Damages Control
In addition to observing the secular divide between Olgotary and Theomachracy-backed courts, the execution of law is primarily concerned with associating damages owed to the state. "Damages" include any wrongful act, accident due to negligence, fault or willful fraud which causes harm to the person, possessions, public or private reputation of another Octet citizen. This is divided further between direct accountability and indirect accountability, distinguishing either trespass against owned property or the undue assault and battery of an individual with motive to commit the crime, or the same outcome but the resulting from an unplanned accident.
For damages without direct criminal intent, the usual cause is poor supervision for property personally overseen or assigned to the accused, such in the case of industrial-scale accidents resulting from equipment mismanagement or workplace negligence. By the breakneck production schedules many manufactories operate, a failure to observe a necessary recall and rotation of storage containers might lead to a warehouse collapse due to unsafe or slipshod structural welds, demanding further shifts to assess the possible loss of supplies and life. Even without injury, a cascade effect of such minor disasters radiating outwards can cripple a nearby residential sector through exhaustion of the labor force just as readily as a sudden outbreak of food poisoning from contaminated refrigeration systems. Decisive accountancy of blame is among the few aspects of Olgotary authority looked upon favorably, quickly moving the focus of a crisis away from finger-pointing to actionable tasks so that emergency services can get to work with the most information available.
Immediate responsibility for such an accident is usually presumed by the foremost ranking figure during an investigation, traveling down the hierarchy until someone lacking a suitable explanation for as why the accident was even allowed to occur can be presented before the court. This marks one of the few times the accused is allowed to speak as her own defense, and justify to adjudicator review an especially compelling reason for not simply why she is not to be held accountable for events she could not adequately control, but how this account is in no way an attempt to excuse incompetence on her own part or that of the operational crew. Differences between waiting suspect and witness become very thin in these cases, where often the entire top-level authority from lead director down to shift foreman may be called in to testify. Supposedly each is held as witnesses to eachother's case or to related issues surrounding the crisis, but the real purpose is to question individually to see where the stories differ.
Through this audit of upper-management the final verdict of accountability is drawn, and the damages exacted from those deemed "most deserving" for not upholding the duties of her post. Often damages are acknowledged but legally ignored as a matter of being too widely dispersed to publicly enforce, such as if an entire personnel detail comes under blame for a factory-spanning crisis. In a refinery gutted by a careless fire or chemical spill, workforce-wide double shifts for the repair, cleanup and return of the facility to working condition is enough increased labor demands to have "made amends" for the oversight and inconvenience. Added punishments would be insult to injury and begin to negatively effect morale and work ethic. But other times, all that is required for the Olgotary is making vaguely ominous gestures that the matter has been settled and order restored, even if the specifics of Who and Why involved never exactly filter down to the common line-worker. With no time or privilege to do more than speculate on the matter, outside observers can only conclude the administration has acted in typical form, silently and heavy-handedly.
Critical Exceptions
Though a case may hold an identifiable suspect who could be personally at fault, there still exist a number of uncommon circumstances which might prevent a crime from being rolled into the nearest convenient precedent. Devout or fanatical cultists, rebellious Populat factions and workers who wish to play a dangerous game might claim to have been granted higher spiritual guidance or assistance with undertaking the crime in question. Sometimes this is done as a political ploy to assert innocence despite all compounding evidence, perhaps glean the mercy of a Champion's attention, or cast light on an obscure or unspoken social issue which would otherwise disappear unnoticed, but always insures the Theomachracy gains sole jurisdiction over the proceedings. Though Autochthon lies at the center of the Octet faith, it is seen as outright blasphemous to divest personal responsibility upon him and his subprocesses as proxy, if not presume to speak for the ex machina, when the Theomachracy has already established proper channels for communication with the supernatural.
Cases of all kinds have been filed against workers "inspired" towards defying or ignoring protocol which challenge any number of unsanctioned and intrusive beliefs, as mundane as shirking shift duties to illustrate garish and pornographic graffiti across barracks walls, to genuinely concerning feats where inexperienced workers have begun carelessly modifying the base functions of manufactured equipment to add "improvements" without authorization of a trained safety professional. One notorious instance included a ring of amateur gourmands breaking into multiple automated dining kiosks across several neighborhoods, redistributing and hand-preparing the available ingredients contained inside into "junk foods," before resealing the machines as though nothing were amiss. Once caught after being hailed by the Populat as renegade heroes of Noi, the only testimony given on the subject was a statement that the crime had been compelled due to growing displeasure at the stagnant menu items regularly supplied by the machines. The Harvesters view this claim as grievous insult against professional dining services to this very day.
A thorough supernatural investigation may well exonerate the accused from blame, but the state nevertheless looks poorly upon would-be prophets and the unforeseen influence of the ex machina on citizens. In the event that this divine patronage is genuine and not a tactfully-worded insanity plea, spirits taking proactive roles in day-to-day activities within the Octet may well mean that something is amiss with Tripartite goals for its people, working at cross-purposes against divine decree. However merely suggesting that the needs of the citizenry are not being adequately met would simply embolden various reform movements with additional ammunition for civil disobedience, demanding formal inquiries be served to the spirit responsible with the assistance of an Alchemical Exalt. Any machine god with proper motive will take credit for the disruption and vouch for the accused as its herald, so it becomes the utmost priority to aid the Champion in decisive action before public awareness of this prophet spurs copycats and misguided supporters to take up the cause.
Working among the Tripartite is no easier, as prospective investigators must face internal obstructionism inherent to state functions. As premiere experts in investigative thaumathurgy, the Sodalities commonly employ the very same arts used to implicate criminals for covering up any involvement of its members via plausible deniability. Each janitorial or maintenance detail becomes suspect, potentially secreting away crucial evidence which might incriminate a well-reputed Luminator with installing faulty fuses, or cast aspersions towards a machinist tampering with the control settings of an industrial exoskeleton shortly before the lift capacity severed the occupant's arms from the sockets. Not content only to flagrantly defy the safety code in bypassing the Olgotary without observance of protocol, the Sodalities often use this stolen evidence to self-police and conduct private investigations without oversight of the regulators and internally assign blame and punishment.
