Tyranny - Dev Diary #3

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Dev Diary #3 for Tyranny focuses on the FateBinder.

tyranny_dev_diary_03_fatebinder.png

The Fatebinders who serve Tunon are skilled in many areas, from swordplay, to spellcraft, to the poisoned knife in the dark.
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The Fatebinders serve a key role in Kyros' vast Empire. While the Overlord's rule is absolute, the Empire is too large for Kyros to directly control everyone. Instead, Kyros grants authority over different parts of the Empire to the Archons. Some Archons are governors of provinces or military districts, others control important groups like armies, mage guilds, or specialized agents like the Fatebinders.

Each Archon is granted limited autonomy over their area of control. As long as they serve Kyros' goals and do not break any of the Overlord's laws, Kyros permits the Archons to rule their armies and provinces in a manner of their choosing. Because of this, the Archons and the groups they control will often clash with one another. The Fatebinders were created by Tunon the Adjudicator, Archon of Justice, to solve these problems.

As a Fatebinder and servant of Tunon, it is your duty to resolve disputes that arise between the different armies and mage guilds. You decide whose actions are best in line with Kyros' laws, mediate where you can, and order punishments - and executions - where required. Any citizen in Kyros' Empire can appeal to a Fatebinder for judgment, even if their problem doesn't involve a dispute between factions. Doing so is dangerous, as a Fatebinder's judgments cannot be appealed and some Binders deal harshly with those who bother them for trivial complaints.

Laws of Kyros

Kyros' laws are numerous, and it is the duty of Fatebinders to interpret them in their judgments. Some laws are absolute, some are contradictory, and some are both absolute and contradictory. Fatebinders spend many years learning Kyros' laws, the judgments handed down by previous generations of Binders, and the times when Kyros punished a Fatebinder for overstepping with their judgments.
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More information.
 
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Vows Made in Kyros’ Name: Any vow or expression made using Kyros’ name is a binding legal contract. Breaking such a vow is punishable by death. A statement as simple as, “By Kyros, that man is an idiot!” places the speaker in dire peril. An enemy who hears that and can gather both witnesses to your vow, and proof that the man in question is not an idiot, can have you executed.
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Apart from being ruthless, Kyros seems a bit retarded. I hope this is a rare example of his comic book evil.


Better not call someone a son of a bitch.
 
Sacred_Path said:
Apart from being ruthless, Kyros seems a bit retarded. I hope this is a rare example of his comic book evil.
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That little example is way more lawful and less crazy than plenty of tyrants in Earth history were (and are looking at NK) though.
 
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The lore sounds pretty wicked and neat, but are we really going to be doling out executions and punishments in this game? o_O

That's, not really my style. Yes, I played Inquisitor, where I tortured heretics to get them to admit to being demon-spawn and then executing them via hanging. Wicked and pretty brutal, but I *was* an Inquisitor, after all. And the demons, heretics and even Satan himself were quite real in this game world! :p

Thankfully, that only happened near the end of each chapter. This game, though, seems like it might be a heavy dose of that kind of brutality.
 
azarhal said:
That little example is way more lawful and less crazy than plenty of tyrants in Earth history were (and are looking at NK) though.
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Agreed. It is actually quite common and not in just dictatorships in modern day earth. Thailand has Lèse majesté laws that can land you in jail for bringing the royal family into disrepute. Likewise, a New Zealander in Myanmar was sent to jail for using a picture of Buddha with headphones on in an advertising campaign.

It's not hard to imagine things in a fantasy setting with a legal system based on one mans rules being like this.
 
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azarhal said:
That little example is way more lawful and less crazy than plenty of tyrants in Earth history were (and are looking at NK) though.
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it's hard to get crazier than that and I'd like to hear some examples. It's exactly the hyper "lawful evil" nature of it that is comical; like calling for proper judicial proceedings to prove if someone is an idiot.

According to this logic, if I can prove that "I've taken shits bigger than Kyros", I can't be punished for it.
 
Sacred_Path said:
it's hard to get crazier than that and I'd like to hear some examples. It's exactly the hyper "lawful evil" nature of it that is comical; like calling for proper judicial proceedings to prove if someone is an idiot.
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As bjon045 said, this is just a case of Lèse-majesté crime law. Which simply take anything the head of state feels is damaging their self or the state (both physically and in term of PR) as betrayal (a capital crime).

As for example, the Catholic Church labelled "heresy" a Lèse-Majesté crime. That's how the Inquisition was born...
 
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azarhal said:
As bjon045 said, this is just a case of Lèse-majesté crime law. Which simply take anything the head of state feels is damaging their self or the state (both physically and in term of PR) as betrayal (a capital crime).

