RULER: Tiger's Eye | EX-CONSORT: Coral -- NEW CONSORT: Jasper

[dramatispersonae]

"As a ruler, I have many responsibilities, and one that I am -- at least, to the best of my knowledge -- relatively known for is my willingness to hear people's cases and provide some form of legal ruling on them. It has always been important to me to be fair, merciful, and kind. Of course, I need not do this all by myself.

In this game, I will present to you some suits and ask you to discuss between yourself and the team you are partnered with to rule on their situations and their requests."

Guinevere finishes speaking, and you find yourself in a tent with one other team.

RULER: TIGER'S EYE
CONSORT: CORAL

((OOC: For various reasons, I need to move along the teams reeeeelatively at the same pace at various points, so there may be occasional delays for some teams. I apologize in advance if this happens!))

Comments

ROUND 1

[dramatispersonae]

A wealthy man has gone away to war and left behind his wife. It has only been three months and the war isn't over, so he isn't expected to return yet, but all her neighbors have been receiving letters and money from their spouses and she has received nothing, and her marriage contract gives her no rights to the wealth of his estate until he dies. She has sent letters to the front and received no information at all, nor have any of her attempts to learn more of his situation brought any news. She can only assume that he has died, and in light of that, wishes to both keep his estate and remarry a man of her acquaintance. Should she or should she not be permitted to either or both of these?

DISCUSSION

[dramatispersonae]

Re: DISCUSSION

[bunny_ears]

Huh. Can we ask questions?

Re: DISCUSSION

[pitching]

I vote it's time to throw a party. Gotta enjoy the single life.

Re: DISCUSSION

[yourewaitingforagate]

She's only waited three months and she's already thinking of someone else?

DECISION

[dramatispersonae]

Re: DECISION

[browbeater]

We'll supplement her income based off what she needs to pay her expenses, while trying to find out the fate of her husband ourselves.

If he's alive, then he can pay us back for what we've given her, due to failing in his responsibility to support her.

If he isn't, then the estate should be hers to do what she wants with it, and she can get married again if she wants to. We won't ask her to pay us back, because she's already lost her husband.

ROUND 2

[neverhesitate]

Three months pass as you investigate, and her marriage contract does not change; you provide her a stipend instead.

Your investigations turn up little of suspicion, though much of the chaos of war -- though perhaps there are elements that should be overhauled there to reduce such things. But before you yourself have tracked down the husband, the war comes to an end.

Suddenly, her original husband returns from the war. Offended, the wife brings a case to ask for her marriage contract to be legally broken by the crown so she may divorce him and receive financial recompense from him, as he never contacted her and left her for 6 months to believe him dead; she was forced to rely on the crown's charity, lacking his support. What sort of loving husband will avoid writing even though she has no access to his wealth without his willing it so, or without his death? That is her statement. How do you rule?

DISCUSSION

[neverhesitate]

Re: DISCUSSION

[yourewaitingforagate]

What—we helped her out and she still wants to split with him?

Re: DISCUSSION

[bunny_ears]

What's his statement?

Re: DISCUSSION

[forgotmenot]

Ah. . .

Re: DISCUSSION

[browbeater]

[... oh lord.]

Re: DISCUSSION

[outstandingbalance]

I'm not here to stop people from getting divorces.

Re: DISCUSSION

[pitching]

If he was dead, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be able to write . . . avoiding wouldn't be the issue there.

DECISION

[neverhesitate]

Re: DECISION

[yourewaitingforagate]

After everything that happens here we're changing a couple of ground rules.

One, we're not letting anyone make marriage contracts or whatever without making it so that everyone gets to share what they have evenly. None of this waiting for letters stuff.

Two, we're going to give women the chance to support themselves just as well as men can. There's no reason why they should have to count on their husbands for their own survival.

As for these guys, her husband owes us back for what we paid his wife to support herself. She's got the right to divorce him, and he has to support her until she can support herself, whether that's through her own property or marriage or whatever she wants. But she's got to make sure she goes for that, she can't just count on him to support her forever.

PARTNER SWAP

[neverhesitate]

A wind fills the area, bringing a sense of both sadness and heart-pounding excitement -- you can tell the feeling's not yours, can tell it's external much in the way of viewing someone else's memory -- and when it fades, the "Consort" team that was previously here no longer is. Instead, a new team is here; you know instinctively that you are now partnered with this other team as the game continues.

RULER: TIGER'S EYE
CONSORT: JASPER

((Coral, please exit this post and go play in THIS post instead. ))

ROUND 3

[neverhesitate]

The people are extremely unhappy -- not just the people whose suit you were covering, but the people as a whole. What right does the government have over determining how a marriage contract is written? What other personal contracts will the government interfere in next? Likewise, what does support themselves mean? Do jobs have to hire women now? What about those women who don't want to work, or can't because of obligations to family, will contracts of marriage now assume the woman must work to bring money into the household?

Ignoring that, however, the people participating in the suit do as you say. She divorces him and remarries...

Three months pass, making nine altogether. The woman gives birth to a healthy baby boy. She claims that it is the child of the original husband, conceived right before he went away to war; the original husband agrees. However, her lover claims the child is actually his and wants to take the son as his own. The birth registry requires that it have one female parent and one male parent, or will be listed as her child with an unknown man and be declared illegitimate to ANY possible inheritance. How do you rule?

DISCUSSION

[neverhesitate]

DECISION

[neverhesitate]

ROUND 4

[neverhesitate]

The people seem less than mollified by this -- there are demands for a full and detailed list of what all this impacts, what elements of society, what kind of employment laws will need to be created, how do you intend to compensate for who owns what property and wealth now if women can own property -- there are landlords and employers already insisting they weren't prepared for this and will refuse women, there are nobles concerned about the integrity of their family lines if the property can be divided additional ways, etc.

This decision is made, however, and the child is declared to be the woman's with her current husband.

After ANOTHER three months -- what an intense year this has been for this increasingly troublesome family -- another woman shows up with a newborn baby and claims that the original husband had married her while he was abroad, and got her with child while there. This new woman has one of the original husband's rings, which is something as close to proof as she is capable of. She has come to live with him in an intended married bliss in his estate. The husband denies it and says that while he was out, the ring was stolen from his belongings and he had never been infidelious to his (original) wife. She wants her marriage to him to be considered legal, to live on his estate, and raise the child as heir to the estate; otherwise, she wishes an ongoing stipend for raising the child and quite impressively large financial recompense. However, she has no money and status, and he claims that she did all this under false pretenses and doesn't want to marry her. How do you rule?

DISCUSSION

[neverhesitate]

DECISION

[neverhesitate]

RESULTS

[neverhesitate]

A lot of people back down at that public address, though some seem to be organizing to make some kinds of complaints. You'll have further things to deal with in the future but it seems to be back under control.

He gives her the stipend, with some grumbling, and she leaves with her child.

Go to Endgame