These Sodalt inquiries traditionally result in further workforce damages leveled against the perpetrator, by inflicting punitive and ghoulish disfigurements to her face, hands or senses of varying severity to the crime, leaving presiding adjudicators toothless to respond in any meaningful capacity. Though the very acts fly in the face of everything the Olgotary believes the law stands for, to publicly pull rank and denounce the practice would also mean admitting the respective Sodality upper-management has successfully practiced free reign for barbaric and unnecessary butchery of otherwise productive experts with vital skills for an ill-defined amount of time. The fear of legal consequences would collapse, having held no bearing to restrain similar actions in the past and calling into question whether that power truly existed in the first place. To act upon it now would mean revealing the Olgotary's own complicit tolerance until it became inconvenient, and thus the two branches of government remain in a holding pattern of mutually begrudging silence. Sodalt overreach is left as merely another open but reviled secret within the Tripartite.
Regulator cadres share many of the same faults as the Sodalities, though at a smaller scale comparable to local departments. Truly corrupt officials are rarer, but the facts remain that clannish attitudes which allow units to function cohesively have also served to leave many a faithful regulator out in the cold. Belief in the sanctity of the law quickly wanes after a regulator or her duty-partner within the district becomes framed for a crime she did not commit or audited for abuses of station which did not occur. Resulting investigations are often nothing more than pageantry for the sake of the courts, when loophole clauses are dug free by fellow officers to dismiss her culpability for the charges, not create an ironclad case for her innocence. It is a bitter pill to swallow, realizing that no one among her peers would openly acknowledge or care whether she or any other regulator even could have committed the crime or not, fixated solely on propping up the outward image of the policing force as impartial arm of the law. Repeated exposure to such cynical loyalty politics can wear down even the most idealist heart, illustrating all the ways the system has spun wildly out of her grasp.
A Pound of Flesh
Work defines all walks of Autochthonian life, and lacking other forms of personal value to use as recompense for damages incurred against others, compulsory labor becomes the most commonly levied personal fine in the form of community service. The majority of this work is comprised of aide duties, like restoring or placing glyph signage and hazard paint in dangerous industrial plazas, sorting work supplies and tools, folding and distributing laundry, managing the state nurseries and directing childcare - the kinds of brief but necessary support-related or domestic tasks which slip through the cracks because there are always more physically-demanding priorities to be assigned. Yet, without aides to grease the wheels and practice due diligence, the workload demanded of every task becomes that much more greatly magnified with a plethora of general upkeep and oversight.
The average Populat laborer operates her station a minimum of two shifts daily, punctuated by three shifts during especially important weekdays or scheduling conflicts. More valuable jobs demand three shifts each day, meaning aide work typically requires pulling a convicted shift chief or subdirector away from managing important facilities and crew if she refuses to compromise her recreational hours. To account for this, each nation hosts its own preferred alternatives to leveraging aide work to benefit the state, such as Claslat allowing minor criminal fines to be paid out in the form of glot currency and returning it back to the localized economy, or Estasia approving dangerous feast-or-famine military deployments in exchange for a spotless record. But serving as an aide is not widely held to be an easier or 'demeaning' type of labor than that found in the manufactories or Tripartite halls. These are simply different categories of work for nonphysical aptitudes, necessary life-lessons and skills which all members of a civil society should be expected to perform adequately.
Beyond those conscripted into community service, aide work crews are typically a motley bunch, drawn out of the aged and infirm, the ailing or disabled, outpatients suffering the lingering effects of medical recovery or reproductive distresses, and those temporarily taking personal leave from physically strenuous roles while awaiting the birth of a child. The convicted is thought to have been given ample time and a special environment to reflect and glean new perspective on the events which led her to this point, now forced to labor avidly alongside the object lessons shown by these pious workers. For who better to rehabilitate those who have lost sight of Autochthonian unity than the many still seeking to contribute to the growth of the nation and well-being of her people despite heavy limitations placed on the body by circumstance? But while her fellow aides are expected to help guide the wayward miscreant back onto a nobler path, repeat offenders and unrepentant louts are unlikely to be welcomed with open arms.
Nations like Yugash and Nurad, who stake cultural pride on the aspirations of mobility between social classes, often do not restrict aide work by the same divisions which define everyday life. Experienced Populat aides may rub elbows time and again with tarnished members of higher rank or conscripted Tripartite officials than outside society would normally allow, in a greatly relaxed atmosphere as comparative equals in the eyes of the law. Conversely, such free access to the most needful of the Populat can open up welcome opportunities for a compassionate subdirector or state worker to gain better insight for what troubles are currently bedeviling the local district. Theomachrats turn a sour outlook upon inter-class fraternization of this sort, which dare to suggest issues might have evaded notice from within the ivory tower of governance. These arrangements are sooner dismissed as nothing more than easy schemes to recruit internal whistle-blowers and private informants, bypassing the strict verification requirements upholding the preceptor spy network. Infrequent rumors are still enough to draw suspicion, but not as often as clerics would hope justifies the additional skepticism.
Reassignments for aide work are normally established long in advance, though room is always open for unplanned but non-debilitating injury or debts to repay to society. A well-prepared factory director keeps a supply of aide tasks on perpetual rotation, so while primary facilities may be left shorthanded there are necessary jobs which can still be fulfilled. Sometimes the management takes a close eye when determining where to place community service cases, and finds amusement in the subtle ironies of forcing a pair of laborers known for disruptive brawls to put aside a history of mutual differences in order to complete an extremely high-risk duty. Allowed a measure of power over a social superior, many subdirectors would leap at the chance to schedule a disgraced politician to distribute materials alongside the victims crippled by the questionable administrative policies of her former campaign.
As an inherently temporary position, less stable and routine than operating the manufactories, aide work is primarily regarded as a transition point for "bouncing back" into other forms of service. It is taken as a sign for official inquiry after a aide task has been completed if a worker's poor medical condition or personal disposition has not yet improved, spurring a series of examinations or private interviews before moving her to the next assignment. Policy-makers within the Olgotary insist this is to insure that community service is not aggravating an existing ailment further or impeding an eventual return to the workforce, in addition to weeding out would-be loafers looking to breeze through labor requirements on less physically active duties. An aide, regardless of her reason for being an aide, should always have a sense of ambition for her future and obligation to support her nation and people. Nevertheless, in place of piety and nationalism, the state accepts the simple pragmatism of a job done swiftly and requiring as little oversight as needed.
