Accords of Avalon

A Place in the Concordance

The nations of Avalon have their own rulers, courts and ways of life. A title that commands respect in one land may have little meaning in another, and a familiar custom may carry an unfamiliar obligation across a border. The Accords of Avalon give the nations that join the Concordance a common understanding of these matters. They establish obligations for justice, trade and warfare, along with the courtesies by which people of different kingdoms can deal with one another.

The Concordance seeks fair treatment for the civilized races throughout Avalon. Its members are expected to honor both the meaning of their agreement and its written requirements. A clever reading that defeats the purpose of the Accords does little to uphold them.

The participating rulers enter this agreement by consent. Within a kingdom, final responsibility for law remains with its Sovereign Monarch. Through the Accords, that ruler accepts shared obligations toward other nations without surrendering the sovereignty of the Crown. The Council gives those obligations a governing body, while the Tribunals attend to the fields entrusted to them.

The Council and Its Work

Every signatory sends one national representative to the Concordance Council. Usually this is the monarch or highest ruling official. Under a different form of government, the governing body determines who has the authority to hold its seat.

A ruler may instead send a sworn, duly appointed proxy whose station is equivalent to Royal Knight. In Council, the proxy speaks with the authority of the liege and the nation. The nation must therefore honor concessions made by that representative. Except where foul play is involved, a ruler's later unwillingness to accept those concessions provides no grounds for leniency.

The Council chooses the city that will serve as its capital and meets there at least monthly. Every member nation must attend every meeting. Current business is reviewed at these gatherings, and the Council's findings are distributed to the nobles of the member lands.

Unless a particular procedure establishes another threshold, a Council decision requires a two-thirds majority. The Council has final authority over matters of law, warfare and commerce between members, including a final veto over laws, treaties and amendments put forward by the Tribunals. Its continuing duty is to uphold the Accords and their interpretation in the interests of the member nations. It may create further governing bodies or appoint additional representatives when its work requires them.

The Council's three subordinate Tribunals deal respectively with Justice, War, and Trade and Commerce. Each nation supplies a commoner and a noble to every Tribunal. Establishing and maintaining the bodies, and appointing their officers and representatives, falls to the Council. Creation of the commercial Tribunal requires the nations' collective agreement.

The Tribunals must deal fairly with the nations under their authority. Within their respective fields, they are responsible for observing conditions throughout the Concordance, gathering the knowledge needed for their duties, and protecting the Accords' wording, principles and purpose. They may propose laws, policies, treaties and directives that further their work, and they must carry out the Council's instructions. These responsibilities also apply to governing bodies created later.

Entering and Leaving the Concordance

All nations of Avalon were invited to join by signing before 1 January 606 in the Evendarr Reckoning. A signature during that initial period immediately brought the nation into full membership, with its benefits and its obligations.

After the initial period closes on 1 January 606, entry begins with a petition. Three-fourths of the Council must support its acceptance or rejection. Approval allows the petitioner to complete membership by signing.

Expulsion starts with two nations submitting a written motion and the grounds for it. The proposed action ends the subject nation's Council membership and its Accords obligations. Investigation by the Council and Tribunals precedes their report and the deciding vote. Two-thirds must approve removal.

Changing the Accords requires agreement from every member. A proposed amendment must be presented and discussed in Council, and at least three months must pass before the vote. The proposal succeeds only if every nation votes in its favor. An absence, an abstention or a single vote against it defeats the amendment.

Land Duty and Promise

The kingdoms of the Concordance follow a feudal order. A noble answers to a liege, who in turn owes duties to a superior, with ultimate responsibility resting upon the Sovereign Monarch. Rank is unequal, but the obligations of rank run in both directions. Service is owed upward; protection and support are owed in return. Senior nobles often hear the concerns of adventurers, commoners and the nobles beneath them, even though the authority to decide remains with those who govern.

Ownership of the kingdom's land and property rests with the monarch. Vassals administer most holdings with an owner's practical responsibilities, while answering to the Crown. Their service includes collecting taxes, supplying wartime troops, supporting the monarch, and obeying national law. They must enforce chivalrous conduct among subordinate nobles and perform further tasks assigned by the Crown or monarch.

The work of a kingdom is shared among people whose stations differ. Farmers, miners, smiths, tailors and other craftspeople provide the goods upon which daily life depends. Knights, diplomats and governing nobles have their own responsibilities for safety, order and justice. The difference in rank does not make one kind of necessary work unimportant.

