Wereguild and Broo

From: Graydon <saundrsg_at_qlink.queensu.ca>
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 20:43:07 -0400 (EDT)


Wereguild

I have a rather different view of wereguild than the one presented, where it is a means of legitimizing or constraining violence.

The idea of not killing your enemies is really, really bizarre in a barbarian culture, but so is the idea of ignoring the consequences; they don't have heaps of economic margin to collectively deal with consequences. Wereguild is the expression of your obligation to the dependents and family of the person you've done violence to, so that you bear the economic burdern of your actions and not them. This is different from criminal compensation (fines or outlawry or execution, generally); wereguild is very much a social, _civil_, obligation, not a criminal one.

So, while 'murder' (killing by stealth or treachery) is a crime, punishable by death or outlawry, 'killing' (winning a fair fight in which the other party happens to die) is not. Both carry an expectation that you (or your kin) will pay wereguild - just because you committed a crime doesn't mean that you can escape your social obligations - to the dependents and family of the dead, but that's your civil obligation not to impose a burdern on the community. (And your kin are obligated to pay if you don't or won't or can't.)

This gets even more complicated if you drag honour prices into it, 'partial' wereguilds for injury and offenses against your honour.

The campaign I run, everyone's social class (ceorl, yeoman, carl, thane, priest, jarl/cheiftan, drichten, king) has a customary annual income; your full wereguild (what someone owes if they kill you) is seven times that. This gets adjusted in various directions, depending on relative social class (the higher, the more you owe), different customary incomes, what precisely you did (murder is nine times), and so forth. It can take three lawspeakers and three days to sort out what the wereguild *should* be, and a lot longer to sort out who should pay it and in what form. You've got a year and a day from the date of the event, or you risk outlawry.

But it's very much a social, civil obligation, not a criminal penalty.

Which means the Lunars probably disdain it - pay to support the kin of rebels? - or love it - rebellion is a crime so henious that you merit death without wereguild; however, those loyal lunar soldiers were merely fulfilling their duty, and their wereguild is set at thus-and-so, which we shall either append to the taxes assessed your region or come and take goods of equivalent value from the first available farmsteads and halls.

Lots of scenario oppourtunities there.

Broo

Sandy points out that all broo have *some* animal features; I don't disagree with this, and was thinking of a broo that looked like one of Stormbull's sons (since IIRC some of them had human bodies and bull's heads) rather than like a minotaur in particular.

I have sneaking suspicions that an ogre-broo hybrid might be very hard to dectect as non-human on the basis of a visual inspection, but I agree with the 'some animal body part' rule in general.

As for personality types - broo are unhinged, yes, but I don't think that's necessarily the case; it's *possible* to get altruisitc broo, it's just a lot less likely given the complete lack of a social setup.

I don't see that there is a personality type a human can have that a broo *can't*, although the proportions are going to vary pretty wildly. A cool, calculating broo is certainly possible, even if most of them are solidly into the 'kill kill kill rape what's left' mindset. (Although the point about them being broo, not warped humans, is very well taken. Mea Cupla.)

Graydon


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