Full Court Press
Harm caused to personnel and property generally are recognized within varying proportions of five categories, asset worth, inflicted discomfort and suffering, corrective expenses, work-stoppage, and mental anguish. While the final verdict may be established by matters of historical precedence, the individual elements are judged in a manner dictated by the demeanor of the Adjudicator overseeing the case, the social standing of the accused and the nature of the crime. Sentencing uses these biases to gauge the method and form of her extra shifts in community service. A well-regarded junior Tripartite member with high worth who inflicted minimal work-stoppage might be granted flexible aide tasks to be done in any order or consecutive number she wishes within her existing routine, but sooner rather than later is preferred. Meanwhile a Populat lever-puller with a similar crime may be judged to have caused grievous insult by her actions, assigned to a hard labor shift with an immediate deadline. Both punishments are treated equally, pending further judgement by not fulfilling the mandated quotas, making up for the "slack" which has now been artificially introduced into the scheduling timetable.
Asset worth is the rough value which a piece of misused equipment can be said to have contributed to the community, nation and god. This is compared before and after the crime, extending into the pious labor of a victimized citizen and her injuries. If the crime would render equipment irreparable or a victim unfit for work in her chosen field, such as amputation or blindness, this value is treated as no better than that of unusable scrap or a corpse and the full value must be recouped by the accused. Even if that condition is improved or restored later, to leave a worker alive yet bereft of means to ply her education and skill is considered a cruelty surpassing mere death, having forcibly reduced her total capability and potential to enrich herself through service to the community and the Great Maker. Many victims of accidents turn to aide work immediately following observation and care by one of the Surgeons for this reason, as a means to show her will to contribute remains strong.
Legal definitions for discomfort and suffering follow a similar logic. A demand is made of the accused, to name an approximate value of work she would willingly undertake beyond her standard workload to avoid or insure against a crime of equal severity upon her person or belongings currently or in the future. The hypothetical amount is otherwise weighed for fairness by the court, placed against her constitution and any ongoing health conditions, social status, work routine and livelihood. For example, if neglect leading to a workplace accident resulted in the mutilating loss of an arm by a fellow worker, the accused would be subject to inquiry on how much work she would take on for fear of having an equally functional limb removed as part of a court-authorized medical procedure.
History has many tales of crueler, less-civilized times when such payments in blood were necessary to fuel the divine machines in atonement, and the barest suggestion speaks hauntingly of the court's adherence to precedence ruling, though neither party is especially eager to prompt reawakening the old practice. This uncharacteristic personalization on behalf of the victim instead serves a more deliberate purpose, used for property crimes against the state or in cases where culprit and victim are from vastly different social classes. The isolation imposed by class structure, duty scheduling and even physical location can leave an otherwise skilled worker worryingly detached from an actionable frame of reference to acknowledge the impact of her misdeeds. The Sodalts misrepresent this form of punishment during internal investigations, acting on this formerly-implied violence when members draw undue scrutiny from the greater Tripartite, much to the chagrin of Olgotary courts.
Yet unlike the Sodalities this demand is not issued as an overt threat of bodily harm, but something worse. A theoretical value judgement, forcing the culprit into a no-win argument against her indistinct victim. She must either formally devalue her body and tools before the court, admitting greater fault in the enterprise, or baselessly justify her own work as carrying more inherent value than any possible damages caused. Either argument would have dire implications for her community service sentence if poorly executed, possibly even dismissed as contemptible grandstanding during the proceedings to deflect attention away from her crimes. Though the average worker might avoid accusations of arrogance by yielding to the maximum punishment and throwing herself upon the mercy of the court, and the state could certainly gain no small amount of surplus labor by accepting it, the Olgotary outright refuses such self-indulgent martyrdom complexes. Romanticizing criminal behavior with self-sacrificing overtures benefits no one, and the state prefers criminal punishments be feared than seen as some inevitable consequence to be meekly resigned towards.
Corrective expenses and accounting for work-stoppage are paired similarly to worth and pain, framing the accused as a parasitic obstacle or bumbling oaf draining vital state resources in the form of damaged equipment and mistreating available personnel. In cases of significant collateral damage, costs and labor necessary to recoup the injuries and accident incurred will also include the amount of time it would take a professional to mend these damages, if at all possible. Sodalts of the Surgeons and individuals possessing knowledge of first aid and medical practices are barred from aiding her own victims, as is a machinist from attempting to repair devices she has broken. The failure marks a loss of confidence in the accused, because if she were truly capable at her occupation there would have been no initial mistake to correct. Now that she has proven herself to be a flawed actor, only an appropriate show of restitution will remove the stain from her reputation.
The harshest penalty of corrective expense is the foremost, stripping the guilty party of all medals, unredeemed meal vouchers or embellishments of note earned for outstanding service and duty. Once subtracted from the final sentence as a show of charitable faith and acknowledgment of previous goodwill, if this collected value would be enough to encompass the entire length of community service in full, the sentence is commutated as a "slap on the wrist." However, the remainder of her esteemed credentials remain forfeit as the price for bringing down judiciary oversight. This forfeiture includes any project lead position which a Tripartite member has been awarded, usually deferred to a second nominated by the court. Status within the project is still maintained, but as whether an advisor or a menial depends entirely on the demand for her contributions and the charity of her peers.
Labor schedules are drawn up by the Plutarchs with the expectation that a minimum quota will be fulfilled alongside urgent daily tasks and upkeep, so when causes like industrial accidents or regulator investigation make for shorthandedness and delays, the Olgotary holds a vested interest that the sentence is often far beyond the initial consequences of the crime. Work-stoppage is this labor-debt imposed upon the administrative timetable, caused by replacing or relocating vital equipment and detaining personnel, with the culprit held fully accountable for the unplanned deviation. This form of judgement is often held back in reserve if other forms of harm can not be suitably justified, but the crime still created a significant setback for productivity. Harsh enough rulings may leave the accused not just atoning for her own missing hours of required labor, but also responsible for the full work shift left scrambling during the interim to correct the upset she created. The severity to which the suspect is held lies solely on the adjudicator and assorted council supplying the sentence, and whether the court bends at the needs of the state to make notable examples of those who disrupt the status quo.
