Call to Assize: Mister Rhodri Taliesin

[Azzerhoden Razeri]

Audin is around. Was in Darkfall last night.

[Altus Whyte]

Then please tell him to reply to the juror PM that I sent weeks ago. Otherwise he'll need to be replaced so that we can move on to the deliberations within the next 24 hours.

[Audin Cardew]

Yes, Im here

[Altus Whyte]

Yes, Im here

Alright, make sure that you check your PM inbox, since that is where the jury discussions will take place.

[Altus Whyte]

The court has reached the jury deliberation phase where the jury will asses the evidence to establish fact and reach a verdict.

The jurors duty is now to establish, based on the evidence presented in this trial, whether the offenses that the defendant is charged with did actually take place. The evidence that carries the most weight in your deliberation is direct documentary evidence such as video-capture, screenshots or logs. After that you have testimonies, which you must go through and separate actual witnessing of events from opinion, speculation and hearsay, and then assess the relevance of these events in respect to the charges. All evidence and testimony has to be assessed on whether it's direct or circumstantial.

Whereas direct evidence or testimony directly supports an event leaving no other interpretation, circumstantial evidence or testimony can be explained by an additional non-criminal sequence of events, which would have to be ruled out before the circumstantial evidence or testimony can be considered of significant importance.

A summary of the order of importance:

1. Direct evidence

2. Direct testimony

3. Circumstantial evidence

4. Circumstantial testimony

When assessing evidence you have to take into account its reliability and whether it could easily have been falsified or not. Similarly, the credibility of witnesses has to be evaluated, with special attention given to whether they are under the jurisdiction of royal law and can actually be amerced for lying. Social standing and occupation within Wessex also contributes to an individual's credibility.

You have to weigh the evidence in support of the prosecution against the defendant's evidence, evaluating both parties evidence as aforementioned, and only when the prosecution's evidence outweighs the defense can an offense be established to have taken place.


You shall reach a verdict in each of the following three charges:

Theft, Common Law Decree 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...

You have to establish whether the defendant intentionally deprived the plaintiff of property without proper justification or cause. In case the deprivation is part of military action, it has to be established whether it is a reasonable and necessary military act under the circumstances at the time.


As for "Breach of oath, in violation of Decree 3" it seems Kyrendis mistook it for Common Law Decree 4:

Let minor breaches of feudal oath likewise be answerable according to the provisions of their charters.

For this charge it is important that only breaches of oath by the defendant in respect to the plaintiff are assessed. This is however not limited to oaths held by the defendant directly to the plaintiff. A breach of oath could apply to this case if for example a knightly oath includes provisions applicable to all villeins as a group, of which the plaintiff is a member.


Murder,Criminal Law Offense 4:

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.

You have to find whether the defendant intentionally killed the plaintiff without proper justification or cause, such as self defense.


The court is now adjourned until the jury reaches a verdict, which it shall do within 72 hours.

[Altus Whyte]

The court has to extend the deliberations. Hopefully for no more than a couple of days.

[Altus Whyte]

Finally this assize reaches a conclusion. As for the initial three charges the verdict is as follows:

-Not guilty of Theft

-Not guilty of Breach of Oath

-Not guilty of Murder

An important role of the medieval common law is to build the law with case law by identifying wrongs not yet covered by statuary law. The following wrongdoings were found:

-Guilty of Intentional property damage without malicious intent

-Guilty of breach of duty

The jury's conclusion:

We find that he should be responsible for the items lost, that he failed as a commander, as this whole situation could of been avoided with proper leadership. Now the reality is there is a serious lack of leadership, and we can't find him all at fault for that. We need to be able to provide the proper leadership, with the training and experience that it entails. We think Rhodri is an asset to the Clan.

What the Mortal Online holdings need is that a noble takes leadership and helps shape it in our image. That is able to deal properly with everything that happens there before it ends up escalating how it has now. Inaction is a choice; by not providing our people with the proper tools, we as a Duchy have failed them both as well.

There was little to no evidence or first hand testimony, and the parties recounting of the events were insufficient to give the jury a complete understanding of the course of events surrounding the incident. What was established however is that Rhodri received items from zaleos with the intention of saving them and that the items ended up deleted in combat. Since Rhodri was a commanding officer at the time, the jury finds him fully liable for the items.

As for the second charge, it is the duty of gentry (leadership) to address and resolve member grievances and prevent them from lingering around and escalating. If a Knight or an Esquire deems that there is nothing he can do, and that the member in question is in the wrong, he must take initiative and have him dealt with through the proper channels. It is the duty of leadership to prevent the buildup of bad blood and controversy.


