Re: Orlanthi justice

From: via RadioMail <David>
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 17:00:42 -0700


Alex lets his opinions get in the way of facts:

>> >1) A is tried for murder, and if held to be guilty, put to death.
>
>> 1 is extremely unlikely, because the real option is 1a) A is tried
>> and outlawed.
>
>I think 1) is not only likely, given the right circumstances, it's in
>fact the only option ordained as Official Fact. Outlawry occurred to
>me after the fact, but isn't much of a significant difference to be
>worth hypothesising separately about.

"The judgment includes fines and penalties, perhaps including outlawry. Orlanthi law rarely calls for a death penalty." [KoS.259] "The following are crimes for which a person can be put to death: secret murder, rape, regicide, betraying cult secrets, consorting with chaos, desecration of Orlanthi holy places, and deliberately breeding disease." [KoS.260]

Certainly there are revenge killings, but that is not the legal system, and not the sort of thing that a Lawspeaker would proclaim. Of course, outlawry may doom someone to be killed (since it can be done with legal impunity), but at least it gives the outlaw a chance to clear out.

I believe judicial killings are rare, since few of the capital crimes seem like common ones.

>> I have decided to base East Ralian wergild on an individual's honor price
>> (eineach), even though apparently Irish wergild was fixed at 21 cows
>> regardless of the individual.
>
>My understanding was that the nearest equivalent to a wergild _was_ the
>eineach. While not working in the same way as a nordic or saxon
>wergild, this is someone's basic "worth" for purposes of legal suit.

This is so in the Pendragon supplement Pagan Shore, but apparently not true in Ireland, at least depending on the time period. It seems clear from Cattle Lords & Clansmen (by Nerys Patterson) that wergild and honor-price were (or at least became) separate concepts. Wergild was fixed, honor-price depended on the person.


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