we all had the option to defect from your- from your follies, but we didn't realize you'd planned on storming Gelyn's coast like a madman." 

"You're wrong again, we're circling around Gelyn, not charging up the beaches. The idea is still being tossed around, though, I appreciate the reminder." 

"Jaron." The name dripped from Erick's tongue like poison, "Your guilt is blinding you. Not a single soul in Isel was distinguished from the other; men, women, children, all of them were insignificant obstacles that Gelyn crushed beneath their soles. Why would they have looked at Tobias any differently?" 

"Because he was one of Carthya's regents. And he was my friend." 

Erick raked his sodden, auburn hair from in front of his eyes, yet spoke not another word. 

Jaron gratefully accepted the silence, and he dismissed himself from the helm and the cloud of tension as if parting a curtain. 

Gripping the braided cords of rope, he descended the swaying ladder and dropped onto the deck. 

Jaron tilted his head as he analyzed each stroke of the sword held in hands once trembling and unsure, now sturdy and dauntless as they flowed as one with the blade. 

It had taken this long for him to realize that Fink wasn't that garrulous rat boy from the Avenian slums anymore. The boy was paving his own way now, be it with the royals of Carthya, or the daring pirates, Jaron was uncertain. Despite his growth, though, Fink still had much to learn. 

Metal hissed against leather as Jaron slipped his longsword from its engraved scabbard, and the vigilant twins of steel whistled in unison a familiar chorus before they clashed against one another as Fink turned. 

Startled at first, Fink soon displayed a toothy grin and lowered his sword. 

"I've gotten much better, don't you think Jaron? Roden and I were training almost every dawn throughout the summer." Fink babbled, mopping the salty beads from his forehead with his frayed sleeve.

"I can tell, and your balance is excellent given the circumstances, although you need to watch your footwork. You always take a step forward before you swing, your opponent can take advantage of that." 

"Roden warned me of that too, I am working on it." His eyes flickering to his left then, Fink murmured, "Was she watching?" 

Jaron's gaze accompanied Fink's, settling on a young lady with an austere crook chiseled into her brow. She was reclining against an anchored barrel, fighting her sepia mane that blew into her face, while methodically weaving a stiff knot into her bowstring against its notch. 

Laera tended to fade into the background as a glint of steel concealed within a sheath, a dagger patiently yearning to be wielded in battle. 

She was one of the very few women that had weaseled her way into the ranks of pirates, and to preserve her position she needed to maintain her inconspicuous air. 

Jaron assumed this was the reason he'd failed to notice her when he'd interacted with the pirates; she, too, would've been only a child the last time he was with them. 

A pair of squinted eyes bored into them then; they evaded the daggers shooting from Laera's glare as they innocently peered in the opposite direction. 

It’s not unknown, the Ascendance Series doesn’t have much world building, and I suspect we won’t get much world building until book 5 in 2021, so I’ve taken the liberty of assigning different types of government to the kingdoms surrounding Carthya.

Avenia: This country has the most room for interpretation because as far as we know, Vargan died without an heir, leaving Kippenger to become king. We know that Avenia isn’t a very good place according to the author herself, however, with the events of the Avenian War, I could see Avenian nobles pushing for limitations on the monarchy. I’ve always seen them as an absolute monarchy during the events of the trilogy, but later evolving into a constitutional monarchy with succession determined by the person in power, not by inheritance.

Gelyn: Ah, Gelyn. We don’t know anything about Gelyn except that they have accents that are supposedly similar to something from the Netherlands, their king is named Aranscot, and basically the nation is made up of shady merchants. Lovely, right? Aside from trade deals, Carthya has little to do with Carthya, and they butt heads. Once Nielsen revealed those tiny details about Gelyn, I set to work thinking about what the nation would be like. Nielsen paints it out to be a morally corrupt place, a trend started by the merchants. I’ve come to see Gelyn as having two sources of power: the King, and a House of Lords seating 200 (mostly made up of wealthy merchants pushing their agenda). King Aranscot lets the merchants do their thing, and they don’t put a leash on him. You have rulers who aren’t being held to laws, whether that’s a higher religious law (because they don’t adhere to the religious teachings in the area) or a written law (because the House of Lords and King Aranscot don’t interfere with each other).

Bymar: The second Nielsen said that the Bymarians have Welsh/Irish lilting accents, I knew where I was going. Kingdom states. Five lesser kings and queens leading their states while abiding by the laws set in by Queen Danika and King Norman, the high rulers of Bymar. But Cat! How can you support this?! you might ask. Out of all of my headcanons, I actually have potential text backup: Amarinda is a princess of Bultain, not simply a princess of Bymar (no matter what the wikipedia says! she’s a princess of Bultain! And! Bymar! But! Her! Title! Is! Princess! Of! Bultain!). Now, aside from Bultain, that leaves other kingdom states. . . And because this is all headcanons applying to the stories I write, I 100% came up with names for the four other kingdom states. You’ll have to read my fics to figure them out (*cough* don’t worry *cough* I’m publishing one soon)

Mendenwal: Oh Mendenwal, oh Mendenwal. The potential. Out of all of the realms, Mendenwal is the biggest and the most religious according to Nielsen. I feel like Mendenwal would be your classic monarchy. The king is chosen by God (or in this case, the Saints) and they bow first to the church and then their people. The Saints gave the king his power, and they could take it away if they wanted to.

