Yes hello it is I, an Estonian.
Can I just say I am happy to find a Latvian in the fandom. Years ago it felt impossible to find someone from Latvia 😭
I adore your art style and am very interested in your ocs and hope to see more of them soon! (Also the idea of how Latvia himself was born is very 👀👀👀, I'm also eyeing that Livonia)
Keep doing what you're doing <3
!!!! Hello! :D Everyone’s been so nice ever since i stopped lurking and actually started interacting with the fandom, this is so cool :)
It was also really cool to see that people from the Baltics were making stuff in the fandom when I got back here a few months ago! Tho Latvians are a rare breed, you're right about that. We're kind of quiet like that ig.
(Btw wanted to shoot back the appreciation right back at you - i really like your blog! Reading more about our northern neighbours is always a treat.)
also im gonna use this oportunity to ramble abt my oc's - ive been trying to write a fic abt them for almost a full month now, but that beast just keeps growing out of my control. 😭
Latvia's birth was basically me being sentimental and loving identity shenanigans. He's all of them and none of them at the same time, he's the same and something completely new. All of their names feel like his. When asked “What were you doing in the 12th century?” he has four different answers. He does not remember any of their languages. He killed them, their dead, gone, gone. Theyre him, and he still carries on their inside jokes. He is the end, the beginning and a continuation at the same time.
Also it was very important to me that he's born in a very anticlimactic moment, so to say. It just felt right.
(The identity shenanigans don’t end at Latvia w my oc’s – all of them participate in them in some ways, but no one does it more than Semigallia, Selonia and Latgallia. Semigallia bcs before the Crusades she’s a girl, but after some time he slowly transitions to a guy, bcs he starts feeling like a different person (He changes his human name from Līga to Jānis, which is so based of him) . Selonia and Latgallia – bcs Latgallia sort of assimilates Selonia during the 14th century and they are one person until the Duchy of Livonia is split into Swedish and Polish Livonia and so they split again – into two people who will become Vidzeme and Latgallia. But Vidzeme is not Selonia or Latgallia, and even though Latgallia keeps the same name she is also not who she was before. Neither of them deal with that in a healthy, productive way. Curonia’s identity shenanigans are mostly the Duchy of Curonia and Semigallia. He’s an ambitious little thing and savours “stealing away” the Livonian State’s ruling family from the dying personification of the Livonian State and becoming the Duchy of Curonia and Semigallia too much to think about the implications.)
And I’m glad you like my Livonia! She’s pretty different from yours – mostly bcs she never stops being the personification of her people, and the Livonian State or Terra Mariana has a separate, newly born personification. (Though I do like me some angst, and the angst of Livonia becoming the Livonian State is top notch :3)
I named her Ēdrõm :) From what I've gathered from my research, we don't really know what ancient Livonians called their kids, so I searched for a modern Livonian name. Now 3/5 of my lil guys have flower themed names :D
She’s getting pretty weak nowadays, but she’s still kicking!
also! here's some Livonia sketches :3 (+ a modern time fit for her)
