Court

As part of the obligations of the Judge or a Region Commander, it may become necessary to sit and hold court for a day. The person sitting in judgement spends six hours hearing complaints and criminal cases, and declaring verdicts. This creates a great deal of work for the region government, and so cannot be done when other festivities are occurring.

Holding court may be used as a tool to influence the region, depending on the attitude in which justice is applied. There are three basic attitudes that the judge may adopt.

If the judge wishes to make the inhabitants of the region happy, then merciful judgements will do the trick. The risk is that the judge may be seen as a pushover, and embolden rebels to carry out their activities more openly in the belief that they will not be punished severely.

If the judge wishes to instill confidence in the realm's justice system, then he may choose to be as just in his rulings as possible. Faith in the judicial process is a sign of loyalty. As with all cases, it is difficult to tell whether people will be happy or angry at the result.

Lastly, if the judge feels that the region is unruly, or not taking the government seriously, she may choose to be harsh in her rulings, punishing even small crimes cruelly. The people of the realm will not be happy, but they will often take the government much more seriously, and rebels may abandon their plans for independence out of fear for their own lives.

If loyalty in the region is very low to begin with, there is a risk that the judge will be attacked and wounded by a rebel while holding the court, so would-be judges should take this into consideration before holding court under these circumstances.