As for example, the Catholic Church labelled "heresy" a Lèse-Majesté crime. That's how the Inquisition was born…
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No, it isn't. It's about "lawful evil" adherence to the letter of the law, something very few tyrants have been concerned about.
 
Sacred_Path said:
No, it isn't. It's about "lawful evil" adherence to the letter of the law, something very few tyrants have been concerned about.
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I'd disagree with that. There are plenty of historical examples where the letter of the law was important, for example the Code of Hammurabi:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp

In some premodern societies, the absolute rule of law was considered very important. I think that's what Tyranny, and for that matter the D&D alignment "Lawful Evil" are trying to capture the spirit of.
 
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forgottenlor said:
I'd disagree with that. There are plenty of historical examples where the letter of the law was important, for example the Code of Hammurabi:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp

In some premodern societies, the absolute rule of law was considered very important. I think that's what Tyranny, and for that matter the D&D alignment "Lawful Evil" are trying to capture the spirit of.
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I very much doubt that a single autocratic ruler would allow anything that is harmful to him or his goals to go unpunished just because someone found a loophole in the law. And let's not even get into what trouble it would be to have huge volumes of codified law before the advent of the printing press ;)
 
Sacred_Path said:
I very much doubt that a single autocratic ruler would allow anything that is harmful to him or his goals to go unpunished just because someone found a loophole in the law. And let's not even get into what trouble it would be to have huge volumes of codified law before the advent of the printing press ;)
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I think there are two factors you have to consider. 1. The autocrats in question were often not on hand to dish out justice, because of the size of their territories (especially in premodern times, now of days it would be more possible) 2. The autocrats did not trust their judges to allow them much flexability in administrating the law, thus demanding that they be able to justify themselves in any ruling diverging from the letter of the law. When the autocrats themselves were present to deliver a ruling, the letter of the law was of course unimportant.
 
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I think that daily life would be interrupted far too much if calling someone an idiot can result in you being put to death - because in that case, people aren't likely to let such a thing slip. And what of the other side? Can someone be put to death if I swear in Kyros' name that he is an idiot, and I prove it? If not, why would anyone even invoke Kyros' name, if it can only be disadvantageous to you?

Sorry, but this is just a bit too silly.
 
Sacred_Path said:
I think that daily life would be interrupted far too much if calling someone an idiot can result in you being put to death - because in that case, people aren't likely to let such a thing slip. And what of the other side? Can someone be put to death if I swear in Kyros' name that he is an idiot, and I prove it? If not, why would anyone even invoke Kyros' name, if it can only be disadvantageous to you?

Sorry, but this is just a bit too silly.
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The other side is if you need to bind a business deal or prove your loyalty or innocence. If I've been accused of a crime, and am innocent, I swear my innocence by Kyros. That puts my accuser in a bad situation. If I really want a business deal, but my potential trade partner seems unwilling to do business with me, I swear by Kyros in public to prove my sincerity. If my loyalty is in question I swear it by Kyros. In premodern societes swearing an oath in the name of the gods was often a very serious matter, and so were the consequences of breaking one.
 
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forgottenlor said:
The other side is if you need to bind a business deal or prove your loyalty or innocence. If I've been accused of a crime, and am innocent, I swear my innocence by Kyros. That puts my accuser in a bad situation.
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Wouldn't the burden of proof lie with the one who invoked Kyros? The idiot example makes it seem so. Therefore, it's kinda risky to invoke Kyros' name as a defence, especially since using his name in vain is punishable by death.

If I really want a business deal, but my potential trade partner seems unwilling to do business with me, I swear by Kyros in public to prove my sincerity. If my loyalty is in question I swear it by Kyros. In premodern societes swearing an oath in the name of the gods was often a very serious matter, and so were the consequences of breaking one.
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True, though that's not the example I was referring to. Also, if every time some deal doesn't work out or someone breaks an oath someone is put to death, good luck finding enough people in a Bronze Age empire to just keep the administration running, let alone feed standing armies.
 
If one person makes an accusation and has say an eyewitness, than it seems to me the judge would say to the eyewitness "the man you accused has sworn an oath by Kyros he is innocent." "Will you swear an oath he is guilty?" That seems to me to put the eyewitness in a dangerous position, especially if the accusation is false. Is he willing to throw his life away if at some point proof of the man's innocence comes to light? I think, going back to your last response, no one would invoke Kyros's name unless the situation was dire, or they wished to absolutely prove their sincerity. People would not dare use his name without forethought. Therefore only an idiot would say something like in the idiot example. We'll have to see if Obsidian can pull it off in a believable manner.
 
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