Commoners retain the rights of citizens under their Sovereign. A governing noble receives a portion of their labor's profits and owes them protection from criminals and invaders, help during hardship, and leadership worthy of the office. Nobles are expected to conduct themselves as examples to their people and to improve the circumstances of those they govern over time. Their duty rests upon care for the land and the people living upon it.

Commoners contribute through fair taxation and, when required, militia service. Reporting crimes and giving evidence help maintain justice. They also owe their nobility a defense of its good name and the courtesies appropriate to rank. A traveler passing through a member kingdom owes its nobles the same respectful treatment.

The Bonds of Daily Life

Four customs are widely shared among the civilized nations, although their importance varies from one land to another. A kingdom may make a custom part of its own law. The Concordance does not enforce these customs in their own right.

Hospitality begins with an invitation and its acceptance. Once a household receives someone as a guest, its members are expected to do what they can to keep that person safe from harm. The guest owes care for the host's goodwill in return. Nobles bear a particular responsibility for this custom, and hospitality toward visitors from another nation carries special importance.

Acceptance of fealty binds liege and vassal to protect and support each other. Previous hostility does not cancel the duties they have chosen to accept. The form varies: among some peoples, words alone are insufficient, and national law may impose additional requirements. Honor and loyalty depend on keeping the resulting commitment.

Kinship also carries a strong claim upon a person's loyalty. Only the kingdom and its Sovereign are expected to come before kin. In some lands, an offense against a relative brings a heavier punishment than the same offense against another person. An accusation of kinslaying consequently carries considerable weight.

Personal honor is defended in different ways. One land may permit a duel where another expects a public debate. Across Avalon, greater concern for life and safety has made many people reluctant to spill blood over honor alone. Local rulers and cultures determine the practices of honor and honor combat, beyond the jurisdiction of the Accords themselves. Those practices must nevertheless remain consistent with the Accords' laws and purpose.

Conduct Expected of a Noble

Every noble belonging to a member nation is bound by the Code of Chivalry. Its meaning has greater weight than a particular arrangement of words. A nation may express the Code in its own manner or add further tenets, provided that it preserves the obligations already present.

A noble's standing requires respect for vulnerable people and action to protect them. Every person is entitled to the noble's generosity and free giving. Personal welfare comes after the well-being of the government to which fealty is sworn and of the people it governs.

Careful performance of noble duties is required unless performance would violate the law at the noble's present location. Its legitimate ruler must be obeyed. The noble must also cherish the country receiving the oath of fealty, obey liege and monarch, and remain faithful to every promise.

The Code also requires courage and an active opposition to wrongdoing. A noble must not draw back before an enemy. Wherever the noble goes, and at all times, the cause of good and right must be defended against evil and injustice. Opposition to the wicked must be persistent and wholehearted, with war against evil pursued without allowing that duty to lapse.

Commerce Across the Member Lands

Trade between allied member nations remains subject to the Accords at all times. The same obligations cover ordinary goods, knowledge of mundane and Arcane arts, and records in which that knowledge is kept. A manuscript of useful knowledge is therefore a commodity within the authority of the Tribunal of Trade and Commerce.

The Concordance uses a common measure of value so that a coin's place of minting does not change its standing between member lands.

Currency	Metal unit	Value
Avalon Common	Silver	One Evendarrian Silver
Avalon Noble	Gold	Ten Avalon Commons
Avalon Crown	Platinum	Ten Avalon Nobles, or one hundred Commons

These names and values apply to the equivalent coins from every mint. All member nations must accept them as good currency.

A member may neither impose trade sanctions upon another member nor favor one member over another in trade, except where such measures form part of a Declaration of War. The ordinary obligation is fair dealing among all the participating nations.

Each nation must endeavor to build and maintain the infrastructure needed for trade with the others. That responsibility also includes routes through its territory that allow two other members to trade with one another. A nation using another nation's trade routes must pay reasonable taxes or tolls toward their upkeep.

Commercial disputes between members go before the Tribunal of Trade and Commerce. Its remit includes unfair taxation, unfair dealing, and other violations of the Accords' trading provisions. Nations must use that body to bring such complaints.

Answering Before the Law

The Accords establish offenses and minimum punishments that the member nations agree to enforce. Common citizens and travelers are subject to the commoner provisions, and extradition and punishment must be upheld across member borders regardless of the realm in which an offense occurred. A criminal's apprehension in another kingdom does not remove the obligation to administer justice.

