HOME STONE AND GENERAL CITY LAWS
1. "…the laws of a city extend no further than its walls." (Outlaw of Gor, p.50)
2. The theft or desecration of the Home Stone is punishable by Torture, followed by Death in boiling oil.
3. A person might be slain for not standing when speaking of his own Home Stone.
4. It is illegal to take any maps of this city out of this city; or for someone outside of the city to make their own map of the city.
5. It is a capital offense for any person to make an unauthorized copy of a Municipal key.
6. Assassins, bearing the mark of the black dagger on their forehead, are permitted entrance into a city without interference. (Registered Assassins only. See Indigenous Laws)
7. Heralds are immune from interference by any within a city. Heralds bear a gold slash on the left temple of their helmet or headgear. Ambassadors possess this same immunity.
8. To claim land outside of the city for your own, you must place a yellow stake of claim into the ground during the morning. You must then wait and protect that land until sunset. At that time then, the land becomes yours and you may lay your Home Stone there.
9. Crests, signs and family emblems will be registered with the Magistrate of Nadira, and their use legally restricted for use by only those who possess the rights to use them.
10. Players, Poets, Musicians and Singers may freely enter a city.
11. No Player, Musician, Poet or Singer may be enslaved within city limits. Of course, they can still be arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed. They are simply immune from enslavement.
12. Thievery is illegal and harshly punished. The first offense is punished by an ear notching. For a second offense, the punishment depends on the sex of the offender. Males are punished by the loss of their left hand and both feet. Females are punished by enslavement.
CITIZENSHIP LAWS
1. A Free Person must reside in Nadira for a minimum of two weeks before they can apply for Citizenship. The application for Citizenship is available upon the City Scrolls, under "Applications".
2. Retaining your citizenship in Nadira is contingent upon you attending certain public ceremonies and assemblies. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right, and thus it must be earned. You are expected to owe your allegiance to the city and work at supporting that city.
3. Anyone who refuses to practice their livelihood or strives to alter their caste without the consent of the High Council is an outlaw and subject to impalement. All outlaws are forbidden entrance into the city and subject to impalement. Panther girls and talunas are considered outlaws and will be slain upon sight.
4. Every citizen of Nadira must journey, at least once, to the Sardar Mountains before they are twenty-five en'vars old. The Initiates keep track of who goes and who does not. Initiates teach that misfortunes hit a city if their youth avoid this obligation.
5. The nonperformance of the citizenship ceremony, within one year of reaching intellectual majority, is punishable by expulsion from the city. This applies only to those individuals born within the city or born to citizens of the city. There is no stated age for intellectual majority but from circumstantial evidence it appears that sixteen years old is a possibility. There might also be a requirement that some other citizens, non-blood relations, vouch for you. You may also be questioned by a committee of citizens to determine your worthiness for the city. The oath of allegiance involves the touching or kissing of the Home Stone, the swearing of oaths, and the sharing of bread, fire and salt. A laurel wreath and mantle of citizenship are then conferred upon the new citizen.
LAWS PERTAINING TO MERCHANT LAW
The City of Nadira is a Free Merchant Port. Therefore it is governed by Merchant Law. Merchant Law governs Laws on Slavery as well.
I. Merchant Law is the only common legal arrangement that exists between cities. Gorean cities are fiercely independent. The Sardar Fairs help to standardize Merchant Law. The Magistrates help administer and enforce this law.
II. Nadira keeps its Merchant's Foot and Stone in the Chamber of the Council of the Central Cylinder, and is available for Merchants to verify their own personal measuring devices. Any Merchant found to be using a deceptive Foot or Stone will be punished.
III. Shaving or slicing off metal from any coin is considered to be theft and fraud. This debases the value of the coin.
IV. Patents and copyrights are available in the city, through proper filing with the Magistrate but their power extends only as far as the city walls.
V. Forgery of the city seal on products is illegal.
VI. By law, the Slavers' Caste is a subcaste of the Merchants' Caste. The Slavers though like to consider themselves a separate Caste.
VII. A free woman who cannot pay her debts will be enslaved. Under the Redemption Laws, a man can pay her debts and thus will now own her. If no one redeems her within a certain period, she will be sold to slavers.
VIII. It is illegal to sell a slave that is not your own, without the owner's permission. The penalty varies according to the sex of the seller. For a man, it is exile, and for a woman, it is enslavement.
IX. It is illegal to offer an unbranded slave in a public sale.
X. A certification of a slave's heat must be given, in the City of Nadira. The slave's degree of heat will be listed on the sale documents.