Lastly is the issue of mental anguish, typically referred to as "insult" or psychological harm, largely regarding the social standing of the accused and her personal character. Her demeanor towards the act carries the most weight, whether she shows remorse for the damages wrought by her misadventure or levels contempt against any aggrieved party or possibly the court itself. Tantamount among these would be determining if the crime could be thought to shame, degrade, harass or otherwise subject the victim to abuse and disharmony within her appointed station. Crimes performed between class-lines are always viewed as insult unfavorably disruptive to the social hierarchy, though the Lumpen are markedly exempt from this clause and the harm of insult by past criminal behavior. Shame inherent to being among the Lumpen is always assumed to carry a denial of victimhood in these cases, assured of being the troublemaker at the root of the problem even when evidence would suggest otherwise.
During times of social unrest the court may even take up the role of the slighted victim when a case is particularly open and shut. Arguing the certain guilt of a criminal so clearly assured about her rightness and nevertheless attempting to pursue a verdict of innocence is seen as an unforgivable waste of time for all those involved. The extended length of these proceedings may even be used as further punishment, added onto the sentence by sheer principle for having insulted the court and compromising the swift resolution of her hearing with needless bluster.
But the use of insult in judgement is especially pronounced during cases of violent crime, when the intended harm can be seen as leveled against the intrinsic qualities of humanity, not simply the victim. Viewing flesh and blood as merely a living vessel for the Great Maker's selected souls, the doctrine of the Theomachracy combined with daily workforce requirements mean that the peoples of the eight nations are often paradoxically more apt to turn a blind eye towards a cold-blooded murder within the safety code than against an attempt to violently harm another's identity as a state citizen. This protection even extends posthumously, criminalizing any effort to anonymize or dispose of a human corpse without the oversight of a Harvester functionary to assure the proper honors are paid.
Death is simply finality to Autochthon's people, the ephemeral cycle conveying one life to the next, however much this may cause grief to loved ones and inconvenience to the structures relying on that missing experience and labor. But damage laid callously towards the face, stimuli-detecting senses or her precious soulgem, gruesome butchery to the body and similarly terrible acts go beyond merely inflicting death on another. It is exploitation of the weaknesses inherent to mortal flesh, used to vindictively strike out at the things which bring the victim competence in her workplace, sureness in her community and value in the eyes of the Great Maker.
The courts universally decry this form of exceptionally violent crime as that of a sadistic animal treating the victim as nothing more than worthless meat, characterizing the culprit as lacking the barest morals or impulse control to acknowledge the dignity of the soul contained by her victim, or the essential humanity within herself. Fundamentally dehumanizing violence is treated with the same gravity as an open refutation of Autochthon's sovereignty over the wellness of his people if the mortal state of being can be seen so disposable, or even contesting the worthiness of humanity to be recognized as "chosen" if still capable of such base monstrosity to kin and kind.
But while this bias exists and sways courts, the weight of insult is not enough to overcome the natural societal aversion towards normalizing murder, even if the method is clean and the target be truly deserving in the eyes of the people. Removing any productive citizen from the labor pool, no matter how reviled, may even be wielded as insult to the victim's superiors, demanding a newly redoubled service to the schedule that was thrown into disorder, not a temporary exemption from conducting the holy work. Even in the best of cases, during the aftermath of self-defense or accidental death, it is widely preferred among the Populat that a comfortable amount of distance is maintained between those known to have bloodied her hands and the unwitting workers sharing her station. The Alchemical Exalted are regarded as only slightly more trustworthy than others in this sense, supernatural mandate or no, and a great many Champions take special care to sanitize the recorded uses of physical force and keep her hands free of mortal blood.
Speculative Execution
Though the state wields the threat of exile or capital punishment as the ultimate price for high crimes, in truth the removal of a citizen is only the last resort at the end of truly extreme circumstances. The system abhors inefficiency, and the net loss represented by the resources used to train, feed, clothe and house the citizen up until the time of her ejection or demise is prohibitive, to say nothing of that expended to finally deliver her sentence. Skilled, reliable work is forever in short supply, no matter the social standing of the accused, and even the simplest lever-pulling task represents no less than a dozen years of careful investment awaiting the payoff of a productive work shift. More complex workings of public facilities require more than just warm bodies to fill the ranks, but the combined efforts of several professionals successfully passing along the necessary knowledge and practices to up-and-coming apprentices, each of whom will carry the expectation to fill this advisory role one day.
The scale and consistency of wrongdoing necessary to render disgruntled workers into disposable threats to the Tripartite's interests lies far beyond the privileges granted to most citizens, and though subversive elements may try to create martyrs at the hands of an adjudicator's ruling, only the gravest of crimes will rise above a mandatory community service debt. Every effort is put forth to keep a misbehaving citizen in a productive position if firm counseling by local lectors or preceptors on the vital nature of her work is not enough. Relocation and assignment for other job tasks is the next step, isolating her away from negative influences or staging private training and advisement if the demand is there, before finally going so far as attempts at recouping her growing labor debt through sharply reducing her daily recreation hours. As a rule the Olgotary retains these most troublesome cases as long as possible, to extract higher and more demanding amounts of labor until either the effort needed for the miscreant's regular management exceeds the supply of work she bring to the state, or the lesson is successfully learned and she returns to her shift crew as a humbled yet productive member of society.
No criminal acts in isolation, so every arrest, informal meeting, court hearing and disturbance to her name is weighed upon the final value of her meaningful contributions to her home nation. State workers often argue responsibility for productivity gains made by support and influence enacting Tripartite proceedings, though she may have not personally manned the great engines and machines, in the hopes of a largely permissive trial. But evaluating the productive labor of a citizen only comes if events were recorded using the proper procedure for admissible evidence, and that is another matter entirely. By the requirements of safety code to uphold the public health and sanctity of souls, it is extremely difficult to consign any citizen to death or exile without an ironclad case, irregardless of social class, and the stringency of protocol demands eyewitness account follow exact terms, or else be convicted as an accomplice to the crime.
The sheer crush of humanity within the cities is a common benefit to many justice-seekers, meaning all but the most covert or conspiratorial crimes will have at least someone available to give testimony, but acts of high treason, manslaughter and unacceptable workplace risk demand bystanders step forward in the absence of Regulator authority to prevent the crime or else be considered complicit. Eyewitness accounts of major crime demand no less than two observers to the act in progress, who must be consciously aware of not just the perpetrator but also each other witness present. No witness can be related by blood to anyother witness or to the culprit, nor attached via romantic or business history, for fear of voiding the entire account with unnecessary bias. Ability to speak, hear and see clearly is required of all witnesses, so it is easily confirmed for all in attendance to the crime that proper warning was leveled and acknowledged by the accused, if only by dismissal. Implicit or explicit support of an Alchemical Exalt is never a given, not even the encompassing nature of a city comprised by municipal Charms, and thus it falls to mere mortals to take a stand where a Champion, Colossus or Polis cannot be relied on to challenge the immediate problems of local crime head-on.
