Laws and Customs

**Laws and customs** of the peoples living in the Five Kingdoms are based on their feudal system of government.

## Legal System

### The King's Peace

Rhaeks have judicial power over cases that occur on their lands. A Rhaek will hear petitions at his local castle-court, sit in judgment at trials, and pass sentence based on the evidence. In theory, justice derives from the authority of the King of the Andals, Lord of Royalshold, and Protector of the Realm, who wears the Haven Crown in the capital city of Throes Peak. The King's power is delegated out to other great Rhaeks of the realm. This extends in a hierarchy from the king, to the rulers of the Great Houses (such as House Blackthorn), to major Houses (such as House Noval), to minor Houses (such as House Altcratal).

The King's Peace is supposed to extend over the whole realm, and though small scale feuds or succession wars happen now and again, the constant wars between the independent Five Kingdoms were put to an end when they were unified in the Plight of Sixteen nearly five hundred years ago. The King's peace also extends to protection from outlaws and pirates.

The Five Kingdoms do have a "Harold of Laws", suggesting some sort of statutory written laws exist, but their legal system still appears to be primarily based on customary laws, prior precedent, and the wisdom of the Rhaek presiding over a decision.

Individual Rhaeks are supposed to enforce the laws and carry out punishment on their own lands. Only the major towns (and possibly a few of the large villages) have dedicated "police forces", such as the Order of the Watch.

### Rhaekship

*See main article: "Rhaekship"*
Gaining the title of knighthood does not make a man a lord, though many knights do eventually become lords. Knighthood is a middle-step between noble-born lords and commoners. A commoner can be knighted for valorous service in battle, but the title is not hereditary. A commoner who is knighted usually starts out as a “hedge knight”, a poor freelance knight not bound in allegiance to a specific lord (considered to be so poor that they sleep under hedges by the roadside while searching for employment). The next step up for a prospective knight is to become a “sworn sword”, sworn to the service of a particular lord or Rhaek. Beyond this step, a sworn sword may become a “landed knight” if his lord or Rhaek rewards him with land for his service, typically a smallholding, large farm or small manor with servants. Successful landed knights who expand their holdings or continue to perform exemplary service for their liege may be raised to the rank of "Lord" in time, leading a minor noble house. Sometimes a knight may skip some of these steps, and while rare it is not unheard of for a lord to reward a commoner for valorous service by granting him both land and the title of knighthood.

The difference between a “landed knight” and a “minor lord” is often very subtle, as some landed knights may actually be wealthier and more powerful than minor lords whose families have fallen on hard times. However, the vital distinction is that only a “lord” legally possesses the power of justice, which a landed knight does not. For example, House Manford is a House of landed knights in service of House Blackthorn, but it is not a lordly House. Thus the head of the House, Leryn Manford, does not possess the legal right to hear trials and pass judgement.

## Social structure: Highborns, lowborns, women, religious leaders, and bastards

The society and legal system of the Five Kingdoms recognizes a hereditary noble class set above a class of commoners, who are officially known as "smallfolk" (the very name indicates their lower social standing). Members of the nobility are also known as "**highborn**", while commoners are known as "**lowborn**". Nobles officially possess more legal rights than the commoners do. Many crimes for which a lowborn peasant would be punished by having their hand cut off a noble will only be punished for by paying a fine. The noble-born also have the right to demand a **Trial by combat**.

There are a number of wealthy merchants in the few cities and towns, but on the whole, the Five Kingdoms’ society is feudal and agricultural. While there is a small merchant class, it does not extend far beyond the five major cities (Throes Peak, Loduhr, Las Thalas, Ashalin Town, and Los Cerith). Even a wealthy merchant in Throes Peak is still legally considered to be a “commoner”.

Women, even noble-born women, do not have the same legal standing as men. Inheritance only falls on a woman if there are no males in her family ahead of her in line of succession. However, women can rule in their own right if they have no surviving brothers (and their brothers left no surviving heirs). An exception is Khoroth, which allows equal inheritance. If the noble-born heir to a lordship is underaged (or otherwise infirm and unfit to carry out their duties), a **regent** may be appointed to rule in their name.