XI. If a father cannot pay his debts, his daughter becomes a slave of the state. She will be put up for sale at public auction. The proceeds of her sale will be used to equitably satisfy the creditors.
XII. No Free Woman of Nadira will sell her children into slavery to pay her debts. The Free Woman herself will be enslaved to pay her debts.
XIII. By recommendation of Merchant Law, there are three standard marking places for brands, on the left thigh, right thigh, and lower left abdomen.
XIV. It is illegal to sell a slave as auburn haired if she is truly not so.
XV. It is a felony to forge or falsify pedigree papers on any slave.
XVI. A certification of a slave's heat must be given, in the City of Nadira. The slave's degree of heat will be listed on the sale documents.
XVII. If a lost, stolen or runaway slave is taken by another person, the original master has only one week to regain his property before legal title passes to the new master. The slave remains the property of the original master only for that one week if he does not regain possession.
XVIII. Capture rights pertain to all property, including slaves. Active possession of a slave is regarded as crucial by the law. A slave must fully serve anyone who possesses her, even a thief. If the slave runs away from the thief, she is considered to be a runaway. Free women are permitted to escape from a captor as long as they have not yet been enslaved. The point of this law is to keep slaves in bondage and to make men bold. The institution of capture is honored by all cities, provided the females captured are those of an enemy.
XVIX. If a slave owner dies, his slaves pass to his heirs or if he has no heirs, to the state.
LAWS PERTAINING TO CASTE
1. A Free Person's Caste may be legally changed. In a Free Companionship, a free companion can take the Caste of the Man.
2. Any Free Person who wishes to change Caste must petition the High Council of the City for approval; based on the Free Person's qualifications for the new caste and the willingness of the new caste to accept them.
3. All Citizens of Nadira must be of Caste and practice their Caste actively. (Gor-Wide Caste Registries not required, as long as they are practicing their Caste IC.)
4. Any Free Man who does not practice a Caste, or is not actively pursuing a Caste, is deemed an Outlaw and will be subject to Impalement.
5. No Free Woman shall hold the Position of 'En' or 'First Chair' of any Caste in Nadira, with the exception of the Caste of Physicians and certain seamstress or cloth maker's Castes, bakers and perfumers. First Chairs are traditionally held by Men. Contact the Magistrate of Nadira if further information is needed.
PERTAINING TO FREE COMPANIONSHIP
1. A Free Companionship between a Free Man and Free Woman lasts for a single en'var. (Three mun months.) If it is not renewed at the end of that time, it dissolves. Slavery and death of one of the parties will dissolve the Companionship before its expiration date. A woman does not change her name in a Free Companionship.
2. Homosexuality is an accepted reality in Gor. For homosexual couples, certain legal contracts and property-share documents can and will be prepared for those desiring it, by petitioning the Magistrate and High Council of Nadira.
3. Custody of children born from a Free Companionship. Custody of children born in a Free Companionship defaults to the Free Man. A Gorean Man has the right of custody of his own heirs. The Free Woman of the Companionship maintains the rights of Visitation and instructing of the children, provided that she has not been enslaved, but the children remain with the Father. (This is book and this is a Man's World.)
LAWS SPECIFIC TO FREE WOMEN
1. Robes of concealment and veils are required by law for all free women within the City of Nadira, guests and citizens. They must be worn at all times in public; however it is not necessary to wear them while inside of their own homes.
2. Women in the Physician's Caste cannot practice medicine until they have first bore two children. In many cities, at age fifteen, women place two bracelets on their left wrist. One is removed for each child that is born.
3. Face stripping a Free Woman of Nadira by forcefully removing her veils is a serious crime and will be punished in Nadira to the fullest extent of the law.
4. A free woman can sell herself into slavery. But, once completed, she cannot then revoke it.
5. If a free woman submits to be a slave to a specific man, and that man refuses the offer, she still shall become a slave, subject to capture by the first person to collar her.
6. Any free woman who couches with another's slave or even prepares to do so, becomes a slave herself and becomes the slave of the male slave's master. This is known as the "couching law."
