On chivalric orders and micronational honours

“Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war”

-- Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's Art of War

Many micronations like to give awards to their citizens or rulers of other micronations, a practice I am quite fond of.  Indeed, I've developed several such awards that are presented on any occasion that merits it, including the King's Mark of Merit and the King's Mark of Friendship.

However, there is something that irks me about this practice - the overwhelming number of "orders" that are given out which, despite their name, bear little to no resemblance to actual chivalric orders! Specifically, micronational orders do not typically have multiple tiers.

First, a bit of history - the concept of an "order" dates back to the Crusades of the 11th through 13th centuries with the military orders of knights. Over time, they transitioned to more courtly orders (i.e. Order of the Garter, Order of the Bath) - such orders would have a monarch as their fons honorum, and would be bestowed on any person deemed worthy, not just knights who had proven their martial prowess. 

Regardless of their provenance (modern or medieval), many orders (at least in Europe) tend to follow the five-tier system used by Napoleon for the French Legion of Honour. The highest rank might be referred to as "First Class" or "Knight Grand Cross" of the order, and lower ranks might include Knight Commander, Commander, Officer, and Knight, for example.

While not exactly aligning to the five-tier system used in Europe, the Order of Canada does have multiple tiers, including Companion, Officer, and Member. Again, the Crown (as sovereign ruler of Canada) is the fons honorum of the order, with the Governor-General as Chancellor of the order.

There is one micronational order that I can think of which does follow the idea of tiers of precedence: Westarctica has the Order of the Snow Flake, which includes Knight, Knight Commander, and Knight Grand Cross ranks.

Westarctica's Order of the Snow Flake

Finally, in a case of "Do as I say, not as I do," I must confess that Slabovia's highest honour, the Order of Slabovia, does not have multiple tiers or levels. If we were to recreate the order today, I would press for a multi-tier system as is used in Europe.

The Order of Slabovia
A case of "Do as I say, not as I do"

Make your life more royal (part two of a series) - Decorating your castle

Part of the reason I set up this blog is to help people "put a little royalty into their life". To that end, I'm kicking off a semi-regular series of postings about bringing the castles of Europe to you, sort of. Similar to the "Gothic Homemaking" series of videos that were put out by Aurelio Voltaire (over on YouTube), this will be a recurring series on how to make your own life, well, a bit more royal.

Part one of this series can be found here. 

One way of doing that is by taking the old adage, "A man's home is his castle," a bit more literally - and this is true whether you're a man, a woman, or anything else. While you can buy literal castles over in Europe (sometimes for less than what a house in Toronto, Canada will cost these days - see footnote), many of us aren't on that sort of budget, or can't relocate to Europe easily. So, absent a rich relative suddenly leaving you their fortune, let's see how we can "work with what we have" in terms of decorating your living space. We're not focusing on furniture today - that will be another post later. I'm talking about other adornments and accessories that will make it clear this is a palace, not a studio apartment.

Also, I'm not talking about spray-painting everything with gold paint or covering it all with gilt leaf and calling it a day. Frankly, that looks ugly and gauche.

Fortunately, as I write this (summer 2025), the retail stores near me (particularly the discount retailers like Marshall's) are just starting to enter "Code Orange", meaning they are starting to get their Halloween stock in. Who knows what sort of candelabras, wall sconces, and other quasi-gothic housewares - err, castlewares - you'll be able to pick up?

I picked these bat wall appliques up in the post-Halloween sales last year!
(Yes, I haven't used them yet - I sometimes buy things
without knowing exactly how/when they will be used.)

If your royal treasury is flush with gold, there are some very nice things to be found in the online shop of the Royal Collection, a registered charity in the UK that administers "almost the entire contents of all the royal palaces" (which are not owned by the current monarch, but held in trust by them for the future). By purchasing from them, you'll be supporting their efforts to preserve British history.

