A Faction claim is a very large claim that can be planted in one central location and is very large, being at least two to three times the current village claim size. It works the same as a village claim but has another difference, other villages can join it. The mayor of a village is able to apply to join the faction and if accepted into it, the village's authority is added to the total "pot". Which can be paid at the faction claim. The village claim will then turn into the faction's name and claim and lose its old name. When it comes to declaiming, the village's actual authority (without colony claim) will go into place so as to avoid dropping bells just to declaim others. And example being that if you have a newly made bell with 750 authority and a declaim takes 900 authority to drain it you will need to raise your authority to ~900 as you do now. This allows for colonies to form around the map all under one banner and keeps claim upkeep in one area. The faction claim will have a fairly large base upkeep obviously. On top of village chat, we will have "faction chat" which is a chat for all of the villages tied to the bell. As an added bonus, faction claims should have a different (preferably customizable) set of authority object graphics.
Pros:
One central payment needed instead of multiple upkeeps
A group chat for all villages involved
Potential for more wide-spread groups
Village claims can't be made (any more than they already are) to declaim land since the local authority is what affects the declaim
Cons:
Higher upkeep