Lawsuit against Sharpsword killer

From: Stephen Tempest <gd_at_stempest.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 23:09:23 +0000


Gian:

>Legally, I presume, the Destori should have proved to
>a court Garreth's sin, so he could be outlawed and
>slain (after a vain cure attempt). The Destori is
>guilty of violent behaviour but he was right, acted in
>self defense and rightly showed no piety towards a
>predark slave (Garreth).

The Destori can't be "guilty of violent behaviour" since violence is not a crime in Orlanthi society!

If he had murdered Garrath in secret, then yes, he'd be guilty of a capital crime. But a fair fight, before witnesses? That's something to boast about, not hide from the law!

Of course, Garrath's kin are still likely to want retribution from the kin of your Destori. To use a (forced) modern analogy, this is a matter of civil law (compensation) not criminal law. They could either start a blood feud against your Destori, or take him to court and demand wergild.

At the court, your hero has several options. He can be straightforward, and say, "Yes, I killed him. Here's your 50 cattle wergild". He can try to argue, perhaps pleading self-defence or using Peter Metcalfe's argument that death in a duel equals death in battle, and so no wergild (or a lower value) is due - that's likely to get the lawspeakers arguing precedent for days. =20

Or he can go for broke, and attempt to prove that Garrath was a servant of the Predark. If he manages that, then not only will he not have to pay any wergild but the court might even give him a reward (taken from Garrath's kin, of course!) for performing a public service. But if he fails, then he's guilty of slandering his dead opponent and might be looking at the 5 years' outlawry on top of the 50 cows wergild!

Peter:
>Pavis doesn't have a jury and even if they did, the
>Lunars would not allow primitive legal proceedings
>to deal with such serious matters when their
>enlightened tribunals are readily available to deal
>impartially with such matters.

I'm not sure about this at all. As I understand it, if Garrath's kin were Imperial Citizens they could take the matter before a Lunar Court, but otherwise the Lunars will leave the pre-existing Heortling judicial system intact.

Unless, of course, Garrath's corruption by Chaos was all part of a cunning long-term Lunar plot, in which case all bets are off. :)

Whether New Pavis follows Sartarite style justice or has an Old Pavic admixture is another qustion where I'm on less steady ground, however...

Gian again:
>Finally, is the Destori kin to the Storm Voice who
>initiated him, according to heortling law? I don't
>think there is an heortling, even in Prax, without
>kin, nor that the hero's Carmanian blood relatives
>qualify, again according to heortling custom.=20

Strictly speaking, his only kin are those Carmanians. However, it's possible that an Orlanthi clan adopted him (either by marriage or by "discovering" common shared ancestors), in which case they would now be his kin. I'd go so far as to say that for him to be accepted into Heortling society so well that they were willing to allow him to become an initiate, it's almost certain that he was adopted.

Stephen

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