7. The crime of false yielding is a capital offense. It is easy to detect, through infallible physiological signs.
8. The principle of "conduct indicating suitability for the collar" deals with conduct by a free woman sufficient to warrant her reduction to slavery. It is commonly applied to fraud, theft, indigency, vagrancy, prostitution, and indulgence in sensuous dance. Other behavior which might trigger the principles includes attempting to spy on masters and slaves, disguising oneself as a slave, garbing oneself as a slave even in the supposed secrecy of one's own compartment, baring too much flesh, lingering about slave shelves and markets, and even exhibiting an interest in or fascination with bondage. The principle deals with overt behavior and not thoughts. Judges must decide if such behavior is sufficient to warrant a reduction to slavery. It is illegal for someone on their own to collar a free woman for this conduct without seeking legal action.
9. There is no law that states a man may enslave a free woman of his Home Stone because she has insulted or disrespected him. However, this 'liberty' shall not be abused in Nadira...see "Indigenous Laws".
10. Any Free Woman or Free Man that kneels in submission before a Man or addresses him as Master effects legal imbondment on themselves and becomes his slave.
LAWS GOVERNING SLAVES
1. Slaves are considered property, on the same level as animals. Their owner may do anything they wish to them without repercussion. An owner can kill his own slave at his own whim. If a Master who is not the slave's owner kills a slave, he need only compensate the Owner for the value of the slave in coin.
2. Slaves do not own anything, including their name. Even though they may use goods, they do not own them.
3. Female slaves must wear a visible token of their slavery within the city limits. Male slaves are exempt from this law. It is not good for male slaves to understand their true numbers.
4. When a person is collared, it cancels their past. They begin a new life as a slave and may not be held accountable for any crimes that occurred while they were free.
5. It is illegal for slaves to play Kaissa. It is considered an insult to free men, not only for a slave to play but even to touch the pieces.
6. A slave, on threat of torture and impalement, must endure whatever abuse a free person cares to inflict on him.
7. Any free person may discipline an insolent or errant slave, even one who is in the least bit displeasing. If the slave is killed or injured, the free person need only pay compensation to the master and only if the master requests such compensation.
8. In any legal proceedings, the testimony of slaves may be taken by torture. This is solely in the discretion of the courts.
9. The property of one who becomes a slave is transferred to the nearest male relative or the nearest relative if no male exists, or to the city, or a guardian. Even if the slave is later freed, the property cannot ever be recovered.
10. For a slave to run away from his/her owner is a serious offense. For the first offense, the penalty is commonly a severe beating. For a second offense, the slave shall be ham strung.
11. Slaves are not permitted outside the city gates unless accompanied by a free person.
12. It is a capital offense for a slave to wield any weapon.
13. It is a capital offense for a slave to claim caste.
14. It is a capital offense for a female slave to wear the garment of a free woman.
15. It is illegal for a slave to wear veils.
16. A child, born of a slave, becomes a slave and belongs to the mother's owner.
17. Slaves are not allowed to build anything. That right is reserved for free people only.
18. It is illegal for slaves to touch or handle legal documents.
19. Slaves shall not teach free people. By teaching someone, they are placed in your debt and nothing can be owed to a slave.
20. If a slave fails to kneel in the presence of a free person, it can be a capital offense, especially if the slave intentionally fails to do so. In that case, the slave shall be tortured to death.
21. Any slave in Nadira that kneels to a Black caste member without the Administrator's consent can and will be enslaved by the Black Caste.
22. Earthen girls do not have a Home Stone so there are no legalities that prevent their capture and enslavement.
23. A free woman may do a form of limited self-contracting where she legally becomes a slave for a specific time period, commonly ranging from one night to one year. She cannot end this contract earlier than the specified time period. Once the contract takes effect, she becomes a slave with no legal rights of her own.
CAPITAL OFFENSES
Be Advised. Any of these crimes committed within the City of Nadira will be punished by Death without exception:
FREE PERSONS
1. Desecration or theft of the Home Stone of Nadira
2. Treason and High Treason
3. False Yielding
4. Copying city keys without permission
5. Forging signatures or seals of the High Council
6. Making, copying or distributing Maps of the City
7. Conspiracy
8. Spy activity
9. Impersonating a City Guard or any other City Official
10. Flying the colors and/or emblem of Nadira without permission, or distributing the colors, insignia or flag of Nadira to any hostile party.
11. Any outlaw, taluna or Panther girl who enters the city gates.
SLAVES
1. Striking a free person
2. Refusing to kneel before a Free Person
3. Speaking confidential information about the City or about a Master or Mistress to any Free or Slave.
4. Touching Kaissa game boards or pieces
5. Touching legal documents
6. Touching builder's or physician's tools without permission
7. Touching or wielding any weapon
8. Impersonating a free person
9. Acting as Spy for any person or entity for malevolent purposes against the City of Nadira.
