Legal Systems

It is often said in my conworld that "Whom the Yawurenyi exile, the Quanafi execute." With the more recent corollary: "Humans throw them all in prison." It's not exactly accurate, but it forms a good basis for understanding the different legal codes. Starting most simply, Quanafi see exile as the worst punishment, and execution as second worst, but Yawurenyi view it the opposite way.

Generally only the humans believe in rehabilitation, though the others accept penance and restitution as valid signs of that.

Yawurenyi pretty much only execute murderers, rapists, and felonious abusers of women or children. This punishment cannot be carried out until and unless the king or the queen regnant signs off on it. Most other severe crimes that show the person is not able to comply with the laws of society are punishable by branding/tattooing and exile to the wilderness (including theft and not saving someone's life or preventing them from being harmed when you have a chance). An outcast will be driven out of any city or town they enter, unless they are there to save the people within; if they don't leave they can be executed, no monarch permission needed. More minor crimes are punished with restitution to the victim or with fines.

Crimes against children/the legally incompetent are considered more severe than against the adults, and are generally elevated to the next level of severity in the courts. Crimes by children/legally incompetent people are generally granted leniency, and attempts are made to punish the convicted in a manner they will understand (such as fines of toys and treats not money, service punishments, and temporary isolation from peers).

Crimes against women are considered a special case and often have their own very specific punishments. For example, if a man gets angry and punches another man a few times, he pays him restitution and is exiled. If his victim were a woman, all his property is hers (not her husband/father/brother/etc.'s, hers) and he is exiled or executed depending on the severity of the assault. In some places, even grabbing a woman's wrist forcefully without her permission gets you a very hefty fine, and you are encouraged to leave the city. Incidentally, this is why many human female victims of domestic violence move to Yawurenyi cities very openly if their attacker might come after them -- the only thing even delaying him from being executed if he hurts her there is the annoyance of having to clear it through diplomatic channels (male victims of domestic violence tend to move to Quanafi lands).

Crimes by women against women are prosecuted in special courts, as women cannot testify in normal courts without permission. Called Souyoryew (Moonflower) Courts, they cannot impose execution, and have limited ability to impose fines, meaning most punishments involve the convicted repaying the victim through a service of some sort, leaving town willingly, or being exiled. If a woman is the defendant and a man the plaintiff, it is tried in a normal court, generally with a male relative of the woman or a priestess acting as her advocate. Crimes by women against men are seen as equal to those by men against men. However, women are hardly ever executed, no matter their crime, and are generally exiled or imprisoned instead (it tends to make you cursed to kill a woman, even a psychopathic murderer woman).

The temples have their own courts, and all but the most heinous crimes result in being simply cursed and kicked out of the temple. Considering for a woman that is a huge social step down, and for a man it means being penniless and homeless with no one inclined to help you, this is considered very severe and sufficient. The most heinous crimes are tried in the temple system, and then if convicted they are cursed and kicked out of the temple and then tried again in a lay trial for sentencing, which is generally more severe than if a layman committed the crime.

Quanafi take a different tact: many high level crimes the Yawu punish by exile are punishable by death (which lands severe repeat perpetrators of assault on this list, regardless of gender, meaning most male domestic violence victims flee to here), and most of the others have imprisonment or corporal punishment. Exile is reserved for mostly harmless enemies of the state, and is to another country rather than the wilderness. If there is a regime change, the exiles might be welcomed back. Fines are generally reserved for the wealthy, as the poor generally have nothing to seize they do not need for survival. As such, minor crimes among the poor are punished by a repayment by service, or by public mockery.

Myuri generally exile (from all Myuri colonies) everyone who commits a crime, except regicide. If you kill the colony leader (alpha male), you are the colony leader by default, and you might get scolded for taking the show of strength too far. Failed overthrow of the alpha male is punishable by mild exile, meaning you can join another colony as the lowest member. Crimes against kittens, of any species, are punishable by immediate death. Myuri have no courts, per se, all trials are before the alpha male or the community as a whole (or whoever is present). The only property crimes possible are against the alpha pair, and if you are male you generally get bitten or scratched, give it back and hide for a few days, tail between your legs, or challenge the alpha for alpha status (females give it back and get a sound swatting on the nose or ears by the alpha female).

All three major human groups tend to imprison or rehabilitate depending on the crime. For example, a drug crime is likely to get you put in rehab, a crime due to insanity is likely to get you mental health treatment, most other crimes get you in jail with relevant counseling. Being medicated is not sufficient for you to be safely returned to the community, though it may get you supervised outings and even work release. The notable thing about the Kelvian and Descubralian legal systems is that unlike all the others the burden of proof is on the plaintiff. Some Kelvian nations, in the absence of prisons or other facilities, either cede jurisdiction to a larger country nearby or around them, or exile all felons (minor crimes, and some felonies by members of the local community are tried by the community at large or by the leader(s) of the community, depending on circumstances.

Crimes by non-humans on human lands are generally mildly or not at all punished, instead the defendant is turned over to the government of their country which is encouraged to act (or in some cases, discouraged from acting, such as cases where a human might go to treatment and the other species might exile or execute). This arises not just from diplomatic quarrels but from the views of the other species humans have held. To Descubralians, the average Yawu or Myuri is no more capable of knowing right from wrong than a child, and Quanafi are divine incarnations and their law is above Descubralian (important for international incidents). Mircon are considered to be a type of Quanafi, but with so few on land they are also all diplomats and under the protection of diplomatic immunity. Praetiri deeply respect the other species and don't want to upset them. Kelvians generally lack the resources to handle a lot of cases and since they tend to turn over jurisdiction anyhow it's a moot point.