Law Code of Hyperion and Wessex

Foreword:


The following is the base legal code of the Kingdom of Hyperion and all of its constituent Duchies. It consists of the Carta Solis, the effective constitution of the land, and the Common Law, created by royal decree and the decisions of Sheriffs.

Sub Signum Rex.
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Carta Solis

Manus, by the grace of God, King of Hyperion, Duke of Wessex and Count of Elba, to his bishops, dukes, barons, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, yeomen, servants, and to all his officials and loyal subjects, greeting.


Know that before the Holy Sun, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honour of the Gods, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the improvement and better ordering of our new kingdom over others of the Riadan race which have come before, at the advice of our reverend fathers Siverous, bishop of Aquileia, Theodoric, bishop of Wessex, Valens, bishop of Kirdain, Baenor, bishop of Victum, Tar, vicar of Argos, Brother Sully, master of the Knights of Auros in Kirdain, and of the lords Brandoreus, Doge of Aquileia, Thor, Duke of Kirdain, Surly, Baron of Urth, Aeneas Miles, constable of Wessex, Alphacod, general of Kirdain, Max the Dwarf and Monte, thaegars of Urth, Requesta, prime minister of Aquileia, Constantine of Argos, Einar of Sleggjaholl, Red, lord of paupers, Nihilum of Sancta, Shamoke, master of the Temple of Thelema in Urth, Savant of Slade, Tigus, mayor of Soacio, Nira the Queen of Heralds, Thengill of Pugnus Europae, Dulath, chamberlain of Hyperion, Thirlan, treasurer of Hyperion and other loyal subjects:


We have granted to all free men of our realm, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs:


On the Operation of Royal Government:

1. First, that we have granted to Auros, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the Church under Hyperion, so long as its bishops shall follow our Crown to the exclusion of others, including that of the pontiff of Sanguine, shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be observed appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and king Robert of Mercia, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's ecclesiastic courts - a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to the spiritual lords. Likewise have we granted to other divinities, and by this charter confirm the allowance of a prelature of those faiths which support good and wise rulership, always allowing one bishop only to each shire. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.

2. Second, that we, exercising our royal prerogative, shall appoint executive officials to a Royal Cabinet, the which shall be selected from among peers, knights, and freemen of the realm of Hyperion, and which shall, together with us, constitute a body henceforth called "The Crown". The executors of the Crown shall bear the power to administrate in their assigned capacities with royal authority.

3. Third, that we shall address the complaints held against the inertia and lethargy of the court during the tempore regis Roberti with the establishment of a legislature to be comprised of all landholders of magnate rank who shall hold land directly of the king as well as all prelates and archprelates of the Holy Church who so recognize the line of Laureola Malregard-Dei, Manus Dei, and all legitimate heirs as possessing the mandate of Heaven. This legislature shall be termed the House of Lords and shall meet in the royal capitol. Power to sponsor, certify, and legislate any act or law shall reside in this House of Lords, and articles so ratified by this body shall have the backing and potency of the Royal Seal, congruent to any decree or edict declared by the Crown.

4. Fourth, that we shall address the impediment to the free enterprise of the merchant classes in Mercia during tempore regis Roberti by introducing the freeman and minor landholder classes with representation in a lower house of the national legislature. This house shall meet in the royal capitol and shall be termed the House of Communes. Those permitted attendance shall include two knights elected from among the general populace of every shire as well as two burgesses elected from within every township, boroughs, or clanstone. This legislature shall have the power to sponsor legislation which it may pass to the House of Lords to certify, thereupon to gain the backing of the Royal Seal and induction into the common law.

5. The Crown shall maintain the power to overrule any act or law passed by the Houses of Lords and Communes through the power of royal veto. Inasmuch as the house lords or the knights and burgesses of the shire should be relentless in their support of vetoed legislation and desirous of seeing it upheld, a royal veto may be overridden by a three fourths approval by the House of Lords and a three fourths approval by the House of Communes.

6. All legislation to be sponsored and brought to a vote in the Houses shall be submitted to a presiding officer who shall regulate the introduction of bills and acts in a measured and orderly manner. All bills brought to the house floor for approval shall have an expiring time limit imposed by the presiding officer during which all votes must be cast or else forfeited. These presiding officers shall be either the king or his Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, or the Speaker of the House in the House of Communes.



