Royal Standard of the Golden Empire

The Royal Standard of the Golden Empire was both the symbol of the Empire, used as a flag and governmental decoration, and a personal standard of some of its officers.

Symbolism
The standard Emblem, from which all others were derived, was a gold stylized Abstalian Phoenix, inside a gold circle, set on white. Gold was chosen because it was the color of the Empire, itself chosen because most systems which supported life had yellow suns, and thus gold was the color of sunlight, which, in Rin Sakaros's view, brought warmth, light, and life to beings—the same goal she had for her government. White was chosen as a symbol of purity.

The Phoenix was itself a symbol of the Empire, representing tenacity, ferocity, power, majesty, and refusal to surrender. The circle stood for eternity (as Rin expected her government to exist forever), and, with the Phoenix, also represented the "rebirth" of the monarchy upon the death of one Sovereign and the accession of the next.

The Sovereign
Aside from representing the government as a whole, the normal color scheme of the Standard was the personal standard of the Sovereign of the Golden Empire, to emphasize both that the will of the Sovereign was the law of the Empire, and, conversely, that the Sovereign owed her life entirely to her people.

Others
Standards were used in ship identification between friendly vessels or between ships and ground emplacement, allowing beings in the Empire to afford the proper respect to their passengers. Other officers entitled to use variants of the Emblem were:
 * The Phoenix Prince: The standard color scheme inverted (white Phoenix and circle on gold)
 * Royal Executors: Gold on black.
 * The Royal Family: Gold on red. Red was chosen because both Rin Sakaros and her brother Tariun, the entirety of the original Royal Family, were half-, and had red skin.
 * Royal emissaries: Gold on green. Given their utility in ship identification, Rin fashioned a standard for Centurions and others traveling under her personal orders.  While they were not thus allowed to use her standard, the Emissary Standard was created to make it plain that they traveled under the Sovereign's personal protection.

Behind the scenes
The Standard's gold-on-white color scheme, which intentionally violates the, was inspired by the coat of arms of the.