Posted by The First Citizen(IMM) on May 5, 2000 at 11:20:29:
Note: All this is just my opinion, not official immortal dogma.
It is a quite interesting argument to see what is the prevailing law in Thera. Is there truly a Theran law or are there a conglomeration of laws that are enforced by various groups each independantly. Which of these laws are valid or invalid?
I would say there are many more sets of laws that have been illustrated in the posts thus far. So far though we have City Law, Arbiter Law, and Imperial Law so we will begin with these.
Each of these forms of law can exist independantly of each other and often conflict with each other, but also act together to a certain degree.
City Law is unique in that it exists entirely outside of the playerbase, and can only truly be enforced by progs (as in Udgaard against paladins) or by Immortal interaction. Since it is rarely enforced (you would assume each city had ordinances against murder, but murderes aren't caught by guard mobs) it is often ignored. When it is enforced, however, people like the Humble Healer shouldn't be too upset... you're taking a gamble when you break city law, its just a safer gamble than breaking Arbiter Law.
All other forms of Law in Thera are Cabal Based. This includes Arbiter Law... Arbiters are a Cabal just like any other. They are designed with specific goals in mind, god-given abilities to bring those designs to fruition, and guidelines about how this is to be done. Arbiter Law is seen as the primary form of Law in Thera for two reasons:
1) It is the most dangerous law to break for non-members.
2) It has the general belief of the populace behind it.
Imperial Law is not as prevelant as Arbiter Law because the Imperials have less ability to enforce their laws upon non-members. However, they have the greatest ability to self-enforce the laws upon their members (anathema.)
Imperial Law and Arbiter Law are equal in their validity, however... Both are handed down by the gods and the members of the cabal are expected to enforce the law upon other mortals. Arbiter Law is more respected soley because Arbiters have more ability to enforce the law (in fact their powers are specifically designed to do so.)
Beyond City, Arbiter and Imperial Law are various stages of Codes.
The Battlerager Code forbids Magic to Mortals, and they attempt to enforce this code (quite effectively at times) upon non-members as well as members. One could say that thier law is strongest in that it spans all regions (city or not) and its members are practically incapable of breaking their law.
The code (possibly wrong word) of Sylvan is to preserve the forests and destroy those who defile it....
The code of (SCARAB) is to promote the tenants of a certain religion.
It can be argued that these various codes are NOT sets of laws however as they are not based around civilization... Perhaps this is where the confusion of the meaning of the Lawful Ethos comes from... this is a seperate argument however.
It can be argued that with the exception for City Law, all other laws of Thera are merely the enforcement of the views of a specific cabal. In this way, City Law is the only true law of the lands.
So whenever someone like the Humble Healer bitches about the Laws, they should be much more specific. The Enforcer is NOT an Arbiter... it just so happens that one of the tenants of Galadonian Law has her attacking criminals defined by the Arbiters as well as enforcing any specific Galadonian statutes.
Of corse in my opinion, Imperial Law is the key... heh...