Members of religious organizations are a different section of society, technically not nobles but possessing special privileges that commoners do not possess. This of course primarily applies to the clergy of the Faith of the Vecronasl, the dominant religion in the Five Kingdoms. In past centuries, the Faith of the Vecronasl had the power to conduct its own trials in ecclesiastical courts. However, they lost the right to hold trials after the Plight of Sixteen, when such public powers were brought under the exclusive control of the king with the **Haven Crown**.

Bastard children of a noble, who have been acknowledged by their noble parent, are allowed to take a special bastard surname which signifies their status. These bastard surnames are based on the region a child was born in, thus bastards from Khoroth use the special surname “Sand." Bastards are not allowed to inherit their parents' lands and have no place in the line of succession (unless they are legitimized by special order of the king and allowed take their parents' surname, which rarely happens). Even so, the acknowledged bastard children of a noble are still technically “highborn”, and enjoy legal rights which commoners do not possess. Unacknowledged bastards, of course, cannot confirm that they are indeed the bastard child of a noble, and thus are legally considered commoners. There is no outright law punishing noble men or women for having bastard children, instead it is considered a social and religious disgrace. This disgrace for having bastard children or being a bastard is not so great, however, in Khoroth.

## Inheritance and age of majority

The legal age of majority in the Five Kingdoms is considered to be sixteen years of age. Their society does not possess a concept of “adolescence” as an intervening life-stage between childhood and adulthood. As soon as a boy reaches his sixteenth birthday, he suddenly becomes “a man grown”, and is legally considered to be an adult. Legally, girls are also considered adults at sixteen, though culturally they are often seen as suddenly becoming “a woman” as soon as they have menstruated. A girl who has had her first blood is often seen as now capable of being married.

Inheritance practices usually follow primogeniture, a male-preference winner-take-all system.

> After the tradition of her people, House Nortale then ruled Khoroth as 'princes', not 'kings' - unless the eldest child was a daughter, for unlike the rest of Soothereos, our loyalty isn't commanded by a cock. We follow a Prince or a Princess Nortale just the same.
>
> Prince Matyter, House Nortale, House Nortale (short)

The local laws in Khoroth are somewhat different from the rest of the realm, as it joined the realm not through conquest but through peaceful marriage-alliance, and was thus allowed to retain several local customs. In particular, Khoroth practices equal primogeniture, in which the eldest child inherits regardless of whether they are male or female.

## Marriage

Marriage customs in the Five Kingdoms is established via the main religion, but there are local variations in custom between different lands within the same regions.

The best documented are the marriage customs of the Faith of the Vecronasl, as it is the dominant religion on the continent. While the scale of the marriage can vary, it at least involves the couple exchanging marriage vows in a ceremony performed by a Septal, acting as a sacred witness. Large-scale marriages are typically performed in septs, before the gathered families of the bride and groom.

Children born outside of marriage are bastards and cannot inherit lands or wealth from their parents, unless legitimized by the monarch. The Seven Kingdoms do have a system for acknowledging bastards with special region-based surnames (such as "Snow", "Sand", etc.), but they still cannot inherit.

### Marriage contracts

Marriages among the nobility of the Five Kingdoms are rarely made for love, but as a means of securing political alliances between noble families. Arranged marriages to secure marriage alliances are very common. It is considered absurd for a member of the more powerful noble families to marry a commoner, throwing away any chance and a valuable marriage pact. Marriages into the royal family are seen as particularly valuable.

It is considered unseemly for a girl to marry before she has "flowered", but a girl as young as thirteen or so is considered a "woman" after she has first had her blood, and thus capable of being married and having children. It is frowned upon for a girl to marry if she has not bled yet, but betrothals can still be established for young girls to be married when they are older.

### Consummation

A marriage is only legally considered to be binding if it has been consummated, that is, if the bride and groom have had sex at least once. If a marriage has not been consummated, it may be annulled.

The nobility in the Five Kingdoms practice a custom known as a "Bedding", in which after the wedding feast is over, the bride and groom are physically carried off to the marriage bed, to ensure that the union is consummated. The men at the wedding carry off the bride, and the women carry off the groom. The group carrying each strips the clothing off the newlyweds while telling ribald jokes. Foreigners think this is a somewhat odd custom.