Explicit warning is paramount to the judgement of the courts, because it displays without a shadow of doubt the true intentions of the guilty party when faced with an obstacle to her plans. Once all witnesses to the impending crime have been accounted for, one or more must step forward to make a presence known and verbally issue the warning and physically prevent the crime from taking place if necessary, leaving guilt proven by the culprit's willingness to continue the crime despite obvious resistance. Any warning must be clearly spoken within seconds of the act, informing the capital nature of her crime and the risks or punishment associated with it. Within the safety code, this warning can be as simple as shouting the unseen threat level of a broken steam main and the potentially deadly consequences of attempting to recklessly charge an emergency team through to make repairs, which would normally leave all present criminally responsible for the resulting casualties. Flight from the scene or willingness to immediately engage in violence by the accused at being confronted is always considered proof of guilt in some form, though not necessarily of the presumed crime taking place.
It is not uncommon for workers so empowered by the courts to form rudimentary shift gangs of "hostile witnesses" for this reason, proactively self-policing the manufactories, alleyways and barracks beneath the eyes of the subdirectors for dangerous behaviors, and if the culprit peacefully backs down at the warning before any wrongdoing has been done, use the combined initiative of the assembled group to quickly cover up any lingering evidence should the regulators be called to investigate. Many among the Populat would sooner trade the inconvenience of a delayed schedule due to "false alarm" than suffer the shorthandedness of a missing worker taken to custody, even if that worker had just shown total disregard for the role served by her labor and those she works alongside. Thus equally common is when these gangs impart some particularly noteworthy punishment to the would-be criminal to prevent any recurrence and hopefully quell this disruptive spirit, though never something so severe it would draw regulator suspicions or impede the perpetrator's ability to work the shift she had so recently jeopardized through her misconduct.
Upon arrival of a regulator dispatch, each available witness is taken aside and examined individually on the details of the case and the character of her fellow witnesses, followed by a second interview by the standing court during inquiry. Any inconsistency between witness accounts is liable to be used by the court as grounds for deferring the judgement to community service, over something as minor as eye color or the exact wording of the warning given. Bringing false testimony to the court in an attempt to discredit the accused or compound her crime with a more serious punishment will see the witness levied the same judgement and sentence as her intended target, for violating the spirit of the court and the justice it serves. Confessions made by the culprit on the details of her case are also dismissed entirely except where it can be corroborated with a witness account, especially if admitting guilt for a capital crime. The mortal mind is a fallible witness well-disposed to placing blame against its owner where knowledge is unclear, even without the influence of foreign magics and recreational substances, and therefore cannot be deemed an unbiased observer.
This exacting method exists for a very specific reason, so that when witnesses are brought forward on what is known to be a conclusive trial to possibly issue a death sentence for the accused, the proceedings serve as a vetting mechanism to decide who the executioners performing this punishment shall be. A very real responsibility is placed on the witness by the state to judge how much she values the removal of this total stranger from the community in context of the events she has seen, making her an implicit actor in the death of another human being rather than a detached recounting of information. Using the moral instincts of the people against itself is nothing new for the courts, but in this case the additionally dreadful nature of the resolution means the former witnesses will walk away and share this story with others, serving to reduce or dissuade the number of witnesses in the future willing to make statements advocating capital punishments against capital crimes.
Assuming a crime severe enough to demand a conclave of adjudicators in attendance finally reaches a judgement on the fate of the accused, a majority vote cannot suffice by itself. While a minimum of two judges in favor is necessary for a decisive guilty verdict, any unanimous vote without further commentary is thrown out of the court entirely on the basis the trial was somehow conducted in error, with all charges dropped. The Olgotary refuses to believe in anything as simple as a cut-and-dried case with zero ambiguity, which would suggest that either there is such a way for mortalkind to perfectly execute the practices of justice with a clarity rivaling that of Heaven itself, or that one of Autochthon's chosen people was found utterly irredeemable and negligible to the functions of the Grand Design, two things which have historically not yet existed or possibly will ever occur.
After all the tight restrictions and formal protocol laid on what is ultimately subjective information supplied by volunteer witnesses, if such a dramatic verdict has emerged with no discussion to uncover extenuating circumstances, exculpatory evidence or redeeming value to the accused, then fault must undoubtedly be found. Whether that lies within the investigation, the evidence, witnesses or the court, the entire proceedings have been tainted by the imbalance of justice at hand, and for fear of condemning a valuable citizen on spurious grounds, she is let free to pursue her life as though nothing had happened. Therefore it is always considered essential to find some minutiae, the barest hint of credibility in favor, so once the trial has been established there exists proof for another direction events could have unfolded, and that the entire indictment was not a foregone conclusion.
When the act of being delivered to the court is typically enough to assume a measure of guilt or suspicion by its own, it is the utmost responsibility of the judges to find the single feather which the magnitude of the accused's sins will be weighed against. Because all citizens are born as part of the Great Maker's design, it simply falls to the courts to determine whether that divine plan acts at cross-purposes with society at large. But despite this lengthy and stringent process to retain a consistent, if troublesome workforce, the nations do nevertheless exile and execute a handful of citizens each year. The least desirable are marooned out in the reaches if there is some potential left for this wayward soul in Autochthon's mercy, in the hopes she will somehow find deliverance, and those lacking it are seen as cosmic miscalculations and soul-extracted to someday return as a productive citizen, consigning the barely-living remains to a brief detail of contract slavery.
Before the rise of the Octet these guidelines were not nearly so rigorous and protective of yet-unharnessed productivity. Known saboteurs to the Maker's cause, including the rebellious, unwilling and those incapable of work, were universally treated as expendable tools and dehumanized resources. In many ways the existence of inherited law from the Time Before Steel was used as polite fiction to locate the latest bloody sacrifice and create fearful examples to cow the laboring population and help hasten the birth of the governing bodies that would become the eight nations. Those who would not readily aid the transformation of machine-cult elements, devoted primordial worshipers and miscellaneous rabble into a more refined and elite society prepared to fill Autochthon's needs were deemed only fit as fuel to sustain that future growth.
