states are cliquey fucks
yellow rings mean international recognition, opacity of true body silhouette means internal autonomy (varies widely among subdivisions and autonomous regions), flag of halo is who has control over international affairs, when the silhouette is a hollow outline there’s a lot of attribute denial happening, when there’s an outline but the flag is still there at low opacity there’s less, outward spikes are a threat display against an external enemy and inwards are a threat against. well. an internal enemy (with a holon it could also mean active repression by their sovereign), empires outline their metropoles in yellow and a lot of the ones with more disparate holdings will only show them when they’re bragging, all empires have both internal and external spikes and it’s associated with them but the actual defining feature is the metropole outline and states who aren’t empires but fucked up for other reasons can have them too, most of the time halos are not a solid line personifs like putting patterns there I just didn’t draw them because that would make my life harder, sometimes the spikes are weapons or something that’s one of australia’s colonial flags I swear (I was going to use the 13 colonies but I doubt they had an avatar)
if you don’t recognize the flag and the shape that’s probably because the country doesn’t exist and is from hit worldbuilding project beyond the ice wall (what if all conspiracies except the racist ones were real) which I talk about at @personifs-beyond-the-ice-wall because I live in STJ hell I’m the only person active in the fandom BYE
