[Information] The Treaty of Vestun

[darthcharon]

I will be posting the Treaty of Vestun here; It's far more comprehensive than this, and as things come up, I will add them to the list here. As such, this is a living document, and players are encouraged to regularly check this thread, though I will make announcements when major additions are added.

The Treaty of Vestun After the first bloody war between houses nearly ruined the kingdom, the newly crowned Queen Shalatir penned the Treaty of Vestun, and demanded that the other houses sign it. The treaty was designed to prevent another such war from occurring, and set rules upon the house on how they could settle their debates. Though the treaty itself is far too long to put here in it's entirety, the gist of it can be described by the following: No house may have standing armies of their own. Only the throne may maintain such a force, and even then that force must be used only in the defense of the realm itself, against outside threats. Acts of espionage are acceptable so long as the acting agents perform no hostile action in outside territory, including, but not limited, to: assassination by rupture, assassination by strangulation, assassination by poison, assassination by blunt trauma, the killing of guards, the destruction of any property, theft of any valuable object, and the sabotaging of any equipment. Torture of a captured agent is allowed, but only in the case in which the agent refuses to speak. The agent cannot be tortured if the agent cooperates fully with the interrogation. Summary execution is illegal, and at least 3 days must pass between the day of capture and the declaration of execution, and at least seven days must pass between the declaration of execution and the execution itself. The execution must be made public knowledge, and any attempt to hide or delay the revelation of the declaration of execution is prohibited. There are a number of other notes, but in general it follows a variant of our own war laws, though these are usually looser, and thus allow for more brutality than our own world (such as the allowance for torture, though it is still limited). Due to the particular wording of the laws, a few houses have found workarounds for many of the restrictions, such as the creation and hiring of leagues to wage wars for them, and in the hiring of the assassin's guild to perform such shady acts without being traced back to the hiring house. The treaty of Vestun is enforced by a council of the king's wisest advisers, who act as both judge and jury when a house claims grievances against another. Though not immune to bribes, one has to be very careful when doing so lest they be declared guilty by manipulation, and the harshest sentence passed down.