#askcrime

Some kingdoms (Like Evangeline and Damijana) have the same laws across all their territories. Others have different laws depending on what territory you're in. For example, slavery is legal in the Morite territory of Barha, but not in the Morite capital city. So, the answer to this can get rather complicated.

Child abuse is illegal in all Great Kingdoms. However, what constitutes as "abuse" can differ depending on where you are. Sexual abuse is pretty straightforward; adults cannot legally have sexual contact with children in any Great Kingdom territory. Even in some Morite regions where child/adult marriage is legal, sexual contact is still not permitted between the child bride/groom and their adult spouse until they are of legal age.

Obviously this law is not enforced very well and it still happens globally (Moswen is an example. She was forced to marry Ekwame as a teenager and had children by him when she was 17, meaning she likely became pregnant at 16). Nobles/wealthy people get away with these crimes more easily, for the same reasons they do in the real world. But I think in some areas the problem is rampant with poor and middle classes as well.

Among the general public, sexual abuse against children is taken very seriously. Pedophiles are considered repulsive globally, and their crimes are not something that occurs openly in any mainstream culture. In all Great Kingdoms, they are pushed away into dark corners of society where they abuse their victims in secrecy.

When they are caught, the punishments are quite severe. In Evangeline Kingdom, Folkvar Kingdom, and Etios Nation, anyone who is found guilty of sexually abusing children is usually executed.

In Matuzu Kingdom, Aquarian Alliance, Zareen Empire, Seelie Court, and Mogdir Kingdom, they may be chemically sterilized, imprisoned for a number of years, and then forced to register as a sex offender upon release, which severely limits where they can live, work, and who they are allowed to interact with.

In Yerim-Mor Kingdom, Unseelie Court, and Lamai Nation, their genitals and/or hands may be surgically removed (I use the term "surgically" loosely. Oftentimes the "surgeon" is just a dude with a machete...), they are scarred or tattoed with some kind of mark that labels them as dangerous to children, and they are banished from the territory. If they live long enough to make it to a new city, their markings usually force them into society's lowest corners.

Like I said at the start, these punishments will vary a bit depending on the territory where the crime occurs. More rural territories are poorly-policed by their kingdoms, so the law is moreso in the hands of the people. Kiddie-touchers fare a lot worse in these areas because angry townsfolk usually get to them before an officer does. These are the areas where you get the most brutal vigilante justice cases such as stonings, sacrificial killings, open torture, etc.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Some areas are definitely plagued by drug abuse issues. I would say Zareen Empire has the worst drug problems of all the Great Kingdoms, followed by the Unseelie Court, and Yerim-Mor Kingdom.

While some Great Kingdoms have worse drug problems than others overall, each kingdom is struggling with addiction issues in some way. Evangeline Kingdom has the fewest illegal drug offenses, yet large chunks of its population suffer from alcoholism. Folkvar, too, has a lot of alcoholism and issues with joy juice.

Pinback extract is a scourge among Matuzu Kingdom's impoverished gorgon populations. Meanwhile Matuzu's roshava are grappling with yappo and its byproducts.

Pyre dust plagues the lower sectors of the Damijana Empire. Both greenbrite and greenlite continue to be issues throughout the Aquarian Alliance, mostly affecting mermaids. Joy juice has become a problem in Mogdir Kingdom and Etios Nation, particularly among satyrs. Etios is also fighting a war against yappo, pink sugar, and even zyrup which is smuggled across its border from Matuzu.

The streets of the Unseelie Court are infested with every drug you can imagine, but blue-eye shrooms seem to be causing the most chaos.

The same is true for Zareen Empire. You can find basically any drug here, but zyrup is the drug that's crippling entire neighborhoods and spreading like cancer. It's so bad that heavily-armed task forces are now patrolling the streets just to clean up the messes this specific drug causes.

There used to be a huge drug trade in Burmek Commonwealth back when it was a functional kingdom. But now its supply lines are really unreliable, so most Burmish addicts have turned to domestic highs like sketchy moonshine and huffing petrol fumes.

Lamai Nation has a lot of drugs available and likewise, a ton of drug users in its population. However, its culture facilitates this drug use in the name of religion. It isn't criminalized the way it is in most other kingdoms, so it isn't really considered a "problem" in this region. That said, there are still many older Lamaish citizens who are suffering serious health problems from their past drug abuse, which is causing a whole other set of problems for this kingdom.