However, even if you're on a budget, there are things you can do/make/buy to "royal up" your castle. First, never underestimate your local second-hand stores - you can often find amazing things that other people have discarded. I found these pewter plates at our local "Value Village" a couple of years ago, complete with the hardware to hang them on the wall:

Pewter plates from a second-hand store

Some of your thrift store finds might need a bit of work, but it's amazing how a fresh coat of paint (again, NOT gold!) or refinishing can make something look new again. (On the other hand, having things that were already "well-loved" can also lend them a bit of authenticity.)

Similarly, check out local garage sales, etc. I don't have them any more, but I once found two wall plaques at a garage sale, each of which had two miniature (steel!) swords tucked behind a coat of arms.

Don't forget about Amazon wish lists! Amazon has lots of nice "royal" home furnishings such as statues and wall plaques, swords, and even chainmail and helmets, so if you build a wish list and share it to your friends and family, they can buy you things off of it for your birthday or other occasions!

Speaking of online shopping, you can check out the "fast fashion" websites like Temu, although the quality is often uneven, to say the least. And check the sizing on those sites - a 6" banner won't look that impressive on your wall!

You can find surprising things at dollar stores, too! The lion wall plaque at the left of the photo below came from a dollar store (and the portrait on the wall behind it was another find from the local "Value Village").

Royalty is where you find it...

Something you can do that's pretty cheap and easy to do is to find pictures of gargoyles online, print them out, put them in cheap frames from the dollar store, and hang them above your doors, stairs, etc. If you already have 8.5x11" document frames around the house, it'll only cost you the paper and printer ink/toner!

Framed gargoyle picture from the Internet.
Note the "Queen's Chambers" sign in the background

If you have some spare fabric lying around, or you can pick some up cheap, you can always hang it from the walls as a ceiling-to-floor drapery.

Also remember to look for inspiration in "castle-adjacent" things - in that last picture, you can also see a "Queen's Chambers" sign hanging up, near the bottom of the photo. I found that at the Michael's Arts & Crafts chain store as part of the Bridgerton-inspired collection they released last year.

Footnote: Yes, I'm serious about a castle in France costing less than a house in Toronto - I recently saw a listing for a castle in Ax-les-Thermes, France, with five bedrooms selling for $633,800 USD, or about $870,000 CAD. At the time of writing (July 2025), the average price for a detached house in Toronto is about $1.4 million CAD. So, you could buy the castle and still have enough left to furnish it, for what you'd pay for a house in Toronto.

What's a YAMO?

I've been in a couple of Facebook groups devoted to micronations for a number of years now. Something that tends to happen on a regular basis in those groups is someone (always someone relatively new to the group) says, "Hey, we should organize a micronational United Nations!" This is invariably met with a number of comments that include the acronym "YAMO", which means "Yet Another Micronational Organization".

We really do not need a micronational United Nations, for several reasons. First, the reason why the macronational United Nations was formed (the aftermath of World War Two) doesn't exist in the micronational world. Second, trade between micronations is, for the most part, non-existent, and what there is can be negotiated directly between those micronations. Third, frankly, many micronations are fairly short-lived, so the membership would be constantly fluctuating and it would be a nightmare to try to elect a "secretary-general" or equivalent. And I prefer micronational diplomacy to be more, well, personal - I like meeting the representatives of other micronations, either at MicroCon or otherwise.

I'm not going to say that micronational organizations aren't possible or can't be successful, just that the idea of a massive umbrella organization equivalent to the United Nations isn't viable or needed. There are other micronational organizations that have been established, with varying degrees of success:

• Apparently there's a World Micronational Chess Federation but it seems to be dormant at this time
• The Organization de la Microfrancophonie is an organization of French-speaking micronations, although I understand there has been some recent disagreement among the members that caused a number of them to leave earlier this year
• MicroCon itself is, in some respects, a fairly loose organization of micronations
• There is a group on Facebook devoted to micronational postal systems (see also my previous post about micronational stamps) and one for micronational bank notes (ditto)
• After MicroCon 2025, a group of micronations (including Molossia) formed Mikro-Esperantujo, an international micro-organization to build cooperation and mutual assistance between Esperanto-speaking micronations

The MicroWiki site lists many other intermicronational organizations, some of which I've never heard of. Conveniently, they also have a list of defunct/inactive organizations.

