When it comes to justice, nobles don’t get a free ride. Yes, they are the most influential class in society. Yes, they are the wealthiest. Yes, they own armies, capable of destroying entire villages and cities. Um, wait. No. No armies. (We’re getting to it.) Nobles also have an obligation to those who serve them, and that is maintaining the peace and enacting justice.
Nobles are responsible for maintaining serenity in the lands they rule. How that is enacted is entirely up to the noble. Some do so with strict laws, others with sympathetic justice. More than a few care little for equity, squashing the populace in the name of pacification. Most nobles assign the duty of keeping the peace to roadmen, sheriffs, and constables, all of whom report to the noble, held directly responsible for meting justice.
Let’s pause a moment and talk about how ven law differs from our own. First, the ven do not have a word for “law.” The closest word the ven have is pallentarro, which best translates as “bureaucracy.” It literally means “the proper way.”
Ven law is a long list of decisions agreed upon by the Senate. The Senate is made up of nobles. No commoners. Just nobles. The legal code is a series of “decisions,” each one giving a proper punishment for a crime. Let’s look at one as an example.
(The translation is difficult here. Ven language has about a dozen different connotations for a single word. I’m going to do my best.)
If the unblooded shall steal from the blooded, this High Crime shall be punished as the Authority sees fit.
So, what we’ve got here is a decision on theft. Notice the language.
The decision specifically says “unblooded shall steal from the blooded.” In ven law, if a decision doesn’t say something, it doesn’t say it. I know that sounds redundant, but it’s an important idea. The little things matter.
This decision deals specifically with the unblooded stealing from the blooded. It says nothing about the blooded stealing from the blooded, so it doesn’t apply to that situation.
Also, note how it says “as the Authority sees fit.” That means the person with the highest authority decides how the matter is resolved. That person may be the blooded in question, or it may not. “The Authority” refers to the highest authority present. So, if a servant tries stealing a spoon from one of the blooded at a party, the highest authority in the room decides the punishment.
Ven law is tricky this way. Some decisions say “the Victim.” Some decisions say “the Authority.” The little things matter.
LOW CRIMES, HIGH CRIMES
Ven law is broken into low crimes and high crimes. As might be expected, low crimes are those committed against the unblooded, while high crimes are those committed against a noble’s kith and kin. Thus, stealing a peasant’s cow is a low crime, punishable with a lash of the whip or perhaps a small fine. On the other hand, a servant stealing a spoon (like I mentioned above) from one a noble is a high crime, punishable by dismemberment, disfigurement, or death.
A noble’s roadmen are directly responsible for maintaining justice in his lands. Roadmen protect the people from dangers (monsters, brigands, etc.), but they also investigate crime. The noble seldom (if ever) concerns himself with low crimes; the local sheriff and his constables handle such matters. In the matter of high crimes, the noble’s personal guard are dispatched to investigate the matter and bring the criminal to justice.
Of course, each noble looks at low and high crime differently. For some of the blooded, a crime against one of his peasants is a crime against his own person. Each noble has to make up his own mind how to treat crime.
Inconsistency is the seed of dissent.
JUSTICE FOR THE UNBLOODED
For the unblooded, there is no right to remain silent, no right to legal counsel, no jury of peers. Nobles give roadmen the right to mete justice as they sees fit. A roadman’s decision is usually swift and final. The accused can beg for the right to plead his case, explain the evidence against him, but he has no right to such treatment. A fair roadman will grant a hearing, but he is not expected to do so. Nor is he likely to be punished if he does not.
If the accused is a noble or a roadman, the matter must be turned over to the lord of the land, who then makes a decision. Judging another noble is always a politically charged situation, one that can bring war if it is handled without care.
JUSTICE FOR THE BLOODED
One of the blooded accused of a crime may call for a jury. Matters of law are brought before the Senate. The Senate votes whether or not to hear the matter, then elects three judges to hear the case. Both sides make their arguments. At this time in ven history, evidence and testimony are not well-tested ideas. Procedure? Nonsense. Make an impassioned plea. More likely than not, if the issue is murky, the side that protests loudest and most convincingly will carry the day. But sometimes, just sometimes, testimony and evidence can make a difference.
FUTALI: RANSOM
An old tradition from the dark days. Before the Senate, before the Houses. Ransom. Holding a noble for a price. Futali.
