Brother Thaulan,

I would be among the first to applaud the thoroughness of design that has gone into the Laws of Hashan (which, at one time, I did attempt to read, along with the various charters... but alas, I fear I have the attention span for such scholastic pursuits, and promptly fell asleep). However, the thought comes to mind that many within Ashtan, at least, have consciously chosen to place their faith in the day-to-day decisions of elected leadership, rather than a set of written laws.

If memory serves, a fairly recent referendum in the City of the Free revealed that, in fact, the majority of her citizens were AGAINST a more defined set of written laws.

Laws are a wonderful thing, in my own opinion, as *general guidelines*. But anytime that one sets a ruling in stone, one draws dangerously close to making absolute statements -- "A" is ALWAYS acceptable, "B" is NEVER acceptable, to simplify the analogy. Given that we all know that there exists persons in this realm who have made a career out of finding, exploiting, and abusing various loopholes (not only in man-made laws, but indeed, often within the laws of physics and nature of the verra realm itself), many feel it wiser to rely upon the wisdom of a strong ruling class, rather than attempting to write "laws" which have a lesser capacity for taking all variables from a given situation into account.

While I find, as usual, several noteworthy points in your post, please dinnae mistake a conscious decision to abstain from a vast collection of written law for an "oversight".


--R. Lucoster, Secretary of the Iron Citadel

Penned by my hand on the 16th of Valnuary, in the year 246 AF.