Religious Law

Religious Law

This is not necessarily sanctioned by the Fleet Commanders. It may, however, be adhered to by civilians.

There are two basic sorts of religious crimes: crimes of Hubris and Blood Guilt. Crimes of Hubris are crimes of disrespect toward the Lords and their sacred spaces, rites and objects. Crimes of Blood Guilt are murders committed in specific circumstances or of specific people.

Blood Guilt

Crimes that invoke Blood Guilt include:

  • Killing your mother or father
  • Killing your sister or brother
  • Killing your daughter or son
  • Killing someone whom you have invited into your home as a guest
  • Killing someone who has invited you into his or her home as a guest
  • Killing someone in a temple or sanctuary
  • Killing someone in supplication at an altar
  • Taking someone forcibly from a temple or sanctuary in order to kill them
  • Taking someone forcibly from a position of supplication at an altar in order to kill them
  • Eating human flesh

Hubris

Crimes of Hubris include:

  • Betraying your mother or father
  • Betraying your sister or brother
  • Betraying your daughter or son
  • Betraying someone whom you have invited into your home as a guest
  • Betraying someone who has invited you into his or her home as a guest
  • Taking someone forceably from supplication at an altar or out of a temple or sanctuary
  • Discussing orgiastic (mystery) rites with the uninitiated
  • Witnessing orgiastic (mystery) rites while uninitiated
  • Having sex on any altar
  • Having sex in a consecrated space (unless sex is sanctified to the cult)
  • Otherwise defiling sacred space (some cult sites will have prohibitions against eating or sleeping near the altar)
  • Killing a priest or abusing sacred objects (abuse to be defined by the object in question)

Miasma

Crimes of Hubris and Blood Guilt incur miasma, pollution. Miasma may be expiated. Crimes of Hubris typically require a rite of purification, while crimes of Blood Guilt require both a rite of purification and a period of exile or religious slavery. Miasma may be spread from one person to another. The laws of miasma transmission are complicated in the extreme, but in general, to be safe, people concerned about risking pollution shouldn't touch the polluted person, share meals with him, look him in the eye or extend hospitality. Polluted individuals are not allowed supplication at an altar, and dragging a polluted person from an altar or out of sanctuary does not incur Hubris, nor does it incur Blood Guilt to kill them afterward - although killing them at the altar or inside the temple still does.

Minor Religious Crimes

These crimes are typically called hubristic, but they do not incur enough hubris to require expiation.

  • Claiming to be better than a God at a given task, or on par with the Gods, either by word or by action (i.e. 'playing God')
  • Swearing during a rite - this will typically cause the rite to need to be performed over again
  • Holding a grudge after due compensation is attained
  • Killing a blood relative of a priest
  • Not allowing the dead due rites
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