On the Expansion and Definition of Feudal Law:

7. Feudal law shall exist as a standard throughout the realm of Hyperion, with variations on this standard being specified clearly in the charters, writs, and letters patent issued to new vassals, and thereafter upheld upon review by the college of heralds and law courts, such as chancery.

8. If any magnate holding directly of our Crown shall disappear and leave his land unmanned without a will or an approved declaration of a successor, and we shall not find a suitable successor from among the said lord's vassals, the land shall revert to the Crown in escheat at the end of seven days of the said magnate's disappearance, and we shall appoint a royal sheriff as bailiff over the said escheat. Similarly, if any knight shall vanish from his manor in the same manner, the mesne lord shall appoint a reeve or similar as bailiff over the knight's fee.

9. If we have given the guardianship of any dispossessed or unmanned land to a sheriff, or to any person answerable to us for the revenues, and he commits destruction or damage or mismanagement through incompetency, we will exact compensation from him, and the land shall be entrusted to two worthy and prudent men of the same `fee', who shall be answerable to us for the revenues, or to the person to whom we have assigned them. If we have given or sold to anyone the guardianship of such land, and he causes destruction or damage, he shall lose the guardianship of it, and it shall be handed over to two worthy and prudent men of the same `fee', who shall be similarly answerable to us.

10. For so long as a guardian has guardianship of such land, he shall maintain the houses, clanstones, farms, ponds, mills, mines and everything else pertaining to it from the revenues of the land itself. When a new lord is raised to the fief, this guardian shall restore the whole land to him, stocked with all the necessities required to draw maximum yield from the land.

11. Neither we nor our officials will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt or taxes from a feudal vassal, so long as the debtor has movable goods sufficient to discharge the debt. A debtor's sureties or witnesses in fealty shall not be distrained upon so long as the debtor himself can discharge his debt. If, for lack of means, the debtor is unable to discharge his debt or taxes, his sureties shall be answerable for it. If they so desire, they may seize by force the debtor's lands and rents until they have received satisfaction for the debt that they paid for him, unless the debtor can show that he has settled his obligations to them. If, after a period of time has passed which shall have been outlined in the feudal charter between us and the vassal, no compensation has been made and the debt has not been discharged, the Crown reserves the right to attaint and seize feudal benefices by escheat, enforcing the disseisen through force of arms, if necessary.

12. To obtain the general consent of the realm for the assessment of a conscripted military levy or an extra monetary aid or a `scutage', which shall be a request beyond that outlined in individual fealty charters, we will cause the archbishop, bishops, abbots, dukes, counts, and greater barons to be notified individually. To those who hold lands directly of us we will cause a general summons to be issued, through the sheriffs and other officials, to come together in the House of Lords. When a summons has been issued, the business appointed for the day shall go forward in accordance with the resolution of those present, even if not all those who were summoned have appeared.

13. No man shall be forced to perform more service for a knight's fee, or other free holding of land, than is due from it as detailed in his letters patent, charter of creation, or fief grant.

14. It shall be commonly outlined in most feudal charters that failure to appear for prescribed feudal military duties can be settled with a payment of a monetary sum called scutage, and that this scutage shall be owed and collected in a reasonable amount for every time a vassal does not supply the sworn military aid when requested. However, no constable of any county, duchy or barony shall force any knight to pay money for castleward or muster if he be willing to perform that ward in person with the specified men in service. And if we shall have led or sent him and his men on a military expedition, he shall be quit of ward according to the amount of time during which, through us, he shall have been in military service.

15. Lands taken and attainted by those convicted of high crimes shall be held by us, and then returned or distributed to other lords at our pleasure.

On the Expanded Rights of Freemen under our Royal Government:

16. The city of Sol Invictus shall be the seat of the new royal court. This city shall be a boroughs which shall enjoy all the ancient liberties and free customs enjoyed by the city of Sanguine, both by land and by water. We also will and grant that other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall enjoy all their liberties and free customs. Subjects residing in all counties, duchies and baronies, shall enjoy the rights of freemen and burgesses so long as they hold deed in title to a structure or a ship which stands within the buildable land of Hyperion.

17. In future we will allow no one to levy a monetary aid directly from his free men.

18. Any serf or vagabond of any shire may be distrained upon by the Crown and immediately exiled if such is found by the Crown to be in the interest of the realm at large. No freeman or gentleman shall be executed, or disseized, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed-nor will we go upon or send upon him, save by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.


On the Administration of Law and Order:

19. The royal sheriffs, the Lord Constable, the Lord Chancellor and other bailiffs of ours shall have the power to hold the pleas of our Crown.

