FrivYeti/ZeretanLaws
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The Laws of Zeretan</b>
Zeretan follows a legal code with a proper criminal justice system, adapted loosely from that of the Shogunate. The criminal process allows for the defendant to either speak for themselves or get a barrister to speak for them; barristers are not assigned for free, and the defendant must be able to afford one. A few barristers only charge fees for successful cases, or charge reduced fees for failed ones, and these are frequently used by the poor. The defendant is kept in jail unless bail can be posted; bail is equal to the fine that would be levied for the crime. If the crime is above fining, bail cannot be posted.
At the trial, the prosecution presents their evidence, the defendant mounts a defense, and the judge determines the case. Zeretan has three judges, each of whom belongs to a different noble family. Judges are not allowed to judge their own kin, and the king may supersede any judgement that does not involve HIS own kin. If judged innocent, the defendant is released. If the judge feels that the accusation was spurious, it is not uncommon to require that a fee be paid to the defendant by the prosecution by way of apology. If judged guilty, the defendant is sentanced immediately.
Sentence for lesser crimes, such as theft, graft, extortion, blackmail, or dealing illegal drugs, is usually a stiff fine. This fine has a base amount, listed below, which is increased based on the number of crimes that the defendant has been convicted of in the past. If the defendant cannot pay the fine, he becomes an indentured servant and must work the money off wherever the judge sees fit to send him (most often to the Black Farms or the mines, depending on the circumstances surrounding the crimes). As very little profit is made in either of these places, criminals frequently remain for years, or until family and friends raise enough money to set them free. However, they are theoretically set free with valuable skills that they can use to survive.
For more serious crimes, such as assault, smuggling, consorting with enemies of the Realm (this includes worshipping the Anathema, Fair Folk, Yozi or the Dead), grand theft, murder that the judge feels will not be repeated, attempting to flee debt slavery, or enough repeated lesser crimes, a criminal's property is seized and divided amongst those he has wronged, and he himself is sold into slavery.
The most serious crimes - murder in cold blood, repeated murder, high treason, the active summoning of demons, and the like - results in a sentance of death. The defendant is publically executed by beheading in the city centre. Execution takes place between one and two weeks after sentancing, and always takes place on Sunday.
<b>Slavery</b> Slavery is uncommon, but hardly unheard of, in Zeretan. Slaves have no rights and are treated as property; their children are raised by the State and will not become slaves in turn. The nation also makes slaves of any prisoners of war that cannot be ransomed, and allows the purchase of barbarian slaves from the Guild - slaves from civilized nations are not allowed.
A slave's owner may resell him, mistreat him however he wishes, and generally do whatever he pleases with him. In theory, if a slave is brutally mistreated or killed, his owner faces serious penalties, but in practice these are rarely upheld, and slaves owners, if even charged, frequently escape punishment or are given truly minor sentances. Once, slaves were strongly protected, but the laws that guard them were struck down one by one over the last fifty years, and now few remain. Only a slave's owner may mistreat him, however; harming another man's slave is a serious offense resulting in heavy fines, and killing one without provocation usually forces a man to take the slave's place - forever. If a slave attempts to escape, and is recaptured, the owner may choose whether to take him back or have him killed. If a slave attempts escape a second time, he is always executed.
A slave's owner may choose to grant a slave freedom, with certain exceptions: The owner may not grant freedom to more than one slave every five years, and each slave is given a certain amount of time before freedom may be granted at sentancing (in the case of Guild purchases, it defaults to five years after the slave enters Zeretan). In addition, an owner may choose to leave a will freeing up to all of his slaves upon his death, provided that they have spent the minimum time as a slave mandated by their sentances. The latter is far more common than the former; few masters give up their slaves in life, but many become more generous in death.
Slavery is most common in the city of Zeretan and the mines of Candat; the Black Farms employ a few, as do the merchants of the River Provinces and Servan. At any given time, there are about 5,000 slaves each in Zeretan and Candat, with another 1,000 apiece in Servan, the Farms, and the River Provinces. Kilrath has a massive slave population - at 2,000, it reaches nearly a quarter of the total population - and there are persistant rumours that they are even more badly mistreated. Slaves are usually owned by rich merchants; the upper nobility of Zeretan rarely employs more than a few per family, considering paid servants to be more loyal, efficient, and prestigious (as they are more expensive to hire and maintain), and the poorer people can rarely afford to own slaves. Thaumaturges and craftsmen also purchase slaves, as do well-off inns and taverns, merchant ships, and the whorehouses. Please note that the populations listed in other documents DO include the number of slaves in each area.