After apprehension, the captor nation's law determines the sentence, subject to the Accords' minimum. Domestic law can recognize further offenses or prescribe greater punishments. One member's request does not compel another to enforce those additional national laws against its own citizens.

Noble station brings a further distinction. A title gives its bearer rights beyond those of a commoner only in the land that granted it. The stricter obligations attached to noble conduct, however, follow nobles and other entitled members wherever they travel. Local kingdoms may impose further laws upon nobles and more severe punishments than those given here.

Domestic and Foreign Proceedings

Both noble and common defendants may come within the Justice Tribunal's work. It oversees proceedings and disputes crossing member borders: an individual from one member accused within another's territory, or accused of an offense against the other nation's people or property. A wholly domestic matter remains with national justice when offender, territory, and affected holdings or people all belong to that nation.

Every nation must investigate accusations of crime within its territory. It may hold a trial according to local law or custom. Whether the matter proceeds through investigation or trial, the accused must have an opportunity to answer the allegations. An accused person must also be allowed representation at a trial.

When a representative of an accused noble's liege is available, that representative must witness the trial. A noble tried in a foreign country must have a representative of the home kingdom present as a witness.

A Journal must record every crime and its punishment. Monthly copies go to the Justice Tribunal's appointed representative, who reports them to other nations and the Avalon Gazette. A convicted noble's liege must receive the relevant record as well.

What the Punishments Require

Fines may be paid in coin or in commodities of equivalent value. A fine amounts to one Avalon Noble; a severe fine amounts to twenty Avalon Nobles.

Recompense requires the offender to repay the victim's entire loss. It covers the damage and losses caused by the crime, together with the compensation the local officer of justice considers fair for the victim's time and duress.

Execution is complete when the body dissipates and the released spirit goes to a resurrection site, whether an Earth Circle or another such place. The sentence remains an execution whether resurrection succeeds or fails.

Obliteration requires either three executions in succession or a single successful use of Obliteration Formal Magic. The Formal Magic must cause the body to dissipate and weaken the spirit three times.

Loss of Legal Protection removes citizenship rights and the protection of the member nations' laws for at least one year. During that time the person has no protection under the laws concerning kidnapping, murder, theft or other offenses, and may not be appointed to a title.

Loss of Noble Title removes every noble title held within the member lands, along with its rights and benefits. The offender is thereafter treated as a commoner. If banishment is added to this punishment, the person instead loses the protection of the laws of every land.

The Offenses

The following definitions apply to both commoners and nobles. The tables give their different minimum punishments; a local sentence may be more severe.

Harm Restraint and Servitude

Kidnapping occurs when unlawful force is used to take a citizen or keep that citizen confined. Murder is the killing of another citizen, regardless of whether the victim returns through resurrection. Necromancy includes any effect used to produce undead, direct them or assist them and their kind.

Slavery is the compulsory service of a being who is both living and sentient. Physical force and threats of force are included, as are alchemical, magical and mental influences. No other method, whether already known or yet unknown, is excluded from the prohibition.

Offense	Commoner: minimum punishment	Noble: minimum punishment
Kidnapping	Fine	Execution and Loss of Noble Title
Murder	Execution	Obliteration and Loss of Noble Title
Necromancy	Execution	Obliteration and Loss of Noble Title
Slavery	Execution	Obliteration and Loss of Noble Title

Property Government and False Authority

Taking property knowingly without its owner's leave constitutes Theft. Treason concerns efforts to remove the legitimate government. Deception and force are included, but the prohibition also covers other methods, even those not yet known.

Pretending to a Noble Title means claiming unheld rank, whether its supposed kingdom exists or is invented. Attempted forgery of noble documents and writs falls within the same offense, as does falsely presenting a noble's statement or testimony as one's authority. No land is exempt from that protection. Holding a genuine title does not excuse a false claim to a second one.

Offense	Commoner: minimum punishment	Noble: minimum punishment
Theft	Recompense	Recompense, execution and Loss of Noble Title
Treason	Execution and Loss of Legal Protection	Obliteration, Loss of Legal Protection and Loss of Noble Title
Pretending to a Noble Title	Severe fine	Execution and Loss of Noble Title

Prosecution and the Misuse of Station

Flight from Prosecution is an attempt to escape the rightful authority of law in any land over an offense against the Concordance. For either a commoner or a noble, the punishment begins with the gravest sentence allowed for the offense being evaded. One further execution and Loss of Legal Protection are added to that sentence.

