So, there’s been a lot going on in the world and it’s stressing me out, so i decided to calm myself by writing you out a little bit of lore on the judicial systems of the Tazu Nation and Clan Lands (as these are the more developed systems in the world, though i’ve got info on all of them). These are brief explanations, but if you have any additional questions or thoughts, feel free to share ’em and i might answer or amend them late. enjoy!

Tazu Nation:

The Tazu Nation follows a matriarchal feudal system, with a few variants with regards to how the King’s and Queen’s offices function with each other. Because it a matriarchal system, the ruling heads of each office are traditionally brother and sister– with occasional variants for cousins and the like, though it is never a husband and wife dynamic. The functions of the whole government are divided between them– the Queen’s office being responsible to the home-base related aspects, such as the distribution of land, as land is typically passed onto women in families, while liquid capital is passed onto males. All aspects of government fall into these traditional binaries, for example the collection of taxes is handled by the King’s office, while the distribution of funds is then determined by the Queen’s office. Foreign affairs on a global scale are dealt with by the King’s office, while actual trade rites fall to the Queen’s office, and so on to all portions of governance. This hand-in hand approach applies also to the lower noble families, with each tier on the feudal system pyramid following the same model.

The legal system of the Tazu Nation follows the same hand-in-hand model, with the King’s office holding dominion over criminal law and legalities, and the Queen’s office holding dominion over civil laws and disputes. For complex cases that combine these two, both the King’s office and the Queen’s office would oversee the trial. This is not to say the King or Queen themselves would try every single case of theft or destruction of property to come into the system– each Lord and Lady of a family would have similar, smaller courts in their own territories that would function the same, with the official King and Queen’s laws to work from as the standard though with some room for interpretation by individual Lords and Ladies. However, as it is with the feudal system’s tiered arrangement, where there a dispute between lesser lord or ladies, the high lord or lady will oversee their trial, and so on upwards until they reach the King or Queen’s authority– theirs is considered the final word on the matter. Group or large scale crimes and disputes will also climb to reach the actual king and queen’s level of the system if they cover multiple provinces or have a large number of complainants/victims, or have a national impact/precedence to be set.

Clan Lands:

The Clan Lands government has had many incarnations over the years, given it has the longest history out of all the nations, varying from a feudal system to a republic, depending on the timeline. The only consistent factor, however, has been the judicial system, which has remained steady for the majority of it’s history despite the governmental changes. This is made possible by the fact that from the second millennia onwards the entire court system is run by one Clanswoman, the Original Erin Manna of the Mannachi clan. Known for her extensive precognitive powers and her rigid lawful neutrality, Erin Manna sits as the sole judge of the High Court, the only court and person capable of proceeding over even an emperor should the need arise. Within her system, she acts autonomously from the rest of the government, appointing judges from lesser to higher courts all across the country. This works solely due to her ageless nature, unquestionable power over the majority of Clan, as well as her stanch adherence to the law– managing to remain unbiased in her interpretation of the laws created by the government, and often returning (though rarely outright rejecting) laws with amendments for the government to consider before officially passing to ensure the proper spirit of the law is being upheld, and to check for moral ambiguity. While this has often made her arguably more powerful than the actual Clan Lands government, she has always also maintained a distance, allowing for the governing system to move and act on its own to the letter of the law.

J. Leigh