Blackmail...Honor System?

[Night Gardener]

I have a social-legal-plot situation in my WIP, and I can't decide how best to handle the premise.

The Realm was founded on Amnesty and Armistice: After many years (centuries) of warring Houses and factions, a Great Lost Battle happend. There was a Lone Survivor with no memory of what exactly occurred that apparently- simultaneously- killed every one on the battlefield. Some of the Houses and factions ultimately decided to solidify allegiances, stop their warring with a common more devious enemy that scattered to the wind after the Great Lost Battle, and join resources to create the New Realm.

To join the Realm as a free person of free will, you had to agree to a New Deal/ New Society and an experimental form of governance. The founders obviously had no problem creating the rules they were willing to follow.

If you were from the Outer Realm, and a former "enemy" or a stranger you had a few choices. Do not enter the Realm at all as a combatant, and no harm would befall you. If you wanted to join the New Realm as a citizen, but had a really bad reputation from war or civil crimes, you could go through an official process of renouncing your surname/ House Allegiances, etc. to be given a fresh start. So, annonymity surnames like 'Freeman', 'Brightcaster' etc. were appointed. Not everyone who takes these new surnames are terrible people. Some people use this because they are runaway slaves and have no surname, or want to change names because of former associations they are no longer party to, etc.

I can't decide if there should be a "official record" of who these people *were* and what they *did* before asking for citizenship. On the one hand, it serves the themes of annonymity, amnesty and forgiveness. On the other hand, having official records means secrets and intrigue to be exploited later in the plot. What would be more interesting? To be teased as a reader that there's a way of knowing these secrets, or to never know just like the characters, until it's made relevant?

Another layer of complexity is: if these people have a sealed record of sorts, under what if any circumstances would these records be unsealed?

In the New Realm, because basic needs are met, penalties for criminal acts are pretty freaking severe. If you swear to enter a community and leave your past behind you... and then you don't... should the community be made totally aware of your past actions? Should it even matter when you should be judged for the present, and not the past, as a founding principle?

Then, the other flipside is, people who do dreadful things flee to the New Realm to escape justice from unincorporated kingdoms and territories (not all these places are bad places full of bad people, either.) The outer realm people do not like this amnesty loophole nonsense at all. So, frequently, there are clandestine raids to capture individuals or entire families to bring them to justice, and the New Realm swears to defend it's own citizens, so there's always political conflicts and complications.

Then, for more fun, just because you might take a new name for a fresh start, doesn't mean other citizens won't actually recognize you and the despicable heinous things you've done from 'the before times'. They're just forced to pretend they don't know you, and play nice until they can figure out their next move... which is usually revenge by proxy; hiring prople from the outside realm to sneak into the kingdom to drag out the wrong-doers and bring them to justice.

So, as a founder's law I want to fully exploit how lofty and naiive these ideals are in practice, not necessarily principle... but it's the sealed records thing I'm really stumbling over. Why keep records unless you have the will or purpose to know what is in it? Why write that kind of information down, to know it could be used against you by the government? Can you have an honor system to... Blackmail? Behave here and now, or, people will know who you are and what you did. Perhaps this could be a major criticism of the New Realm, all about forgiveness on the surface, but blackmail is readily available.

What do you fellow Scribes think?

 

[skip.knox]

You might consider having it both ways, partially. That is, make some background notes for both premises. Don't try to be detailed, or even consistent, just brainstorm ideas, sort of as you did in your post.

Then, either just start writing a story, or start a story with one or the other two scenarios in mind. As you write, you'll find you have to make decisions, color in the blank spots, and extend limits. You'll either wind up with a completed story and a choice made, wind up with a choice made but a train-wrecked story, or will still not be able to decide between the two premises, but at least you will have fleshed out the details.

To put it another way, you are thinking about designing two different kinds of house. You could pore over plans and sketches until February 31, or you could just start building the house. Not a very good metaphor, but I've been driving all day, he said, excusingly.

 

[Saigonnus]

Perhaps the government doesn’t keep track beyond knowing the person entered/ swore the oaths and whether they paid taxes or not. Maybe you could have a group (unconnected to the government and with their own authority) whose sole purpose it is to investigate those entering the realm, to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Perhaps they are present in every community, in cognito; the local smith, the medicine woman or whatever, and they report anything out the ordinary to their handler.

 

[Night Gardener]

Perhaps the government doesn’t keep track beyond knowing the person entered/ swore the oaths and whether they paid taxes or not. Maybe you could have a group (unconnected to the government and with their own authority) whose sole purpose it is to investigate those entering the realm, to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Perhaps they are present in every community, in cognito; the local smith, the medicine woman or whatever, and they report anything out the ordinary to their handler.

Actually, the vigilante-surveillance-spy group would be a great addition to the plot regardless of how official records and policy play out. I want there to be an official spy system anyways, but think the idea of citizens secretly watching the authorities who are secretly watching the citizens to be intriguing.

Most of the houses were indeed allies before the Great Lost Battle, but not all of them. A few joined up to form the New Realm afterwards, and only because they could agree that they had a worse common enemy that united them. Philosophically, these houses were extremely reluctant to form allegiances because of major differences and are distrustful. A network of privately endorsed spies working for houses may not know there are citizen groups watching them, and both groups do not want to be discovered by proper authorities.

Most excellent suggestion! Thank you!

 

[Night Gardener]

You might consider having it both ways, partially. That is, make some background notes for both premises. Don't try to be detailed, or even consistent, just brainstorm ideas, sort of as you did in your post.

Then, either just start writing a story, or start a story with one or the other two scenarios in mind. As you write, you'll find you have to make decisions, color in the blank spots, and extend limits. You'll either wind up with a completed story and a choice made, wind up with a choice made but a train-wrecked story, or will still not be able to decide between the two premises, but at least you will have fleshed out the details.

To put it another way, you are thinking about designing two different kinds of house. You could pore over plans and sketches until February 31, or you could just start building the house. Not a very good metaphor, but I've been driving all day, he said, excusingly.

I can relate to the 'been driving all day' lol.

I'm thinking now, that there is going to at least be an official record of taking the oath, for sure. Just like swearing in RL new citizens anywhere in they are immigrating to.

I still can't make up my mind just yet...but I think the New Realm does need a few more major criticisms, both political and philosophical. That will probably inform my decision more than anything.

It's a detail I'm thinking about expanding. My whole WIP is very political, has a lot of mystery and intrigue... but I'm looking for a flashpoint or two to ignite *action*. One conspiracy snowballs into major complications for my MC (think 'North by Northwest', or 'The Man Who Knew Too Much), but I need to create an atmosphere were there is already enough ambient paranoia and suspicion that her truly innocent actions can be wildly misinterpreted, and compels her to take action, and for measures to be taken against her.

Creating that "unstable, igniteable fuel source" of a political atmosphere needs to come from more than the direct and obvious consequences to her naiive actions. Her one mistake just needs to be the match to light the fuse.