LEX PISCATORIS

[Zhulik 3559]

 

LEX PISCATORIS

Law of the Kingdom of the Westerlands

Drafted by His Lordship Arminius von Aesterwald, Markgraf of Vanderfell, on the 1st Day of the Grand Harvest, 1593

---

TABLE I - COURT SUMMONS AND GENERAL CONDUCT OF THE PEOPLE

1. ON DEGENERACY

1. The following acts by any citizen or traveller in the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of the Westerlands shall be subject to punishment and execution if proven guilty of the following crimes:

1. 1. Conducting or Supporting Witchcraft

   2. Having Mental Illness

   3. Perversion (Homosexuality/Miscegenation)

   4. Being an Abomination or having such features

   5. Holding Atheist beliefs or tendencies

   6. Spreading blasphemy, or having been known as a Blasphemer

   7. Aiding anyone who has been found guilty of crimes a and c through f.

 

2. ON THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES ACCEPTED BY THE COURT

1. The Kingdom of the Westerlands shall adopt the following measurements for currency

   1. All minas are to be considered the standardized form of coinage in the Kingdom of the Westerlands.

   2. For amounts over 1000 minas, shillings shall be used to simplify agreements.

      1. The shilling shall be set at 20 minas per shilling.

 

2. The Kingdom of the Westerlands shall adopt the following measurements for land

   1. The acre, or an area of 500 square units, shall be adopted as the standard for all land issued by the King and his peers.

      1. If the common measurement cannot be made due to lack of measurement utility, then the amount of ground able to be plowed by an oxen in one day shall suffice.

   2. The rod, or an area of 125 square units, shall be adopted as an official measurement of land. This represents one fourth of an acre.

 

3. The Kingdom of the Westerlands shall adopt the following measurements for weight

   1. The pound, or one standard iron ingot, shall be adopted as the standard measurement of weight.

   2. The nugget, or one ninth of a pound, shall be adopted as an alternative measurement.

   3. The ton, or 64 sets of 9 iron ingots, shall be adopted as another alternative measurement.

      1. One half of a ton shall be known as a stone.

 

4. The Kingdom of the Westerlands shall adopt the following measurements for volume

   1. The fluid ounce, or amount of water that can fit into one standard vial, shall be the standard measurement of volume.

   2. The pint shall be defined as made up of 20 fluid ounces.

   3. The quart shall be defined as made up of two pints, or 40 fluid ounces.

   4. The gallon shall be defined as made up of four quarts, or 160 fluid ounces

   5. Apothecaries may create their own standard for fractional values of these measurements listed.

 

5. The Kingdom of the Westerlands shall adopt the following measurements for bulk item

   1. The standard bulk number for transactions in the Kingdom of the Westerlands shall be one crate, or sixty-four identical items.

      1. Half of that shall be half of a crate.

   2. A shipment shall be used to refer exclusively to fifty-two crates of items, or all of that which can be put into a standard chest.

      1. Half of a shipment shall similarly be all of that which can be fit into half of a standard chest.

   3. A standard chest can also be referred to as a “doublechest”.

 

6. The Kingdom of the Westerlands shall allow the common measurements of matters other than bulk item, volume, weight, area, and currency, to reign true.

   1. Larger or smaller measurements of matters of measurement addressed in this document may be permitted if necessary.
       

3. ON COURT SUMMONS

1. If any one be summoned before the court by the King’s law, and do not come he shall be sentenced to 250 minas.

   1. But he who summons another to court and does not come himself, shall, if a lawful impediment have not delayed him, be sentenced to 250 minas, paid to whom he summoned.

 

2. And he who summons another shall walk with witnesses to the home of that man, and, if he is not at home, shall bid his wife or any one of the family to make known to him that he has been summoned to court.

   1. If he is occupied in the service of the King, he shall not be summoned to court.

 

3. If any man shall have scorned to come to court, and shall have put off fulfilling the injunction of the bailiffs, and shall not have been willing to consent to undergo the fine, or anything prescribed by law: then he (the plaintiff) shall summon him to the presence of the King.

   1. And there shall be three witnesses who, at the time being sworn-shall testify that he was present when the bailiff enjoined him (the accused) either to go to the ordeal by kettle, or to agree concerning the fine; and that he had scorned the injunction.

   2. Then three more witnesses shall swear that he was there on the day when the accused was enjoined by the bailiff; and that five fortnights after that, in the Court, he (the accuser) had again waited until after sunset, and that he (the accused) would not obey the law.