The Tripartite looks back on these ancient records as barbaric times filled with disorder and unrest, indicative more of the hardships and compromises which were necessary hurdles to shape the Pole of Metal for human habitation. The Clerics of the Olgotary see this knowledge as inherently dangerous, keeping it out of the hands of a Populat which would not understand the brutal origins of Octet society as a product of external pressures and inexperience with the Maker's domain, and would use it to vilify the modern state for the crimes of long-ago. Ancient laws to this effect are considered a dark patch within the Tome, excised out of the public knowledge and widely-distributed texts, seen more as an example of how far the Octet has grown from its violent beginnings into an age of enlightenment and a tense, if not comfortable, extended time of peace.
Championing a Cause
The process of law in Autochthonia is a well-rehearsed and carefully-maintained machine, because it is one of the many entirely necessary social and cultural control mechanisms that allow the Populat to live and work together in something resembling peace. But even at the most basic level, the justice brought about by the Olgotary courts is merely mollification of the masses, preventing ill-will and lingering resentment from festering until it boils out from the populace in the form of riots, work strikes and societal unrest. To that end, the machine of law cannot be concerned with moral or ethical questions which have not already progressed to criminal behavior, encompassed by the precedence of rulings which ensure that the daily routine continues. Responsibility for upholding the nations values falls to the worker, the lector, the machinist and the scholar, all walks of life coming together to support the whole and eachother under the ideal of a united community. Compassion is the domain of the individual, not the institution, and within Autochthonia few are more individualistic than the Champions.
The role of the Alchemical Exalted in practicing and upholding the execution of law is both extremely limited and afforded an unusual degree of open latitude, reflecting no small part the esteemed-yet-outsider position she holds within the Octet power structure. Any system built atop a history of precedence wrought by mere mortal philosophy will always be fallible to some degree, but especially so when obligations to display utmost loyalty to the state will demand the missteps and stumbling blocks remain publicly unacknowledged. Causing undue conflict between the social classes is frowned upon as an unwanted change in the consistency of Octet life, however well-intentioned the effort to provide for those slighted by the lottery of soul-distribution. Even those few Tripartite reformers who would seek to fix these many flaws in national administration, the kind which exploit the Populat and create loopholes within those selfsame laws, may awake to find professional careers burnt to the ground by becoming too embroiled in a chosen point of contention.
Preaching beliefs that ring too closely with social radicals and seditious movements questioning state authority brings not just guilt by association, but also threat of censure for breaking ranks and accusations of indirect blame for emboldening such nonconformity. Long-term functionaries coincidentally hew towards pragmatic conservatism, unwilling to advance any agenda except when the scales have tipped enough to make supporting the cause a winning proposition. When the time comes it is immediately proclaimed to have retroactively been part of the plan all along, and none outside of the Tripartite halls could have known otherwise. Even valid criticisms of the status quo without impressive backing easily become political anchors around the necks of reformers, if not inevitably, unless approached with tact and care. Fresh-faced seekers of justice frequently burn-out under the futility of such causes, looking out on a society which more highly values tolerant compliance to the authority upholding the status quo, than towards the well-meaning but disorganized messiness involved with applying universal standards for mutual respect and personal liberties.
The atmosphere of continual crisis keeps Populat resistance short-sighted and fragmentary, left uncertain whether the state is pushing the latest series of unsustainable production rates because threat genuinely looms, or as part of a gambit to keep critics and firebrands too exhausted to object. Even during times of peace, the general public is often too internally divisive between the many and varied interests seeking silver-bullet solutions to long-term problems. It takes only a rapid-fire barrage of upsets or securing new yields to alter the priorities of the common worker, quickly losing sight of efforts to contest the state and its frequently untenable system of labor and infrastructure demands. What meager alliances can be formed between Populat factions under these conditions fracture apart in short order with the refusal to compromise on degrees of clashing ideologies, unable strike the impossible level of solidarity necessary to oppose state whims using a united front. An all-or-nothing stance with anything less treated as state apologia regularly becomes "nothing," doomed through lack of action when the state opts to move last, even when it deigns to move at all.
Unburdened by the traditions of state and the momentum of history, an Alchemical Exalt is largely immune to the backlash against state functionaries as an ancient institution unto herself. She is explicitly authorized to assert her will by intervening against the lofty workings of the political machine as an independent third party, nearly impossible to remove from the public eye. Depending on where her ideals and fundamental mission lie, she wields the power to focus a hundred - perhaps a thousand - staged protests into productive civil action against needless exploitation, or to brutally suppress any glimmer of dissent before it has had the chance to emerge. Staunch Alchemical advocacy can push forward developments where the Populat might otherwise be mollified through the outward appearance of a monolithic system with structured rules, even if that system does actually not function in the fashion it claims. Cultural bias naturally suggests all manner of systems are inherently good and created to result in positive outcomes, and all evidence to the contrary is swept aside.
The Champion and her Exalted peers serve to be symbolic faces within the greater societal class structure, with the state and public otherwise mutually regarding eachother as oppressive yet unseen parades of statistics and regulations impeding a perfectly good workday. But she cannot permit herself the indoctrinated ignorance within the Populat or the silent dismissal of the Tripartite, not when she is stationed to deal with the friction between both factions. Enforcing the laws of mankind largely becomes show-trials to those unthreatened by the legal system, where lasting ramifications are implied rather than explicit. Those persistent or powerful enough to forge ahead despite fears of scandal have almost nothing to lose by acting first and begging forgiveness second. So long as no blood is shed and production remains on-schedule, any wrongdoing is greeted with a blind eye and vague concessions that "something is being done" about the situation.
Violations in unlisted safety law or mandatory curfew are wielded by unscrupulous Tripartite members as excuse to regularly extract additional labor from the Populat as community service. A degree of low-impact crime and corruption is considered the price of doing business, as the general public is forced to clash against eachother to make ends meet for the sake of sustaining official mandates. When state time-tables do not demand that corners must be cut, meeting quota for the daily labor schedule often will. Direct rehabilitation of criminals is strongly encouraged and touted as the most civilized solution, but generally left at the feet of the community to bear. Where the system fails, those with the means to commit crimes will not seek redemption for time served, but work harder to avoid being apprehended the next time. Repeat offenders within the higher ranks rarely bother except to refine the methods into above board practices, exploiting the administration and its people in ways which are deemed more publicly acceptable.
