Author: LectionaryStan

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

More legal shenanigans for your D&D setting:

• The Kingdom of Zor has historically been marked by a particularly virulent strain of human supremacism. Though that era has largely passed, its legacy has proven to be so deeply entrenched in the realm’s codes of law that later reformers found it expedient simply to expand the legal definition of “human”. So it is that in the land of Zor, an elf, an animated skeleton, and a sapient protoplasmic ooze are all Human in the eyes of the law – though strangely, the legal compass of humanity continues to this day to exclude bards.
• The Norgian Confederacy is infamous for its curiously inverted sumptuary laws. Being theoretically egalitarian, and priding themselves on principles of absolute social mobility, a Norgian’s manner of dress is in no wise restricted by their social station; rather, by dressing in the legally recognised manner of a particular station, they declare their membership in it. Strictly speaking these rules apply only to citizens; all the same, visitors whose outfits fail to match their preferred level of social obligation are advised to clearly advertise their foreign status, lest one be accused of dereliction of duty!
• Compounded by centuries of case law and precedent, the laws of the dwarven realm of Underhome have become a muddled mess with respect to the property rights of the dead. Some rights – particularly the ownership of one’s own remains – persist after death, while others transfer to designated heirs, and still others are held in trust should the deceased later join the ranks of the undead. In the halls of royalty, the ghosts of ancient kings and queens litigate endlessly with their living descendants for dominion over the earth’s riches; these revenant monarchs – or “mineral wights”, as they’re sometimes known – stand as the greatest obstacle to Underhome’s continued prosperity.

• The elvish principality of Greenwood keeps no prisoners, instead favouring a robust program of community service for the correction and rehabilitation of criminals. Their court system does not discriminate by species: animals as well as elves are often seen serving sentences for the bewildering variety of petty misdemeanours that characterise elvish legal codes. If necessary, the courts will grant a convicted animal the intelligence to understand and carry out its service; not all choose to go back to being ordinary beasts when the task is done (though many do), and so the Greenwood is home to a growing population of sapient animals with criminal records.