   3. Then he (the accuser) shall summon him (the accused) before the king for a fortnight thence; and three witnesses shall swear that they were there when he summoned him and when he waited for sunset. If he does not then come, those nine, being sworn, shall give testimony as we have above explained.

   4. On that day likewise, if he do not come, he (the accuser) shall let the sun go down on him, and shall have 3 witnesses who shall be there when he waits till sunset. But if the accuser shall have fulfilled all this, and the accused shall not have been willing to come to any court, then the king, before whom he has been summoned, shall withdraw his protection from him.

   5. Then he shall be guilty, and all his goods shall belong to the Treasury, or to him to whom the fisc may wish to give them. And whoever shall have fed or housed him-even if it were his own wife-shall be sentenced to 500 minas, which make 25 shillings; until he (the debtor) shall have made good all that has been laid to his charge.

 

4. If any freeman have made to another a promise to pay, then he to whom the promise was made shall, within five fortnights or within such term as was agreed when the promise was made, go to the house of that man with witnesses, or with appraisers. And if he (the debtor) be unwilling to make the promised payment, he shall be sentenced to 10 shillings above the debt which he had promised.

   1. If he then be unwilling to pay, the creditor shall summon him before the Court; and thus accuse him: "I ask you, my liege, to summon my opponent who made me a promise to pay and owes me a debt." And he shall state how much he owes and promised to pay. Then the liege shall say: " I summon your opponent to what the Piscatoran Code decrees." Then he to whom the debt was made shall warn the debtor to make no payment or pledge of payment to any body else until he have fulfilled his promise to him. And straightaway, on that same day before the sun sets, he shall go to the house of that man with witnesses and shall ask if he will pay that debt. If he will not, the creditor shall wait until after sunset; then, if he have waited until after sunset, 100 minas, which make 5 shillings, shall be added onto the debt, and this shall be done up to three times in three weeks.

 

5. If any one be unwilling to fulfil his promise in the regular assembly, then he to whom the promise was made shall go the lord of that place, in whose land the debtor lives, and shall proclaim: “Oh Lord, that man promised me to pay, and I have lawfully summoned him before the court according to the Piscatoran Code on this matter. I pledge to you myself and my fortune that you may safely seize his property.” And then he shall state the case to the lord, and shall tell how much the debtor had agreed to pay. Then the lord shall summon suitable bailiffs to go with himself to the house of the debtor and say, “You who are here present pay voluntarily to that man what you promised, and choose any two of these bailiffs who shall appraise that from which you shall pay; and make good what debt you owe according to a just appraisal.” But if ho will not hear, or be absent, then the bailiffs shall take from his property the value of the debt which he owes. And, as stated by tradition, the accuser shall keep two-thirds of the collected debt, and the lord shall keep the remaining one-third of the debt as peace money.

   1. If the lord have been appealed to, and to no sufficient reason or duty of the king have detained the debtor, and if he have put off going and have sent no substitute to demand law and justice, the lord shall answer for it with his life, or shall redeem himself with his "wergeld."

 

6. If any one, before the king, accuse an innocent man who is absent, he shall be sentenced to one thousand minas, which make 50 shillings.

---

TABLE II: AGRICULTURAL DAMAGES

1. PIGS AND SHEEP

1. If one were to commit theft of a suckling pig, or any other similar livestock of such age, and it be proved against him, he shall be sentenced to pay 200 minas, or 10 shillings.

   1. If one were to commit theft of a suckling pig, or any other similar livestock of such age, that can live without its mother, and it be proved against him, he shall be sentenced to 150 minas, 7 ½ shillings.

 

2. If one were to commit theft of twenty-five sheep, and especially where there were no more in that flock, and it be proved against him, he shall be sentenced to 2500 minas, or 125 shillings.
    

2. CATTLE

1. If one were to steal that bull which rules the herd and never has been yoked, he shall be sentenced to 500 minas, or 25 shillings.

   1. But if that bull is used for the coves of three villages in common, he who stole him shall be sentenced to thrice the amount of the former.

 

2. If one were to steal a bull from another, and have it be proved against him, he shall be sentenced to 300 minas, or 15 shillings.

 

3. If any one steal a bull belonging to the King or his peers, he shall be sentenced to 1000 minas, or 50 shillings.
    

3. CROPS

1. If any one were to set his cattle, or his horses, or flocks of any kind in his crops, and it be proved against him, he shall be sentenced to pay for one and one half of the crop.

