crime and punishment...

[agdhani.livejournal.com]

So, I have a kingdom of particularly peaceful individuals who possess a varying array of mental 'abilities', a land where serious crime is almost non-existent (the most common crimes, which are not particularly common at all, would be things like cheating someone out of fair payment, failure to pay, avoidance of taxation etc). There is very little history of things like kidnapping, rape, beatings or murder...but these crimes HAVE happened now and then, so there would have to be punishments in place to deal with these things.

The situation at hand is that three individuals (non-connected) have been proven to have been involved in the death of another (a church leader). One is the religious leader in a neighboring kingdom...I'm thinking he will be cut off from the church and left for the queen in his kingdom to punish. One of the other two is also a religious figure, the son of the poisoned man, and the third is a pawn manipulated into trying to poison someone else...but the poison ends up in the wrong hands. The third is also not a citizen of the kingdom in which the poisoning takes place.

My dilemma is determining what sort of punishment they would administer...both to one of their own race, part of their church, killing his own father, and the other being a blacksmith of a different race, from a different kingdom. Would a death penalty be too harsh for an otherwise peaceful people? Something quick and relatively painless...or something meant to be a public lesson? Just looking for ideas to spark the creative process, so all suggestions are welcome.

Comments

[agdhani.livejournal.com]

oh, his Queen back home has a definite interest in punishing him. There has been a lot of violence in her kingdom towards the other race...and as some of her advisers and best friends are part of that race (including the MC) she wants the kingdom to be safe for them. She's executed quite a few already for murder, so she won't hesitate to give this guy what's coming to him.

And since I do intend a meeting between the two monarchs, they can work this out between them.

[witchyemerald.livejournal.com]

sounds like a perfect pawn in a political move.