What is to be learned from this case is the importance of using a medieval assize procedure. One of the strengths of the Wessex project is how the medieval institutions and organizational structure apply to MMOs. It is in this Wessex spirit that assizes have to be implemented in order to effectively serve justice in an online gaming environment.

Unless a community has hundreds of members, it isn't realistic to expect there to be specialized attorneys at hand to help people with their pleas. The court has to actively investigate and find the facts of the dispute. The jury has an important role here in being able to provide the judge with insider knowledge on the particular game and its community, as well as the local customs. Since the natural laws of MMOs are not universal and differences in game mechanics can be quite important when understanding the events behind a dispute, a local jury becomes even more important. The Carta Solis grants a jury of the accused's neighborhood or peers, which in our case would be members playing the same game, able to provide the aforementioned knowledge and insight, so I'm not satisfied that this jury right has been fulfilled in this case.

The fact that the original judge disappeared and that the case was left inactive for months is something that shouldn't happen. Investigations should be made withing the first week when people's memories of the events of the origin of a dispute are still fresh. An assize in its entirety should be concluded within a couple of weeks or so.

The judgment is as follows:

-For the intentional property damage without malicious intent, Rhodri Taliesin is to compensate the value of the destroyed property to Zaleos Ravenblood.

-For the breach of duty, Rhodri Taliesin is to pay a fine of 200 gold to the Colony of Nave.


The defendant has estimated the value of the destroyed property to be about 25 gold. If the plaintiff disputes this he shall now go ahead and present evidence or a strong argument proving another value of the items.


The judgment will be carried out in 3 days. The parties are free to make motions until then.

[Rhodri Taliesin]

I understand and accept the judgement as it shall be carried out. By my word I shall pay the fine of two-hundred gold coinage and compensate the value of Zaleos Ravenblood's property estimated at the value of twenty-five gold coinage unless he feels the need to dispute the value.


With the assize over, Rhodri makes his way to Miss Kora Havion to deliver the fine. After doing so he makes his way out the door, awaiting the time that Zaleos shall approach him for his compensation.

[Zaleos Ravenblood]

I don't know how to say this in legal terms but this is exactly what I was told would happen. Rhodri would be allowed to as he damn well pleased and nothing would be done. The man has killed my character repeatedly. The day I left Mortal Online Wessex was because he blue blocked and killed me. It's down right shameful that eye whitnesses saw him kill me. Gave their view which at the time were in clan. They just in the DF branch. Again the "lower ranked" people are ignored. Otto himself even said that Rhodri needed to be removed from Wessex. Audin validated that and was on the verge of calling the duchy on the phone. The duchy being his cousin. This is the same damn thing that everyone warned me of. "Don't bother saying anything Zaleos, they will make him pay gold and all his other things will be found not guilty because of his cancer and previous actions. I think its disgusting the lack of justice that has been served here. I have been forced to be unable to play the game and have fun with my friends because of his actions yet nothing is done? Even Korah has had complaint after complaint WHEN HE WASNT EVEN IN THE GUILD ANYMORE. I find it humerous how even this court preceeding stopped dead and had to be started up. I no longer have any faith in the Duchy or the hierarchy. NOthing has been done to fix the problems between him and I. NO ONE was around when he was pulling his bullshit during Kreager's time being leader. No one was around when he did this stuff and because I was new to the game and didn't know about screenshots and such his behavior is just acceptable. Oh no Rhodri didn't do anything wrong by killing me several times huh? Nothing wrong at all? Even outside of Bakti recently. He constantly was acting "In Wessex's name" even outside of the clan in Mortal. Pray tell exactly what justice or any of this has been done here? He pays 25 gold..... but still talks shit. Still does what he wants. His Hubris is why the whole server hates WSX but pray tell have any of you spoken to Korah about this? About the things she's had to put up with? Or Kreager? Otto? Nope clearly not. What's the point of this system if it does absolutely nothing. Bravo Rhodri. I paid real life money to help this damn guild and for what? I get treated like shit the entire time in the guild by this guy. Talked to like i'm a piece of shit. He talked to everyone like that. Star was in guild and talked to her like that too. But thats all fine because he has cancer? Because of what he's done? He isn't the only damn one that is fighting something killing him. He get's all this respect from the ABSENT hierarchy. How quaint. Yet he's allowed to remain and do what he wills. I just think its pretty shity how when I talked to the ranked members of this guild I got no where WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING. Now I go this route to end the bullshit and not a damn thing is done. Yeah real incentive to remain and serve. 25 gold....a single run of cougars gets me that. Yet the actual problems don't stop. The shit talking. The killing nothing. Awesome.... *shakes his head*

[Zaleos Ravenblood]

The amount of gold on one character taken was 25 gold. The armor, weapons all steel, and the bow along with my horse and its armor are well over 25 gold. Not to mention all of the mount tickets that he took.