Shallam

Shallam is the City of Light, known as the Jewel of the East because of the sparkling crystal and golden domes capping many of the buildings there.

Laws

• SECTION I - JURISDICTION
  • Shallam claims all lands that can be surveyed as being inside Shallam, any adjacent indoor locations such as the Basilica, the Palace, shops and guildhalls, the sewers of Shallam, any subdivision of the city, and the village of Jaru.
    • Any person or his/her loyal creatures standing in, flying above, or burrowed below any location within the city boundaries is considered to be inside Shallam.

• SECTION II - VISITORS
  • Any peaceful visitor in Shallam is under the protection of these laws.
    • In case of conflict between citizens and visitors the visitors have the right to call in witnesses to speak their cause. In case of doubt the law will take the side of the citizen.
    • All visitors to the city are expected to follow these laws. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. If the visitors are not following the law they are no longer under the protection of it either.
  • Abusing the protection of the city to initiate personal attacks outside the city and then fleeing to the safety of the city, thereby endangering city guards and peaceful citizens will not be tolerated and will result in being enemied from the city.
  • The Security ministry and the city Council can demand that persons suspected of ill intent keep out of all shops or completely out of the city, to prevent theft or other planned crimes. Failure to comply with these demands can lead to being enemied to the city.
    • Peaceful visitors who are ordered out of the city are urged to complain to the city Council, which will then review the validity of their complaints.

• SECTION III - SECURITY
  • Any attack on a sentient being within Shallam is illegal. An attack is the initiation of aggressions, by any means, which are done with intent to harm, frighten, or kill the victim.
    • Any action, which cannot be performed by someone under Divine Grace, and any illusions or deceptions that mimic such actions, can be considered an aggression.
    • Anyone who wishes to test aggressive abilities within the city should be careful that all in the vicinity are aware of the situation. Public acts of violence that disturb the peace are illegal.
    • The location of the attacker is irrelevant and does not have to be near the victim if long range abilities or weapons are used. Traps, totems, and other constructs used to harm someone are also considered an attack.
    • This law does not protect city enemies, persons attacking the city, and people currently assisting in attacks on the city. Nor does it protect people engaged in any crime who are hit by automatic defences. Note- Orphans, Averroes, Hakhim, city guards, etc. ARE sentient beings protected by this law. In addition Paradise Birds are a protected species and it is forbidden to kill them. Dr. Kortoxian is a city enemy.
  • Entities are defined as creatures loyal to an individual and under the control of an individual. ***Acts performed against an entity are considered an aggressive act against the owner. Aggressive acts performed by an entity are considered a hostile act as performed by the owner.
    • Aggressive acts against entities will be handled in accordance with the aforementioned laws, so killing an entity will be punished as murder, although to a lesser degree.
    • Chaotic and Evil entities are not allowed within the boundaries of Shallam. These entities pose a risk to the citizens of this city and will not be tolerated within her walls.
  • An individual who kills a sentient being loyal to Shallam risks being enemied immediately, regardless if the loyal being was inside the city.
  • Enemies of Shallam that threaten the security of Shallam should be attacked on sight and removed from the city by any means necessary.
    • Aiding city enemies to enter or leave the city by any means is an offence. This includes acting as the target of portals if this is done knowingly.
  • The repeated murder of Shallamese citizens or members of Shallamese guilds are grounds for enemying, no matter where these murders took place.

• SECTION IV - CITIZEN DISPUTES
  • Aggressive acts outside of Shallam between citizens are not tolerated. Any disagreements between two citizens should be handled peacefully and civilly.
    • The two parties will find a member of the ruling Council to arbitrate their argument if they cannot solve it themselves. The Council member is encouraged to collect statements from witnesses before passing judgement.
  • Any aggressive acts by one citizen on another with the intent to harm can result in disfavour, fines, or immediate casting out from the city and enemying, on the discretion of a member of the ruling Council. Note that divine rules have nothing to do with this mortal law.
    • Hiring assassins or champions to kill another citizen will be considered murder.
  • Any citizen has the right to demand that people leave his or her private property, including a house or a city shop, unless the persons are there on official city business. Failure to comply can result in a city disfavour.
    • Once the person leaves the private property the owner can demand they stay out, although this should not be done without good reason. Breaking this demand can result in punishment by the government.

