Editing Port Blackheart (section)

===Laws and Restrictions===

Concepts such as “law and order” are unknown in Blackheart (except for the occasional, short-lived attempt by some regimes to clean the city up). There is no city guard and no watch, anyone that can afford it hires there own guards to protect them and their effects and those that can’t afford guards try to travel in numbers to reduce the risk of attack. Crime itself is a moot point in the city. There is only crime if there is law, without the latter everything else is just existing. Power belongs to those who take it and you have to be ready to defend what’s yours. If you have something someone wants then they’ll try and take it, one way or another, and it is your own responsibility to make sure they only do so if you’re happy for them too (i.e. they pay you a lot). Newcomers to the city rarely last long without employing the help of a member of the Protection Guild. These people act as guide and bodyguard, protecting their employer and helping them find the parts of the city they need to be in. Wherever you see someone with a guild seal offering their services you can be confident that they won’t lead you down an alley where there friends are waiting to attack you and steal all your belongings. Well, probably not. Well, maybe. The guild does try to build a reputation for not employing people with these kinds of tendencies and harshly punishes those members it finds engaged in such activities but it’s not infallible.

The laws of the city change with the regime but, except on a few occasions, they mostly leave the laws as they are. And when I saw “laws” I mean “law” as there is only one standing law in the city and that is the law of fire. It is generally considered that the only real threat to the city is fire, something backed up by various occasions across history when the city has been consumed by raging infernos that have claimed thousands of lives and destroyed acres of property. There are three levels of fire crime:

====<i>Accidents</i>====
Any accident that causes fire damage to a part of the city is punishable by having the hands removed. The criminal will also pay everything they have to the city to be put towards repairs.

====<i>Avoidable Accidents</i>====
Any avoidable accident (i.e. using fire irresponsibly but without intent to destroy) is punishable by death. The criminal’s estate is claimed by the city to cover repair costs.

====<i>Arson</i>====
Any arsonist will be placed in the dungeons of the Lawless Fortress where they will be abused and tortured for the rest of their long, long life. The criminal’s estate is claimed by the city to cover repair costs.

Very, very few instances of arson occur in the city and even the wizards in the Wyrd take extreme care with fire. The last point in the law is that no inflammatory creature (i.e. a creature that can cause things to set on fire by its presence such as a hell hound or fire elemental) is permitted within the city boundaries. The punishment for bringing one in is the same as Avoidable Accidents unless they set something on fire when it is Arson.

Beyond this, there is no law in the city. Each person lives by their own set of rules and if you feel someone has broken those rules you are free to try and punish them how you will. Most inns, taverns, brothels, shops and other public places have a set of laws by the door that apply within that shop. Of course, those laws are only worth the establishment’s abilities to enforce them.