An "A" for Quastolia

Earlier this year, I shared some maps from my "imaginary country", Quastolia. In addition, I re-created the flag of Quastolia, that has become my unofficial logo:

The other day, while browsing through my collection of Quastolian artifacts, I came across a school project about Quastolia! I remember this. It must have been my ninth-grade English class. I don't know what the assignment was... I'm sure the assignment was NOT to create an imaginary country, but my teacher OK'd a report about Quastolia for credit. I turned in a 19-page document that included:

• maps (of course)
• government structure
• voting process done online by computer (in 1975!)
• courts and judicial system
• military structure
• population
• monetary system
• major religions

The cover of the report was decorated with this flag:



What an archaeological find! I had forgotten that this was the original flag of Quastolia. The flag with the eight-pointed Star of Quas came later, after the royal restoration. Note the Tolkienesque alphabet used in the lettering at the three points of the triangle. They were the characters in our language for "A", "C" and "Q", for Aqceyquas... the land founded by Aq, Ceygol and Quas.

Needless to say, my teacher was impressed. She gave me an "A", with these comments:

What can I say! After 16 years of teaching, this is the first time I have ever read anything so creative and different. You gave it considerable thought. Would like you to explain this to class.

Scribbled below her comments was my answer: "No way!"

For someone who had tought school for 16 years, she showed very little understanding of adolescents. If I were to stand up in front of my class and explain to them all about the imaginary country in my back yard, populated by ants, I would be guaranteed to get my ass kicked outside the building after school...

Quastolia - The Later Years

Quastolia - The Early Years
Quastolia - The Middle Years

Eventually, Bill and I found developing our "ant countries" within the existing geography of our hometowns to be too constricting. All we could do was redraw borders in between the existing lakes and rivers. Fortunately for us, a strange spatial-temporal rift descended upon Aqceyquas, and after the dust settled, we found ourselves in a new world.

A section of a map of the new world by Bill:


The surviving residents of Quastolia and Ceygolia began the careful exploration of our new world, cleverly called "Neworld". We also conveniently dropped the notion of ants and other insects as our citizens, and proceeded to world building like our favorite fantasy and science fiction writers.

Somewhere along the line, the reconstituted nation of Quastolia became known as the Protected United Kingdom of Quastolia, with its unfortunate acronym, "PUKQ". I assume my teenaged sense of humor found that amusing.

Two of my maps of the PUKQ:




Development of our "ant countries" continued on and off throughout high school and our first year of college, whenever we felt the urge to draw a map, or write a history or heroic saga. Later, when playing Dungeons & Dragons, it was very easy for me to create a new world for use as Dungeon Master.

Another of Bill's maps. He was always a better artist:

Quastolia - The Middle Years

In an earlier post I described the origins of Quastolia. Our "ant countries" started out in our back yards, but soon after that, Bill and I expanded the geography to include more than just our home neighborhoods. Both Quastolia and Ceygolia grew to encompass most of our small towns (Bill lived in the next town to the north of mine).

A political map:


A tophographic map of sorts:


A little of both:


We continued to develop extensive economic and cultural histories for our kingdoms. The region in which our kingdoms resided was known as Aqceyquas, named after the three brothers that founded the first three kingdoms: Aq, Ceygol and Quas. Very bad epic poetry tells the story of the birth of the brothers. Their mother was the goddess Utipia. There was a falling out between Aq and his brothers, becoming a source of conflict throught the region's history. I won't bore you with the rest.

A map of Aqceyquas by Bill:


Once again, you can see the strong influence of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings in our mapmaking, especially for Bill, who was always a better artist than me.

To the right is a satelite image of Aqceyquas. Here's your challenge: I haven't named my hometown, but in other posts I have left plenty of clues as to where I am from. Can you locate Aqceyquas?

Offer your answers in the comments.

Story continued: Quastolia - The Later Years

Quastolia - The Early Years

I promised Tony, the creator of Alphistia, that I would post some maps from my "geofictional project", Quastolia:

I have loved maps for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty sure that the first map I drew of my neighborhood was in an attempt to chart the most efficient path for Trick-or-Treat on Halloween. I had often pretended that imaginary kingdoms existed right outside my door...

However, it wasn't until Junior High School, when I overheard my friends John and Bill discussing "Ceygolia" and "Aqua Region". I was able to pry out of them that these were the names of their "ant countries." These were countries in their back yard, and the tiny insects were their citizens. They had already begun drawing maps and developing their "ant country" economies. I wanted in. By the next time I saw them, I had already devised a name for my country, drawn my first map, and designed a flag.

The flag of what was first called "Outer Quastolia" appears to have violated Rule #2 of Josh Parson's Rules of Flag design (Do not put a picture of anything on your flag, especially weapons!). However, I have always been rather proud of it this design.

