So, superhero media - with a few notable exceptions - tends to not put much effort into the worldbuilding for their fictional countries, but as a worldbuilding slut, I do. Which is why today I thought I’d make a post about the DC Universe’s fictional country of Vlatava, where I present my own AUish version of it. Details below the cut
Vlatava’s location is ambiguous but it seems like it’s most commonly placed in Bessarabia. That would mean it borders Romania, Ukraine, and possibly Bulgaria and Moldova. This location is a bit odd because the closest explanation I can think of for the name “Vlatava” is that it’s named after the River Vltava... which is in the Czech Republic, nowhere near the Black Sea
So here’s the explanation I’ve come up with: the country of Vlatava began as the Order of the Vltava, a Christian religious and military order founded during the 800s. Historically, this was the time of the Great Moravian Empire. After this empire collapsed the Duchy of Bohemia became independent, and for a time two dynasties - the Slavnikids and the Přemyslids - competed for control of the duchy, before the Přemyslids won the power struggle and became Bohemia’s rulers for several centuries. In this take on the DC Universe, all that still happens, but the Order of the Vltava is there too, and is allied with the Slavnikids. After the Přemyslids win, the Order isn’t exactly welcome so they leave the country. Eventually they reached the Byzantine Empire, where they were allowed to settle near the mouth of the Danube River in exchange for guarding the Byzantines’ borders
The Order of the Vltava spent several centuries enjoying fluctuating levels of independence from the Byzantines and fighting everyone they shared a border with (including, at time, the Byzantines). They briefly allied with Vlad the Impaler, then went to war against him, then allied with him again, and they also had a few Vlad-style rulers of their own. Over time, the pronunciation of their name began to shift to “the Order of the Vlatava” and the lands they ruled over began to be referred to as “the Vlatava.” Eventually they were conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and the Order was destroyed.
Fast-forward to the 1800s, and a Vlatavan national awakening takes place, leading to the Principality of the Vlatava becoming an independent country. Unfortunately, their new Prince is German, autocratic, selected by Prussia as a compromise between Russia and Austria with no input from the Vlatavan people, and worst of all a Protestant. Then World War 1 comes along, the Vlatava joins the Central Powers, the Central Powers lose, and the Vlatava explodes into a civil war that causes 9 regime changes in the span of a few months, ending with the monarchy being restored but now ruling alongside an elected parliament. The interwar years do not go well for the Vlatava and by the time WW2 breaks out, the country is under a fascist dictatorship - and when the war ends, it’s under a Soviet-backed regime.
The People’s Republic of the Vlatava lasts for 45 years (and featured several brutally suppressed uprisings) before activists forced the Soviet-backed regime to hold free elections, which said regime lost in a landslide. A new constitution was written and approved, the name was changed to just “Vlatava” (or “The Republic of Vlatava” if you’re feeling fancy), and for a while, things were looking up.
It’s at this point that I’d like to address something: a lot of fictional CEE countries in DC and Marvel are monarchies. THIS MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE IN ANY STORY SET AFTER 1945. And while I might be willing to come up with some excuse for one fictional country or another to reinstate its monarchy, in this case I’m going to say that while the royal family still exists, they aren’t royals anymore and have no political power.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, things were looking up for Vlatava... for about 5 years, before a nationalist coup took place and resulted in another civil war breaking out. During said civil war, a lot of atrocities were committed, and to a lot of western minds the country’s name became synonymous with “bad place”.
The most notable thing about Vlatava in the comics is that the Spectre - the ghost of a cop who’s also supposed to literally be the wrath of the christian god - decided that the country was a lost cause and wiped out the entire population except for an extremist and a supervillain. As far as this AU version of Vlatava is concerned, if something similar happens then the Spectre would be an undead religious fanatic but while he is extremely powerful the idea that he’s the wrath of god is just something he says - he’s really just a supervillain. He does commit genocide in Vlatava, but here the survivors consist of refugees and emigrants who weren’t in the country when the Spectre did this. Somehow, the ghosts of the Vlatavans murdered by the Spectre rise up, and proceed to defeat and destroy him. In the aftermath, the surviving Vlatavans return to their country and try to rebuild