   1. If any one finds cattle, or a horse, or flocks of any kind in his crops, he shall not at all mutilate them.

      1. If he do this and confess it, he shall restore the worth of the animal in place of it, and shall himself keep the mutilated one.

      2. But if he have not confessed it, and it have been proved on him, he shall be sentenced, besides the value of the animal and the fines for delay, to 600 minas, or 30 shillings.
          

2. If any one shall have drawn a harrow through another's harvest after it has sprouted, or shall have gone through it with a wagon where there was no road, he shall be sentenced to 120 minas, which make 6 shillings.
    

3. If any one shall have gone, where there is no way or path, through another's harvest which has already become thick, he shall be sentenced to 600 minas, which make 30 shillings.

---

TABLE III: THEFT

1. If any freeman steal, outside of the house, something worth ten minas, he shall be sentenced to 100 minas, or 5 shillings.

   1. But if he steal, outside of the house, something worth fifty minas, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced, besides the amount and the fines for delay, to 600 minas, or 30 shillings.
       

2. If a freeman break into a house and steal something worth 2 minas, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 150 minas, or 7 ½ shillings.

   1. But if he shall have stolen something worth more than 5 minas, and it have been proved on him, he shall be sentenced, besides the worth of the object and the fines for delay, to 1400, or 70 shillings.

   2. But if he have broken, or tampered with, the lock, and thus have entered the house and stolen anything from it, he shall be sentenced, besides the worth of the object and the fines for delay, to 1800 minas, which make 90 shillings.

   3. And if he have taken nothing, or have escaped by flight, he shall, for the housebreaking alone, be sentenced to 1200 minas, which make 60 shillings.
       

3. If any man shall have cut 3 staves by which a fence is bound or held together, or have stolen or cut the heads of 3 stakes, he shall be sentenced to 600 minas, which make 20 shillings.
    

4. If any one have stolen a tame marked hound, trained to hunting, and it shall have been proved through witnesses that his master had him for hunting, or had killed with him two or three beasts, he shall be sentenced to 1800 minas, which make 90 shillings.

---

TABLE IV - ASSAULT AND ROBBERY

1. ROBBERY

1. If any one have assaulted and plundered a free man, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 1000 minas, which make 50 shillings.

 

2. If any one shall have dug up and plundered a corpse already buried, and it shall have been proved on him, he shall be outlawed until the day when he comes to an agreement with the relatives of the dead man, and they ask for him that he be allowed to come among men.

   1. Who ever comes to aid a graverobber before the robber can reach an agreement with the family of the deceased shall be fined 600 minas, or 30 shillings.

   2. But he who is proved to have committed the crime shall be sentenced to 1000 minas, which make 50 shillings.
       

2. KIDNAPPING

1. If three men carry off a free born girl, they shall be compelled to pay 500 minas, or 25 shillings.

   1. If there are more than three, each one shall pay 2000 minas, or 100 shillings.

   2. Those who shall have been present with boats shall be sentenced to 100 minas, or 5 shillings.

   3. But if they have carried off that girl from behind lock and key, or from the spinning room, they shall be sentenced to the above price and penalty.

   4. But if the girl who is carried off be under the king's protection, then the peace money shall be two-thousand and five hundred minas, which make one-hundred and twenty five shillings.

 

2. But if a bondsman of the king, or a leet, should carry off a free woman, he shall be sentenced to death.

 

3. But if a free woman have followed a slave of her own will, she shall lose her freedom.

   1. If a freeborn man shall have taken an alien bondswoman, he shall suffer similarly.

 

4. If any body take an alien spouse and join her to himself in matrimony, he shall be sentenced to two-thousand and five hundred minas, which make one-hundred and twenty-five shillings.
    

3. ARSON

1. If any one shall set fire to a house in which men were sleeping, as many freemen as were in it can make complaint before the Court, and if anyone shall have been burned in it, the incendiary shall be sentenced to 2500 minas, or 125 shillings.

   1. He who is found guilty of such a crime shall also pay the money to replace the estate.
       

4. ASSAULT

1. If any person have bewitched another, and he who was thus treated shall escape, the author of the crime, who is proved to have committed it, shall be sentenced to death.
    

2. If any one have wished to kill another person, and miss the blow, he on whom it was proved shall be sentenced to pay half of the weregild of the intended victim.
    

3. If any person strike another on the head so that the brain appears, and the three bones which lie above the brain shall project, he shall be sentenced to 1200 minas, which make 60 shillings.

