Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26149161-20180910180037

Mae govannen, my friends! In this suggestion, I will propose a second flag for the brand-new subfaction of Umbar.

Premise:

The ships of the Haradrim in Umbar are not well-described beyond "black sails" in the book. However, on a little-known map of Middle-earth that Tolkien annotated for an illustrator, he mentions something new: some ships of Umbar had red sails as well, marked with a black star or eye. Since we don't know anything else about icons for Umbar, these are the most accurate bases for banners of the city.

Current Banner:

The current banner is different: black, with twin serpents entwining a sceptre. While it's beautiful, I'm not sure it fits Umbar--a Haradric city--all too well. Instead, I would propose that the current banner go to a surviving Black Numenorean group in Far Harad, which has been hinted to be in the works, or potentially a relic of the ancient Numenorean population, found wherever Black Numenorean armor occurs. The current banner should certainly survive in some form, given how popular it is among the community.

New Banner:

I designed several textures for the new banner, unsure of which would be best. The Red banner with an Eye/Star featured is taken straight from the map, while the other, the reverse of those, is my attempt to reconcile the famously black-sailed ships of the book with the sail described on the map. I personally prefer the red version, but honestly a two-banner system could be used, with a red with black being the banner of the Umbar warriors, and the black with red being the banner of the Corsairs.

Textures:









Thank you for taking the time to read this suggestion. Your feedback, as always, is highly appreciated. 