If a noble is found guilty of crimes, he can be held ransom until the price is paid. His home court can decide to pay the ransom in exchange for his life or refuse to pay it, granting the holding noble the right to do as he likes to his captive.
If a noble is captured, he falls under the same laws as those who lose control of their possessions. If you don’t have the strength to protect yourself, you don’t deserve protection.
Futali is the polite way of asking, “Do you want this back?” Refusing to pay is the polite way of saying, “No.”
TAXATION
Nobles reserve the right of land ownership and the right to tax the land they own. The fisherman catches ten fish, the lord gets eight. The farmer grows one hundred bushels of corn, the lord gets eight. The blacksmith makes ten swords, the lord gets all of them.
Some nobles even take more than that, although doing so runs the risk of angering the merchant class. While merchant have little military strength, they do prove to be powerful spies for enemy lords…
A noble owns land, and thus, anything produced by the lord’s land rightfully belongs to the lord. A farmer’s crops can be taxed, as can a fisherman’s take. While hunting is generally reserved for the noble and his retinue, any product produced by wild animals is also taxed. Any derivative products can be taxed, such as beer (from wheat and barley) and clothing (from cotton and wool). The iron forged by the blacksmith came from the lord’s land, as did the trees pulped to make paper for the printer’s presses.
Nobles entrust the collection of taxes to their sheriffs. Each sheriff is responsible for collecting and transporting the taxes of his shire. The opportunity for corruption is always present for a sheriff, a fact nobles know too well. Nobles usually assign a sheriff a large staff to collect and protect the noble’s taxes… and to keep an eye on the sheriff.
THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
Nobles (and roadmen) have the right to bear arms, which holds a double meaning. Not only does it mean the noble has the right to carry a martial weapon and wear armor, but it also means he has the right to his own coat of arms. Any non-noble bearing anything more than a simple weapon takes his life in his own hands; most nobles do not take lightly those who walk into their lands wielding martial weapons and wearing armor; they see such actions as defying the noble’s rights (and the rights of his roadmen). Mercenaries wandering the countryside, hunting orks and robbing the corpses, looting the ruins of the sorcerer-kings… some may call these sell-swords “adventurers.”
Nobles call them “bandits.”
And by “bandit,” I mean “soon to marry the ropemaker’s daughter.”
The punishment for carrying martial weapons without a nod from the land’s noble can be as simple as confiscation of the weapon or as serious as hanging, crucifixion or evisceration, depending on the noble’s attitude toward taxing adventurers (re: possible roadmen).
FRAUD
The ven have a peculiar notion about fraud. It can be summed up in a single sentence.
“If you got beat, don’t whine about it.”
What we would call “confidence crime” is what the ven might have called “gulling the sucker.” If someone is foolish enough to fall for it, they deserve what they get. Crying about being a pigeon—I mean, informing others that you were a victim of a confidence scam—only furthers your own shame.
You got beat. Live with it.
One man spends his days asking others for justice. The other plots revenge. Who is the wiser?
THIEVERY
Another matter of perspective. If you can’t keep it, it isn’t yours. Of course, this law only applies to the blooded. If an unblooded picks a noble’s pocket, he loses a hand. If he’s lucky.
MURDER
Let’s talk about the big one.
As far as the law is concerned, the unblooded are not entirely citizens. They are still ven, but they are not blooded. Ven law has a tendency to be murky in most areas, but in this one, it is quite clear. Murder is a crime among the blooded. Only the blooded may murder the blooded. As far as the unblooded go, they can murder each other all day long. It is a courtesy that the blooded take notice and perhaps act to make justice.
Remember: crying about it is no way to win friends. Even if you’re one of the unblooded.
Unblooded to the Blooded: He killed my wife!
Blooded to the Unblooded: What are you going to do about it?
PERSONAL GUARD
Okay, let’s talk about the biggest and baddest law. After the Betrayer War, the Senate passed one of its most powerful decisions.
It is the decision of this Senate that no blooded may gather an army.
That’s it. No army.
On the other hand, the following decision was not as powerful, but perhaps more interesting.
It is the decision of this Senate that every noble is allowed a retinue of personal guard to protect his person.