• SECTION V - KIDNAPPING, THEFT, AND BLACKMAILING
  • Forcibly removing any citizen, including orphans, from the boundaries of the city, will be considered kidnapping and said kidnapper will be branded an enemy immediately. Accidentally straying outside the city is not a crime if the citizen is immediately returned to the city once the error is discovered.
  • Any theft, successful or not, from any citizen, store, or organization inside the city walls is considered a crime against Shallam.
    • Any theft from a member of a city or organisation who has signed the Anti-Theft Treaty is considered a crime against Shallam, no matter where this theft took place.
    • Any attempt to force someone to drop or hand over objects they do not wish to part with is considered theft if the victim is not then immediately allowed to retrieve his or her items.
    • Getting someone to willingly hand over something in exchange for promised goods or services which are not then rendered is also considered theft.
    • Prisming, gating, portaling, entering or being within a storeroom or guildhall without the shop owner's/guilds permission is considered to be attempted theft.
  • Blackmail is a crime and will not be tolerated. Anyone caught blackmailing another citizen will be ousted from the city and enemied. Non-citizens obtaining information while in Shallam, to use in an attempt to blackmail a citizen will be enemied.

• SECTION VI - CITIZENSHIP
  • Individuals with the skills of necromancy, domination, occultism, apostasy or any other skills that are anathema to Shallam's ideals shall not be permitted citizenship.
    • Members of guilds, orders, clans, or other organisations with ideals opposed to Shallam's shall not be permitted citizenship either. This includes members of all Mhaldorian guilds, and all guilds with patrons with ideals contrary to our own.
  • Treason is any action taken by a citizen with the intent to endanger or harm the city or its citizens.
    • Treason will always be punished to the utmost extent of the laws.

• SECTION VII - CONDUCT
  • No sentient inside the city walls will tolerate any unwanted harassment. Harassment is defined as the unwanted, continued annoyance of an individual by another.
    • Public preaching of Chaotic, Dark, or Evil ideas which is an unwanted, continued annoyance is harassment.
  • Yelling shall be reserved only for those instances when the entire city must hear. Continued yelling for any reason can be considered harassment.
    • The use of the city channel is a privilege, not a right. Every citizen is free to state his opinions in a respectful manner about any subject, but if this offends others the citizen will be asked and expected to stop the offending line of conversation or take it to a non-public medium. Likewise if the duration of the conversation is very long the citizen will be asked to take the conversation elsewhere.
  • Citizens are asked that when partaking in the use of alcohol and cactus weed that they remain at the drinking establishment, personal dwelling, guildhall, or the special celebration. They should not sprawl themselves out within the streets. They will refrain from using public forms of communication that can be heard by those not within the room with them while drunk.
    • The use of Gleam or any other addictive substances should not be promoted in any way. Selling and buying Gleam within the city is highly illegal, as is advertising for such a sale.
    • The use of Gleam is tolerated, but must at all times be kept strictly private. Those who show physical or mental signs of using Gleam should not venture out into the streets and should avoid using public channels of communication.
  • No citizen should participate in any quest known to support the forces opposed to the ideals of Shallam.
  • No citizen should kill or attempt to kill any creatures known to be working for the same ideals as Shallam, nor should they kill any creatures of obvious purity or innocence of heart.
  • Citizens should not hire assassins or champions if these are enemies of the city.
    • Citizens who are champions or assassins should not accept contracts on allies of the city, and should not accept contracts from city enemies.
  • A citizen resurrecting someone with the sole purpose of immediately attacking them and/or causing their death will result in that citizen being ousted from the city.

• SECTION VIII - TREATIES
  • Any citizen of Shallam, or member of a party involved in a treaty with Shallam, will be considered to have committed a crime against this city should they act in violation of said treaty.
    • Any attempts to get others to violate treaties they are bound by can be considered a crime against Shallam.

