GURPS: Church and State Society and Status

Status in Church and State

To be entrusted with missions, responsibility, or just to be allowed to keep the loot you get, you need status, as well as the right to bear arms outside of warfare. Status is limited to 2 max as there are only a small handful of Status 3 people in the Barony, like maybe 12, but maybe a thousand status 2. Of those with the same status, the higher listed position outranks the lower. To get status, one must have a social obligation to a person or institution.

• 8 Emperor Imperial Majesty
• 7 Imperial Consort or Heir, or King
• 6 Prince/Princess
• 6 Duke/Duchess
• 5 Marquess/Marchioness
• 5 Earl or Count/Countess
• 4 Viscount/Viscountess
• 4 Senior Baron/Baroness
• 3 Lesser Baron/Baroness
• 3 Landed Knight/Dame
• 3 Governor/Mayor (varies between 2-4 depending on the town, Rotbrueck's burgermeister is 3, while Chalouth's is a 4)
• 3 Guildmaster/Guildmistress Master/Mistress
• 2 Unlanded Knight/ Dame
• 2 Captain
• 2 Men at Arms
• 2 Craftsman (master)
• 1 Squire
• 1 sergeant at arms, and lower men-at-arms
• 1 Craftsman (journeyman), Merchant –
• 0 Villein, Townsman, common soldier
• -1 Serf, Urban Rogue (by reputation only), mustered peasant militia
• -2 Beggar, Slave, known criminal

Persons of Status

• (4)The Baron, His Lordship, Paul "The Hammer" Raudidge, the Baron of Rotbrueck, and the Baron of Whiterock.
• (3)The Baroness Iris (deceased)
• (3)Bishop of Rotbrueck and Lord Chaplain to Rotbrueck, The Right Reverend Bishop, His Excellency, Garth Raudidge, younger brother of Rotbrueck
• The Abbess of St Livian's, The Right Mother Superior, Reverend Mother Charlotte Raudidge, an aunt of Rotbrueck
• Bishop of Whiterock, The Right Reverend Bishop, His Excellency Francis of Gwyndal, a non-Maguirian
• The Abbot of St Adolphus, The Right Reverend Father, Reverend Father Marcus Taulburg, a non-Maguirian
• Sir Lazcus Weisfeld (of House Raudidge), lord of Stone Dale and a great uncle to Rotbrueck.

Law

What can I say, it's Medieval. Ordeals and torture are common. Punishment is usually very harsh; oathbreakers have their lips cut off, thieves have their hands cut off, adulterers may be castrated (but this is often overlooked). The king appoints a Sherriff (status 3) for each of the counties, Whiterock and Rotbrueck both have one. The one is Rotbrueck is considered harsh, fair, conservative, and diligent. The one in Whiterock is corrupt, lazy, vengeful, proud. The Sheriff keeps the King's Peace and enforces his laws. The Peerage often has their own Reeves in a given village or Parish, but their authority is limited. The Sheriff can go where he will and arrest who he wants. In practice, the peerage are the only ones who can challenge a sheriff. The Sheriffs normally maintains a fortified house, with a separate strong room run by their chief servant, their Bailiff. The Sheriff sits in judgment, except on peers. A sheriff who wants to maintain a good relationship with the county lord will often ask him to sit in judgment with the sheriff on persons of importance. Sworn freeman to a Tenant in Chief can appeal to their Lord (the Baron) to intercede on their behalf. The Baron can appeal to the King on his own behalf, and might do so as well for loyal and trusted agents. The Sheriff and Reeves will often call upon the Lord and or country gentry (Knights and Thanes) to get men to capture, guard, transport a prisoner.

Clergy are protected by law from laymen, and can only be detained or punished by their superiors. A man who kills a cleric can expect to be excommunicated, which most everyone believes results in his soul going to hell. A person who kills a known criminals (status -2) or those excommunicated will not be sought for murder, and might actually be rewarded.

