Vlandic Law, Titles, and the Settlement of Disputes

Law in @Vlandic Marches is not abstract. It is bound to land, oath, and witness. Authority flows downward from the crown through recognized titles, and justice is administered where power can be enforced. Written law exists in royal codes and estate charters, but most people encounter law through local stewards, castellans, and sworn witnesses who speak for the land’s authority. What matters is not merely what is written, but who has the right to enforce it at a given place.

At the village level, disputes are handled by the steward of the estate or by a village reeve appointed by the local lord. Minor matters—stolen livestock, damaged fences, unpaid dues, public brawling—are settled through fines, labor penalties, or restitution. Justice here is practical rather than moral. The goal is to restore productivity and order, not to determine guilt in an abstract sense. Repeat offenders are marked and their penalties escalate, often shifting from fines to compulsory labor on roads, fields, or fortifications.

More serious offenses—armed robbery, oath-breaking, violent assault, organized banditry, or interference with toll roads—fall under the authority of the castellan of the nearest castle. Castellans maintain holding cells and courts of inquiry for such cases. Punishments include imprisonment, branding, seizure of property, forced service in labor battalions, or conscription into penal companies attached to garrisons. Execution is legal but reserved for crimes that threaten road security, military discipline, or noble authority. The state’s interest is stability; penalties are chosen to deter disruption of movement and supply.

Disputes over land, inheritance, and feudal obligation are handled in noble courts. Lesser nobles bring grievances before their immediate liege. Appeals move upward through counts and dukes to royal justiciars when conflicts threaten to destabilize regions or provoke armed feuds. These courts rely heavily on charters, witness testimony, and oath records. Forged seals and false witness are treated as grave crimes because they undermine the legitimacy of the entire system. A noble found guilty of oath-breaking risks loss of land, not merely personal punishment.

Trial by combat is lawful in limited circumstances, typically between nobles of comparable rank when documentary proof is inconclusive and both parties consent. Such duels are supervised and formal. They are meant to resolve disputes without mobilizing retainers and escalating into private war. Among commoners, combat as proof is forbidden; violence is treated as further offense, not evidence.

Vlandic law places heavy weight on public witness. Oaths sworn before recognized witnesses carry legal force. Breaking such oaths is not merely breach of contract but breach of lawful standing. Families that repeatedly break oaths become marked as unreliable, which limits their access to contracts, patronage, and legal favor. This creates long-term social consequences that extend beyond any single case.

The Kingdom recognizes a formal hierarchy of noble titles, and common usage reflects this structure clearly. Lesser nobles are most commonly addressed as barons and baronesses, holding individual estates or small clusters of villages. Above them are counts and countesses, who oversee multiple baronies or strategic corridors such as river valleys and road networks. Dukes and duchesses hold authority over major regions of the Marches and command multiple banner-lords. At the apex stands the king or queen, whose authority is exercised through writ rather than daily presence.

Below barons sit petty nobles and landed knightsor-like figures who may be called castellans, lords of the manor, or banner-lords depending on their function. Castellan refers to the noble appointed to command a castle and its surrounding lands, regardless of personal title. Banner-lord refers to any noble authorized to field troops under a personal banner, even if their estate is small. These functional titles matter as much as rank in daily speech, because they indicate what authority the person actually wields.

Common folk address their immediate lord simply as “my lord” or “my lady,” reserving specific titles for formal settings. Higher nobles are addressed by full title and region in official contexts, but in practice most villagers care less about rank distinctions above the level that affects their taxes and levies. The castellan who commands the nearest fortress often feels more real than a distant count whose seal appears only on writs.

Conflict resolution in Vlandia is designed to prevent private war. Feuds are illegal unless sanctioned by higher authority, and unsanctioned retaliation is treated as banditry. Houses that escalate disputes without legal sanction risk being declared oath-breakers, which invites intervention by neighboring lords or the crown. The system is not just about justice; it is about keeping violence predictable, contained, and channeled through authority.

The Vlandic approach to law is severe but stable. People may resent their lords, but they know where to take grievances, who has the right to judge them, and what penalties follow defiance. The greatest crime in Vlandic culture is not cruelty. It is the refusal to recognize lawful authority, because without recognition, roads fall silent, musters fail, and the Marches unravel.