1. My take on their canon relationship: COmmUNICATION WITH A LOoK. TeaSING. tEAMWORK. (And he high-key wants to hold her hand.)

2. Do I ship them: YOU KNOW I DO BINCH.

3. Reasons why I do/don’t ship them: ‘Cause I RP’d Gelgar and it accidentally happened. But after a while it became pretty clear that the relationship forged via RP for them was pretty deep and sweet. He was crushing hard on her for her kind-tough nature, you know, the person that’ll be sympathetic but also 100% step in to kick your ass if you need it. She respected his space and his history and never pushed him beyond what he felt comfortable sharing. He was pretty good at making her laugh, keeping up with her in conversation, and having serious discussions when it was important. Oh, and all of the Casual Touching, cuddling, clothes-sharing, and the fact that she never teased him for being bad at reading/not enjoying reading, and instead made a pleasant habit of offering to read her books aloud to him so that he could enjoy them, too.

4. Headcanon, if any: One of my favorite RPs was the one where she ran out of clean laundry because she’s a slob slacker and had to beg him for a shirt to sleep in that was clean, and then when she actually did the laundry, she stained his white shirt pink and felt SO incredibly guilty and AWFUL about it. Wholesome content.

Also I made two versions as I couldn't decide which one to keep.

And if you want the King's ring I tried to do it. I don't know which one looks better( so there are two versions)

And i tried to modify Avenia's flag

Also I tried to change the Gelyn's Flag shade.

And I added Prozarians flag too( I know it is very simple. But just changed the trim side and color shades.)(It is just Green with a white trim)

It’s not really fanon when it’s just one or two people’s headcanons. Fanon is a term used more to denote when groups of people, or even the fandom at large, have accepted the headcanons of one or two people as canon.

So like, I enjoy minor characters. I enjoy coming up with backstory and history and shit for them. But I think it’s Bad if everyone in the fandom takes my headcanons and starts writing the characters exactly as I do with the same backstory and everything. And I mean, of course it's not as big a deal because we’re talking minor characters here, but...I don’t want people doing that with my headcanons for any character. Minor or not. 

Some people in the fandom might look to my characterization of the occasional minor character (say, Gelgar) as inspiration for their own portrayal, but in my experience they’ve never just accepted them wholesale. They’ve also never just accepted them blindly. 

Like, if you read my interpretation and you think, wow, this fits well; this makes me like this character; I want to accept this interpretation as my own: that’s fine. What’s not fine is seeing other interpretations of the character that align just as well with canon and then telling the writer or artist: “Wow, that’s not in character because it’s not the same as this other interpretation that I’ve seen that I like better.” If your reason was, “The canon actually contradicts your characterization here in this one scene” I’d say you’d be giving some constructive feedback. But fanon has a tendency to police how characters are written, which is why it’s bad.

And when the characters are major, it becomes a bigger problem because you have hundreds of people (sometimes thousands of them) coming down on new writers and artists for having a vision that is different from the fandom-accepted norm/“canon.”

There are lots of interpretations of characters that I don’t like, even of minor characters. But I don’t think I have the right to say they are wrong interpretations just because I don’t agree with them or because my headcanons are different.

Fanon as a whole, though, gets so absorbed in their headcanons that they legitimately view them as canon and unfortunately sometimes act accordingly, not just in commenting on ‘fic but in replying to meta discussions and other things.

Anyway, like I said, fanon implies 1) a bigger following than just a few people, and 2) uniform interpretation. Headcanon is all there is to go on re: minor characters, but there are a lot of different interpretations, too, even with characters like Lynne and Gelgar. There’s an artist on Pixiv whose art I love but whose interpretations of the characters/pairing I don’t completely accept as my own (though the foundation of their relationship is portrayed nicely IMO). @hairjel and I RP’d the pairing for a long time and while I have absorbed a lot of her headcanons (backstory, most of Lynne’s personality), I generally don’t write Lynne exactly as she does. Likewise, @bossard has written Gelgar into her longfic, and she didn’t write him exactly as I write him. (TBH he’s better in her fic.)

Anyway my biggest gripe with fanon is that it tends to stray from being canon-compliant. When it comes to minor characters like Gelgar, it’s pretty hard to come up with anything that the canon contradicts, whereas with Erwin or Levi or even Eren, it’s really easy to come up with things that sound cool or cute but which the canon contradicts just due to the characters having a larger role in the story. 

Gelgar and Lynne are so minor Lynne doesn’t even get any smartpass stories and Gelgar gets...one. Fanon isn’t always 100% bad in theory. It’s kind of cool when fandom gets together and is like, yes, Erwin has a butt-chin. But when those fandom-accepted (“fanon”) headcanons start straying from the canon and/or butt up against it directly...it becomes an issue. Mostly because fandom at large stops allowing for other, possibly more canon-compliant, interpretations of the characters.

And yeah, yeah, it’s just fandom. But fandom should be a fun place where people can share their ideas, you know? And if your ideas aren’t the same as everyone else’s, especially if they still manage to be canon compliant, then it ceases to be fun, not because nobody wants to play in your sandbox, but because fanon gets so out of control that side of fandom will come and take a shit in your sandbox instead of just leaving you to play alone.