Imperial law at sanctioned events
Crime
Criminal activity is a great source of drama at any event, but can be tricky to use as a theme at an Empire sanctioned event. Our laws and judicial system were written to support main events, and can be difficult to use effectively at sanctioned events. All the laws are publicly available on the wiki, and part of the event sanctioning process involves looking at crime elements and how they can be resolved. We'll lay out some common situations here.
- Bandits: If you're looking for a threat to provide combat potential to player characters it is always better to use barbarians, or known criminals who have already been tried by a magistrate in their absence. It's illegal to kill Imperial citizens, and we don't want player characters being tried for slaying bandits at a sanctioned event.
- Trials and punishment: if a plot is about uncovering or unmasking a criminal, then the obvious resolution for this is a trial. We generally won't take an NPC criminal trial to a mainline event; it is acceptable to have an NPC magistrate detailed as part of your plot submission who will deal with any trials needed but we'll look very closely at this.
- Investigations: At a Profound Decisions event the militia are responsible for investigating crimes. At a sanctioned event, this role often falls on the characters attending. SOMETHING SOMETHING.
- Player character criminality: When player characters commit crimes, we would prefer that their trials take place at a main event just as the investigation for any other trial does. Letting us know in advance of the event is helpful but not necessary - our magistrates will investigate crims committed at sanctioned events the same way they do any other crimes.
Imperial law
What follows are some suggestions about running plot involving legal matters at sanctioned events. Although all the laws are publicly available on the wiki, there are some particular considerations to bear in mind for legal plot at sanctioned events.
Magistrates and militia
While trials at sanctioned events will probably be relatively rare, organisers may want to be prepared to conduct one if the need arises. Trials may only be carried out by NPC magistrates. Sometimes a magistrate from the main Empire events will be in attendance, and if so they will carry out such duties as the circumstances require. However, as their presence cannot be relied upon, you may want to consider giving a member of your crew the role of magistrate, if that's appropriate. All the material you need to do so is publicly available on the wiki, but please remember that magistrates are bound by powerful oaths to prevent corruption and will always try their utmost to be fair and just. We would also ask that your NPC magistrates refrain from giving out sentences of penal military service to players at sanctioned events. This is because we believe there are very limited circumstances in which it would be an appropriate punishment.
The militia players are vital to the process of justice in Anvil. They typically perform the bulk of any investigation work and brief the magistrates before cases go to trial. There may be players who are members of the militia at a sanctioned event who can conduct any required investigations, but if no PC militia are attending, or if your plot requires NPC militia, then organisers can give the militia roles to members of their crew. If numbers are limited then investigations can also be conducted by a magistrate acting alone.
Trials
We think it is normally preferable for magistrates to conduct all trials at the sanctioned event that the alleged criminal activity was committed at. However if the suspect is a player character then they can be tried by the Magistrates at the next event at Anvil, if that would be more appropriate (e.g. your event is set in a wild area) or if you are not confident you can run a fair trial in accordance with imperial law at your event. We think this may often be less desirable than an immediate trial, as memories will have faded and key players may not be in attendance, but if you do this, please get in touch before the next event so we can make any necessary arrangements.
It's worth bearing in mind that any plots you run involving potential sorcerers, heretics, idolators, blasphemers and the like may be complicated by the fact that there are really no legal mechanisms for dealing with them outside of the institutions of Anvil. So for example, someone can't be prosecuted for heresy at a sanctioned event because the appropriate assembly of the synod is not available to condemn them for it. If someone took the law into their own hands to deal with the problem they may be prosecuted for any crimes they have committed (e.g. murder) either at the sanctioned event or at a later event.
Bear in mind that similar issues do not arise if you run a plot involving someone who was declared a sorcerer, heretic etc in a time before the game began (before Winter 376YE).
We would find it very helpful for sanctioned event organisers to provide the results of any trials conducted by their magistrates at their events. Please let us know details of the accused, the charge, their plea, the verdict, the punishment and anything else you think we should know. If there was anything else that happened at your event that you think the Magistrates should know about, please pass that on too.
Further Help
Please get in touch if you would like advice about possible legal ramifications of your plots and we'll do our best to help.