Axiom IX: Voluntary Association

All association within the Federation is voluntary. No Sovereign may be enrolled, conscripted, or bound to any Chapter, Guild, or collective without their active, informed, and revocable consent.

This sounds redundant with Axiom 0 (Exit) and Axiom I (Non-Interaction). But it covers a different vector: Entry.

Exit protects you from having to stay. Voluntary Association protects you from having to join.

Mechanism

Gateway Protocol requires active consent signature. No automatic membership.

No “you belong because you were born here” – the mechanism nation-states use.