Fictional Settings in The Adventures of Tintin
- 22x20px Syldavia in the Balkans is by Hergé's own admission modelled on Montenegro, and is threatened by neighbouring Borduria — an attempted annexation appears in King Ottokar's Sceptre — this situation parallels respectively Czechoslovakia or Austria and expansionist Nazi Germany prior to World War II. It is later home to Sprodj Atomic Centre, which launches the first rocket to the moon.
- Borduria is the historical rival of Syldavia, and attempts a fascist annexation similar to the 1938 Anschluss of Austria in King Ottokar's Sceptre. Borduria is ruled by military dictator Marshal Kurvi-Tasch, who in addition to oppressing his own people, attempts to influence Third World conflicts by sending "military advisors" to countries such as San Theodoros.
- Khemed, in Arabia. Khemed is subject to a revolution in The Red Sea Sharks and in the Land of the Black Gold.
- The events of Flight 714 take place on the island of Pulau-Pulau Bompa ("pulau-pulau" is Indonesian for "islands") involving people Hergé calls Sondonesians. Said to be undergoing a civil war or a war for independence and now rebels for hire, they appear to be thinly disguised Khmer Rouge or East Timor fighters for independence. Hergé's insistence that the Sondonesians' home is in a state of civil war reflects the state of conflict in Cambodia during that period. The inclusion of Jakarta's Kemajoran airport and the radio message from Makassar just before the plane is hijacked suggests that the location is not far from the Malay/Indonesian archipelago. Their conversations in the album are spoken in Indonesian Malay. The Proboscis monkey which appears later in the album is exclusive to Borneo.
- San Theodoros in South America, a prototypical banana republic where US-based companies and Borduria (meant as an allusion to the USSR or Cuba) vie for power, with "advisors" of local generals. The capital is Los Dopicos, which is later renamed Tapiocapolis.
- São Rico in South America. São Rico was added as a reference in a later versions of The Shooting Star. The original version had the villainous masterminds as stereotypical Jewish American puppet-masters — the later version darkens their skin tone and inserts Sao Rico as a reference.
- Nuevo Rico, bordering San Theodoros. The two countries go to war over oil in The Broken Ear, which is parallel to the 1930s Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia. The capital of Nuevo Rico is Sanfacion (a play on Asuncion, indicating that it is modeled upon Paraguay).
- El Chapo, after the South American Chaco region. The Broken Ear is set in a war inspired by the Chaco War.
- Pilchardania and Poldavia are both mentioned in The Blue Lotus. Pilchardania is mentioned on a newsreel that Tintin views while hiding in a cinema from the police. The Poldavian consul gets mistaken for Tintin in a beard and wig in the Blue Lotus opium den.
- Gaipajama, an Indian principality based on those that existed during the British Raj, is mentioned in Cigars of the Pharaoh.
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“One of the proud joys of the man of letters—if that man of letters is an artist—is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a profound and as it were more living impression on the world’s memory.”
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