As living examples of the divine machine given form, the Exalted generally are not permitted to personally investigate, advocate or prosecute these types of criminal offenses which weigh upon the judgments of mankind, and the Olgotary understandably refutes any claim which would disassociate any case under current review. Her private investigations, judgements and testimony are granted exclusively spiritual authority, even if she would normally answer to an honorary position within the Olgotary halls. To pursue a suspect or inquest on these grounds would unmistakably escalate the situation and bring down the weight of the Theomachracy and Heaven's judgement. Her official status as a divine agent means she must observe from afar, when even a casual perusal of evidence or accurate recounting through eidetic memory could refocus the case into the realm of supernatural oversight, towing in as many unwelcome complications as the attention of an Alchemical Exalt demands.
For the majority of criminal cases under the guidance of Heaven, the objective truth and unquestionable statistics uncovered by Charms and supernatural investigation will rarely ever be as powerful or useful a tool to aid society as one would suspect in a world where productivity rules all. A murderer is revealed and exiled, but the victims remain dead and the factory schedules suffer under staff shortages. The far-reaching conspiracy is laid bare, but the assets spent to hatch it have still been wasted in the pursuit. Some abuses of power will stay overlooked by even well-intentioned people seeking legitimate justice, blinded by the presentation of sacrificial lambs into believing the entire dilemma has now been resolved with the removal of one or more "bad elements," but remaining ignorant to the root causes. The Champion may hold all the evidence to prove her case, but without providing an emotional connection to the problem it will be difficult to find someone to listen.
Production Role-Models
With so many obstacles placed in front of judges and lawmakers alike, the abuse of state power covertly is regularly the easiest method for a wayward Tripartite functionary to accomplish what can or allegedly Must be done, independent of any morality applied to the outcome. Though not as actionable by the courts as outright corruption, these manipulations of the public trust rely entirely on tangles of interconnected accountability to dismiss the criminal convictions on technicalities, leveraging the longstanding institutional silence to compound generations of legal erosion. Social upheavals like the rise of Sovan xenophobia or Estasian militarism are intractable cultural forces at this scale and are rarely fueled by punishing a single actor, whoever holds the final blame or in lauding an unbloodied hand at the helm, however much this may chart a similar course for allied nations held in orbit.
Propaganda is the foremost battlefield for a political Champion who seeks to bring the law to her side and change the dialogue surrounding malign state actions, swaying public perceptions of her nation's law and against those who would run afoul of it. From her high station she is uniquely empowered yet also beholden to certain political realities, left with only the most notable and history-making events to craft her narratives for easiest consumption. Affirming her nation does not stand on the words of a charlatan may mean digging up old policy records and burning allegorical effigies of past administrations, rather than building her own critique of the establishment. But even within these limits, the right kind of invention can spin hidden injustices out into the public eye, reveal exploitation and send her rivals chasing the ghosts of crises which never existed. So armed, the courts have no recourse but to react to this growing weight of information, forced to address crimes where even the state may not have acted with the state's best interests in mind.
But the Alchemical is not a lone agent in this endeavor, and the current of a changing status quo is a difficult tide to break once set in motion. Her opponents know how to divert and assign blame for unpopular policies, casting the behavior and motivations of Tripartite officials as hard decisions made against internal instability or foreign aggression. The more public and specific her accusations are, the more she may be hounded or vilified for wasting time demanding ideological if not moralistic perfection of the state, when countless other dilemmas assail her nation from within and outside its borders. The most insidious propaganda is the one cultivated to insure the emotional investment and sympathies of the people to causes which ultimately undermine the state, and with it worker livelihood, yet with enough eloquent speeches and intonations of progress by esteemed figures, the Populat will cheer on veiled abuses which have no local impact, provided the consequences rest upon an unknown and nebulous Other.
In the arena of public opinion, a loyalist Champion may nevertheless find herself an artful liar, manufacturing mundane evidence in secret and perpetuating counter-falsehoods on a grand scale if it would quell these ongoing societal disputes, fulfill her goals of justice or give rise to a greater hope in the people she serves. If the system she represents cannot effectively process corruption or violent charges against an institutionally-protected figure, treasonous levels of executive fraud or misconduct conveniently falling into the hands the courts at her behest may have to suffice for a conviction in its place. Once the groundwork of her scheme is finished, playing the role of character assassin can take as little as wielding her Exalted legitimacy like a cudgel upon her enemies, publicly withdrawing her support or patronage in light of these discoveries or preparing an overt campaign righteously condemning the fabricated injustice with electrifying speeches.
Control and presentation of unearthed information holds an incredible degree of power for a willing Alchemical Exalt to exploit towards her goals, when previously-unknown facts behind the criminal negligence of an industrial tragedy can be used to either bring together the daily labor crews in solidarity, or ignite workplace tensions into a boiling point of infighting and power-struggles against the overseers. An investigating Champion will frequently arm herself with a believable, if not wholly true, reconstruction of events built from provable facts and uncovered evidence, with her own delivery vouching for its accuracy. This more amenable truth is often engineered to be naturally compelling in ways the unvarnished facts would not, stifling counterargument by demanding any criticism debate the value of the narrative on its own terms.
Acts of private espionage like this are an open secret among the courts, and so long as the Alchemical keeps her extralegal vigilantism limited to harmful state actors and does not impose herself as judge, jury and executioner without explicit consent, the Theomachracy permits she exercise whatever supernatural oversight is deemed acceptable for the task. A scheming Exalt shoulders the due accountability from Tripartite censure should she overstep her bounds, moving from informing the culture of her city and nation to writing by her own hand, while the ethical sensibilities of her peers serve to mitigate the excesses of her emotional appeals seeded among the Populat.
Other politically-minded Alchemicals see the lack of certifiable history and critical analysis which plagues the Octet, and so seek concerted efforts outwards informing the perspectives of foreign nations than the home front. Though other nations might cast this as campaigns of naked propaganda, this is considered a sacred duty by those who undertake it, using ancient law records and nationalist conjecture to weave together a formal narrative through plausible watershed moments from the courts. Drawing from moral victories, recent tragedies, intrigues and charities, along with rough assumptions about the nigh-mythic past, the Alchemical crafts a more coherent image of how her patron state "truly is" for the consumption of non-natives through the lens of its law.
