[Mkguild] Peace Bonded Weapons

[Raven Blackmane]

Michael Bard wrote:
> My understanding of medieval culture is that swords and other large pointy
> things were legally required to be "peace bonded".  Does this hold true at
> MK?
>
> Michael Bard
>   
Excellent question!  Generally speaking, cities would institute 
peace-bonding in order to protect civilians from various unsavory types 
who might prey upon them, as well as to keep rowdy and undisciplined 
civvies from getting nasty in their brawls with one another. The right 
to carry unbound weapons was reserved for the city guard and the 
military. Elvquelin, the capital of the Sathmore Empire, goes further by 
actually prohibiting civilians from carrying weapons into the city.

But Metamor is no ordinary city, and its people are no mere civilians. 
Every Keeper is trained to fight from an early age and tested regularly 
through sparring matches with other Keepers. Military service of some 
kind is compulsory for all adults. Caravans do not generally enter the 
city proper -- that's what the market town of Euper is for. The entire 
city is, quite literally, an armed fortress, the last sure place of 
safety on a dangerous frontier.

In light of that, it wouldn't surprise me if Metamor had a frontier 
attitude about weapons. When /everybody/ has been trained to fight and 
kill; when everyone is, to some degree, a soldier; when everyone has 
received sober-minded instruction in the sort of conduct that is, and is 
not, acceptable for a loyal servant of the crown ... do you really 
/need/ peace-bonding laws?

Seriously. Keepers are, on average, the baddest bunch of mf-ers the 
world has ever seen. Who in their right mind is going to try to assault 
one of these people /inside their own city?/ And given the military 
discipline instilled in them, and the very real sense of being all alone 
in the world, what are the chances that they're going to turn on each other?

I could see peace-bonding laws being a necessity in Euper, which gets a 
lot of traders coming in from a lot of places. Such laws would keep the 
visitors from getting too far out of hand, especially in their dealings 
with each other? But in Metamor Keep itself? I wouldn't be surprised if 
weapons are carried openly and unbound. Because these people know what a 
deadly serious business violence really is ... and they know how to use 
it to devastating effect.

I could be wrong, of course. But that's how I see it.

By the way ... welcome aboard, Michael! :)

--Raven



-- 

"I love science, and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of 
the subject or feel that choosing science means that you cannot also 
choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not 
meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it." 
--Robert Sapolsky