[EVENT] It's high time to decide these high crimes...

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL
Date: May 10
Location: Courtyard of Public Opinion
Situation: It's time for the Guilds to come together and decide the list of High Crimes - and see if the Foreigners have their Guild organized.
Warnings/Rating: To be added as needed.




Part 1 - On the Matter of the Foreigners Guild

As elaborated to all Foreigners in Keeliai, the rest of the Council has set them the task of assigning leadership within their guild, including spokesperson(s) to participate in the Courtyard meetings and represent the Foreigners Guild's interests. Having been given more than a month of lead time, the assemblage is now waiting to hear the results of those deliberations.

"Who will be speaking for the Foreigners Guild? Please step forward and introduce yourselves."

Part 2 - On the Matter of High Crimes

As part of the new governing structure, the Guilds must now come together to decide a list of High Crimes which require sentencing by agreement of all nine groups. The Guilds will also lay out sentencing guidelines for each of these crimes. That doesn't mean there will be automatic sentencing, necessarily. The guidelines will help dictate minimum and maximum boundaries of punishment, such as length of incarceration, fines, and ramifications post-conviction.

While the Guild representatives will be laying out the initial proposition, all are welcomed and encouraged to partake and add their own input to help smooth out the rough edges. Although there are not designated areas for each of the Guilds, members of each do tend to congregate around their respective leaders.

The list of proposed High Crimes include, but are not limited to:

• Murder
• Kidnapping
• Arson
• Assault (aggravated and/or sexual*)
• Treason
• Terrorism
• Drug Trafficking/Selling

Guilds can propose additions or subtractions to this list, and guidelines for each. It's not a joyful task, but it is a necessary one. Despite the somewhat grim nature of the meeting, there is a sense of determination. The citizens of Keeliai are governing themselves now, and that is indeed a powerful thing.

*Mod note: This is coming up for general IC info, as it exists within the game setting but not as a game function intended to arise outside of this list.

Part 3 - On the Matter of Guild Management

The last order of business for today's Courtyard meeting is to determine if, and under what circumstances, guilds have the right to either refuse membership or revoke membership to anyone. While this thankfully doesn't seem to have been a problem while everyone sorted themselves into their initial choices, it'd be naive to think that it's not an issue that could come up in the future. Since not being affiliated with any guild carries legal repercussions -- fines that can escalate into even jail time -- it seems prudent to have a system in place before it becomes an issue.

Everyone's encouraged to volunteer their thoughts on this matter -- the official decision won't be made until the next gathering, so input doesn't have to be limited to just the spokespeople from each guild, but anyone in attendance.

Right now, the only generally agreed-upon point seems to be that this type of refusal or ejection needs to have some kind of oversight from outside the guild in question, to prevent abuse of the system. Whether that's a case where it would require the whole Council is another matter, and some seem to think that simply getting the motion seconded or thirded would be enough.

Comments

[irongaze]

Valdis? You are currently leading the murderboard. Your opinions on murder are so far from valid that they are actually backing up her points.

Oh, dear. Eliyen resisted the urge to rub at her temples, because her life would be leagues easier if Valdis was not here. Due to the investigation and everything.

"Not at all," she said, her voice even. "The fact of the matter is, your soul gems mean that you return when you die. We kedan do not. Emperors Eshai and Evandau, and poor Aroyan...they are no longer with us. Eshai was murdered by one of you - executed by Evandau, and had his soul not been banished, he would have returned as well.

"While you may not approve, theft of life is rather more permanent for a kedan than a Foreigner. Please understand that." Her voice softened at the end; there were, thankfully, no casualties due to the Dust, but Sherlock's announcement about the Red Mist had her jumpier than a kirin confronted with a branding iron. If her deepest fears came to pass...many kedan would die. Many Foreigners would, too, but the kedan casualties would be beyond help, even for all the skill of the Healers Guild.

[redlightgreenlight]

A sharpness, something akin to fear, passed through her eyes so quickly that most would miss the fact that it had been there. Valdis still didn't know who had been responsible for Evandau's death and while in the end it was definitely Malicant, the demon had never acted by his own hand.

"Permanence," Valdis repeated, "So our lives hold less value because we can return from death." that was a statement, not a question, "And yet aren't punishments put in place to discourage bad behavior? What's to stop a kedan from murdering a Foreigner if they know that they will get off more lightly than if they had murdered another kedan? We might not be normal, but we aren't invincible. And if a kedan does attack one of us, are we discouraged from fighting back due to stricter consequences?"

[irongaze]

"Self-defense is not discouraged in any case, no matter who is attacking whom." Eliyen replied. "And you speak as if the penalty for any sort of murder is not a high crime with severe punishments." Granted, punishments that may not be able to be carried out in some cases - her conversation with Bakura still had her shaken - but that was unfortunately the way of things here.

"Murder is not tolerated and will never be tolerated. Any society in which it is condoned under any circumstances would be the epitome of horrific. Premeditated or on impulse, murder is murder. It is theft of life - but the difference is, the theft of yours will be returned. Ours will not. This is the point of this gathering - to determine crime and punishment. The Guild has sent me as a representative, and we are offering our proposals, nothing more."

Don't shoot the messenger, Valdis.

Again.

[redlightgreenlight]

"It still sounds to me as if our lives are of less value to you because of our circumstances. One could argue that Foreigner lives were stolen by your Emperors when they brought us here to fight Malicant. We did not choose this and yet this proposal makes us responsible for a magic that we didn't initiate and don't understand."

Her tone is even, patient and she is relaxed. Anger couldn't be further away, and yet the unfairness of this proposed plan could not be allowed to pass lightly.

"And, except perhaps as a liaison, I do not speak for the Foreigner's guild, right now I speak as a member of your guild."

#ForeignerPrivilege

[irongaze]

Eliyen pauses, and says "Lives of our people were stolen and sent away, too, and to where we do not know, or even if they still live."

She crosses her arms over the folder carrying copies of her proposal. "While you may not be responsible for your circumstances, you must recognize that you have a certain level of privilege that the kedan do not. Much as a rich man has above a poor one, you have advantages in this world. Advantages that you have no control over, but advantages all the same. Would we ask a poor man to pay the same amount of monetary compensation for a crime as a rich man? Would that be fair to you, to make an indigent person destitute while a rich person could throw that same amount of juulan around without a care?"

There is a level of value in a proportional response rather than an absolute one.

[redlightgreenlight]

"Theft is not in question. Murder is murder, no matter who commits it against whom. But, as you so wisely put it, circumstances do and should play part. Some of you are so quick to jump to Eshai's murder and the consequences of that. She was the emperor, so of course that judgement was biased. That circumstance dictated placing a higher value on her life than if another kedan had been murdered. Do you plan to place bias on kedan murders as well? Or would the punishment for a kedan murdering a spokesperson be the same as for one who murdered their neighbor? Is execution even on the table for kedan or is that just reserved for Foreigners and Cultists?"

Equality was a foolish, human sentiment, but Valdis had to make the argument. Besides, if the Kedan thought that the foreigners would let something like execution and banishment happen as a second or third consequence, they were sorely mistaken.