• SECTION IX - CONSTRUCTS
  • All wormholes within the city must be approved by the Dawnstriders. Any wormhole leading outside the city must be approved by the Minister of Security and will be monitored for the city's security.
  • No one may place permanent or semi-permanent constructs, such as sigils or traps, on public property without the consent of the Council. Non public areas include houses, shop stockrooms, and guildhalls. Totems cannot be placed anywhere without consent of the Council.
    • No trap or totem can be set or tuned against citizens and allies of Shallam. If the trap or totem is set against non-citizens caution must be taken that no one can accidentally wander into their effect.
  • Any sentient who alters permanent or semi-permanent constructs, including sigils, wormholes, totems, etc. which lay within the boundaries of Shallam, against the wishes of the ruling Council, or citizens to whom they belong will be fined or enemied, with the Council's judgment, no less than the cost of restoring the construct.
  • No divine order may place shrines within Shallam without the Council's approval. If a shrine is placed without permission it may be defiled and the order fined the cost of removing the shrine.
    • No divine order is ever granted permanent rights to keep a shrine within the city. If the council needs to move or remove the shrine at any time it can legally do so, although the order will be reimbursed for the essence loss and in the case of moving a shrine helped to erect it at the new location.
    • No-one may defile or in any other way hurt a legally constructed shrine within the city walls. Defiling a shrine is cause for immediate enemying.

• SECTION X - PUNISHMENT
  • To have the status of enemy to Shallam removed one must speak to the Minister of Security. It is the Minister of Security's sole discretion whether or not to remove this status or order penance of some monetary value, or not to allow it under present circumstances. In some cases the Council of Viziers will ally people as well, although this will be rare.
  • The Council may exile certain individuals from the city. These citizens will never be granted permission to enter the city.
  • To be unenemied from Shallam, the criminal needs to pay a fine to the city of Shallam, as well as compensations to his victims. The following is a guideline to determine the fines/compensation owed, and is listed for each criminal incident (so someone who kills 4 city guards will owe the city 16k in fines and 40k in compensation, while someone who attempted to kill the horse of someone will owe a fine of 2k to the city as well as 2k plus the price of the horse to the owner of the horse that died). Moreover the criminal will need to remain enemied from the city for at LEAST one year per 10k owed (round up).
    • Attacking a sentient being within Shallam (also known as murder, attempted murder, or assault) - 4k fines + 4k compensation to victim if the victim died. This includes killing orphans, city guards, etc. In the case of city guards the compensation shall be 10.000 per guard killed.
    • Attacking a loyal entity - 2k fines + 2k compensation (or the value of the entity whatever is the higher) to the person or group the entity was loyal to -if the entity died. This includes Paradise Birds and other non-sentient beings loyal to Shallam.
    • Theft or attempted theft - 5k fines + 5k compensation to victim if anything was stolen (or the value of the stolen goods whichever is the higher).
      • Petty theft - 1k fine per object. This includes stealing candles and other trivial objects.
    • Kidnapping - 3k fines + 3k compensation to victim. This includes the kidnapping of orphans from the city. If they are then murdered a murder charge will be added to this.
    • Blackmailing - 2k fines + 5k-10k compensation to victim depending on severity of the blackmailing and the damage done.
    • Destruction of property, including constructs - 1k fines + value of the destroyed object. A small shrine is valued at 200k.
    • Creating or placing an illegal construct - 2k fines + cost of removing the construct. If anyone was harmed by the construct an assault charge will be added.
    • Harassment of a single person - 1k fines + 1k-5k compensation to victim depending on length and severity of harassment.
      • Harassment of a large group - 5k-15k fines depending on length and severity of harassment.
    • Bringing illegal entities or city enemies into Shallam - 3k fines per person or entity.
    • Attempted Treason - 25k-100k fines, depending on severity of the charge.
      • Treason - 100k-500k fine, as well as compensation for all damages.
    • Raiding - for participating in a raid on the city 5k fine, plus fines for any murders done while raiding.
  • The Minister of Security or members of the Council of Viziers are always able to make exceptions from the usual fines and compensations, in situations where special leniency or severity are required.

Shopping

Shallam offers a variety of shopping options. Zanzibaar street is home to some of Rurin's shops, and to the east and west sides of Zanzibaar, assorted adventurer owned shops contain a variety of wares. A few more shops line the western end of Fish Street just to the south. Additionally, the old quarter, often called the Medina, is home to another very large group of shops. Crazy Hakhim, the ratman of Shallam, occupies the center of the medina and provides shoppers with quick gold in exchange for a few rats.

Landmarks

Shallam is home to a variety of important sites. Among them number The Chrysalis Basilica, Sahart's resturaunt, the site at which Maran ascended into Pentharian, the royal palace, and many other wonderful sights.

Dining

Shallam offers a variety of food choices. Many types of food can be found in the assorted shops throughout the city, although some would argue that the best food in all of Sapience is found at Sahart's.