Mockery of a Noble Title concerns ridicule of a member nation's noble rank, office or fitness to perform its duties. Criticism directed at private conduct unrelated to noble office is outside that definition. The commoner minimum is a fine. A noble's minimum adds Loss of Noble Title to the fine.

The noble offense Mockery of the Code of Chivalry addresses wrongful use of chivalry or local law. Distortion, deliberate misreading, abuse, coercion, and disregard all qualify when used for an unrighteous end. Examples include seeking personal glory or advantage, prosecuting someone wrongfully, and avoiding justice. The sentence combines execution with both Loss of Legal Protection and Loss of Noble Title.

Where noble criminal abuse is severe, every offense must enter the combined judgment. Sentences are administered in descending order of severity. Escaping any part adds Flight from Prosecution to the charges, to be enforced by the country that apprehends the offender.

Rank in the Court and on the Road

The Concordance's courtesies allow people to recognize station even when they have come from different courts. Individual nations may keep their own etiquette at home. Between nations, the common forms given here count as proper respect toward a member nation's nobles.

Repeated failure to observe that etiquette is disrespectful. Such failure alone, however, does not justify political sanctions, war, hostile action or deliberately hostile inaction. An expectation of courtesy and a lawful cause for conflict are different matters.

Greeting and Speaking

Lower rank calls for a bow on meeting a superior. A noble may return the courtesy to someone below them, though this is unusual. An ordinary noble's first greeting needs only a waist bow or a curtsy. Kneeling and prostration are unnecessary on that occasion.

Before a monarch, the monarch's court or the immediate heir, the proper gesture is to lower the head while kneeling on one knee. On a battlefield, a bow of the head is enough for any noble, including the monarch.

In settled civilized places, arms should stay in their sheaths. A greeting offered with a weapon displayed is discourteous regardless of the recipient's rank. Poison and other means of inflicting harm count alongside ordinary weapons. Battle or frontier conditions can justify readiness, but a monarch's presence requires explicit royal permission for any display. Without it, the act may be understood as serious disrespect or an assassination attempt.

When speaking to someone of higher rank, begin with the proper form of address. Before a person whose station is Duke, Duchess or higher, wait for an invitation before speaking. An individual noble may ask for more familiar treatment.

Battlefield address has its own practical courtesy. Nobles, military leaders and monarchs alike should be called Sir or Dame, so that their spoken titles do not reveal their rank.

Commoners and Court Appointments

An untitled man may be addressed as Goodman. For an untitled woman, the customary choices are Goodwife, Goodlady, Mistress and Ladymiss. Familiarity, or not knowing the surname, permits use of the first name.

A commoner's military rank replaces those ordinary forms. Use the rank as established, without devising a more imaginative substitute. Formal address combines the rank with the surname; on the battlefield it accompanies the name the person most commonly uses.

Respected court offices are not reserved to nobles. A Sheriff, Magistrate, Guildmaster or Chamberlain may be a commoner and may receive the honorary address Lord or Lady. This confers respect rather than noble status. In formal address, the honorary title precedes the surname. Conversation commonly uses the title by itself.

Squires and Squire Candidates remain commoners of courtly station. Their formal address is Good Squire followed by the first name, for men and women alike. In ordinary conversation, Squire is sufficient without Good.

The Standing of a Title

Some nations award Lord or Lady as an honor. The title keeps whatever rights it carries in the granting land, but it gives no independent standing within the Concordance.

Knighthood is earned personally and carries recognition beyond an honorary award. Sir addresses a male knight; Dame addresses a female knight. Ordinarily the first name follows, with a preferred name acceptable where custom allows it. Formal occasions require the full title: Knight Champion and Knight Protector are examples.

Viscount and Viscountess are usually honorary titles and are not independently recognized by the Concordance. A bearer who is also a Knight is addressed according to that knighthood. Consorts and regents sometimes receive the Viscount's title; when representing a liege, they receive the respect and forms of address owed to that liege. The use of Excellency for Viscounts is included among the address forms below without conferring independent Concordance standing upon the title.

Names and Forms of Address

For Barons, Counts, and Dukes and the corresponding female ranks, personal preference determines whether ordinary address uses a first name or surname. Formal address uses the surname, which is also the safe choice when preference is unknown. A title acquired by marriage takes the family name.

