Saturday, April 21, 2012

Law and Order

I’ve been complaining lately about crony capitalism and other modern “issues”, but I keep thinking, “There’s nothing new about this!” How does the law work in your game world? In mine - It depends on where you are.
In Rhum - The courts are run by the priests of the god of justice - justice, not legalities. There’s no getting off on technicalities with these guys. They are allowed to use detect lie mentalism and other “spells” to determine the truth, and then they act. This was built when I believed that there was this thing called “fair”.
In Brinston - The courts are run either by nobles (criminal) or priests of the god of cities (civil). Both these groups are completely biased for their friends and peer groups. Actually, both the nobles and the wealthy merchants in Brinston are the same group, so both courts favor them. Now the nobles can be blatantly unfair, but the priests are supposed to follow the law, every technical little point. Well, maybe not every technical point. They only bring in the technicalities that help the guys they favor.
In Forsbury - Here the courts are run by the Baron or his cronies, and they can be pretty blatantly slanted. But they are typically slanted against certain actions, not necessarily people. Anyone playing with fire or rustling cattle will find themselves under a death sentence. But they also believe in “Forsbury Justice”. What’s that? Well, the merchant wars in Forsbury get pretty bloody. Think of this example: The G family attempts to assassinate someone in the M family. The M family catches the assassin, tortures him, he gives out who hired him, and the M family kills not just the person who hired the assassin, but everyone (man, woman, child, servant) who happened to be in the house that night. When it comes out, the M family is not charged with murder, because they were defending themselves. See? Brutal, but the “Forsbury Justice:” aspect is that the G family brought it on themselves for starting the whole thing. Had the assassin been successful, then likely only the assassin would have been guilty of murder, and the G family could have proclaimed their lack of involvement.
In Helatia - They are considering the use of psychic seers to predict the future, and arrest people before they commit crimes. This is still being debated in their Senate, and likely will not be approved under the current sentiment. Of course, one major crime, prevented or committed, could swing the popular opinion.
Any other fantasy related, dysfunctional legal systems out there?

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