Awesome start to a new series, Dire! I really like what you've done so far. Creating a believable base for a fictional country is a lot of work and you've done that here.

If you need any help with maps or cartography, it's kind of my side hobby. I think you've done a good job with the map to start but there are some improvements that could be made with the rivers and such, but without any topography, it can be tough to tell how much elevation differences are throughout the island.

A few country related questions: Does Escalia skew more British, European or American in flavor? Is English the national language? What is the approximate population? Are there any specific things the country is known for? What kind of politics/political structure does Escalia operate under?

On to the teams! Great start here. It may be a little early for widespread use of TV numbers. I like the double blue for Hadley and the updated logo looks much stronger.  I think the numbers on the white set should be the darker blue though. Kierport is my favorite so far, as I am a sucker for black and gold schemes, but I'll wait to see all of them. The logo might be a bit oversized on the helmet for this era. You definitely hit the old heritage pride with this look.

Nice work so far. Looking forward to seeing this develop.

Dan O'Mac wrote:

I like the update to the Gatekeepers.

The Knights have a really good look. I like the shield, and the thick sleeve stripe not matching the pants stripe is a fun thing, as many teams in that era had some mismatched striping.

Thanks for the help on the 'Keepers! When making the Knights, I was going to make the sleeve stripe match the pants, but I thought that the thick stripe went well with the set anyway, so I left as you see it now.

Section30 wrote:

This is off to a very good start, both teams look good and the story has my interest. Looking forward to this!

Thanks and welcome aboard! Hopefully you'll find a team that peaks your interest!

Steelman wrote:

Awesome start to a new series, Dire! I really like what you've done so far. Creating a believable base for a fictional country is a lot of work and you've done that here.

If you need any help with maps or cartography, it's kind of my side hobby. I think you've done a good job with the map to start but there are some improvements that could be made with the rivers and such, but without any topography, it can be tough to tell how much elevation differences are throughout the island.

A few country related questions: Does Escalia skew more British, European or American in flavor? Is English the national language? What is the approximate population? Are there any specific things the country is known for? What kind of politics/political structure does Escalia operate under?

On to the teams! Great start here. It may be a little early for widespread use of TV numbers. I like the double blue for Hadley and the updated logo looks much stronger.  I think the numbers on the white set should be the darker blue though. Kierport is my favorite so far, as I am a sucker for black and gold schemes, but I'll wait to see all of them. The logo might be a bit oversized on the helmet for this era. You definitely hit the old heritage pride with this look.

Nice work so far. Looking forward to seeing this develop.

Thanks Steel! I created the rough map as a baseline, so I will definitely revisit the map sometime in the near future, so when that time comes I'll be calling. I was mainly going for a flat political map to start out, since in my opinion it got the point across. For those wondering about the topography, the most unique parts would be the Dellorey Woods that cover most of Argil and parts of Arcanora and Toukier, the Wyomite Mountains that stretch almost the entire "height" of the Pattal province, and the vast Great Plains that sprawl across the provinces of Cormarca, Ekwatora, and New Huron, to name a few.

As for the country related questions, Escalia leans more towards American in its culture, as in Escalia's infancy it traded with America help strengthened its economy, with the main exports being fish and machinery when the nation began industrializing. Although, the province of Decontro and the northern part of Verbena have a very large Portuguese population and culture, similar to that of Quebec. The current population around this time is around 12 million. At this time, English is the only official language, although the Portuguese officials in parliament are trying to make Portuguese an official language as well. The country runs on a parliamentary system, with 3 large parties primarily based in the Northwest, Southeast, and the Portuguese areas in the East. The country is beginning to become well known for its soccer league and national team, as in the 1958 World Cup they managed to get to the quarter-finals, the highest they've ever placed in the event. Auto racing is also a growing sport, as some officials are trying to lure Formula 1 into racing at the brand new circuit outside of Orcaster and a stock car league is rumored to be in the works as well. Auto racing's footprint is smaller compared to the other popular sports, as it's most localized in the provinces of Arcanora and Argil

Team-wise, the main reason I'm adding TV numbers is 1) Most NFL teams (according to the Gridiron Uniform Database) had some sort of TV numbers either on the sleeves or the helmet, and 2) the in-world reason for using them is the that the Escalian Broadcasting Network, or EBN, (mentioned in the intro post if anyone forgot about them) signed a deal to broadcast all the EFL games, so TV numbers were added as a result. As for Hadley, I think they'll shift to the darker blue numbers on the white uniforms sometime down the line.

For those I did not mention, thanks for joining in and I hope you find a team that interests you coming up!

I'll unveil two more teams today, with Ellesby coming soon!

Ellesby is a good looking team. I have no qualms about what you have here. I feel the helmet could look really good with a Y/B/Y triple stripe on it.

Reminds me of the old MLB Mariners logo

I really like that color combo for Ellesby. (Is it "ellisbee" or "ellezbee" or "ells-bee"?) That home jersey is money.