Station	Formal style	Direct address
Baron or Baroness	His Excellency or Her Excellency, together with the Baron or Baroness title	Your Excellency; My Lord Baron; My Lady Baroness
Count or Countess	His Excellency or Her Excellency, together with the Count or Countess title	Your Excellency; My Lord Count; My Lady Countess
Viscount or Viscountess	Listed among the titles receiving His Excellency or Her Excellency	Recognition depends upon another held title or the represented liege, as described above
Duke or Duchess	His Grace or Her Grace, together with the Duke or Duchess title	Your Grace; My liege
Prince or Princess	His Highness or Her Highness, together with the Prince or Princess title	Your Highness

Within a Baron's or Count's household, private conversation permits the shortened styles My Lady and My Lord. Public conversation uses the full form. For a Baroness, a Viscount, fellow Baron, or higher noble substitutes My Lady Baroness for Your Excellency; the male equivalent is My Lord Baron. Counts speaking to other Counts, and their superiors addressing them, make the corresponding substitution: My Lady Countess or My Lord Count.

Private members of a Duke's household may shorten the address to My Lady or My Lord, though My liege is preferred. The styles My Lady Duchess and My Lord Duke are always incorrect. A Duke addressing a fellow Duke, or a superior addressing one, commonly retains Your Grace rather than using the substitutions appropriate to lower ranks.

Surnames are used almost invariably for princely rank. Marriage into the station occasionally permits less formal use of a first name, but the combination of Highness and the princely title remains appropriate. Neither My Lady Princess nor My Lord Prince is acceptable. Household members may privately say My liege, My Lady, or My Lord, with Your Highness still the preferred form. Princely peers commonly retain Your Highness toward each other. The King determines how to address any noble of the kingdom.

A Sovereign Monarch determines the proper address for that office. Until the preference is known, Your Majesty, Your Royal Majesty and King are acceptable forms.

When Nations Fight

War does not release a nation from its obligations under the Accords. Their laws and treaties continue through hostilities, and a declaration of martial law cannot overrule them. Even where a grievance is serious enough to lead toward war, members are expected to prefer a diplomatic or economic settlement.

The military requirements apply when member nations fight one another and when two members support opposing sides through military or economic involvement. The Tribunal of War supervises and arbitrates military action involving the member nations and their allies.

From Grievance to Battle

A member preparing military action against another member must proceed through the following stages.

1. The declaring nation issues its Declaration of War, setting out the grievance and the reparations it seeks. Writs of alliance must accompany it from every nation supporting that side, whether or not those allies belong to the Concordance.

2. The nation receiving the declaration must issue an Acceptance of Declaration within thirty days. Its answer must acknowledge or deny the grievance and include the alliance writs of the nations supporting its side, including allies outside the Accords. Failure to answer within that period brings a severe reprimand issued by the membership.

3. The War Tribunal appoints arbitrators to help the parties negotiate. Both nations must try to settle the grievance before resorting to force.

4. If an equitable settlement cannot be reached, the nations plan the war with the arbitrators' assistance.

5. Military action may then proceed within the limits of the declarations and the Accords.

Military action must be confined to the nations named in the Declaration or its Acceptance. An unnamed nation cannot join the action or become its target. Its territory is closed to the belligerents' fighting, operations, and moving troops. The war must neither inconvenience nor obstruct its people, commerce, or other activities.

Captives and the Limits of War

Combatants must avoid killing another nation's citizens, whatever the cost. Whenever capture is possible, those citizens must instead become living Prisoners of War. Fairness and humane treatment govern their captivity. When the war ends, prisoners must be released to their home nations.

A prisoner's accusation under the Accords does not permit an immediate wartime trial. Both trial and punishment must wait until military action has ended. The accusation then proceeds through the ordinary requirements of justice.

A violation of the war procedure, or of another law or principle of the Accords, brings severe reprimand as the member nations' council of representatives determines. This responsibility includes breaches committed by a participant and breaches committed on a member's behalf by someone otherwise outside the conflict.

If a member's severe violation requires military action against it, all the other members must form a joint force to carry out that action. Where a war between members has instead completed the proper declaration, arbitration and military process, the defeated nation loses its grievance and must pay the victorious nation the reparations determined during arbitration.

Assistance Against an Outside Attack

A member attacked by a nation, people or entity outside the Accords may request military aid from another nation. A member receiving that appeal must provide assistance unless an existing military engagement makes withdrawal of its forces gravely disadvantageous. To oversee such appeals and enforce the aid obligations, the Council establishes a war Tribunal.