The Way of the Clans
The Greenwood Expanse is not ruled by charters, ledgers, or toll law. It is ruled by memory, oath, and the authority of kin. Law in Battania is not written for common folk to read, nor enforced by standing courts. It lives in the words of elders, the judgments of chieftains, and the weight of reputation carried by warriors who have bled for the land. Outsiders often mistake this for lawlessness. Battanians know it as a different kind of order, one rooted in obligation rather than administration.
Authority in Battania flows from clan and reputation. The basic unit of rule is the clan, led by a chieftain whose power rests on the loyalty of kin and retainers. Powerful clans are ruled by mormaers, war-leaders who command multiple kin groups, hill-forts, and villages. A mormaer’s authority is personal and conditional. If they fail to protect their people or bring ruin through folly, they may be challenged, displaced, or abandoned by their own kin. Titles do not guarantee obedience. They announce expectation.
Above the mormaers stands the High King, crowned upon Dunthanach. The High King’s authority is ancient but limited. He speaks for Battania when the Greenwood is threatened and may call clans to war, but he cannot rule daily life within clan lands. His power lies in gathering many voices into one when invasion or existential threat looms. When peace returns, his authority fades back into ceremony and counsel.
Some titles carry weight beyond land. The Twenty of Dunthanach, masters of the Greenwood bow, are recognized across Battania as voices of warcraft. Their counsel is not law, but ignoring it invites disaster. Their standing can humble mormaers in council without granting them governance over clans.
Disputes in Battania are settled first within the clan. Elders hear grievances over land use, blood debts, marriage ties, and stolen livestock. Compensation is favored over punishment. A wronged family may be owed livestock, tools, or labor rather than blood. This practice preserves kin strength and prevents feuds from consuming entire lineages. However, when honor is publicly stained—through betrayal, oath-breaking, or deliberate killing—compensation may not suffice. Blood may call for blood.
When disputes cross clan boundaries, mormaers convene councils on neutral ground. These gatherings are tense affairs, heavy with old grievances and rivalries. Mediators chosen from respected elder-warriors speak to prevent escalation. The goal is not abstract justice, but the restoration of balance that allows the clans to survive the coming winter and the next war. A settlement that weakens both sides is considered a failure.
If mediation fails, formal challenge may be invoked. This can take the form of single combat between champions, trial by contest of skill, or limited skirmish agreed upon by both sides to settle a claim without dragging entire clans into war. These rituals are dangerous but controlled, intended to contain violence rather than unleash it across the Greenwood. When such rituals break down, feuds begin, and feuds can last generations.
Oaths are central to Greenwood law. An oath sworn before elders or upon sacred ground is binding in spirit and reputation. Breaking such an oath does not invite written penalty; it invites loss of trust, exclusion from council, and in extreme cases, declared outlawry within the Greenwood. A person who breaks oaths may still live, but they will find no shelter in clan halls and no welcome at shared fires. In a land where survival depends on kin, this is a slow death.
Witness carries weight equal to oath. Elders who hear a vow become its living record. Their memory preserves law where no ledger exists. To lie before elders is to poison one’s standing for life. Stories of oath-breakers travel far, carried by traders and warriors alike, making it difficult to escape reputation within the Greenwood Expanse.
Violence is accepted as part of Greenwood law, but not as a first answer. It is a final language spoken when words and compensation fail. Killing in defense of clan or land is honored. Killing for pride or personal gain is condemned and often answered with reprisal. The line between the two is thin and argued fiercely in council. Battania’s law is not clean. It is shaped by survival in a land where weakness invites conquest and restraint invites internal fracture.
Foreigners within the Greenwood are subject to clan authority while they remain on clan land. They are expected to respect local custom, offer compensation for harm, and seek mediation through elders if disputes arise. Outsiders who appeal to feudal law or imperial precedent within the Greenwood are seen as ignorant at best and insulting at worst. Some mormaers tolerate foreign courts for trade matters in towns, but beyond town walls, Greenwood law holds sway.
Greenwood law is not written. It is remembered. It is not gentle. It is meant to keep clans alive in a land that has never forgiven those who believed stone walls and distant kings could protect them better than kin, oath, and blade.