Yet Another Rank Insignia Redesign & Misc. Questions

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

Had some things I've been cooking up recently -- but first, a few questions:

• What would be the proper way to go about submitting something as an "exhibition" for the purposes of rank advancement?
• Is there a statute of limitations or time limit on when something may be submitted as an exhibition?
• I see we have an exam on basic Talossan for advancement from Corporal to Sergeant. I'm not a Corporal (yet :eyes: ), but I was wondering if there was a way I could brush up anyway? More Glhetg is always good.

Now, on to the main topic:

Yes, I created more concepts for rank insignia. While I have brought this topic up before, I was feeling pretty creative the other day and decided to try and take things in a different direction.

As it stands, my previous designs were pretty clearly American in inspiration. Makes sense, I suppose -- I've lived there for 33 years now, after all. But Talossa is also very much not the United States, so instead I've been tinkering with a set of designs for gorget patches; the specific shape I used is the worn by the Austrian military, which in my opinion are large and distinctive on the lapel, unlike the narrower design in use by nations like the UK. Even though our national colors are of course green and red, the Zouaves' colors are red and blue (taken from their coat of arms, which itself uses the colors from historical zouave uniforms).



Enlisted ranks use blue, with "non-commissioned officer" ranks further using blue with silver piping and an embroidered bar. The diamond "pips" are inspired by those used by the Icelandic military.



Officer ranks use red with gold piping. The acorns used are in reference to the fact that the national mammal is the squirrel.

Also, I felt like we could maybe consider a new emblem -- unlike some previous discussion, it keeps the "Z" for "Zouaves", as well as the overall circular shape, but as a circle monogram feels a bit more put together IMO. Shown below on its own and also on a hypothetical "Zouaves flag". (I gotta do the whole RAV flag thing, you know?)

   

ATTN:

MinDef @Bråneu Excelsio, UrN Capitan @Sir Ian Plätschisch