In addition to being a player of OGRE, I am a Graphic Artist - and one of my areas of interest is Vexillography, the art and design of flags.

When I discovered the flags of the World of OGRE lurking on the SJ Games website, I was intrigued. Here were the flags that were flown by the great powers of The Last War!

The flags are shown in very small sizes though… so like a proper Graphic Artist, I decided to create larger versions of them.

In doing so I experienced several difficulties, mostly because the originals are so small as to make them poor guides. Several of them are shown in higher quality in "flying" images, but the wrinkles that convey realism also obscure details.

Some colors were hard to nail down (for example, the darker reds that appear on the flags of the Combine and the Hegemony), and my choices are somewhat speculative. Wherever possible, I used colors associated with past and current flags of the regions in question.

Proportions were difficult to estimate accurately. I therefore chose to assume a standard 2:3 ratio for all the flags - which is probably not realistic, as most nations' flags in the Real World vary widely in proportions. (For example, the flag of the United States has the official proportions of 10:19, while the United Kingdom's flag is 1:2; Israel's flag is 8:11, while Brazil's is 7:10, and so on.)

Great Britain and Australia evidently still use their current flags in the Last War, or at least no other flags are shown for them. Note also that while the "Big Red Star" flag is shown on the world map, the current flag of China is shown on the Chinese Hegemony page. I would speculate that the current flag is, in the time of the Last War, still used as China's National Flag - while the "Big Red Star" flag symbolizes the whole of the Hegemony.

We know from various sources that Israel is still a power to contend with in the time of the Last War, but the map does not show their flag; and sadly, no page is devoted to them on the SJG site. (Since I refuse to accept the blasphemous notion that Israel might have been absorbed by the Arabian Confederation, let us hope a page for Israel is forthcoming.) We might assume that the Israelis still fly their current flag in the Last War, as they would have no particular reason to change it.

I hope you like these flags, and I welcome any commentary or criticisms you might have. I am particularly interested in hearing (or better yet, seeing) suggestions for other Flags from the World of OGRE.

-- Alvin Helms

Legal Notice:

OGRE is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and some of the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.

All the art that isn't copyrighted by Steve Jackson is copyrighted by Alvin Helms. See my online policy.