Shattered Kingdoms

The fact that anyone voted that it makes no sense indicates a serious lack of understanding about what a tribunal is supposed to represent.

For me, the most important aspect of the change was to begin promoting the very real difference between cabals and tribunals. The two of them (and religions as well) tend to get lumped together under the common header of 'factions' for convenience, but each of them are (and should be) very different animals.

Despite the difference in wording and duties, it has become obvious that people do not understand that. To reiterate, a 'cabal', by the very definition of the word (look it up if you are unfamiliar) means secret organization. On the other hand, a tribunal is a group that administers justice and the word carries strong overtones of being putting on display for public opinion. You might argue (such as someone did recently about CHARM person), that there was nothing in the help files to explain this distinction. My response is that this is a text-only game. All we have are words to begin with, so you have to pay attention to the definitions of the labels being used.

As far as SK is concerned, tribunals are the public police and military forces of their kingdom and are directly accountable to both their ruler and citizens. So in this respect, tribunals are the exact opposite of a cabal, despite their both being 'factions'.

This change is intended to be the first step in making that very clear. That is also why the change does not apply to cabal members. There was some debate over the idea of also making the tribunal label public on the WHO list, but that was deemed a bit too jarring to take as a first step. That doesn't mean we won't do it at some point. Regardless, the in-character interpretation of joining a tribunal from now on (as it was intended to be previously) is that your membership is a matter of public record.

Therefore, whenever it is practically possible, NPCs will automatically react appropriately to a tribunal member's presence as defined by the diplomatic relationship with a neighboring kingdom.

I am sure there will be debate about other results of this change, unintended or otherwise, and what kind of minor tweaks should be made to promote fairness to newbies. I'll leave that for the other threads.

Ibizlizil hasn't returned anywhere. He's completely inactive. It has nothing to do with being banished.

Heck, if it's interesting RP, you might find the opposing tribunal leader OOCly offering some pardons and paroles.

Heck, if it's interesting RP, you might find the opposing tribunal leader OOCly offering some pardons and paroles.

Well, my scrupulous tribunal leader couldn't ICly help an evil criminal. He'd have tacked on another 100 years if he could.

But OOCly, I saw someone who was doing great RP, and who took harm to his character in the process. Why would I want to OOCly punish that with a full jail sentence? I made up a plot line. Given the city and the crimes, it was reasonable that part of the government might be sympathetic. Some bureaucrat could "accidentally" send a release order. Had this been found out ICly, this plot could have been a lot of fun. But that wasn't the motivation.