That following decision made all the difference. Nobles made arguments in the Senate that their lands were, in fact, part of their person. By extension. An offense against my people is an offense against me. A noble does have an obligation to protect his people. Should he not also have the ability to protect those people?
Soon, every noble had a “personal guard” large enough to protect his lands. Not an army. A personal guard.
And so, seeing a loophole in the law, the ven danced around its primary intention. Which leads me to one final point about ven law.
LOOPHOLES
Now, I have found three entries in the Senate records where lords were brought to task for violating the first rule by exploiting the second. On one occasion, it seems Duke Chyvn’s enemies in the Senate used the loophole to force him to reduce his armies just before they sent their own to demolish him and cut up his land. On a second, Countess Upala’s army had marched almost half-way across Shanri, destroying the smaller baronies as she went. The barons united in a vote and declared the size of her personal guard violated the army decision. She was forced to disband her personal guard down to reasonable size, giving her enemies enough time to rally and cut her down from a countess to a baroness.
Ven law is full of loopholes. I’ve included what remains of the Senate decisions list in this book. Where I could, I filled in missing spaces or used other scholars’ ideas on what might have been there based on readings of ven works. Read it carefully. Study it. Find them. The loopholes. And exploit them as the ven did.
Don’t be ashamed. The ven won’t be disappointed.
Important Assumptions
Some things you may know about our own legal system, important assumptions we live with every day, that ven law does not recognize.
No habeas corpus. “Produce the body.” The ven justice system can arrest anyone at any time for any reason and keep that person in custody for any amount of time. The prisoner does not have the right to see anyone, including a lawyer. Of course, the ven don’t have lawyers. See the next assumption.
No lawyers. The ven see understanding the Law as a vital part of being a citizen. If you don’t know the law, you aren’t being a good citizen and you deserve all the punishment you can get.
Right to privacy
Ven law does not recognize privacy as an inalienable right. Or even an alienable right. Or any kind of right at all, for that matter. Privacy is polite, it is not a law.
Freedom of Speech
No such thing. Suppression of information is common.
Freedom of Religion
No such thing. A lord is free to ban the reverence of any suaven. The only justice he may face is the wrath of the suaven in question.
Freedom of the Press
No such thing. See “freedom of speech,” above.
Innocent Until Proven Guilty
This may be the most difficult concept of ven law to understand. The ven do not assume innocence. Of course, the ven also don’t assume guilt. The ven assume nothing. In matters of legal dispute, the burden of proof rests on both parties. Whomever presents the best case wins the argument.
This is the ideal. Now, we all know in our own culture, our own ideal—innocent until proven guilty—is just that. It is an ideal. Do we always accomplish it? Of course not. But it’s our standard. It’s what we hope to achieve. The same can be said of the ven.
Right to Trial
Any ven citizen—that means the Blooded—has a right to trial. Note the lack of the word “speedy.” A criminal can be held without bail, but he cannot be held without trial. When that trial happens is up to the lord holding him.
This is where bribery comes into play. Otherwise known as ransom. Otherwise known as futali.
The Code of Law
Unfortunately, we do not have the complete ven code of law. We do, however, have some very good fragments giving us a good idea what it looked like. Not having the entire code is a good thing, though. It means the players can add to the law as they go along. You can find out how to do that later in this book. But, for now, here’s what we got, straight from the documents to you.
For the purpose and greater good of all ven, this Great Work has been undertaken. For those who follow its dictates, may they prosper. For those who do not, may they suffer their impertinence.
Established in this Year of the Founding, we hereby and forthwith put to page our names, validating this document, binding ourselves and our vassals to its Truth and Beauty.
May the righteousness of this document reach as far as ideas may reach. May it destroy wickedness, protect the strong from the weak, enlighten the land, and further the well-being of us all.
1. All blooded are equal before the Law, regardless of rank or title.
2. If a ven bring an accusation, and the accusation prove false, the accuser shall suffer the penalty for the crime.
3. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his
own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge’s bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment.
4. If any one steal the property of a temple or of the Senate, he shall be put to death.
5. If any one buy from another without witnesses or a contract, he is considered a thief and shall be put to death.
6. Or the son or wife of another.
7. If any one steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong to a suaven, the thief shall die.
8. If any dispute of ownership should come before the Senate, those in dispute shall bring forward witnesses to testify on their behalf on the claim. Punishment for false testimony before the Senate is death.