In the beginning, the Kingdom of Outer Quastolia was ruled by a usurper wizard, but King James was soon restored and Outer and Inner Quastolia were reunited. Here you see a map of Quastolia. At the time it consisted of my yard. The house was the capital. By the time this map was drawn, several of the neighbors homes had also been incorporated into the kingdom. General Tip, our black Labrador Retriever, was the Minister of Defense. Peace and glory were restored.



Bill Williams had already created the Kingdom of Ceygolia.



You can see that we were both heavily influenced the J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and played many games with spelling our friends (and enemies) names backwards to create place names in our world.



Bill and I went on to create extensive histories, flags and maps for neighboring countries were designed, and whenever Quastolia or Ceygolia needed to go to war, we just went out and stomped a few ant hills.

Eventually, we broadened the scope of our "ant countries".

Story continued:
Quastolia - The Middle Years

"Imaginary" Countries

In the coming weeks, I plan to write a bit about "imaginary" countries, and their maps. These countries come in many forms: they might be from works of fiction, like J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, they could be "fleshed out" for a Dungeons & Dragons roll-playing universe, or they might simply be acts of whimsey. However, first I am going to look at "imaginary" countries that physically exist, here and now, even if not everyone recognizes them. They are often referred to as "Micronations".

If you would like to visit one of these fantastic places, you should plan to pick up a copy of Lonely Planet Micronations from Lonely Planet Travel Guides.

Bored of visiting the same UN-recognised countries? Ready to explore somewhere unique and perhaps a little wacky? want to add some really rare stamps to your passport? Then let Lonely Planet's guide to home made nations take you to a bunch of places you've never heard of. Micronations takes a curious look at some of the most curious places on the planet. Designed to generate interest in the strange world out there, this is a fully illustrated, humourous mock guidebook to the nations people create in their own backyards. A global selection of micronations are profiled with facts and figures, cultural information, Things to See & Do, Getting There & Away, and interviews with the quirky characters who've set themselves up as presidents, emperors and serene highnesses. The book also features full colour photographs and sections detailing the historical, philosophical and most definitely satirical aspects of the micronation phenomenon. For lovers of humour, trivia and ephemera, this is a gift book, a reference text and a travel guide rolled into one.

In this fun guide you will be introduced to the Kingdom of Elleore



Founded on a lark by some school teachers in 1944, this island kingdom off the coast of Denmark now has a King and Queen and issues their own currency and stamps, even though the island is uninhabited for 51 weeks out of the year.

The Loyalists of the Dominion of British West Florida dispute the legality of treaties signed, following the American Revolution, that ceded West Florida to Spain (and later to the United States).



Today, the "Acting Governor General" seeks recognition and dominion status within the British Empire.

Based on Article 1 of the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Republic of Molossia asserts its right to self-determination.



Founded in 1977 (just two years after the founding of my own "ant country" see Story of a Cartophiliac), the Republic of Molossia is everything my country could have been if I stuck with it. But then, who's got that kind of time? More on that later.

Story of a Cartophiliac

I have loved maps for as long as I can remember.

My father had a nice collection of atlases and a World Book Encyclopedia. I can remember spreading them out across the living room floor, studying them for hours. The World Book had multiple maps for each continent, showing flora, fauna a minerals of each continent, in addition to the topographical and political boundaries maps. He had world atlases, American atlases and historical atlases. The historical atlases were fascinating; to see the development of nations progress from page to page.

I made my own maps. I drew a map of my neighborhood in order to chart out the most efficient path for Halloween Trick-or-treating. I made up my own maps of Europe and Asia to imagine how Alexander's empire might have grown and developed if he hadn't died so young. Before I understood what global warming was, I drew a map of the United States after sea levels had risen, covering most of Florida, and forcing the capital to move from Washington, DC, to Columbus, Ohio...

In junior high school, a buddy and I, inspired by J.R.R. Tokien and other fantasy authors, created our own imaginary worlds. First they were the "ant countries" in our back yards. Later, realms of pure imagination with not only maps, but histories, flags, currency, and newspapers. In college, when I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons, I had a ready-made fantasy world in which to place the adventures when I became a Dungeon Master.

While I have pretty much stopped drawing my own maps (short of a doodle here and there) I have continued to collect them. Postcards, stamps, coffee mugs, posters, etc. But one day while perusing an information professional journal of one sort or another, I came across this ad:

What a clever idea! To use a road map as the cover of one of those old (not so old then) 5.25 inch floppy disks! The purpose of the map not to show a route, or how to find the store, but to invoke a feeling of adventure or the freedom of the road. Like any good advertising, it evokes an emotional result. I was so fascinated by this idea that I began looking for more like it.

In the entries that follow this one I will share other ads with "map as design element", as well as postcards, stamps and other odds and ends of map emphemera. I hope you enjoy it, or at least find it mildly amusing. If so, please share your comments, or links to other interseting map memorabilia online.

Who am I?

I am a librarian at the Main Branch of medium-sized city public library somewhere in the midwest. My big hobby, besides maps, is boardgaming. At some point, I have no doubt that I will blog about maps in boardgames. If you really need to know who I am, or get in touch with me, see contact info.