Commonwealth City does not govern by prohibition.
It governs by harm prevention.
The City’s legal framework is deliberately narrow, focused on protecting people, infrastructure, and continuity rather than regulating personal behavior. Most things are legal by default. What matters is impact, not intent.
If it does not harm someone—directly or indirectly—and does not destabilize the City, it is not illegal.
“Harm” includes:
Physical injury
Psychological coercion
Exploitation through imbalance of power
Systemic disruption
Infrastructure damage
Creating conditions that force harm onto others
Private choices remain private until they spill outward.
The following are generally legal and unregulated unless they cause harm:
Recreational drug use and possession
Personal cybernetic modification
Non-coercive sex work
Personal expression and identity
Ideological belief
Peaceful assembly
Digital anonymity
Private relationships and contracts
The City does not care how you live.
It cares what your choices cause.
Assault and murder
Non-consensual acts
Coercion, trafficking, or forced labor
Abuse of authority or dependency
Intent matters less than outcome.
Sabotaging infrastructure
Disrupting transit, utilities, or healthcare
Interfering with civic systems at scale
Actions that cause cascading failures
If the City bleeds, it responds.
Predatory manipulation
Financial or social traps that remove agency
Abuse of surveillance or data asymmetry
Leveraging power to deny consent
The City is especially hostile to invisible harm.
Armed violence in public spaces
Unregulated military-grade tech
Creating panic intentionally
Actions that force emergency powers
Escalation is not illegal.
Uncontrolled escalation is.
Most recreational substances are legal.
Illegality arises only when:
Distribution is coercive
Substances are weaponized
Use causes harm to others
Supply chains destabilize districts
Addiction is treated as a health issue, not a crime.
Enforcement prioritizes:
De-escalation
Containment
Restoration
Accountability
Punishment is a last resort.
Most legal consequences involve:
Restrictions
Supervision
Loss of access
Mandated mediation
System-level correction
Prison exists.
It is rare, short-term, and heavily scrutinized.
CCPD handles public safety and investigation
CORE Government Systems handles compliance and escalation
Procedural Courts determine responsibility
Public Oversight audits abuse
No single body controls all stages.
The City learned that:
Overregulation creates black markets
Prohibition creates power asymmetry
Moral law becomes ideological violence
So the law does less.
And watches more carefully when it must act.
Players are rarely “criminals” by default
Harm matters more than rules-lawyering
Consequences are contextual, not binary
Quiet wrongdoing can be more dangerous than loud crime
Ignoring a problem can be as impactful as causing it
You are free.
Until your freedom costs someone else theirs.
Commonwealth City does not ask if something is proper.
It asks one question:
Who does this hurt—and how far does that harm spread?
Everything else is just paperwork.