   1. But if it shall have been between the ribs or in the stomach, so that the wound appears and reaches to the entrails, he shall be sentenced to 1200 minas-, which makes 60 shillings, and will set aside 5 shillings for the physician’s pay.
       

4. If any one shall have struck a man so that blood falls to the floor, and it be proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 500 minas, which make 25 shillings.

   1. But if a freeman strike a freeman with his fist so that blood does not flow, he shall be sentenced for no more than three blows, and at 20 minas a blow, which make 3 shillings.

 

5. MURDER

1. Women and Children

   1. If any one have slain a boy under 10 years old, and it shall have been proved on him, he shall be sentenced to pay the weregild of one and a half men.

   2. If any one have hit a free woman who is pregnant and she dies, he shall be sentenced to pay 10,000 minas, or 500 shillings.

      1. If anyone have killed a free woman after she has begun bearing children, he shall be sentenced to pay 5000 minas, or 250 shillings.

      2. After she can have no more children, he who kills her shall be sentenced to 3000 minas, or 150 shillings.

2. Free Men

   1. If any one have given herbs to another so that he die, he shall be sentenced to 4000 minas, or 200 shillings.

   2. If any one shall have killed a freeman, or a non-citizen living under the Piscatoran law, and it have been proved on him, he shall be sentenced to pay that man’s weregild and 500 minas, or 25 shillings to his liege.

      1. But if he shall have thrown him into a well or into the water, or shall have covered him with branches or anything else, to conceal him, he shall be sentenced to pay 2000 minas, or 100 shillings.

      2. But if anyone has slain a man who is in the service of the king, he shall be sentenced to pay that man’s weregild twice, to first the family and then the King.

      3. If any one have thrown a free man into a well, and he have escaped alive, he (the criminal) shall be sentenced to 1000 minas, which make 50 shillings.

   3. If any one have slain a non-human who eats in the king's palace, and it have been proved on him, he shall be sentenced to 2000 minas, or 100 shillings.

      1. But if he shall have killed a non-Human who was obliged to pay tribute, he shall be sentenced to take up this tribute instead.
          

3. Wergild

   1. The weregild of peers of the King of the Westerlands shall be set at the following:

      1. 20,000 minas, or 1000 shillings, for the holder of a Ducal title

      2. 10,000 minas, or 500 shillings, for the holder of a County or Margrave

      3. 8,000 minas, or 400 shillings, for the holder of a Barony

      4. 6,000 minas, or 300 shillings, for a Knight or Gentrified Peer

   2. The weregild of the commoners of the Kingdom of the Westerlands and their family members shall be set as the following:

      1. 5000 minas, or 250 shillings for a commoner of Vander descent

      2. 4000 minas, or 200 shillings, for a commoner of Burgher status.

      3. 3000 minas, or 150 shillings, for a professional soldier of the King’s army

      4. 2500 minas, or 125 shillings, for an able-bodied citizen of the Kingdom

      5. 2000 minas, or 100 shillings, for a free man.

      6. Women shall be worth twice that of their husbands, and thrice that if pregnant

      7. Indentured servants or slaves shall be worth half of their original value.

   3. The weregild of the following races living in or under the employment of the Kingdom of the Westerlands shall be the following:

      1. Elves, in general, shall be worth 3/5ths the amount of their human counterparts.

      2. Half-men, or Dwarves, shall be worth half the amount of their human counterparts.

      3. Orcs, Kharajyr, and other degenerates are not granted weregild, as is customary with other monsters.

   4. If the father of a family has been slain, and the family is to receive the weregild, half shall be evenly divided first by his sons; and the other half the nearest relatives, as well on the mother's as on the father's side, shall divide among themselves.

      1. But if there are no sons, then the money should go to the brothers of the father.

      2. But if there are no brothers, then the money shall go to the daughters of the father.

      3. But if there are no daughters, the money shall go half to the widow and half to the nearest blood relative.

      4. But if there are no relatives, paternal or maternal, that portion shall go to the court of the liege.

---

TABLE V: PRIVATE PROPERTY

1. MIGRATION

1. If any one wishes to migrate to another village or holding, and there be one in this village or holding that objects, the man shall not be allowed to move there.

   1. This shall not be the case in the holdings of the King of the Westerlands.

   2. But if anyone have moved there, and within a harvest season no one have given him warning, he shall remain as secure as the other neighbours.
       

