In most clans, weregild also applies when a member of a clan injures another member of the clan. Kinstrife normally involves violence within a bloodline or family. Members of different bloodlines can seek legal redress from their clan - members of the same bloodline cannot since they are legally from the same legal unit (as a result, there is no one they can pay weregild to - you can't sue yourself!).
>I think you're probably right, that low-level violence could be more
common. However it's also very easy
>for calming influences to be close at hand, and intensely interested in
the conflict.
I think that violence will be less common within a clan - in large part because your kin probably will not support you in your violent actions against members of your own clan. Then again, every community has their fair share of sociopaths and brutal psychotics - and the cults of Humakt, Urox, Maran Gor and Babeester Gor provide a social acceptable outlet for such folk.
>>If clansman-on-clansman violence is potentially more common, then it
>>seems strange that the penalties would be so very harsh. Either the
>>offender is put to death or, in the simplest cases, banished for a
>>minimum of one year. Given that the winters are so deadly, this in
>>itself seems like a death sentence. (Certainly, other clans won't
grant
>>refuge to someone labelled an outlaw?!)
>Oh, I'll bet in the right circumstances, a Varmandi might harbor
>someone the Orlevings have outlawed.
An outlaw with sufficient status or wealth (or really useful skills) should be able to find refuge with some clan, tribe or sociopathic cult.
Jeff
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