Amontaar Amontaar Law

Bellarmina · Jul 10, 2024

Laws

This section covers all laws in Amontaar, split into categories. Amontaar Guards exist both as NPCs, and as Player Characters hired as either full Mercenary Companies or Individuals by the Sol's Captain, Sinelor.

Light Crimes

Committing one of these crimes, your Character can Roleplay out avoiding the Guards over. No Wanted posters or bounties are put out (usually), so without a witness or victim directly asking the Guards for help, no intervention is likely. These result in fines, and no imprisonment. Fines can be paid via Wealth Tokens by any Family in the Aristocracy System. If a Wealth Token fine is not paid within a few (3) days, then a bounty will be put out.

Light Crimes include:

Possession of illegal goods,
(minor) theft (pickpocketing),
(minor) assault (no blood, no weapons),
trespassing.

Bounty Crimes

Committing one of these crimes will lead to a bounty being put out to capture your Character. Guards and hired Mercenaries will come after them. These result in imprisonment, until a Trial is arranged. A Wealth Token can be spent to remove a bounty from someone, or to free someone before a Trial.

Bounty Crimes include:

Assault,
theft,
being Afflicted,
possession of Spirits outside of Canopic Jars,
hexing, Cursing, or Mutating another,
attempted conversion of Estellians from Estelley.

Infamous Crimes

Committing one of these crimes will lead to your Character becoming a prime capture target, and NPC Guards will also go after them. These result in imprisonment.

Murder,
contending the rule of the Sol.

Regalian Crimes

These crimes were instated by the Regalian Alderman (see below, Regalian Positions), currently Sverre. They apply only to Regalian Citizen Characters, and are repealed if the Alderman is successfully removed from office. If a Character is legally filed as an Amontaari Citizen (has attended Sollandë Helëssa, or has lived in Amontaar for a multiple-year period of time and would have applied), they are immune to all laws listed here. Amontaari Citizen status cannot be retconned in after the release of this information. The Amontaar Guards are not going to enforce any of these laws.

Regalian Artifact Law: Artifact Owners must be registered with the Aelrrigan Order Company. Those deemed ineligible (or absent in formal registry) under said Company's judgement will have their Artifact confiscated or desparked.
Regalian Magic Law: All demonstrations of Sinistral Magic are illegal and punishable by a fine or imprisonment on repeated offenses.
Regalian Treason Law: Aiding and abetting anti-Regalian agents may be punishable by imprisonment, maiming, or execution. (OOC: This can be inferred to target Allorn and Argentum collaborators).
Regalian Vigilantism Law: Vigilantism is illegal and punishable by community service or imprisonment on repeated offenses.
Regalian Enforcement Law: The Regalian Command Services (RCS), overseen by the Regalian Alderman, will be established with the sole purpose of enforcing laws relevant to Regalian Expatriates.

Imprisonment

The Guards in Amontaar can hold a Character indefinitely until their punishment can be processed by the Guard Commander. Most initial punishments are minor, but limbs start coming off if they see the same person in prison too many times.

Artarel Trials

Infamous Crimes (and egregious Bounty Crimes) can lead to a Character undergoing Trial under Artarel's Law, an Elven inquisitorial legal system. Below is a bullet list of the rights and functions of Artarel Trials:

All Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, meaning it is up to the State to prove the wrongdoing of the Defense.
Class distinctions do not apply under Artarel Law. A common dockworker is viewed the same as the Sol himself.
All Defendants have the right to a Legal Counsellor to advise and advocate for them during a Trial.
Artarel Trials require a Jury panel of at least six citizens, who are responsible for determining the guilt or innocence of the Defendant.
A single Judge presides over the Trial, and is responsible for guiding proceedings, the Jury, and asking clarifying questions, with the Judge actively involved.

The typical Artarel Trial involves the Prosecution and Defense providing arguments to the Jury on why the Defendant should be found innocent or guilty, citing evidence and witness testimonies to add legitimacy to their claims. After both sides have completed their arguments, the Guard will escort the Jury to a private area for them to deliberate, after which they will return to the Trial and render their verdict. If the Defendant is found innocent, they are immediately released and all charges are dropped. If the Defendant is found guilty, the Judge renders an appropriate punishment.

Artifacts

Amontaari Artifact Law provisions that Artifacts are just property like any other property. This means that stealing them is theft (and often assault). However, Artifacts do not automatically become property when they are taken. The owner must have a reasonable argument as to why the Artifact is their property (i.e. it was discovered on their property, is part of payment from a legal authority, et cetera). Otherwise, it is possible that if they are stolen from and take the thief to court, they will lose the ensuing legal battle.

Exist Spirit Exception

Exist Apparitions with directly verifiable ties to the Estelley Gods (being created by one of them and loyal to them) as assessed by the High Priestess of Sapphora (who provably has this power) can legally exist in Amontaar as holy entities unless they do something anti-Estelley.

Regalian Positions

The positions of Regalian Consul and Regalian Alderman are privileged positions in Amontaar with sanction to exist and possess certain powers from the Sol. These powers are enumerated in bullet points.

Regalian Consul

The Regalian Consul is the diplomatic representative of the Regalian Empire in Amontaar. This position currently falls to Count Florian du Poncaire, who was elected in a closed-chamber deliberation between all Regalian peers currently within the geographical boundaries in Amontaar. Text that is parenthesized and italicized (like so) is implicit information that is not written down in the law codes, but that the DM feels it is valuable for those with this position to know OOCly. According to Amontaari law, the Regalian Consul is afforded the following privileges:

To negotiate when Regalian Citizens are imprisoned to have them released without trial, but must always make some sort of bargain with the Sol's government in return.
To negotiate for a criminal of specifically Regalian Archipelago birth to be tried under Regalian Law instead of Amontaari Law, but must always make some sort of bargain with the Sol's government in return.
To sanction the hosting of Regalian religious ceremonies (implicitly, only Unionism) within the walls of the Regalian Consulate, and with only Regalian Citizen attendees.
(To offer sanctuary to any Regalian Citizen accused of a crime, and shelter them in the Embassy, as it is Regalian Soil. This is not an offered power, but an implicit one. This will deeply anger the Sol.)
To use the inheritance of powers from the last acting Consul, the Ithanian Consul, to declare an official Regalian position on Amontaar. (A declaration of hostility would be considered an act of war.)

Regalian Alderman

The Regalian Alderman is the representative responsible for the inherent rights and conduct of Regalian expatriates in Amontaar. This position currently falls to Sverre (no last name), a Half-Kathar Prideborn. According to Amontaari Law, the Regalian Alderman is afforded the following privileges:

To impose Tariffs on a Mercenary Company during a Skirmish, disabling the use of their Company Ability during that Skirmish.
To sanction a Mercenary Company (not their own), giving them 2 Skirmish Points (only once per skirmish).
To put a Bounty on a Mercenary Company (cannot be the same as the one Tarriff'd), meaning that in any CRP with members of this Company, an extra .5 Skirmish Points are rewarded (this could also be that Company).
To specifically illegalize things for Regalian Expatriates relative to Amontaari Law. For example, can declare Regalian Magic Law, which is stricter, to apply instead of Amontaari Magic Law for all expatriates.
To write new laws and restrictions, so long as they do not give freedoms that contradict Amontaari Law.
To control the 'exit papers' for Regalian Expatriates in Amontaar to journey to Macaïaal or Basq overland (this will be relevant in certain events).

Unlike the Consul, the Regalian Alderman can be re-elected. If 15 Player Characters petition (make a ticket) to choose a new Alderman, a new Election will be declared, and the position provisionally suspended until the Election is complete.