Vigilante justice is common, and many sheriffs will overlook it. Blood feuds are also common, and unless it gets out of hand, will be overlooked.

Peasants and commoners can carry few weapons and armor. A staff, short sword, knobbed club, hatchet would be ignored almost anywhere, and a shortbow or spear would be ignored in the countryside. Any non-metal armor would not cause them trouble. These are all LC 4 items and generally any land holder will allow his commoners and peasants to arm themselves with the basics.

LCs vary by status. For -2 to 0, it's LC 5; for 1-3, it's LC 3 and for status 4+ it's 1.

• LC = CR + 1 or more: Any citizen may carry the item.
• LC = CR: Anyone but a convicted criminal or the equivalent may carry the item. Registration may be required, but there is no permit fee.
• LC = CR - 1: Permission required. If the the person is a Thane, permission is assumed with the title, they are military.
• LC = CR - 2: Prohibited except to persons operating under the direct orders of a person with status to allow that item. (this will likely mean LC 1 items for the party, which would be serious spells, magic armor, magic weapons, etc. If you're on the Baron's business, then you can employ these methods. If it's personal, it would be illegal...but if they're all dead, whose to tell.
• LC = CR - 3 or worse: Only permitted to the military or secret police. (necromancy & gate spells)

Permissions can be as simple as a person who can freely use it vouching for you; i.e., if your are a thane of a Baron directly, then with his knowledge you can do all LC 1+. Tenants in Chief are military leaders and can grant permission to their subordinates for law enforcement and military purposes simply by swearing them in as Knights, Sergeant-at-arms, or Men-at-arms.

Money

Money is rated throughout the Central Kingdoms as: Copper Farthing (1) Silver Penny (4) Gold Crown (200) Silver Pound (1000)

Imperial Lands use similar denominations, but different: Copper Penny (1) Silver Denari (4) Gold Mark (150) Talent (1000)

Coins of the Canton of the Grey Watch are very pure, reliable, and often physically large. They include the small copper khenn ($1), the copper dann ($12), the silver ffo ($144), and the gold tohn ($5,184). However, Grey Watch coins are extremely rare outside of the Canton; a Cantonite who pays a non-Cantonite in danns, let alone ffo, is showing great respect.

Technology

Before Burn's Crossing, many parts of the Central Kingdoms and Imperial areas was TL4 almost 5. The devastation and social upheaval made many areas retard to lower TL. Techs that were in wide use and understood by many (smithy techniques, farming techniques and windmills/watermills) generally survived better. Those that were rarefied and known to only a few, suffered worse. I'm also considering how magic might affect the need to develop tech. 10-15 pts in spells with minimal magery can make a decent ship's weather mage, dramatically decreasing the need to build better ships with stuff like seek coastline, wave, current, storm, wind. On the other hand, magery can also advance the understanding of other things as hawkvision, microvision, measurement, test load, and just generally fucking around with the forces of nature (lightening, fire spells, earthquake). My view is that these things work better when a mage understands the underlying principals of physics that he's manipulating, so some of the sciences tend to be a little more advanced. The application of the knowledge gained from raw sciences went into better magery, not into better engineering applications.

Building technology is a great example of this. Measurement, test load, move earth (and stone), shape earth (and stone), essential wood, essential stone, and others allow buildings beyond what a TL3 society could normally perform. Master builders often have these spells in lieu of understanding how to use a plumb line or other surveying techniques. However, the basic underlying understanding of architecture, and structural physics is advanced enough to allow TL4 construction, using a mix of mundane TL 3 techniques and magic.

As a general guideline:

• TL3- Metallurgy, shipbuilding, medicine (no demand with healing magic), armor and weapons, water wheels, most engineering not specifically mentioned below, mining and prospecting, brewing,
• TL4- Biology, physics, astronomy, optics, chemistry (due to alchemy mostly) farming, buildings, windmills, stagecoach (leaf spring), navigation, clockwork, movable type

GURPS: Church and State