Parade Way Blues

Chalkline's Rune Quest 3 City of Pavis game Recruitment, [ In Character], [ Out of Character]

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Dramatis Personae

Non-Player Characters

Watchmen:

Fassbinder Hammerhand Captain of the Watch (Day Shift) Saturnine and secretive in the extreme, he’s obviously a spy for someone; his desk is strategically positioned to overhear anything said in the watch room. A clear loathing of paperwork and Imperial people marks him; he takes no part in the day to day running of the watch and only involves himself in outré investigations. His nickname comes from his warhammer shaped like a hand clenching a hammer-head; he is an experienced Rubble Tracker and something of a mystery for Watch Captain. Fassbinder is totally unremarked upon at the Temple, and Brygga Scissortongue hounds him with unheeded messages. Jorjor despises him just as much as he despises Jorjor; immensely.

Torbolt the Lame Gaoler and pensioned off watchman. Garrulous and talkative, the poor unfortunates incarcerated by him have to endure hour upon hour of his reminiscing. Torbolt was maimed ten years ago in a riot and is unable to bend his left knee. He has a large family in Oldtown. Torbolt is heavy-set and shaves his head, as he feels that’s the mandatory look for a gaoler. He always has a jug of cradle wine stashed somewhere but can drink for hours without becoming drunk.

Bissina the Scrivener Clerk, keeper of Watch records. Prim and proper, she may appear easily shocked but profanity and violence roll off her like water off a duck’s back, she and her henpecked husband Soligor live in the Farmer’s Quarter. Bissina has her long brown hair pulled back in a tight bun and wears demure robes and rather out of date half-veil.

Indrubal Greycloak Duty serjent-at-arms, custodian of equipment and in charge of routine matters. Kindly, overworked and invariably cheerful, Indrubal has risen to Duty Serjent by lengthy service and everyone else avoiding the job. He is tall, but his forty years are starting to stoop him. He does all the work Black Springal is supposed to do as well as his own, which keeps him very busy as the Imperials have brought their love of paperwork with them to Pavis. Indrubal is a widower and his watchmen have been playing matchmakers for a few years, but he still wears the red wristbands that are his clan-emblems for mourning. Indrubal is of a minor family that are clients of the Ingilli, but he lives in Oldtown.

Mulsey Scorchwind Patrolman. He has a strong dislike of trolls that exceeds that of the average Pavisite, and trolls have absolutely no chance of him cooperating with them. Mulsey disappeared in his youth and is widely assumed to have fought in Sartar against the Imperials.

Diadrean Ninefingers Patrolman. Diadrean is from Riverside, but her antecedents are from Badside. She lost her left little finger in a bet some years back at Goldfang’s Grotto and paid up on the spot, something still the matter of some admiration. Of medium height and fairly slight, she is absolutely without fear and extremely dogged in personality. Her entire reason of staying within the watch is to avoid the tedious power plays of her guildsmen family. She has absolutely no head for alcohol, and her watch mates try and keep her from drinking anything more than one cup.

Bertholt of the Axe Patrolman. Every watch needs a big doofus with an axe, and Bertholt is the Pavis version. While not a storm bull, he’s the ideal candidate for one and is always part of groups sent to calm rowdy horn-helms. He has a brush of red hair and a look of perpetual shock on his face, as if life just came up with the most remarkable turn (like ‘breakfast’). When angry, Bertholt can be extremely violent and is the only watchman to have ever served in the salt mines for brawling.

Chooga (and his lot) Dark troll Night Watch serjent and his seven patrollkin. Brought here by Jorjor the Quick in an act of incredible indifference to Pavic sensibilities, Chooga and his trollkin patrol from midnight curfew to dawn. They have to keep away from Suntown as the Sunwatch are quite prepared to shoot them dead. Chooga is actually quite a civilised and pleasant individual who treats his trollkin with an almost abnormal care, something like the care for favoured dogs or stupid and unruly children. They are fiercely devoted to him. However, Chooga is the face of everything wrong with Jotoran’s and Jorjor’s attitudes to Pavis. Pavisites loathe trolls, and only suffer them as outright warfare is a worse situation. To have trolls roaming the night with powers of arrest is almost insufferable. However, the Imperials are only interested in results and so the trolls stay.

Politicians:

Jotoran Longsword Chief Administrator of Pavis, Imperial Bureaucrat

Jorjar the Quick Constable of Pavis, Imperial Bureaucrat. Commander of the Watch and associated forces.

Fleeter Nemm Daughter of Pavis, the main legally minded Pavis priest, usually serves as judge.

Brygga Scissortongue Pavis Mayor, up for re-election in a season

Haloric Glowbrow Sun Dome Light Captain leads the Sun Town militia

Hetaera Thessen Rune Priestess of Irripi Ontor, primary source of Imperial law initiatives.

Gavial Latish Lhankor Mhy city judge, greedy bastard

Zibert Merne Imperial judge and administrator

Rudent Pheric Imperial gate head-clerk on the Old Gate. A spy for the administration, as much as a head-clerk would be otherwise, but fairly understanding as Imperials go.

