A Spark in the Wind

Appendix C: The Elves' Way of Life

Although I would like to say this system is flawless, the truth (according to some sociologists) is about a twentieth of persecuted prisoners are found innocent of their crimes and falsely accused, so maybe this system is not the best? But whatever, this is the best system we have so far.

And in comparison to those in practice by the wood-elves, this system looms far humane than the system they have implemented, although their laws diverge greatly from our own.

For most of the smaller tribes, punishment is levied on an eye for an eye basis, with the most common punishment being public humiliation and beating, and for greater crimes like murder or rape, the most common form of punishment is not execution but rather exile (although considering how harsh life can get in the wilds, this might as well be a death sentence.) Execution is levied for only the harshest crimes like treason.

For larger clans, whether vassalised or autonomous, the eye for an eye basis goes a bit further to laws of equals.

The punishment for thievery and bribery is fines, gluttony is starvation, fraud and trespassing result in being sold into slavery to some other clan, rape is replied with forced work as a sex slave. Crimes like kidnapping, smuggling, trafficking, or paedophilia result in exile, and assault is severe beatings. Murder and treason are considered the worst of crimes, and are resulted with execution with the weapon of the offender, whilst arson results in being burned alive.

To execute the sentences, once again there are special police forces, who are more often than not the chieftain's own guards, whilst the chieftain and his retinue of administrators act as the supreme judge and the jury in such situations.

I wish I was able to tell how effective these laws are, but there is no consensus. At least we can assume it's the same as in our high-elven kingdom, if not greatly biased.

(viii)

OF THE FIELDS OF WORK AND THE PEOPLE WHO DO THEM

If you are a citizen of Alinor or of the Forest Kingdom, you are without doubt a worker – a proletariat, whether in one field of work or the other. No work is less important, but yet there are some that pay more than others, sometimes simply because it promotes riskier lifestyles, or perhaps to feed the person's strength.

Amongst both peoples, dying whilst working is considered the greatest honour, albeit those who served the nation well and can function no more can be expected to be looked after by the whole nation.

In the Kingdom of Alinor, almost always the first work every young elf gets is as a slave, working in farms or factories under overseeing mentors, under whom they honourably serve for at least one century until they are experienced enough to rejoin the same place, or join someplace else, as freed citizens.

One of the only exceptions to this rule is in the military, although this career path is only open to the ablest of warriors and an option for only male elves, not that there haven't been stories of women dressing up in armour to march alongside armies, but they are too few to count.

To be fair, their concept of slavery is far different from our own, to the high-elves, being a slave means being an assistant, learning from their masters how to execute a task, or often with other slaves working on fake projects to build up skills.

Once a young elf has earned their freedom, by having been freed from their overseer following a testimony which is often granted to the person in question around the age of three hundred, they are free to pursue any career that suits their skills. Congratulations, now the many anthems of the state address you alongside every other worker.

Often times, the status of the worker can be broken down into five categories: labourers, who toil in factories to produce goods; merchants, who are the reason we underestimate the size of the country; soldiers, who give up their sleep so we may sleep in peace; researchers, who toil on to find ways to ease our burdens; and artists, who lull us to forgetting gloom.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Angkreb, in the forest of the wood-elven peoples, the story goes a bit differently. Although they too have equal classes as Red Elves, their workers are far more rounded, with fewer professionals.

All wood-elves have to farm, that is an essential task to ensure you don't starve to death during winter months, alongside that most have to learn to hunt, herd up livestock, fend off attacks, stitch up wounds, sew clothes, kindle fires, put out fires, learn to find animal tracks, to make mental maps, and so much more.

Regardless of whether you are a prince or a pauper, you have to first and foremost learn to be a hunter, everything else comes after. That being said, such a lifestyle does leave enough time to read or write or sing, in fact these things are heavily encouraged amongst the peoples.

Usually, you are supposed to have learned every aspect of the hunt by the time you are an adult. Failure to have mastered such skills would mean public humiliation from all the wood-elves (although it matters less since wood-elves are far and few and word spreads slowly between).

As such, failed hunters tend to migrate to high-elven kingdoms, where they spend a century or two as a slave and then become a proletariat to work in farms.

Overall, both peoples enjoy different lifestyles, but both of them have to deal with intense labour, and learn to overcome issues of their own. Life in Alledoria is difficult, but the elves get by.