My ongoing quest for a suitable throne

What's the difference between a chair and a throne? Simply put, a throne is a symbol of the power of the occupant. Every sovereign needs a good throne to rest their royal seat on, and I've been searching for an appropriate throne for quite some time. In this post, I'll show you a few of the thrones I've experienced or considered over the years. Enjoy!

My coronation, err, throne. Moving on!

Replica Viking throne at a museum in Stockholm, Sweden -
made for a rather wide seat, or possibly it's a throne for two?

There's a similar one over on Etsy, which looks fantastic,
but I can't imagine what shipping from Ukraine would be!

I do like the look of this one, but I think it would be rather uncomfortable for long periods

There's always a more futuristic option...
(Taken at the wonderful Star Trek Set Tour, Ticonderoga, NY)

This one was at Disney World in Orlando, Florida
(Note also the "King of the Castle" shirt - it pays to advertise!)

And then there's, well, THIS - the donut throne.
(Universal Studios Orlando)

I spotted this over on Wayfair - I love the look, but the price is giving me pause, to say the least...

Spotted on Wayfair. Sigh.

If I can find someone with a well-equipped wood shop, this Gothic Arch break-down char, originally made for the Society for Creative Anachronism, might do for now, although I'll need to find a cushion - the "royal seat" isn't as well-padded as it used to be! There are also videos on YouTube showing throne-building, such as this one and this one.

If neither buying nor building are currently in your budget, another option might be to cover an existing chair with a nice length of cloth. At the end of the day, though, it's the occupant that makes the throne - not the other way around!

Increasing my social media footprint

 I've added a presence over on Tumblr as well. You can check it out here if you're so inclined.

It's never too early to start planning for 2027

 MicroCon 2027 is still almost two years away, but we're already registered! Actually, that's only half-correct. In 2027, there will be TWO MicroCon events, one in San Diego (hosted by Slowjamastan) and one in Europe (hosted by Aigues-Mortes), and we're registered for the San Diego event, happening August 6-8. 

https://us.microcon27.com/seriously-silly-dangerously-dignified-slabovia-crashes-microcon-27/ 

My presentation at MicroCon 2023 in Joliet, IL

I'd like to attend the France one as well, but we'll have to see how the royal coffers look closer to the date.

Did you know? The "L" in MEDALS stands for Library!

I've previously mentioned MEDALS, the Microphalerist Educational Archive and Library of Slabovia, and shown some of the decorations that have been donated to the archive. However, MEDALS is also a library (it's in the title), and over the years we've acquired a few books for said library. Since MEDALS focuses on awards given by micronations, we try to avoid books that focus on particular macro-nations or time periods in history, and actively seek out more general works in the field.

First up is "A Glossary of Terms Used in Phaleristics - The Science, Study, and Collecting of the Insignia of Orders, Decorations, and Medals" by Alexander J. Laslo (Dorado Publishing, 1995). This slim volume (running just 58 pages plus an eight-page introduction) is largely devoted to, well, exactly what the title says. It's a glossary of terms such as "Accolated" (meaning the design has two heads, both facing the same direction), piefort ("a numismatic item struck on a planchet twice or more the normal thickness"), and saltire (describing when two objects cross to form an "X", such as the staffs of two flags).

Next we have "Collecting Medals and Decorations, Third Edition" by Alec A. Purves (Robert Stockwell Ltd., 1978) - the photo below has been edited slightly to remove the identifying label of the previous owner, this is the ugly white square in the top right corner. This volume runs to nearly 240 pages, and is much more comprehensive and informative than the slim volume by Laslo (1995), although it also includes a lot of information specific to British awards.

Finally, somewhere around here I have a copy of "Collecting Military Medals: A Beginner's Guide" by Colin Narbeth (Lutterworth Press, 2002), although I have to confess I've misplaced it at the moment... (The picture below is taken from the Amazon website.) When I find it, I'll post a summary of it here.

MEDALS currently publishes several pamphlets on different aspects of micronational awards; perhaps one day we will publish our own book as a guide to others!