Hey everyone, just another crazy idea from your aristocratic, anything-but-a-democracy-micronation neighbour here.
* * * * *
*puts on a Ridiculously Large hat, indicative of some Admiralty or other*
*dons a dark double-breasted jacket with gold epaulettes seemingly stolen from a Las Vegas duvet cover*
*clears throat*
We've had some... "incidents"... I suppose I should call them... where metaversal vessels bearing national insignia have fired, or have been fired, upon without provocation. Thus causing a bit of a stir, and Diplomatic Messes.
Perhaps this is not a problem your region currently has suffered, but we have had a few sabre-rattles resulting. The following is our solution.
Vessels flying their respective national flag will be considered peaceful, and a 'Man O War' flag for ourselves and some other micronations will soon designate a willing 'fire or be fired upon' status, depending on alliance, treaty, or Current Situation At Sea. This should spare a significant number of innocent civilian avatar lives...
...at any rate, a Caledon Jack for our Man O War vessels is in design review; also, the "bunny skull and crossbones" will designate any un-navylike scoundrels that might be skulking around from our home waters. Though this applies to the Sea, it also applies to the Sea of Air - aero vessels will share similar convention. For that matter, coastal batteries and harbour defences too.
We'll be tossing up a website *very* soon with maritime flags, plus some universal pennants designating weapons systems: the "Heart on Grey" for standard SL damage, and so forth. From this website it would be very easy for anyone to save and upload any flag - this will be understood and encouraged. While that may seem problematic to the paranoid among us, practical experience has shown little cause for worry. For instance, the Caledon Tartan and the CDS Owl have both been capturable from various websites for a long time, anyway. In Caledon's case, it seems griefers have caused less havok (if any) than we generally manage to do for ourselves.
And though the CDS doesn't have a lot of waters *now*, I fully expect that to change someday, and you already have a good bit of Sky.
Consider yourselves invited to participate!
And should you see a foreign ship descending toward your fair city walls, it would at least be good to know *what* and *who* it was... either gentle merchant craft or Dirigible of the Line, say, regardless of your own national predilections.
I now turn the shockingly simple decision (for our not-so-deliberative governing mechanisms) over to your Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Scientific Council, Resident Authority, Secretary of Defence, Auxiliary Secretary of Defence, Ministry of War Subcommittee, Investigative Metaversal International Law Analysts, and last but not least, the CDS Vox Populi. I expect to hear something definitive in... 24 months or so.
I'll post the flags site, once it's finished, unless this parley is met with no more than stony silence. We would be happy to include the CDS flags among the rest, either right from the start or at any time thereafter.
Good day and well met!
*bows formally*
*clicks heels, turns sharply*
*strides out, scabbard dragging across the tiles*