9. If a servant of one man be found in the house of another without permission of his owner, the servant shall be put to death.
10. If any one receive into his house a runaway male or female servant, and does not bring it out at the public proclamation, the master of the house shall be put to death.
11. If any man should trade cattle or sheep and find the sheep to be rotten, he shall have twice the trade from the man who traded to him.
12. If the lord of a land should die, he who may control the land may claim it.
13. Unlawful murder among the blooded shall be tried by the Senate.
14. He who is found guilty of unlawful murder shall die.
15. Planting crops in a neighbor’s field without the neighbor’s permission gives no right to harvest.
16. The ven who seeds the field has the right to harvest the field.
17. If any one owe a debt for a loan, and a storm prostrates the grain, or the harvest fail, or the grain does not grow for lack of water; in that year he need not give his creditor any grain, he washes his contract in water and pays no rent for this year.
18. If a ven be too lazy to keep his dam in proper condition, and does not so keep it; if then the dam break and all the fields be flooded, then shall he in whose dam the break occurred be sold for money, and the money shall replace the corn which he has caused to be ruined.
19. A ven shall study the suaven and learn their lessons.
20. All children shall be sent to tutors.
21. A husband who finds his wife in another man’s bed has right to Revenge.
22. A wife who finds her husband in another woman’s bed has right to Revenge.
23. It is better that men and women should remain single till death rather than marry unsuitables.
24. These are the legal forms of sexual congress.
25. This is ada: mutual consent of both the bride and groom
26. This is eda: gift of a Blooded daughter to a priest of a great suaven
27. This is paja: mutual consent of families for the purpose of a child
28. usha: marriage upon bribing of the bride and groom
29. These are the illegal forms of sexual congress.
30. dava: intercourse of maiden and her lover out of sexual desire
31. shasa: forceful abduction of bride
32. sacha: where bride is intoxicated, sleeping, mentally disordered, in the order of piety of the marriage.
33. If the husband does not please his wife, she being unhappy, the whole family is unhappy and miserable; but if the wife be quite contended with her husband, the whole family enjoys felicity.
34. Let women be always propitiated (worshipped) by their fathers and brothers, by their husbands and the brothers of their husbands, in other words, they should speak sweetly to them and provide them with good food, nice clothes and ornaments, and thereby keep them happy. Those who seek great prosperity and happiness should never inflict pain on women.
35. Fate and Chance decreed a ven’s station. Let him be happy with it.
36. Only the Blooded may change a ven’s Fate.
37. Lawful murder must be approved by the Senate.
38. Blood contracts may be used to enforce the most important matters where the consequences are dire, when no other alternative is possible.
39. Because no ven may enter a duel without equal advantage, the Blooded may use a blood sword if his opponent is guilty of the same crime.
40. Sorcerous ritual is forbidden
41. A thief will be punished by removing the offending hand.
42. An Unblooded who insults a Blooded with gross invective, shall have his tongue cut out; for he is of low origin.
43. Anything belonging to the Unblooded belongs to the Blooded.
44. An Unblooded who lies to a Blooded shall have hot oil poured down his throat.
45. If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death.
46. No ven shall make a verbal contract without witnesses.
47. No ven shall make a written contract without witnesses.
48. Matters of small note may be contracted without witnesses.
49. Matters of small note may not be disputed if unfulfilled.
50. Every farmer shall keep one oxen, one bushel of corn any seed and the tools he needs to perform his duty.
51. In matters of dispute regarding possession, he who owns the item is the owner unless proven otherwise.
52. If any ven break a contract, the punishment shall be decided by the offended party.
53. Any service agreed upon unprovided shall constitute a broken contract.
54. If a ven should so offend a suaven, be it through disgrace of the shrine or temple or any other thing, he shall be put to death.
55. Judgment of any crime may be decided less if the punishment be called for death, as determined by the judge of the matter.
56. Willful violation of the laws of Revenge shall be punished by death.
57. Unknowing violation of the laws of Revenge shall be punished as the Authority sees fit.
58. Unfit offering shall be punished by stoning and decapitation.
59. If peace be offered between offending parties and another seeks to break that peace, he shall be put to death.
60. Assault upon a merchant and his goods shall be punished by death.
Questions?