Justice
Command 'justice' allows you to read the justice board where punishments of cheaters are documented. For the syntax of command 'justice', see 'help news'.
Following is a description of how city justice works in cities of Arda.
Crimes
An action can be a crime only in a town or its immediate environs:
- Perjury (complaining about an innocent person).
- Wandering with an unsheathed weapon if you are not a town's citizen. (This is not a crime in some towns.)
- Using magic if you are not a citizen of the town. (This is not a crime in some towns.)
- Attacking a player (not wanted and not Orc) or a mobile citizen.
- Murdering a player (not wanted and not Orc) or a mobile citizen.
- Summoning an aggressive mob into a town.
Complain syntax
IMPORTANT
To see the crimes that you have witnessed, type "complain". (This does not work while you are in the secretary's office - see below! You have to go to a different room.) You will get a list of "Evidence" saying what crimes you have witnessed.
You may not complain about anything that you have not witnessed unless you want to be arrested yourself and charged with perjury! If it's not in the "Evidence", don't complain about it!
For example, if a known thief is standing in the room with you and you see that all your gold is disappearing, but you have not actually witnessed it, you cannot complain about it (without being charged with perjury).
Note that death results in you forgetting the crimes you have witnessed. So, you can not complain about someone's having killed you, because it is no longer in your evidence!
- Complain about someone at the local secretary office in the town where the crime occurred with 'complain <person>' This will only work if you are a citizen of the town.
Note: Complaining about someone's crimes removes them from your "Evidence". Therefore, if you make a mistake and complain someone TWICE, the second time will be treated as perjury!
- 'complain <me>' always works. It is the only way to surrender when wanted. It is also the way to visit someone who is in jail. Note that you are going to complain only those of your crimes that have been already witnessed by the justice; others will still stay unreported and may get reported later, giving you a nasty surprise after you leave the jail!
- Study the town's court board, at the secretary's office with 'complain', 'complain wanted' or 'complain paid'.
Note: Valar do not need to be in the office and may type:
'complain [ <town> [ all | wanted | paid ] | <someone> ]'
Justice
The mobile citizens of a town complain of their crimes when they see a guard. The complained person will be notified of his crime by the guards and if he follows them, be judged. If he escapes, he will be wanted dead or alive (preferably dead) in (and only in) the town and a reward will be given to the player who kills him.
Notice that if you are wanted and stand in a room with a guard without moving for a while, the guard will eventually arrest you. However, if you try to escape justice by running around and not giving the guards a chance to arrest you, you will eventually become wanted dead in the town.
IMPORTANT
You are judged only for the crimes that were known when you were judged. More crimes may be reported later, resulting in you getting jailed the moment you get out of jail.
It is possible to escape a town's imprisonment:
1) By killing all the witnesses of the crime before he is complained about.
2) By not being caught by the guards. Crimes have a lifetime that goes from 1 real time day to 30 real time days.
3) By being killed by somebody inside the town when wanted.
Note however that if you die not to a kill but to drowning, climb, poison, etc., and/or outside the town where you are wanted - the town will not forget that you are wanted there.