One could easily argue in this vein that performative efforts touting the enduring health of the Great Maker and institutional might of the Tripartite are the two strongest manufactured-truths to encapsulate authority ever wrought by Autochthonian hands, and without either one hope for the future would be all but extinguished. Yet without Exalted complicity these shared narratives might be lost or warped beyond recognition through generations of ideological mutation or precedence drift. Projecting an unchanging face of stability, sureness and order to allies and rivals takes utmost importance in the current international climate.
For those who wish to aid her people without resorting to manipulations of state powers, only by removing herself and allowing the mortal courts to progress without her input can a Champion avoid compromising her ideals. Though corruption and conspiracy may persist with the actions of the courts, she can still scrutinize any final rulings and alleviate the results deemed too extreme or lax for the circumstances. The primary method for aid is arguably the most simple, by taking her fight out from the courtrooms and into the source of the problem with her own hands. Many Exalts without training in more advanced technical skills make due handling the brute labors, leading by example as an industrial powerhouse of tempered might. Opting to focus on the people effected by the sudden imposition of delays and shorthanded crews, the hardest choice is whether to stay behind after a regulator team has departed and shoulder the seemingly impossible quotas and machine tools left unmanned as other professionals see to handling the formal details of law enforcement.
The Populat rallies around the Champions who stand by to help, looking on in awe as she lifts several tiers of modular scaffolding cable back into place unassisted by excavating machinery, rapidly pieces together a working model from the scraps of an arrested subdirector's duty plans, or emboldens the flagging morale of an assembly line to a requickened pace with undeniable charisma. Some Exalts pursue this tack for cynical reasons, as the underclasses respond better to an authority figure who creates positive material changes to assist the work crews in the factories and the families in the barracks, but challenging the onsets of urban decay and promoting the common good are seen as equally valid approaches. Stories even abound among the Tripartite about weeks or months of substantial scheduling newly salvaged from ruin because of the quick-thinking handiwork of an Alchemical Exalt ready and willing to briefly step in when undue scandal has ripped through the upper echelons causing obstruction and disarray. But while even the Tripartite has reason to accede to the Champion as a preeminent problem-solver, these laudable feats are not always enough to force the state to admit possible fault for allowing those problems to multiply. Not when the rewards for ongoing silence and a face-saving alibi are so high.
Not content to stand idly by and merely clean up the considerable mess of public investigation and apprehension of criminals, or possibly looking for different avenues to leverage her own brand of truth, some Exalted find it more actionable to engage the criminal element directly by staying abreast of regional court rulings and sentencing as an intervenor. While she is not authorized to influence case outcomes, it still lies within her power as the Maker's hand to volunteer herself as an agent of societal reconciliation and rehabilitation. Under her stewardship the culprit gains a special form of refugee status and becomes sole responsibility to the Exalt, and any awaiting legal punishment is absolved while observing her custody. Formally the Champion becomes equal parts parole officer and immediate superior in times of need, with any task or information demanded of the accused treated as community service until such a time the Alchemical is satisfied to report her ward can be safely reinstated back into the workforce with all social debts paid.
Should the guilty party possess some manner of useful or specialized knowledge and skill used in the course of her crime, savvy Exalts will typically wield this pardon as an especially underhanded form of personnel recruitment, forcibly contracting her ward into helping conduct state duties and covert operations. "Favors" such as these are increasingly more common among disgraced Sodalts, who would sooner brave the courts and awaiting the promise of entry into an Alchemical's secret retinue than the disfiguring sentences leveled by her peers. Sometimes though, rather than weighing the value of citizen's life on being broadly useful or intelligent enough to serve as a mole, a Champion extends this mercy as a form of open charity to give a wrongfully-condemned worker a second chance at clean records.
Often this is the result of having become privy to some critical yet unspoken piece of information which would have altered the course of the hearing, or uncovering some other extenuating circumstances which could be found with a brief interview and the discretionary deployment of analysis Charms. She personally returns the accused back to normal labor duties with her explicit protection against the fallout from the crime, staking this innocence on no small part of her reputation and status as acting arm of the divine machine. Practicing this "second opinion" of law by intervention is not without its limits, however. Each instance of self-correcting the actions of potentially dozens of Tripartite functionaries simply works to undermine the legitimacy of the courts in the eyes of the Populat, and with it the goodwill she carries among local lawmakers as one of the Champions. Without extremely good reason for doing so, the Exalt has imperiously placed herself and her own judgement above that of hundreds of shifts in administrative rigmarole to reach this contested verdict, undoubtedly earning a growing number of political enemies and raising more than a few hackles among the Olgotary unused to such rough treatment.
Between allied nations with a favorable history, a well-connected Champion may even wield this gesture across international boundaries and grant safe asylum to foreign exiles. This is a hotly-debated act, given the kinds of crime which submit a citizen to forced exile, but the reassuring words of an experienced Alchemical are often enough to allow the idea to enter the realm of possibility. Both nations approach the agreement with suspicions about this would-be expatriate, and the ramifications are weighted very heavily, especially if the condemned held some senior position within the national Tripartite. Without knowing the exact reasoning for why this exile, out of all others, was chosen for a renewed chance at productive livelihood the foreign government can only assume the harboring nation knows something of great importance about this individual. Rare is the nation willing to suffer the prospects of brain drain in state or industry for the sake of cordial relations, even to a noted ally, so in many cases these arrangements involve an equal amount of brisk material trade to seal the agreement and break even against the theoretical loss from a citizen already valued poorly enough to be banished without undue formality.
Foreign exiles are placed into the Exalt's guardianship no differently than anyother criminal of her own jurisdiction, but the imposed responsibility for these refugees continues as a permanent affair rather than linked to community service. The new expatriate answers to her assigned Champion for all domestic matters, and the Exalt holds full accountability if her charge comes under scrutiny from official channels. In every other way this is a full guarantee of citizenship, and nations with longstanding ties often sport small neighborhoods of a "Little Estasia" or "Jarish Town" variety within major city borders, consisting of a cluster of expat families allowed to continue prior cultural practices rather than conform to the local standard. Normally these neighborhoods are the ongoing project of a single Champion, and she serves as both its protector and intermediary to state authority when disaster strikes, but it is not unheard of for an Alchemical assembly to unite philanthropic efforts together to help turn around the impoverished plight of Gulak Alley as her first mission upon activation. Support from these tiny communities may well form the easiest of an Alchemical's ties to humanity, even if not originating from her own countrymen.