20. Ordinary lawsuits shall be held by mesne lords in their respective shires, according to the procedures they recognize for their magistracy. The royal sheriffs shall be on hand in all shires and provinces for those preferring to seek appeal from the king's justice. Rulings of the sheriff courts shall be binding on any subject in any shire, save those which lie outside of secular jurisdiction, as ecclesiastics. Rulings of shire magistrate courts may also be appealed to the royal sheriff courts.

21. For a trivial offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence, and for a serious offence correspondingly, but not so heavily as to deprive him of his livelihood. In the same way, a merchant shall be spared his merchandise, and a serf the implements of his serfdom, if they fall upon the mercy of a royal court. None of these fines shall be imposed except by the assessment on oath of between three and six reputable men of the neighbourhood of the accused who shall be chosen by the sheriff and called as a jury of assize.

22. Magnates shall not be amerced save through their peers in the House of Lords, and only according to the measure of the offence.

23. No cleric shall be amerced by secular courts royal or noble, but only through the operation of the ecclesiastic courts, unless the ecclesiastic courts shall request it of the secular authorities.

24. No sheriff, on his own simple assertion, shall henceforth submit any one to fine or amercement without producing faithful witnesses in evidence.

25. We will not make men executors, constables, sheriffs, yeomen or other bailiffs of the royal court unless they are such as know the law of the realm, and are minded to observe it rightly.

26. To none will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice.


On the Protection and Handling of Property:

27. If any freeman shall have disappeared for a period of two weeks, his chattels shall be distributed through the hands of his near relatives and friends, by view of the Church; saving to any one the debts which the man owed him. In lands which have no ministry of the Church, the responsibility for fair distribution shall fall to the mesne lord.

28. No yeoman, sheriff, clerk or other bailiff of ours shall take the goods or other chattels of any one except he straightway give money for them, or can be allowed a respite in that regard by the will of the seller. Nor shall any sheriff nor bailiff of ours, nor any one else, take the horses or carts of any freeman for transport, unless by the will of that freeman. Neither shall we nor our bailiffs take another's wood or resources for castles or for other private uses, unless by the will of him to whom the resource belongs.


On the Advocacy of the Free Trade:

29. All merchants who register with the chancery may safely and securely go out of Hyperion, and come into Hyperion, and delay and pass through Hyperion, as well by land as by water, for the purpose of buying and selling, subject to the ancient and right customs-save in time of war, and if they are of the land at war against us. And if such be found in our land at the beginning of the war, they shall be held, without harm to their bodies and goods, until it shall be known to us or our royal court how the merchants of our land are to be treated who shall, at that time, be found in the land at war against us. And if ours shall be safe there, the others shall be safe in our land.

30. Henceforth any person giving fealty to us as a royal subject, may go out of our realm and return to it, safely and securely, by land and by water, except perhaps for a brief period in time of war, for the common good of the realm. But exiles and outlaws are excepted according to the law of the realm; also people of a land at war against us, and the merchants, with regard to whom shall be done as we have said.


On Policies of War and Force:

31. Concerning forests and warrens, and concerning foresters, rangers, and the Royal Warden, we shall maintain a royal patrol in each county, which in its duties seeks out raiders, brigands, outlaws, foreign soldiery, poachers, and thieves and shall eradicate them entirely.

32. Straightaway after disassociating from Mercia we shall remove from the new realm all foreign soldiers, crossbowmen, servants, and hirelings who may have come with horses and arms to the harm of the realm, and we shall not allow them entry into Hyperion without permission, even for the sake of passage, and all royal subjects are called to take up arms against any such incursions in the future.

33. When the Church shall call a crusade, or when a military levy shall be called all of those taking part shall enjoy a respite from fines and amercements owed, duties of offices held, and a reasonable respite from feudal military obligations. The Crown may call for an end to both levies and crusades at its pleasure.


34. No landholder of any fee may initiate wars or aggression on realms which have been recognized by the Crown or the College of Heralds, save they immediately be called to do so out of self defense. Landholders shall bear the right to police their holdings and neighboring badlands or wastelands of barbarians, hillmen, outlaws, renegades, nomads, and all such as hold neither sovereignty nor statehood in the eyes of the Crown.

Moreover all the subjects of our realm, clergy as well as laity, shall, as far as pertains to them, observe, with regard to their vassals, all which we have decreed and which shall, as far as pertains to us, be observed in our realm with regard to our own.

