World Flags (Zone 1)

246 cards · Very Easy

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World Flags (Zone 1)

246 cards · Artist Don Butto

The word for the study of flags is Roman, and so is the object. A vexillum was a square of cloth hung from a crossbar at the top of a spear, carried by Roman cavalry from about 100 BC, and it is the root of the whole European flag tradition. Hanging the cloth from the side of the pole instead, so that it could fly, came later.

National flags were invented at sea. A country on land had banners for its king and its saints but little need to announce itself to its own people. A ship approaching another ship had to say what it was long before anyone could shout. Flying your nationality became a custom during the 17th century and then a legal requirement, and the ensigns ships flew are what most national flags grew out of.

White is the one flag the whole world already agrees on. A cloth with no colour on it has meant truce for as long as there are records of it: the Eastern Han wrote it down, Tacitus described one in AD 109, and the Hague Convention of 1,899 put it into law, so a white flag now carries legal protection on any battlefield on earth. It is also the only flag anyone can make without a dyer, which is part of why every army could always produce one.

Zone Merge: Packs hold 9 white-border cards, and the 10th can arrive in any border colour up to your current streak zone. Three cards sharing a border colour merge into a single card of the next zone up. These are the white borders, zone 1 of 7.

The long game: Zone 7, the black-bordered cards, is where that climb ends. Built from white cards alone, a full 246-card black-border set takes 179,334 of them, close to a decade of active play. Opening in higher streak zones is the way to shorten it.

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