### Paramours

Social customs are somewhat different in Khoroth, which has more liberal attitudes towards sexuality. A holdover from the old court culture of their ancestors’ city-states is that Khoroth society still allows nobles to keep "paramours" - formal mistresses/unmarried lovers who can be male or female. Outsiders from the other kingdoms often dismissively think of Khorothean paramours as little more than mistresses or prostitutes, but they often have significant social standing in Khoroth. Some are even functionally treated as wives in all but name, such as Prince Matyters paramour Giamae Sand.

## Crime and punishment

*See category pages for "Crimes" and "Punishments".*
As a feudal society, the Five Kingdoms do not maintain long-standing dedicated prisons. There are dungeons in the major cities and castles, but these are not meant for long-term confinement of a prison population: they are more along the lines of holding pens used until sentencing through corporal or capital punishment. Valuable military or political prisoners may be confined for an extended period, i.e. in the Winter Cells under Castlerock, but this is exceptional.

Certain serious offenses such as rape are punishable by amputation (specifically castration), though in some cases even petty theft may be punishable by amputating a hand. Treason and oathbreaking are punishable by death. Those sentenced to execution or amputation, noble or commoner, have the option of joining the Order of the Watch instead, as a form of exile. Once a man has sworn the oath to join the Order of the Watch, the oath is for life, and the penalty for desertion is death. Open refusal of a direct order is also considered treason and oathbreaking to the Order of the Watch, and punishable by death. However, in certain situations, such as the ruling monarch's approval, it is possible for someone to actually leave the Order of the Watch.

In the south, professional executioners deal out death sentences, often by beheading or hanging. The royal executioner is known as the “King's Justice”, though in a looser sense the term "king’s justice" refers to the laws enforced by the king’s authority throughout the realm (i.e. the executioner who acts as “King’s Justice” thus becomes the living embodiment of law and sentence).

Belhelm, however, still follows the practices of the First Men, which hold that the man who pronounces the sentence must swing the sword. The reasoning is that if a lord is not steadfast enough in his convictions to look a man he has sentenced in the eye and then kill him personally, there will be doubt that the condemned man was guilty. Moreover, the life-or-death struggle for survival that the Northmen have had to face in winters means that they take the weight of command very seriously. The Northmen feel that if a lord cannot look a condemned man in the face as he personally executes him, he is unworthy of the weight of responsibility and consequences of his own orders.

Blood money is sometimes turned to as an alternative punishment for murder, to end a feud. In this case, the family or lord of a murderer will pay a large fine to the family of the man he killed, thus resolving the matter.

## Taxes and fines

People do pay some taxes to the central government in Throes Peak, but it isn't enough to sustain a standing royal army. Typically, under a manorial system, peasants pay their rent to the local lord as taxes-in-kind from the crops they raise or metals they mine. The Great Houses also collect taxes from their vassal Houses.

The crown also imposes various tariffs and fines on trade and shipping. Smugglers do try to sneak cargo past customs officials to avoid high shipping fees at ports, though the penalty if caught for smuggling is amputation.

## Prostitution and other sexual activities

*See main articles: "Prostitution" and "Gender and sexuality"*
Prostitution is tacitly legal in the Five Kingdoms, in the sense that there is no official law preventing brothels from openly operating in the major cities and towns. Organized religion does discourage prostitution, and it is socially frowned upon, but it is nonetheless present, sometimes seen as an outlet for uncontrollable male sexual desires. Secular lords and kings have not (in general) tried to shut down prostitution, as taxing brothels is a good source of revenue.

There are no secular laws against adultery or having bastard children out of wedlock, but the major religions criticize it, particularly the Faith of the Vecronasl. Similarly, there are no actual "laws" against homosexual activities, as in secular laws, but it is severely frowned upon by the Faith of the Vecronasl and regarded as sinful, like adultery. The Holy Texts of Vecronasl has sections of the text prohibiting "buggery and perjury".

The revived Faith Militant embraces a fanatical version of the Faith of the Vecronasl which punishes homosexuals as sinners, but they are zealots not considered normal by the general standards of Sootharian society up to that point.

Rape is considered a heinous crime, though the wealthy and powerful are often able to get away with it against commoners. Men found guilty of committing rape are often faced with a choice between castration or exile to the Great Expanse.