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I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
—Abraham Lincoln
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.
—Frederick Douglass
The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.
—Lois McMaster Bujold
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One of the principal characteristics of fantasy (and science fiction) is the creation of fictional societies. A society can be thought of as what happens any time more than one person is living together. When that happens, whether it's a family, friends, or some strangers that happened to be in the same place at the same time, there are, inevitably, rules.
Now, I suppose one could conceive of a fantasy society that works without written rules, but even then, certain behaviors are considered far enough outside the norm to warrant some form of punishment.
That's where the concepts of law and justice comes in. And sometimes, it's taken to extremes.
When worldbuilding, consider the societies you're dealing with, their laws and customs, and what happens to those who violate those norms. Historically, in the real world societies ranged from tolerant to authoritarian, relating to which behaviors are mandated, forbidden, or ignored. And the consequences for violation also varied widely.
Perhaps the best-known example of an early civilization's set of rules is the Code of Hammurabi, often cited as the earliest known legal document (it's not; several earlier ones have since been discovered). It is often cited for its codification of the principle of "an eye for an eye," the idea that punishment for lawbreaking should mirror the offense involved, but it was more complex than just that. For instance, the death penalty figured prominently, and there was a bunch of nitpicky stuff concerning fair trade and other financial issues.
The point is, the sorts of things a society mandates and prohibits are crucial to understanding that society, as are the punishments meted out for transgressions. How tempered is the justice by mercy? Do they like to execute people for relatively minor offenses, or is that reserved for only the worst crimes -- if used at all? What other punishments are common? Are foreigners subject to a different set of laws? Do the laws exist to serve the common people, or enrich the coffers of the elite? Who makes the laws? Do the accused have any recourse? And perhaps most telling of all, who's in charge of enforcement (the "police" as we know them are a relatively recent invention)?
The law is a reflection of, as well as a contributor to, the character of a society. Given the wide variety of standards that exist, and have existed, in the real world, the possibilities for a created world are effectively limitless.
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Fantasy: June 01, 2022 Issue [#11387]
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