ReaderAt2046
2012-11-13, 08:03 PM
In several of my settings, there is a concept called ash-kerampf, (meaning roughly enemy of all goodness) which I am going to explain and I would like your opinions on this. Ash-kerampf comes in four different flavors, which have slightly different rules. They are greater and lesser individual, and greater and lesser group. In these explanantions, I will use the Orre nation as an example of a people following the ash-kerampf laws, but they are not the only people that can do this. In fact, it can even be followed by multiple nations, in which case a declaration of ash-kerampf applies to all nations simultaneously.
I will start with the lesser individual version because it is the most commonly invoked. When an individual is declared ash-kerampf, everyone under Orre law is required to do everything in their reasonable power to kill and oppose this individual. Failure to do so is a capital offence. In other words, if someone who’s been declared ash-kerampf comes to a village, everyone in the village who’s physically capable of doing so must charge and attempt to kill that individual, even if he’s a massively powerful sorcerer who can zap them dead with a flick of their wrist. Similarly, it is important to realize that there is absolutely no mercy. Cold-blooded murder of someone who’s ash-kerampf is not only permitted, but required on pain of death. An additional, and slightly peculiar rule, is that if an ash-kerampf individual enters another country, they must give them up to the Orre or execute them. Failure to do so is considered an act of war. Not a cause of war, an actual act of war. The implications of this are mostly theoretical and legal, but it can have a devastating impact if you don’t know it, because it means that the Orre won’t declare war before attacking, because you have already declared war on them. Further, the war cannot be ended, or a truce called for longer than one consecutive month, until the ash-kerampf individual is given up, killed, or dies for some other reason.
A group can also be declared ash-kerampf. This essentially amounts to a declaration of total war. All people whatsoever in the target group are fair game for attack, not merely soldiers. Prisoners may be taken but must be executed immediately after a battle, unless you’re going to interrogate them, in which case they must be executed immediately after interrogation. Also, surrendering or being taken prisoner by the ash-kerampf group is a capital offence. While only warriors are actively required to seek out and kill the enemy, all people physically capable of doing so must oppose them if they actually show up. Once declared, the war this invokes cannot be ended until the last member of the group is dead.
Finally, either the individual or group version of ash-kerampf could theoretically be called in the greater form, though to the best of my knowledge this has never happened. If called, what this would mean is that every Orre individual anywhere must drop whatever they are doing and devote themselves only to the target’s destruction. So declaring a group greater ash-kerampf would make every member of the Orre nation uproot themselves and march out, their sole goal being to kill every member of the target group.
I will start with the lesser individual version because it is the most commonly invoked. When an individual is declared ash-kerampf, everyone under Orre law is required to do everything in their reasonable power to kill and oppose this individual. Failure to do so is a capital offence. In other words, if someone who’s been declared ash-kerampf comes to a village, everyone in the village who’s physically capable of doing so must charge and attempt to kill that individual, even if he’s a massively powerful sorcerer who can zap them dead with a flick of their wrist. Similarly, it is important to realize that there is absolutely no mercy. Cold-blooded murder of someone who’s ash-kerampf is not only permitted, but required on pain of death. An additional, and slightly peculiar rule, is that if an ash-kerampf individual enters another country, they must give them up to the Orre or execute them. Failure to do so is considered an act of war. Not a cause of war, an actual act of war. The implications of this are mostly theoretical and legal, but it can have a devastating impact if you don’t know it, because it means that the Orre won’t declare war before attacking, because you have already declared war on them. Further, the war cannot be ended, or a truce called for longer than one consecutive month, until the ash-kerampf individual is given up, killed, or dies for some other reason.
A group can also be declared ash-kerampf. This essentially amounts to a declaration of total war. All people whatsoever in the target group are fair game for attack, not merely soldiers. Prisoners may be taken but must be executed immediately after a battle, unless you’re going to interrogate them, in which case they must be executed immediately after interrogation. Also, surrendering or being taken prisoner by the ash-kerampf group is a capital offence. While only warriors are actively required to seek out and kill the enemy, all people physically capable of doing so must oppose them if they actually show up. Once declared, the war this invokes cannot be ended until the last member of the group is dead.
Finally, either the individual or group version of ash-kerampf could theoretically be called in the greater form, though to the best of my knowledge this has never happened. If called, what this would mean is that every Orre individual anywhere must drop whatever they are doing and devote themselves only to the target’s destruction. So declaring a group greater ash-kerampf would make every member of the Orre nation uproot themselves and march out, their sole goal being to kill every member of the target group.