Seriously, every fictional country in Marvel has its own culture, myths and whatnot, except Latveria. Hell, we don't even when it was founded, by whom, what ethnicity the original settles were, nothing,
So ITT we make God Doom proud and uh, test our "knowledge" of the Glorious Latverian History!
It's in the middle of the Balkans but with alp-tier mountains and German style architecture. Good luck making sense of that.
The only "sense" one need consider in Latveria is the ever present sense of DOOM.
Considering that it's supposed to be eastern European it's probably had to deal with Russia/Soviet to some capacity. I'm not entirely sure where it's supposed to be located but the architecture makes it look like it's supposed to be somewhere around Lithuania/Poland/Hungary/the Czech Republic.
It means that it somehow managed to not get annexed by Soviet, it was annexed but largely ignored and mostly unaffected by the shit that went down under Stalin. The fact that it looks like it does also seems to imply that it wasn't caught between Germany and Soviet during WW2.
Is it even a first world country? How is the life of someone there? Do they have a good WiFi? How do they treat religion and minorities? I know that Doom loves gypsies because he is one.
>It means that it somehow managed to not get annexed by Soviet
The fact that there are so many mountains could mean that there is some degree of natural defense against ground troops.
Well, it's somewhere near Bulgaria in the maps. But other times they've shown it near the sea, so... IDK.
Back in the day Latveria was an all-white Balkan nation that just was favorable towards gypsies. Post-2007 or so they have Doom being "pro religious freedom", which I don't think fits.
I recall reading somewhere that the Latverian language was a Hungarian dialect.
Yet everything looks like goddamn Young Frankenstein.
Half the Balkans are alp-tier mountains and German style architecture, particularly the part Latveria is usually located. It's entirely appropriate.
That could be it, it also seems like it's small and (pre-Doom) insignificant enough that they just wouldn't bother going there to tell them that they are now comrades of the great Soviet Union. At some point it just not worth climbing a damn mountain chain to liberate 100.000-ish poor farmers from capitalism.
Plenty of almost-Alp mountains in the Balkans too.
My idea about latveria and symkaria is that they are an isreal type state for gypsies setup after wwii
This fits with the geographic location explains the gypsies and nazi hunting in symkaria
The german architecture is probably from the austrian empires attempt to integrate the gypsies
But that's clearly not what Latveria and Symkaria are.
Genghis Khan was pro religious freedom. Not all crazy despots are "muh religion".
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
The Romans were pretty "believe whatever you want so long as you give token worship to the deified Emperors"
It was pretty much just the Christians who got uppity about it
>Back in the day Latveria was an all-white Balkan nation that just was favorable towards gypsies
So that explains why Doom boned Wanda. He's got that gypsy fever!
Latveria and Symkaria have established histories as nation states that go back long before WWII in Marvel. Plus, gypsies were explicitly second class citizens in Latveria in Doctor Doom's childhood.
True. Latveria is sympathetic towards gypsies, but it's been eastblished that the country itself is compromised of just Balkans/Slavs.
Doom is a tradition obsessed fucker though. If he wanted, he could've made Latveria have skyscrapers or at least city blocks, trams and whatnot. Instead he forces it to stay like a medieval village. Somehow I don't think that guy would like a Mosque in there.
You know how Wakanda has a history apart from T'Challa, or Atlantis apart from Namor? How they have their gods, culture and whatnot? Same, but for Latveria, since it currently has no identity.
Doom IS a gypsy.
Pretty sure that Latveria is just Romania with a different name and a God Emperor
He is one. Others say he's 100% Roma, I say he's 50% & Roma 50% Latverian/Germanic/Balkan.
Pic is Bran Castle in Romania, pair it up with a bit of fantasy and Gothic architecture (which pops up all over Europe) and it's not that far off from the one in the picture.
What exactly do we have from the comics to work from?
All I remember off the top of my head is that Latveria was some third world gypsy-infested territory ruled by Barons or some shit, and Doom wiped them off the face of the Earth. Then later he had some trouble from one of their sons (somehow), but then the Red Skull came along, killed the bastard and ruled Latveria for a little while as a Nazi stronghold before Doom got it back. But most of that shit probably isn't even canon anymore so who cares.
Also: posting best flag. The red/green/black "Doom Mask" variation just doesn't carry the same aesthetic quality, imo.
Shit colours
Latverians are probably like all the other groups in that region. Overly hostile slavs with delusions of grandeur.
That's kind of it's charm, being a crude Eastern European attempt at distilling the glory that is Doom through some cheesy, asymmetrical symbol.
What we know is... what you posted. That's it. Latveria has had next to little development... Oh, Doom & Silver Sable have annual dinners. So there's that.
>Glorious Latverian History!
"In the beginning the land was miserable and barren. Then came Doom."
That's all you need to know.
Looks as a very friendly place.
> Latveria and Symkaria have established histories as nation states that go back long before WWII in Marvel.
