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| | ===Law Enforcement=== | | ===Law Enforcement=== |
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| − | On the various floating cities the aim of the law is not to protect the mass of citizenry but to protect the property of the Court and nobility. After all reason the courts, it is they who own the floating cities and any damage to their property damages the health of the city and hence the lives of the people living in it. Protection of property must therefore be paramount. In practice the nobility are protected from most harm by being able to seal themselves away from the masses. The cities rely on a few key pieces of high technology which are equally protected by the armed forces of the nobility and where needed the Hammer and Anvil. Damage to the infrastructure of the cities does little to threaten their overall health or stability as long as the anti-grav generators still work.
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| − | This means that there is little interest in a police force. Instead it is left to the local nobility in each city to enforce the law as they see most fit. In some cities this means leaving the proles to sort it out themselves, in others an armed watch who regularly sweep and clear up the main trouble. In addition the Steward has power to create constables and justiciars. These individuals either buy their position from him/her or are directly appointed as political allies of the Steward. They have a wide ranging brief to enforce the Steward's laws and protect the established order but there is little oversight of them. Ostensibly justiciars oversee constables and are also more likely to be able to requisition Hammer and Anvil forces directly, while constables are more likely to be restricted to the local nobility and even then that request may be refused. Obviously the wide ranging powers and lack of oversight means these posts are open to corruption and misuse.
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| − | Or, from a less cynical point of view, law enforcement is the perview of the Justicars appointed by the Viceroy. Each Justicar has a stable of Constables -- who are appointed separately from the Justicars to keep an element of balance -- who report to them. In some ways, the Justicars are both the section heads of criminal investigation and the Judges, while the Constables are prosecuting attorneys and head detectives. Each of the offices generally keep a small staff around -- paid for out of their own pocket as a public service. Petty crime is technically in the jurisdiction of the Constables, but is generally left out of the formal system. It is not so much that the system is corrupt as that there are simply too few people willing and trained to cover law enforcement for the whole planet, so only major crimes get much official attention.
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| | ===The Worship of the Next Incarnation=== | | ===The Worship of the Next Incarnation=== |
