Inalienable rights

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General

Inalienable rights are the rights which every troop leaders has, simply because they are a noble. These rights can not be taken away; all troop leaders should protest out of office anyone foolish enough to violate one of these rights. An attack on one troop leader's rights is an attack on the rights of all nobles.

If one of your inalienable rights has been violated, you should report the matter to the titans.

These rights are OOC fun-preserving tools. They are meant to guarantee you, the player, can participate in the game properly. They are not meant to replace in-character discussions about what is proper or where the limits of a ruler are. On the contrary, internal politics including the setting of such limitations, is one of the most interesting parts of the game and these basic rights should in no way prevent these in-game discussions.

Also see the Government Rules page for some more advise especially for those in (in-game) positions of power.


The Rights

The inalienable rights are:

  • Playing at your own speed, timing and activity level, i.e. logging in as often or seldom as you like, at whatever times you like.
  • Choosing which type of unit to command
  • Going to tournaments
  • Pausing your character(s) because you have a real life to attend to
  • Choosing your class (one exception, see below)



More Details

Exceptions

We try to make the rules very basic and very strict, in order to prevent people from "gaming the system". That means that there are usually no exceptions.

There is, however, one exception we make: It is permitted to order people out of the bureaucrat class. Not into any specific other class, but people can be told to not become bureaucrats or to leave that class. The reason for this exception is that too many bureaucrats in a realm damage the realm at large, through bureaucracy and red tape. Since the only way to prevent that is to limit the number of bureaucrats, we allow this exception.


"Not Orders"

Some people try to circumvent the restrictions by careful choice of words. Do not accept that. If your boss at work or your commander in the army says "could you please be so kind as to..." you would be foolish to assume that it was not an order you just received. Same in BattleMaster - a ruler saying "I can't (or don't want to) order you to ..., but ..." is violating your inalienable right.

When it comes to inalienable rights, "requests" are the same as orders.


How to Act

How should someone in a position of power treat these rights? By acknowledging and moving on. Almost all longwinded texts are just sophisticated attempts to circumvent them. The basic rule is: Just shup up.

If there's a tournament, don't point out how important it is not to go - just shut up. If you would like more traders in your realm, come up with incentives and find out why people don't want to be traders. Don't lament to the realm, come up with a solution, that's your job as ruler or banker.

If some player explicitly asks for your advise, then feel free to give him some. Don't use it as an opportunity to give it to the entire realm.

In general, it is best to stay well clear of these rights, no matter how well-meaning or innocent your intentions. With the sheer number of players with very different backgrounds, there is always a reasonable risk that someone will misinterpret you.


Not Inalienable Rights

Some things are not inalienable rights, even though some people think they are, or wonder why they aren't. This list is, of course, incomplete. It lists those things most often asked about, and explains why:

Protesting
There is a "silent protest" option precisely for the reason that you can use it to remain anonymous and/or avoid repercussions
Duels
Like in real life, duels can be made illegal, and yet you can still fight them. That is the way it was most of history in the real world, and we find it more interesting to keep it that way in BattleMaster. It also means that in many realms your honour has to have been wronged severely before you consider a duel, because it is not only dangerous but also illegal.
Voting
this used to be an inalienable right. We removed it in order to allow more politics to flourish. The right to vote is ensured by the fact that votes are anonymous and only in very extreme cases can reliable conclusions about voting behaviour be drawn.


Enforcement

The inalienable rights are defended with extreme prejudice. There's one simple reason for that: The second they were opened up to discussion, interpretation, exceptions, borderline cases, etc. the lawyer-weasels and others who get a thrill out of gaming the system would invade like locusts.

Absolutely no violations of inalienable rights will be tolerated, no matter how minor or inconsequential. Absolutely no interpretations will turn a violation into a non-violation. Absolutely no "I didn't mean it" apologies will prevent the punishment - if you are the guilty party, consider it a lesson for next time and a reassurance that you yourself will be equally aggressively defended should someone else attack your inalienable rights.

The absolute harshest punishments are reserved for those who try to "weasel around" the rights, by using standard lawyer-speech, creative interpretations or such tools. Obvious attempts of this kind do lead to immediate account terminations with no prior warning.