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Questions/Comments?

Pretty much "so rich it doesn't matter", but it also kind of does sometimes. Their drug habits may not affect them financially, but it can affect their personal lives and their decision-making quite a bit.

Titania, for example, is a functional addict. She's been abusing crazy beans for so long that they barely affect her anymore. She can still do her job because the beans don't even get her high, they just bump her up from "crippling depression" to "slightly bummed".

Then you have Oberon Mogdir, who can't even get a boner anymore without snorting a fat line of pink sugar because his body has become so accustomed to it. Most people who take pink sugar end up so high that they can't do anything but lie on the floor and hallucinate. But Oberon has built such a tolerance to it that he remains lucid when he's under its effects. It just relaxes him and gets his blood flowing like normal.

Marghan Matuzu often goes on wack-fueled rampages around his palace, where he picks fights with his own bodyguards and breaks priceless royal heirlooms. He's not the least bit functional on drugs because he just does them willy-nilly. He'll snort or inject anything you put in front of him without a thought. He's not exactly an "addict", just an irresponsible opportunist.

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Questions/Comments?

Good question, but a hard one to answer because it's not really about who a Mogdiri murders, it's about the intention behind the murder.

The Mogdiri don't imprison people willy-nilly. Prison is reserved only for people that a judge has determined are dangerous to society. Everyone else, like thieves and such, are fined or publicly beaten/humiliated by police rather than jailed.

Mogdir Kingdom is one of the very few places on Looming Gaia where monsters have rights. But only certain monsters, and only certain rights. Drau and adhene are such monsters, as they are deemed intelligent enough by the Mogdiri government to function alongside peoples in a civil society. They don't have as many rights as other people, but it's still better than facing execution on sight, which is what they face in most other kingdoms.

Now, whether a Mogdiri citizen murdered a monster or another person, their "punishment" would be the same. Like I said, what matters here are their intentions. Were they acting in self-defense? Then jail is unlikely. Were they acting in a fit of rage? Then the judge might determine that this person is too unstable to be free in society and sentence them to prison.

This differs from places like Evangeline Kingdom, where killing a citizen is considered "murder", killing a slave is considered "property damage", and killing a monster is not considered a crime at all. To the Mogdiri, all three of these actions are simply considered "murder".

Evangelite law bases sentences on who the victim was, while Mogdiri focuses more on the perpetrator's actions.

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Questions/Comments?

Also, how rare are medusa? in the dozens, hundreds?

Good catch! Truthfully, that art is just outdated and needs to be replaced. But I will say that oftentimes for medusas, the barb may be more prominent than the rattle and vice versa. Sometimes the rattle is "internal" and not visible, but it still functions to some degree. The barbs are also retractable, so in some cases you may not see barb or rattle until they're needed.

As for the rarity of medusas: Producing a medusa is a very deliberate act on behalf of the parents. It's a methodical and involved process that can't just "accidentally" happen. In most jurisdictions, mutating a gorgon embryo into a medusa is a considered child abuse and the parents suffer serious consequences, like prison time and having their children taken away.

The only place this is legal is Lamai Nation, and couples may only do it when the church/government permits--like when a new religious or political leader is needed (this nation is a heavy-handed theocracy, so there is no separation of religious belief and law). Typically a couple will be chosen by these powers, and the couple may accept or decline to sacrifice one of their children to the position. Most tend to accept the offer in exchange for wealth and social power.

For these reasons, medusas are quite rare. There are no exact numbers, but it's estimated that there are no more than a few hundred in the whole world. In some jurisdictions, these medusas who were created without government approval are put to death or banished from civilization. But that isn't the norm. In most places they are just left alone in a legal sense, though society typically doesn't treat them nicely.

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Questions/Comments?

Technically speaking, a "wizard" is a mage who specializes in transmutation. A "witch/warlock" is a mage who specializes in curses and blessings. (The only difference between witch and warlock is that they're gendered terms: witch for female and warlock for male. They both practice the same kind of magic.)

