Aiel law

The legal system used by the Aiel is relatively basic, as society is largely kept in check by the honor-based system of ji'e'toh. Most formal laws have something to do with disputes over water, murder, theft, or harm caused to certain persons. It is possible to incur toh without breaking the law, but it is nearly impossible to break the law without incurring some kind of toh.The Wheel of Time Companion, Aiel law.
== Universal laws ==
The few universal laws of the Aiel include a prohibition on murder, a prohibition on destroying or fouling water, a prohibition on theft (which does not regard the fifth as theft), and the prohibition on harming a Wise One, a pregnant woman, a child or a blacksmith.
These all-encompassing laws were decided upon over Aiel history by chiefs and Wise Ones. For a violation of one of these laws, a clan is expected to hand over the accused for trial or to try the person and carry out punishment themselves. Although clans sometimes avoided doing either, this expectation was often followed as a matter of honor. The expectation of honor also led to most clans giving members of their own clan harsher punishments than what would usually occur if a different clan found the defendent to be guilty.
== Aiel trials ==
Aiel trials consist of the sept chief acting as judge with a jury of twelve men and twelve women, all chosen by lot. An appeal may also be made to the clan chief, who then sits with a judge with a jury of twelve Wise Ones. In both cases, the jury decides guilt or innocence, and the judge decides the sentence. In the instance of deciding to declare someone da'tsang, a court of twelve Wise Ones sit without a clan chief.
Failing to appear for a trial or meeting a sentence is considered such a shame that it would put an individual outside of humanity. There is no provision for holding someone for a trial or a punishment; the offender is expected to show up at the proper time and place, else be placed on par with vermin.
== Punishments ==
If a defendant is found guilty, but has managed to meet any required toh, then it is possible for them to be acquitted. This is considered to the extent that satisfies the jury. If the defendant attempts to meet toh but has not fully been able to do so due to lack of time before the trial, then that can be considered mitigation, in proportion. Failing to attempt to meet any toh will certainly result in a harsher sentence.
The death penalty is always applied to those who had killed a Wise One, a pregnant woman, a child, or a blacksmith, as well as the sexual molestation of a child. There are no excuses for these, unlike other homicides, not even self-defense. The murder of others is defined by the circumstances, and is often applied to murder in peacetime rather than killing an opponent in battle. The punishment for murder is usually death, unless the closest survivors of the murdered person declare to the court that the killer has been able to meet toh. The death penalty is universally applied to those who had destroyed a source of water, and is considered so heinous that it is even applied to clan members who destroy the water source of a clan that has blood feud with the offender. Fouling a source of water is considered a slightly lesser crime, but not by much. Those who are sentenced to death are trussed like an animal for the slaughter, having their throat slit and the corpse left for the vultures.
As there is no prison system, any punishment that does not result in the death sentence is usually some sort of corporal punishment, such as being beaten or flogged in public. More than one beating can happen, and it is possible that someone who has fouled a water source can be beaten for it in every hold of the clan who owned the water source, and in every hold of the offender's own clan (if they did not originate from that clan).
Truce-violators and oathbreakers were only dressed in black and forced to do "useless labor", such as digging a deep hole with a spoon only to fill it back up again, carrying a sack of rocks around, running with a container of water and having to thirst if any was spilled, carrying dirt between two places, or pulling rocks and weighted sleds for hours. Humiliation often included punishments such as public beatings and enforced nudity, having to serve gai'shain, kneeling, or behaving in ways considered submissive to the Aiel. Being bound or caged was considered highly humiliating.
Being named da'tsang (despised one) was usually confined to rapists, thieves, sexual abusers, and those who harmed children, blacksmiths, Wise Ones or pregnant Aiel. Da'tsang were considered less than human and always dressed in black. They could only speak in limited circumstances, and were forced apart from any other da'tsang. Their possessions were normally destroyed.
== Prisoners ==
Even though Aiel did not have institutional prisoners, they keep a manner of prisoners, including gai'shain, hostages exchanged for reasons such as disputes, captured truce-breakers, oathbreakers and water-foulers, and wetlanders taken in the Waste.
Hostages are well-treated unless they violated the terms of their capture, and then would be expected to meet the violation under ji'e'toh. Any captive Aiel would be taken as gai'shain, but oathbreakers were instead dressed in black and humiliated before being handed back to their clan. Wetlanders who were not Tuatha'an, gleemen, or peddlers were usually killed out of hand, but might be given a chance to find their way out of the Waste after being stripped of their clothes and being given a water skin. After the Aiel War, any Cairhienin were taken to the tradeholds along the Cliffs of Dawn or the Great Rift and traded to Shara as slaves.
The Aiel had no custom to deal with Wetlander prisoners outside the Waste. The Shaido deemed them to be permanent gai'shain who did not need to be released after a year and a day, as they did not follow ji'e'toh, although the other clans considered this to be rather controversial and struggled to find a solution for wetlander prisoners.
== Interrogation ==
Aiel often extracted information from prisoners through shame rather than through pain, using methods such as enforced nudity, useless labor, and beatings for failure to cooperate in humiliation. An offender can be hung up by the wrists, switched or strapped, while the enforcers used nettles or other stinging or burning plants (whole or in powder form) and apply them to parts of the body. The idea is shaming the offender until they can bear the shame no more, and often worked with the Aiel. However, when the Aiel ventured into the Westlands, they found that wetlanders found the Aiel punishments to be tame, the pain and suffering from forced labor would often break them, rather than the mere humiliation of the act. An Aiel individual under torture would see shame in the public nature of mistreatment, but not in the pain and humiliation itself.
Category:Aiel culture
Category:Aiel culture