> Orlanthi law isn't about narrow blind justice or rules-lawyering - we
> have the Dara Happans for that. II's a pragmatic way of resolving
> disputes, also known as "Either we pay them now, or they'll keep on
> attacking us and we'll lose far more in the long term."
>
I don't know. There is certainly a lot of pragmatism, but (assuming you care to make it this big an issue in your game) there is a lot of fun to be had looking at the sagas for descriptions of legal affairs -- yes, there was the fairly simple "what is just compensation," but also a wide variety of legal tricks and ruses designed to reopen cases after settlement, decisions hinging on disqualifying of jurors under technicalities, reassigning grievances to friends to help them with their cases, and so on (I am just rereading Njal's Saga, which is full of crazy legal action, along with a lot of stabbing). So Heortling law can be pragmatic and full of rules-lawyering...
It's one reason why I think that a clan would not be too keen on killing someone that they have punished with full outlawry. If you have made a mistake in the ceremony and the person is, by some chance, still kin, you are really screwed -- better to leave the final option to someone "immune" to kinstrife, just in case.
Peter
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