Wherefore we will and firmly decree that the subjects of our realm shall have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights and concessions, duly and in peace, freely and quietly, fully and entirely, for themselves and their heirs from us and our heirs, in all matters and in all places, forever, as has been said. Moreover it has been sworn, on our part as well as on the part of the lords, that all these above mentioned provisions shall be observed with good faith and without evil intent. The witnesses being the above mentioned and many others.


Given through our hand,

in the cave of Chaldea

8-8-8


Manus Rex


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8-8-8

Common Law:

All subjects of the Kingdom of Hyperion are answerable to the writs, laws and pronouncements of their shire lord and his seal as well as all legislation imposed directly or indirectly by the Carta Solis, the House of Lords or the Royal Seal of Hyperion.

• Judicial Process in the Realm:

Those wishing to report a crime or grievance shall seek out an appointed Royal Sheriff. Royal Sheriffs are duly empowered by the Crown to settle disputes and preside over an assize composed of peers of the plaintiff and of the defendant. Royal Sheriffs can be petitioned in the COURT OF KING'S BENCH.

Justices of Hyperion assign fines as part of sentencing. The magnate or sheriff who assigns the fine will set the time limit to at least 3 days. Failure to pay the fine by the time limit will result in a doubling of the fine and a time limit of at least seven days. Failure to pay anything toward the doubled fine, make any overtures, or communicate about difficulties with the fining official after the new time limit will result in exile.

Commiting the same offense again before one has paid off fine for the first will result in exile.

• Offenses Punishable by Fine and Public Humiliation

1. Let no one burgle, vandalize or rob the property or chattel of his fellow subject. (Looting PVE kills can earn free retaliation from the owner, as well as a 300 gold fine, per Decree of February 17.)
2. Let no one molest or harass his fellow subject. (as defined by House Bill 3B)
3. Let no one rouse the ire of foreign nations against our realm by recklessness and idiocy.
4. Let minor breaches of feudal oath likewise be answerable according to the provisions of their charters.



• Offenses Punishable by Execution and Exile

1. Should anyone kill and plunder any fellow subject, let that person be known as outlaw, save in cases of self-defense.
2. Let anyone suspected of treason or of selling secrets to the enemy stand trial and if guilty, be known as outlaw.
3. The excessive amassment of unpaid fines will be grounds for trial and possible exile.
4. No subject of the Crown shall likewise hold membership in a foreign nation unless it is known by the royal court. (per Decree of Candlemas)



• Martial Offenses

1. Should anyone be suspected of subterfuge, of cowardice, or of insubordination, let them stand before a court martial headed by his liege lord, where the martial court may assign stripping of decoration or fines.




THE COMMON LAW OF THE KINGDOM OF HYPERION


CRIMINAL LAW:

1. RANDOM ATTACKS: Randomly hitting passers with weapon swings or mana missiles, and being seen to do so more than three times, will earn a fine of 50 gold, on account of annoyance. Repeat offenses will result in higher fines. A random attack which is met with a request to stop, but which continues, means that the receiver may attack back, kill, and loot without consequence. If someone attacks back out of self defense and you are forced to kill them due to a fight you started without discussion, see #6.

2. DUELING: Fights between individuals must be prefaced by a challenge to spar or a challenge to duel. A challenge to spar means it is expected that the combatants shall stop short of death or else be revived. A challenge to duel means that death, ganking and looting is understood and there are no hard feelings. Duels to the death must be performed with a herald or other notary of the court in attendance for the sake of fairness, and to earn the sanction of the court, who will record the verdict and prevent future vengeance.

3. NOISE: Sparring matches and duels must be held behind the keep, out of sight of the general common area and the beam of the clanstone. Fines vary from shire to shire.

4. MURDER: Attacking and looting someone who has not accepted a challenge to duel is punishable by immediate execution and exile. Ganking someone who was brought down by someone else in a sparring match is punishable by a fine of 1000 gold. Ganking and looting a downed individual is punishable by exile.

5. MANSLAUGHTER: Bringing someone to death through a random attack without discussion first is a fine punishable by 500 gold. Bringing someone to death who is then ganked and looted by someone else can mark you as an accomplice, and you may stand trial for exile.


FEUDAL LAW

1. OATHBREAKING: Open violation of the oath of fealty will be seen as treasonous and answerable with dread force, save in cases when both parties shall consent to mutually dissolve the union.