Pavic Law and Customs

Pavis is a polis; a city-state with surrounding lands that answer to the central town. Oddly enough, it is also a colony of a battered old polis; The Real City in the heart of The Rubble. It is also more than this, as the Empire has appointed a Count to oversee, tax and govern this state. This means a series of unusual relationships has arisen, and these had had strange effects on law and customs.

As an Imperial colonna, Pavis is subordinate to the Empire and its hierarchy. However, even after years of occupation the Imperials still know little of what they have come to own, and on a mystical level they are almost completely ignorant of the mythic mechanisms of how and especially where Pavis operates. The total indifference of the higher members of the Pavis temple to the dangers of marrying in the Lunar Pantheon have caused some Imperial mystics to wonder if they know exactly what they are dealing with, and has caused some misgivings. The worst dangers are buried deeply.

Regardless of this, Laws and Customs reflect these three factors; The Real City and its history of war with Prax and the Uz, New Pavis and its legacy of Sartarite disenfranchisement and its strong Sartar clan structures, and overlaying this the blanket of Imperial Provincial Law.

Pavis Citizens

Citizenship is a vital requirement for living in Pavis for any time, and those deliberately remaining outsiders are known as a Metic, or 'resident foreigner'. A metic has severely curtailed rights, and may not vote, has less credibility in court than a citizen, may not be given food rations in times of hardship or siege, has no ties to the local community and is considered inherently suspicious. A metic has all the burdens of citizenship but none of the benefits,

To be a citizen one must become an initiate of Pavis, and then must be adopted by the citizenry as a fellow. In practice, it is easier to become an initiate than to become a citizen, and only by tying one's fortunes, and those of your descendants, to those of large Pavis clan (and in a subordinate or 'client' role) can a metic hope to become a Pavis citizen.

A citizen has many benefits, not just the dole and a lesser gate tax.

Citizens have more rights in a legal dispute than metics, and as they have familial, ritual, mystical and political ties to the city they are considered more trustworthy. Citizens do not pay more than a token payment for places in the markets, the craft guilds must accept them if they are qualified to join and then the guilds actively persecute their metic competition. Citizens may vote, and by showing their support for a candidate they place themselves, by affiliation with a faction, in the debt of the candidate and faction they support. Citizens also have equal rights as Imperial citizens within the bounds of the County of Pavis. As a citizen, it was unlikely that they would be enslaved by the state unless the citizen was found guilty of an extremely serious crime.

Slaves

Pavis is a culture that allows the ownership of slaves. Slaves form the very bottom rung of Pavic life and only 'enjoy' the rights they receive as the belonging of a citizen or metic. Slaves are not killed, they are destroyed. This simple definition shows the total lack of rights they have; thier death is only noted as the reduction of another person's - the owners - wealth.

Slaves may not give witness in court. Slaves may not belong to the cult of Pavis, and by enslavement the terrible ritual of disenfranchisement rips the person from life as an equal citizen and hurls them into the purse of another citizen. Most relatives, friends or patrons of a citizen condemned to slavery undergo great hardships to prevent this terrible event, and many of those condemned to perpetual slavery will suicide instead.

However, there is more than one form of slavery, of which perpetual slavery is only the worst. Temporary slavery, such as Seasonal Slavery (usually for chronic debt) or Year And A day Slavery (for serious crimes) 'merely' reduce the ex-slave afterwards to the status of metic, but it is usually easy for the to be readmitted as a citizen unless they are disowned by all those who know them.

While it is possible for a slave to own money, it is actually illegal for a slave - a possession - to own their own possessions. Slaves have no right to their own bodies, and a male owner can legally force a slave to have sexual relations with himself or with another male of his choosing at any time. The reverse of this shows that Pavis is still something of a patriarchal society; as a female owner having sexual relationships with a slave is considered to have committed bestiality, and the slave is destroyed and the woman brought up on charges. Imperial citizens have decried this practice. All the children of slaves are considered slaves in thier own right.

Slaves who cause damage, lie, steal or are otherwise disruptive may or may not be destroyed according to the 'crime'. The owner of the slave is held accountable for any outrages a slave causes. A similar situation is if the owner of a dog allowed it to bite someone, and is the example used in the Pavic court.

Any owner freeing a slave, a common practice among some groups, agrees by the act of manumission to become the patron of the slave (who is now a low-class metic). The former slave, now a 'freedman', becomes a client of the former owner but can leave that owner's patronage after a year and a day.

Imperial Law

The Lunar Empire sees Pavis as a typical borderlands set of contradictions, and has set its Provincial Army and Provincial Administration to the task of making the colonna friendly to the Empire and its goals.

The aim of the Empire is sipmle; Assimilation.

In time and with constant, impartial and pervasive administration the Empire aims to make Pavis an Imperial Outpost at the edge of the Empire, within the Glowline and with the regional variations expected within every satrapy. Should Sor-Eel