Flags of the Cosmere

[Lighteyed Lieutenant he/him]

I recently saw a post on Pintrest about the Earth planetary flag, and it caused me to think, "Do the planets of the Cosmere have flags of their own?"

As I thought more, I realised that flags are not a large part of the Cosmere. Highprinces on Roshar have banners with their glyphs, and the ships on Lumar have flags, but those are really the only examples that I can think of. 

So I'm wondering, what would the planetary flags of the Cosmere look like? I imagine that Scadrial's would have Harmony's symbol on it, and that you could have an Aon for Sel, but what do you guys think?

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Lighteyed Lieutenant said:

I recently saw a post on Pintrest about the Earth planetary flag, and it caused me to think, "Do the planets of the Cosmere have flags of their own?"

As I thought more, I realised that flags are not a large part of the Cosmere. Highprinces on Roshar have banners with their glyphs, and the ships on Lumar have flags, but those are really the only examples that I can think of. 

So I'm wondering, what would the planetary flags of the Cosmere look like? I imagine that Scadrial's would have Harmony's symbol on it, and that you could have an Aon for Sel, but what do you guys think?

I think that if they had flags, they would probably use the Planet Symbols that are already in use. WoBs:

Spoiler

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TheFoxQR

Can you shed some light on how you went about designing Roshar's symbol?

Isaac Stewart

We knew that we wanted the Double-eye to be part of the symbol. So it was a matter of finding the right shape for the eye. We went through dozens of ideas of how thick the lines could be, what parts to emphasize, etc. We also knew we wanted swords to be a part of it, so we tried several ways of incorporating those until we wound up with what we currently have. Someday, I'll share the different iterations we went through to land on the current symbol.

Footnote: The symbol in question is this planetary symbol for Roshar, found in Arcanum Unbounded.
Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA (Oct. 1, 2019)

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Paleo (paraphrased)

What symbol will be on the Warbreaker leatherbound?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He referred us to Isaac, who showed us several designs which are not finalized, but they are confirmed as Tears of Edgli.

Stuttgart signing (May 17, 2019)

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Isaac Stewart

Art director Isaac here with an art reveal today. Recently Brandon, Kara, and Adam have been discussing publicity for Rhythm of War, and one thing that Tor has asked for is a simplified symbol to represent the Stormlight Archive on certain marketing materials.

Now, to be clear, we love the original Stormlight Archive symbol, and we are in no way abandoning or replacing it. Many readers have bought shirts and decals or have even gotten tattoos of it. We are using it in The Way of Kings leatherbound and will continue to use it as a chapter icon in Rhythm of War and future Stormlight books. So rest assured that we are not retiring this tried and true iconic symbol.

However, the symbol is complex, and it doesn’t read well at small sizes, so at Tor’s request, we’ve sought a simplified design. During this search, it occurred to Brandon and me that eventually we’ll need simplified symbols for all of the Cosmere worlds—symbols that will need to be easily recognizable from far distances—basically, space-era versions of our current symbols.

So, after hundreds of drawings and thumbnails, we’re unveiling to you now the space-era symbol for the Stormlight Archive.

We’ve built this on the skeleton of the original symbol, preserving the relationship between the sword, circle, and main focal point. Instead of extra swords, we have rays of light. Instead of the complex double-eye of the Almighty, we’ve chosen the burst of light from the original Cosmere symbol.

Going forward, we will actively use both this symbol and the original in promoting the Stormlight Archive, and eventually you can expect space-age versions of many of the current Cosmere planetary symbols.

Miscellaneous 2020 (April 8, 2020)

 

The easiest place to find them is on the star charts in Arcanum Unbounded (tiny symbol on the planet), with some being released on the Leatherbound editions. We don't know them all yet, though. 

[alder24]

2 hours ago, Lighteyed Lieutenant said:

I recently saw a post on Pintrest about the Earth planetary flag, and it caused me to think, "Do the planets of the Cosmere have flags of their own?"

As I thought more, I realised that flags are not a large part of the Cosmere. Highprinces on Roshar have banners with their glyphs, and the ships on Lumar have flags, but those are really the only examples that I can think of. 

So I'm wondering, what would the planetary flags of the Cosmere look like? I imagine that Scadrial's would have Harmony's symbol on it, and that you could have an Aon for Sel, but what do you guys think?

There already are symbols for every planet, we know some of them. They've been revealed in the Arcanum Unbounded. Those would be central features of those flags. The Scadrian symbol is the same as the symbol of Harmonium, the Rosharan symbol is the Double Eye of Almighty, the Nalthian one is the Tears of Edgli, Selish is some kind of Soulstamp, Taldain has a black and white sun. Threnodite and Drominad symbols were also featured.

Edit: @Treamayne 

Edited May 30, 2024 by alder24