2. TREATIES: Neither fiefholders, gentlemen, nor sergeants of the kingdom shall be beholden to any foreign sovereign to pledge their assets in military or economic aid, nor preclude themselves or their own subinfeudated liege men from acting in aggression or defense against said foreign nation (Non Aggression Pacts), save that the realm as a whole be bound in treaty. (per Decree of Candlemas) (Amended per House Bill 11A)

3. WAR DECLARATION: Aggressive action or threat thereof toward foreign nations the realm is not at war with shall not be initiated by landholders or fiefholders, save insofar as they may have cause to defend an imminent attack against their fiefs, their persons, their followers, or the realm at large. (per Decree of Candlemas)

4. SQUIRAGE: A knight or thane of the realm is empowered to mentor one at any given time whom he shall name as esquire. The magnate and bishop of a shire, provided he or she is a knight, may select two. (per Single Squirage Decree)

5. GENTLEMAN'S RIGHT: Knights, baronets, and thanes may only be tried for criminal offenses by the Lord Justiciar, the Lord Chancellor, or the Crown.

6. LORD'S RIGHT: Magnates may only be tried by the House of Lords, with the Crown, the Lord Chancellor, or the Lord Justiciar presiding.

7. WARBAND: New vassals of lords who number 20 or more members may swear fealty as equites. New vassals of lords or equites who number less than 20 should swear fealty as sergeants. The members under a new liege man may be listed as either villeins or vagabonds; however, when calculating the total tax due, reeves will count all members as villeins. This means that lords should encourage new liege men to subinfeudate their men as villeins rather than grant too many artisan or retainer positions.

8. ADMIT SHERIFFS: All cities designated as SHIRE CAPITOLS must maintain ONE open bindslot for the royal sheriff or other royal representative. (per Bindstone Decree)

9. TO TAKE A VASSAL: The following criteria must be met before any new clan is added to the kingdom or sworn as a vassal to any gentleman of Hyperion:

Clans swearing fealty to equites may only do so as serjeanties. This means the leader will take the rank of "serviens" of Hyperion.

Clans numbering more than 20 people may have their leaders swear as equites. Equites may only swear to shire lords, and not other equites.

The Clan must be made aware of the feudal structure of Hyperion, and the social class structure of gentlemen, freemen, and coloni. A post of fealty in the Cathedral forum will serve as ratification of this. An eques is encouraged to make all new members under him, especially in serjeanties, to fulfill villeins' requirements. It will not behoove him to admit any members as vagabonds, for his total members will be counted by the reeves as villeins when computing his dues.

As known by custom, Hyperion is composed of five social classes:

Gentry - which is comprised of lords, knights, squires, and relatives of such.(magnates, equites, escutari)
Freemen - which at present consists only of artisans and yeomen(praefecti). The freemen are aides to the gentry and may enlist in the militaries.
Villeins - who are the followers of the gentry and support their war efforts with harvesting at the basic rate of 100 units of resource material per diem, and who may enlist in the militaries. (coloni)
Clergy - which is comprised of bishops, priests, deacons and friars, all of whom have sworn to give all they own to the Church, and to support Auros and mankind with healing and war against the unrighteous. (clerici)
Vagabonds - who have no bond of fealty to any lord, nor employment, but who may still enlist in the militaries. (pauper)


The above must be completed before "alliance" is toggled in game, and before recognition of any clan as new Hyperion subjects. Clans who have not followed these steps may continue to be killed with impunity by the rest of Hyperion, but the moment a fealty post is made in the Cathedral forum and it is reviewed by a herald as legal, then the new clan will count as Hyperion subjects.

10. FOREIGN MERCHANTS AND TRADERS: To clarify a provision put forth in the Carta Solis: Any clan who wishes to allow members of a foreign clan to enter into Hyperion land including any Hyperion shire and grant them the "friend" status should file a request with the clerks of the ROYAL CHANCERY, specifically the LORD CHAMBERLAIN.

Every few days, the LORD CHAMBERLAIN will consider whether to approve such requests, and will post a bulletin listing the new clans or even individuals granted "friend" status for the sake of trade.

Common Law Decisions or Updates:


Walrow v Valdruss [5-1-2009] (Sheriff Erwin Carius presiding): A case can be dismissed by a Sheriff if both sides lack enough evidence to prove a prima facie case in their favor.

Royal Decree: Sheriff Clarifications [3-7-2009] Royal sheriffs, when they shall need aid in subduing an outlaw, a rebel, or a crowd, shall have the power under royal authority to deputize any subject to assist them.