Posted by Jarindyl on May 5, 2000 at 06:35:07:
In Reply to: Immortal Interaction (Log board down) posted by Humble Healer on May 4, 2000 at 18:04:37:
As an Arbiter and Arbiter Lord, my basic look on the whole thing (the Enforcer wasn't attacking during my time, but the Captain of the Guard sure had a beat-down posse fairly consistently) was that, as SphereMaker suggested, the Arbiters were a hired force. Unlike Empire, we didn't force our Laws on others... we merely stepped in and extended our protection to those who asked. The cityguards of the individual cities handled the mundane things (such as people stealing from shopkeepers, or people killing cityguards), while the Arbiters dealt with the more noteworthy criminals (say, a rampaging BattleRager).
Look at it as, to be allowed to adventure in Thera you get an Adventurer's Pass. Once you get that Pass, you come under the jurisdiction of the Arbiters, who are the Adventurer Police. Normal, non-adventuring, citizens of cities fall under the non-adventuring police (normal cityguards).
Sure, it's got weak points, but hey... It's more fun as a journey of discovery. I'm not really writing this as a "This is the way it is" post, but more of a "Here's a possible explanation, or at least a suggestion of how to develop your own explanation."