As do most most characters including the fantastic four and spideys parents
Time is wierd in the marvel universe but this can be explained by having latveria and symkaria set up after wwi with the breakup of the austrian empire but not formally recognized by most nations until after wwi
> Plus, gypsies were explicitly second class citizens in Latveria in Doctor Doom's childhood
This is probably why there are two different countries full of gypsies right next to eachother they were probably one country with two main provinces which split apart and took a different approach to politics which in latverias case led to an anti gypsy baron taking over
>Latveria only Trve Slavs
>Doom Stronk, Latveria Stronk!!
>Fucking Bulgars, half Turk half Mongol
>No one squats like Latverians
>American Scientists please fucking off
>Secret fappings to transparent woman
Really Latveria is way too boring and really barely has a culture worth describing.
I'm really hoping the charming little gothic hamlet motif is just a facade and that Doom has a high tech public transit network running underground, with large stadiums and public areas out of sight so as not to spoil the traditional architecture and ruin the sights for the tourists.
Honestly, Latveria's just a weird little Balkan melting pot of numerous European cultures. I've always gotten the feeling that Latveria was historically a place people ran away to. Latveria seems to have half a dozen different languages aside from Latverian. We see Latverian characters with names ranging from German to Greek.
>overly hostile slavs
what about poland
I've met some really nice people here.
Slavs outside of the balkans tend to be much less insecure. Sup Forumsis worth visiting just to watch the balkans threads.
TBQH, I thought it was some place the Ancient Greeks conquered, then the Romans took over, then the Visigoths, then the Byzantines, then came the Ottomans, ending with them being a weird melting pot of Balkan/Med/Germanic stuff.
Kind of reminds me of how Sokovia was described in Age of Ultron. It's nowhere important, but on the way to everywhere important. It would be a fitting place to put Latveria if the MCU ever gets Doom. Just have Castle Doom emerge from the Negative Zone or wherever and bring Latveria with it to fill in the literal gap left behind.
>Latverians are the descendants of Slavs lost in the Negative Zone
I can dig it
>REMOVE ANNIHILUS
>Traditional Latverian Cuisine
I was thinking it was some Austro-Hungarian province that got a massive influx of different ethnicities when the Empire tried to develop the area for something like mining or what not. After WW1 it got its independence and was ruled by a strongman autocrat that joined up with the Soviets in WW2 and turned into essentially a Moscow-aligned version of Yugoslavia. Following the collapse of the USSR, ethnic tensions boiled over into in a low-key civil conflict that ultimately ended when Doom unified various groups and took control of the country.
True but if I recall correctly Genghis did hate jews.
Seems doubtful considering how little they represented in his empire.
It doesn't take a lot
Sure it does.
The majority of the Latverian populace is supposed to be gypsies, so it is entirely appropriate that they have no culture of their own.
>It's in the middle of the Balkans but with alp-tier mountains and German style architecture. Good luck making sense of that.
Historically this is correct; in the 17-18th centuries, after the ottomans were driven out, large areas of the Carpathian basin was left desolate, and it was in the best interest of the ruling emperors to populate those areas. Because of this, it was common for germans to immigrate to these areas which included the northern Balkans. And the ruling house at the time, the Habsburgs, also wanted to unify their empire into a german style empire (this ultimately failed and caused WW1), so they brought a lot of their culture with them, including architecture.
Gypsies have a culture, it's just shit and shallow.
Both his parents were gypsies, but Von Doom is a Prussian-style name so his father almost certainly has Germanic blood.
>Prior to the reinssance latveria was often part of Hungary, the Byzantine empire or Serbia at one point or another
>come the fall of the Byzantine empire and the rise of the ottomans it fell in with the Hungarians and Austrians powers against the Turks
>though it eventually was officially absorbed by the ottomans Latveria enjoys a semi-mythical "never conquered" status and was largely autonomous if not outright rebellious during this stage, there are stories of heroic latverian princes fighting the Turks and each village has a different take on them
>eventually intergrated into austro-Hungarian empire during the decline of the ottomans
>fast forward too post WW1 it becomes a part of the kingdom of Slavs croats and Serbs though again remained largely autonomous
>fast forward to the Balkanising of the Balkans, Latveria easily detached itself from the former Yugoslavia, eventually a local warlord takes power and aligns himself with the Soviet Union and eventually ousts what influence the soviets have in latveria
May post more later who knows
Yeah, if you can call "fucking nonstop to pump out enough babies to live off of child welfare, then ignoring all the kids, and living in dumps" a culture.
Actually, one part is not correct. According to most Marvel maps, Latveria is meant to be inbetween Romania, Serbia, and Hungary... and that area is COMPLETELY flat in real life. No alp-like mountains whatsoever.
DOOM is DOOM
nah, everyone hated the Jews back then. No matter how small the population percentage, persecuting Jews was always pretty popular.
Instead of trying to put it in Hungary/Romania, just make it real-life Latvia that Doom took over.
Problem solved.
That's just Siedenburgen, which is why Marvel puts them somewhere around Transylvania.
>Actually, one part is not correct. According to most Marvel maps, Latveria is meant to be inbetween Romania, Serbia, and Hungary... and that area is COMPLETELY flat in real life. No alp-like mountains whatsoever.
DC and Marvel tried their best not to look at maps when they created their small, fictional Eastern European countries.