However, laymen tend to use the terms witch, wizard, and warlock interchangeably with "mage". A mage is just anyone who practices any kind of magic. For example, many people would mistakenly call a telepath a "wizard" or an alchemist a "witch".

Oftentimes, witches/warlocks usually have some skill in transmutation, and wizards often have some skill in witchcraft. These schools of magic do cross quite a bit. For example, a witch might put a curse on someone that temporarily transforms them into a frog. This spell would require some knowledge of transmutation and witchcraft to pull off.

A witch might also curse someone with a spell that makes them speak backwards. This would not require knowledge of transmutation, only witchcraft.

As for witch hunters, absolutely. Witchcraft can be a controversial school of magic. It's more controversial in some places than in others, and sometimes it's downright illegal to practice. In other cases, it just depends on the specific spells the witch/warlock is practicing. Many people believe that witches and warlocks only curse people with horrible spells, but this isn't true. They can also bless people with beneficial spells.

There are witches and warlocks who use their powers for evil. If they make a big enough nuisance of themselves, someone might hire a witch hunter to deal with them. These "witch hunters" can go by many names. In Evangeline Kingdom, they're called the "Iron Hand". In Mogdir Kingdom, they're called the "Spellbreaker Brigade".

The names may be different, but these task forces operate basically the same way. They find mages who are practicing magic irresponsibly and arrest or kill them.

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Questions/Comments?

Many have tried to sue them, but none have succeeded. The Freelance Good Guys have a PO box in Woodborne, which is a Folkvaran territory, but they don't actually operate their business there.

They operate from a piece of land that's considered independent from any Great Kingdom. Drifter's Hollow sits in this weird, murky border between Folkvar Kingdom and Evangeline Kingdom that neither nation officially claims.

So, technically, the Freelance Good Guys have been summoned to various courts around the world, but they're under no obligation to actually show up because there's no local law enforcement to force them to. Whenever they get a court summon, Evan just trashes it without a thought.

Someone could send a troop of goons to the Hollow to attack them if only they knew its exact location, but that's why the FGG keeps their home a secret.

Goons/assassins have been sent to Woodborne by pissed off clients before, who believed the FGG operated there because that's where their PO box was. These goons always end up on a misguided search and give up after a while. This concept was actually explored in the story "Lost and Found", where Evan believes he's being stalked by an assassin in Woodborne.

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Questions/Comments?

There are! I haven't written articles on any specific hate groups yet, except Kelvingyard if you want to count them. I have had some ideas for this knocking around for a long time, I'm just trying to work out the details.

You could possibly consider all of Evangeline Kingdom a big ol' hate group. Same with Etios Nation and the Aquarian Alliance. Mankind's Disgrace has countless cults, I guess you could call those literal hate groups.

As for smaller-scale groups, there are some pretty nasty ones running around the Seelie Court. I think this was mentioned in the story "Body-Hopping", but some of Linde's relatives were hardcore faery-haters who went out of their way to make faerys miserable. Linde's cousin even attempted to murder a kobold just for...well, being a kobold.

There are a frightening number of anti-satyr groups all over Looming Gaia. I don't have a name for it yet, but there's one group that's basically a huge international gang that captures/kills satyrs for pay. Their biggest customers? None other than Great Kingdom governments...of course these deals all happen under the table. Basically government officials are hiring these thugs to cull the "undesirables" from their cities and make it look like regular street violence.

Lots of anti-human groups in Mogdir Kingdom, which I've already talked about at length.

Anti-mermaid groups are fairly common in Zareen Empire, but that's more of a modern phenomenon that's still in its infancy. No big organized gangs related to this yet, just small packs of assholes here and there.

I think this was briefly mentioned in "The Shadow Sector", but Zareen Empire also has a problem with anti-red elf groups that wander the Irontree District (where lots of red elves lives) and harass them.

Everyone knows about that ugly period in Matuzu Kingdom's history when the government decided to enslave all gaians (which led to the creation of Etios Nation), and thankfully that period ended long ago. However, there are still remnants of that ugliness leftover in Matuzu's remote countrysides, where small anti-gaian groups STILL cling to that period of history like a bunch of sore losers.

That's all I can remember at the moment!

(Of course there are also groups to oppose the hate groups. Karenza's Order of Love and Light is one of the more famous ones.)

Questions/Comments?