by Potjeh » Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:50 pm A lawspeaker can build a flag pole on his village's claim. Anyone with the order-forming skill can hoist his flag on it. The lawspeaker can remove a flag from the pole at any time. Flags can be created with some sort of a mix and match interface that contains common heraldic elements, to allow wide variety of different flags for fast identification. The chapter claim can only be extended by the lawspeaker.
When a flag is hoisted, the area around the flag pole is converted from village claim to chapter claim. The person hoisting the flag becomes the chapter master of that chapter claim. If the flag is lowered by the chapter master or the lawspeaker, the chapter is dissolved.
A chapter master can grant membership to anyone he wants to, regardless of village membership. One character can be a member of multiple orders. Chapter members can normally use stuff on the chapter claim. Village members can't, if they're not members of the chapter.
Two or more chapter masters can form an order. One of them becomes the head of the order. Head of an order can accept additional chapters into the order or kick out the existing ones. Members of an order can normally interact with stuff on claim of every chapter that's a part of the order.
To better regulate access, chapter masters can build flags/statues/whatever on their chapter claim which cover a much smaller area than the main flag pole. Areas claimed by those become chapter exclusive, ie people from other chapters of the same order don't have access. Additionally, other flags can be used to restrict access to people who hold a certain rank within an order. Ranks can be granted and revoked by the head of the order.
That's about it. With this, I think you can pull off just about any combination of access permissions for buildings (chapter house), mines, infrastructure etc. The most obvious use of this is of course military orders, ie granting access to village resources to rangers that police multiple villages (which may or may not be otherwise affiliated). But it also allows for craftsmen's guilds, monastic orders(when we get religion) and most importantly regulation of access within a village. That is, you could cover the most important parts of your village with a chapter claim and only grant access (via chapter membership) to people that have proven themselves. This would significantly reduce the risks of public recruitment, which are really suffocating villages (non-recruiting villages wither away; recruiting ones get infiltrators that steal their cauldrons and grinders in best case, and grief the village out of existence in worst case).
I apologize for getting way too specific about implementation details, but I just can't help myself
