Coat of arms of Bethania

Coat of Arms of the Social Republic of Bethania
Details
Armiger	None
Adopted	The basic armillary sphere and shields design was adopted in 2010, while the current design (with the addition of flags and the Motto of Bethania) was adopted in 2011.
Crest	None
Escutcheon	Outer Shield: Above the inner shield, the motto of Bethania displayed in English, Spanish, French, German and Standard Bethanian Chinese. Below the inner shield, a black city skyline with a rising sun a bit to the left. Inner Shield: Five small flags (of England, Spain, France, Germany and the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek) lined vertically above the flags of Delaware, Great Britain and the United Republic of the Netherlands.
Supporters	Outer Shield: None Inner Shield: On the left, one knight in full armor displaying a shield with the English flag, on the right, one American Indian standing on a book and holding arrows and a bow and on either side, two stylized blue and orange dolphins.
Compartment	None
Motto	United In Our Differences
Orders	None
Other elements	The name "Social Republic of Bethania" is displayed at the top of the The outer shield is mounted on a large yellow armillary sphere, which is mostly blocked by the supporters and outer shield, but is still somewhat visible. Seven flags are mounted on the shield on each side, each of a different color and representing a different aspect of Bethanian government and ideology.
Use	On documents from the government and official documents issued to civilians by the government. Also used on certificates and government recognized documents which bear the government's mark.

The Coat of Arms of the Social Republic of Bethania is one of the official National Symbols of the Social Republic of Bethania, along with the flag of the country. It represents the many aspects of Bethania's culture, placing much emphasis on the colonization and the population of American Indians in the area.

Features and Symbolism

Text

The name "Social Republic of Bethania" is displayed prominently in the five official languages of Bethania, in the order of English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese, and the motto of the country, United In Our Differences, is displayed inside the outer shield in each language.

In the government's description of the Coat of Arms, it is stated that when the text on the coat of arms is read horizontally, a tilde is used to represent the breaks in the text on the Coat of Arms. When this method is used, the top text reads Social Republic of Bethania ~ República Socialista de Bethania ~ République Sociale de Béthanie ~ Soziale Republik Bethania ~ Shèhuì Gònghéguó de Bódàní. The bottom text reads United In Our Differences ~ Unidos en Nuestras Diferencias ~ Unis dans Nos Différences ~ Einig in Unserer Unterschiede ~ Měiguó zài Wǒmen de Fēnqí.

Shields

The Coat of Arms has two shields, an outer shield, surrounded by an Armillary Sphere (representing colonization and exploration) and an inner shield which is emblazoned on the outer shield. The Outer shield's contents are the five translations of Bethania's motto and a city skyline with an orange rising sun, similar to the rising sun on the Flag of Japan, but unrelated. The inner shield is more complicated and contains eight flags, supported by four figures, an English knight, an American Indian and two stylized dolphins.

The English knight represents the European colonization of the Americas, specifically the British, and the warfare they brought with them, while the American Indian represents the native peoples of the Americas. The American Indian also stands on a book, representing the knowledge and techniques that the American Indians taught Europeans to help them survive in the New World. The two dolphins represent a much simpler aspect of Bethanian life, the ocean.

The shield itself consists of eight flags, three of which are large and take up most of the shields. The top larger flag is the blue field and orange diamond featured on the flag of the American state of Delaware. The second flag is the flag of Great Britain, which is a combination of the Scottish and English flags. The second flag is not the flag of the United Kingdom, as it does not feature the horizontal red stripe representing Northern Ireland, since Bethania's government does not recognize British sovereignty over any part of the island of Ireland. The bottom flag is the flag of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which colonized the region around and directly north of Bethania. The rest of the flags are the flags of the different languages of Bethania. The English flag, the Spanish flag, the French flag and the German flag are fairly self-explanatory, while the last flag is different. The flag is the old flag of the Republic of China when it was still in control of part of the Chinese mainland. It is called "The Five Races Under One Union Flag", and it was chosen for the coat of arms of Bethania because it is a cultural flag of China, as opposed to the current flag, which features communist symbols, and so is much more of a governmental flag.

Colored Flags

The coat of arms also features seven colored flags on each side of the armillary sphere, representing aspects of the Bethanian government and the ideas of the Bethanian constitution.

• The red flag represents democratic socialism and social democracy (which are two distinct political ideologies) and is on the top because it represents the main political ideology of the Social Republic of Bethania.
• The blue flag represents freedom and democracy, and is positioned under, but on top of the red flag because it is a main ideology of Bethania, but is considered more important than any law or policy and should be protected at all governmental costs.
• The orange flag represents liberalism.
• The purple flag represents diversity and acceptance.
• The black flag represents progressivism.
• The green flag represents environmentalism and Bethania's flora and fauna.
• The yellow flag represents the Bethanian mixed market economic theory.