Eldarus law - Harsh, or not?

There has been a lot of controversy in the topic of prisoner rights in Eldarus. But one thing we have to remember is that this is a MEDIEVAL time period setting. Yes, there is fantasy to it, with magic and the different races, but we need to have some kind of realism to it as well. And lets face it - laws, and the enforcement of laws, were VERY hash in the middle ages.

(taken from a website on medieval history)
Law and order was very harsh in Medieval England. Those in charge of law and order believed that people would only learn how to behave properly if they feared what would happen to them if they broke the law. Even the ‘smallest’ offences had serious punishments. The authorities feared the poor simply because there were many more poor than rich and any revolt could be potentially damaging - as the Peasants Revolt of 1381 proved.

By the time of Henry II, the system of law in England had been improved because Henry sent out his own judges from London to listen to cases throughout all England’s counties. Each accused person had to go through an ordeal. There were three ordeals:
Ordeal by fire. An accused person held a red hot iron bar and walked three paces. His hand was then bandaged and left for three days. If the wound was getting better after three days, you were innocent. If the wound had clearly not got any better, you were guilty. Ordeal by water. An accused person was tied up and thrown into water. If you floated you were guilty of the crime you were accused of. Ordeal by combat. This was used by noblemen who had been accused of something. They would fight in combat with their accuser. Whoever won was right. Whoever lost was usually dead at the end of the fight.

In 1215, the Pope decided that priests in England must not help with ordeals. As a result, ordeals were replaced by trials by juries. To start with, these were not popular with the people as they felt that their neighbours might have a grudge against them and use the opportunity of a trial to get their revenge. After 1275, a law was introduced which allowed people to be tortured if they refused to go to trial before a jury.

If you were found guilty of a crime you would expect to face a severe punishment. Thieves had their hands cut off. Women who committed murder were strangled and then burnt. People who illegally hunted in royal parks had their ears cut off and high treason was punishable by being hung, drawn and quartered. There were very few prisons as they cost money and local communities were not prepared to pay for their upkeep. It was cheaper to execute someone for bad crimes or mutilate them and then let them go.

Most towns had a gibbet just outside of it. People were hung on these and their bodies left to rot over the weeks as a warning to others. However, such violent punishments clearly did not put off people. In 1202, the city of Lincoln had 114 murders, 89 violent robberies and 65 people were wounded in fights. Only 2 people were executed for these crimes and it can be concluded that many in Lincoln got away with their crime.


Compared to this, what has been done in our jail is tame. So, I'd like to hear other opinions on this. I know some of you may call me a hypocrite because IC, Rynn is not for harsh punishment and torture, but OOC, I am realistic. This stuff happened, and would happen here in the time setting.

So I've had a few days now to give some thought to Rynn's post on the Punishments for Crimes and such. She is correct in the point that while Eldarus lies within the realm of fantasy due to the various classes and rases, it also falls into the realm of Medieval-Era. Thereby she's correct in the matter of that punishments were severe quite often more severe than the crime warranted. Now then, now that I've thoroughly, in my opinion, complimented her points enough let me get on with what I have to say. I think we should all pitch in our thoughts and ideas here on what we believe some punishments for crimes should be, should this be the only punishment for this crime or should there be some form of scale (i.e. three strikes ect). Personally I think we should have some kind of slide scale that way there is some leway otherwise it would be everybody getting whipped or hung no matter how lesser or greater their crimes were compared to the others. I also like the idea that for more sever crimes that we have some form of a little trial I'm not saying something extravagant but like this way you could say that the accused is being tried by the people and not by a bias governmental official (*coughs* foxcrown *coughs* [sorry cappy]). There now that I've probably babbled on long enough I'm going to throw up a few of my basic suggestions:

Thievery: 1st offense 50 lashes and time in the stocks, 2nd Offense: Loss of a Hand and Jail Time 3rd Offense: Lost of Second hand and Jail time

Treason : EXECUTION!! - hanging, beheading, or even hell burn them at the steak

Rape: I vote ya burn the attacker :-O

Murder: EXECUTION

public Disturbance: Stocks

So those are just a few of my ideas and are just that ideas. Each punishement could be lesser or more so severe than what is listed and I'm still liking the idea of a small trial by say a board of 3 people.

Speak up people

Quote :

Thievery: 1st offense 50 lashes and time in the stocks, 2nd Offense: Loss of a Hand and Jail Time 3rd Offense: Lost of Second hand and Jail time

Treason : EXECUTION!! - hanging, beheading, or even hell burn them at the steak

Rape: I vote ya burn the attacker :-O

Murder: EXECUTION

Hehe. in that case, I got off easy. I'd rather lose a hand than lose my own life.

Maybe we should create a jury of some kind when we have a prisoner instead of waiting around for Jaxon to show up. And if your reading this, Jaxy my boy - *waggles finger in your face* shame on you for not being on often enough! Either a jury, or maybe Jaxon can appoint someone to be a judge? That way, we won't have to wait weeks upon weeks rotting in a jail cell waiting for our oh so unseen Regent finally poke his nose online, thus giving Foxcrown less time to come up with devious ways of torture (though his method of questioning is torture in itself, without the whips, thumbscrews and hot irons :-p )