>In the real world, a Trial by Combat between a professional full-time
>warrior and an ordinary Joe would, barring freak accidents, always
>result in a guilty verdict against the ordinary person.
Trials by Combat are judicial duels rather than court procedures used against ordinary joes. When it was used in England, it was used primarily to settle disputes between aristocrats.
In the Good Old Days before the introduction of lawyers, ordinary joes had to make do with Trial by Ordeal. Since people were acquitted by this, it's believed the local clergy rigged the ordeal based on their own special knowledge of the case (such as anything the accused may have said to the priest during the rite of confession).
>In the idealised mediaeval concept of Divine Justice, if the ordinary
>person was innocent then God would intervene by a miracle and allow
>him to win the combat... perhaps he would be inspired to fight far
>beyond his normal capabilities while the professional warrior was
>plagued by self-doubt and despair, or perhaps there would be a more
>direct intervention - the warrior's sword shatters, or whatever.
In a Gloranthan trial by combat, if the accused had truly committed a crime, then he wouldn't be able to call upon his God's magic and so be at a disadvantage in the fight. If the accuser is intending some skullduggery (ie. hoping to seize the accused's property afterwards), then he can't call upon his god.
Lastly if both mean well (or the GM is unable to decide), then God's judgement favours the winner of the fight. Tough luck for the loser in such cases but then he shouldn't have been pushing his god for an answer.
But what happens if someone uses magic from outside one's god (as in ye olde Summon Salamander trick in a Humakti duel that appeared in Cults of Prax)? Normally one isn't meant to be using False Magic and so it would be grounds to stop the duel and punish the offender. However since nothing of the kind happened in the CoP case, I hazard the guess that nobody liked the loser (least of all his God).
--Peter Metcalfe
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