Consider any information here as out-of-character. Use with care.
Hi, I'm Steve. I live in the United States, but there's another place that I wished I lived...and here's a bit of information about it.
Some history[]
Original concepts[]
I grew up and still live right between Baltimore and Washington, and during the waning days of the Cold War, I became acutely aware that the enmity between my country and the Soviet Union could result in my death, the death of my family and all of my friends, and the destruction of just about everything I knew and was familiar with, in a nuclear fireball at pretty much any given moment. The best way to deal with knowledge like this, often, is not to deal with it - and thus I began to fantasize of someplace in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between the two "warring" powers, where they would more or less be forced to deal with each other face-to-face, in a non-hostile way. That was my original concept of Davenport: a small island, populated by Americans, Russians, and others (particularly Canadians, since I have always loved and respected Canada in a way that few Americans do) which served as a sort of "neutral ground" for the Cold War.
The idea eventually became a possible setting for a role-playing game, since I have been a gamer for many years, but I never actually used it as such.
On to Vexillium[]
When Edward Mooney, whom I knew through the Flags of the World mailing list and Website, developed the concept of Vexillium in order for us to try out our flag design, I remembered the concept I'd had earlier of Davenport, picked it up again, dusted it off, and found that it worked pretty well still. Few details remain of the original concept - the names of some cities are the same, such as Outreaumer and Star City - but the general outlook is still neutral and peaceful, and it served as my outlet for political and national ideas and ideology.
In the real world[]
Meanwhile, I ended up with another outlet for such things. I joined the Green Party here in the U.S. in 2001, and began to work my way up to different offices...first the coordinator of my local county party, then as a delegate from Maryland to the national party, then finally as Co-Chair of the Green Party of the United States in 2004, an office I still hold. That pretty much brought my work on Vexillium to a halt - I have real life politics and matters of national import to deal with, so I didn't really have time to deal with imaginary ones.
However, along came this Wiki, which provides for me a much easier outlet for writing ideas and having them published. And I have never left those ideas which I had...so, why not try yet again - in a not-too-intense or frequent way! - to bring Davenport to an appreciative audience?
Design ideas[]
Davenport is a sort of amalgam of the United States, Canada, Australia, and some other Commonwealth countries. It has a history as a colony behind it, but diverges from the U.S. in a couple of ways. For one, Davenport combines an English and French colony from the very outset (an obvious nod to Canada); for another, the break from the "motherlands" was accomplished as much with subterfuge and political strategy as armed revolution, a sort of Gandhian ideal combined with some of the history of Australia and other colonies.