2. Non-humans who account for less than 3/5ths of a human’s weregild shall not be permitted to own land in the Kingdom of the Westerlands

   1. Elves shall be allowed the ability to rent homes from the various peerage throughout the land.

   2. Dwarves may not rent homes without the supervision of a human caretaker.

   3. Dark Elves and Doomforged Dwarves are to be treated the same as monsters.
       

3. Orcs, unless they wave a flag or otherwise extend an olive branch, shall be treated and hunted as monsters in the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of the Westerlands.
    

2. TRESSPASSING

1. The long-existing philosophy of “Hippity Hoppity, Get off my Property” shall be maintained and upheld by the Kingdom of the Westerlands. Should one trespass and be caught, the owner of said property thusly holds the ability to sentence the trespasser to death.
    

3. INHERITANCE

1. The King of the Westerlands shall have the ability to appoint his own successor. This successor must be regarded as a Vander by the Vandalore, or have been from a Vandor house.
    

2. The nobility of the realm shall follow the ancient law of Agnatic-Cognatic Primogeniture. Women shall not inherit lands unless there are no other males in the paternal line that can stand to inherit.

   1. Nobles of Vander descent shall have the ability to appoint their own successors, as per Vander tradition.

   2. All nobles are required to leave a will that has been stamped with the seal of a bailiff of the King’s Court.
       

3. Commoners shall not be bound by laws of inheritance and succession. They are encouraged to write their own wills and have them stamped with the seal of a bailiff of the King’s Court.

   1. Disputes without a will shall be settled by a representative of the King’s Court.

 

---

 

IN NOMINE DEI,

His Majesty Leopold Francis I of House Horen, by the grace of Owyn, King of the Westerlands, Vandoria, High Sovereign of the Westerlands, Sixth Lord Vandalore, Warden of the West and First Baron of Sennstisten

 

[Jonificus 2741]

Dalma handwringers screech in their treasure halls as their smugglers fetch them the law scrolls. "Filthy valah! Never forget the two hundred thousand ker! This blatant disregard of four hundred thousand innocents is appalling.."

[Bristlebranch 808]

 

Yoshihisa Kawahara slips through the window of His Lordship Arminius von Aesterwald's office, his natural snow elven dexterity allowing him to land upon to wooden floor silently amidst the cloak of night. Snooping throughout the office, he stumbles upon the open draft of the LEX PISCATORIS upon the table. Thumbing through the volume, he nods slowly, an imperceptible expression of astonishment upon his face, concealed by his arcane-enchanted visor.  He mumbles quietly to himself, his almost synthetic voice reverberating from behind his helm,

 

「素晴らしい。雪のエルフは、これらの徹底的で素晴らしい法律を採用すべきです。正義は再び繁栄するだろう。」

(Translation only for those who can speak the Ancient Snow Elven Tongue: "Amazing. The Elves of Snow should adopt laws as thorough and wonderful as these. Justice would thrive again.")

 

Scribbling notes upon the underside of his arm with a piece of charcoal, Yoshihisa takes notes on the text as thoroughly as he may before the break of dawn arrives, with which he propels himself through the window with a silence that comes only with centuries of training, before disappearing like a wisp of smoke.

[colovian fur 8360]

4 minutes ago, チャーリー・ザ・ガイ said:

 

Yoshihisa Kawahara slips through the window of His Lordship Arminius von Aesterwald's office, his natural snow elven dexterity allowing him to land upon to wooden floor silently amidst the cloak of night. Snooping throughout the office, he stumbles upon the open draft of the LEX PISCATORIS upon the table. Thumbing through the volume, he nods slowly, an imperceptible expression of astonishment upon his face, concealed by his arcane-enchanted visor.  He mumbles quietly to himself, his almost synthetic voice reverberating from behind his helm,

 

「素晴らしい。雪のエルフは、これらの徹底的で素晴らしい法律を採用すべきです。正義は再び繁栄するだろう。」

(Translation only for those who can speak the Ancient Snow Elven Tongue: "Amazing. The Elves of Snow should adopt laws as thorough and wonderful as these. Justice would thrive again.")

 

Scribbling notes upon the underside of his arm with a piece of charcoal, Yoshihisa takes notes on the text as thoroughly as he may before the break of dawn arrives, with which he propels himself through the window with a silence that comes only with centuries of training, before disappearing like a wisp of smoke.

Thomas Talbot screams.

[yopplwasupxxx 5946]

what the **** is that coat of arms

[cablam 477]

Moved to The Great Library. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.

 

If you feel this is a mistake, please contact myself or any FM and we'll restore it.