City Of Mists: Introduction
City Of Mists: The Law
City Of Mists: The Departments
City Of Mists proper is located on a northern side of its island, around a natural deep harbor, partly covered from the east side by a chain of smaller islands which really are tops of undersea mountains. The crescent shaped port constitutes the Old Town. It contains numerous piers, wet and dry docks, and an impressive array of warehouses, sprinkled with dozens of cheap hotels, bars, and bordellos for sailors. It also contains numerous custom offices and bureaus allowing for quick dealing with bureaucratic paperwork, as long as one does not irritate custom officers at least.
All the port infrastructure is owned by the City Of Mists and administrated (mostly) by the Department of Harbor. Warehouses are usually leased to corporations and private individuals, sometimes for short time but often for years or even decades.
All of the City is connected to a power grid, owned by the city and maintained and administered by the Department Of Infrastructure, which formally holds monopoly over providing electric power anywhere on the island but sometimes sells licenses for use of emergency power generators and small scale solar panels. Interestingly, the department keeps the location and exact type of power plant or plants powering the grid secret—gossip states that the power is generated in rather old nuclear plant or two build in the late sixties as a part of secret deal with American government.
The Department Of Infrastructure is also maintaining majority of the plumbing in the city, providing fresh water from the mountain springs. Its primary uniformed force, the carabiniers are acting as public security force and traffic enforces, and keep units trained in firefighting. Many corporations keep their own firefighting or rescue teams, though. Carabiniers' stations are spread through city, combining role of police precinct, firefighting stations, and minor courts, equipped with jail cells and retaining magistrates empowered to judge minor offenses.
Higher judiciary functions are held in the building complex of the Department of Justice, focusing primarily on legal arbitration between corporations, and to lesser extent with criminal justice. There is a large amount of overlap in law enforcement functions between departments, with investigation branches of departments vying to get their hands on criminal cases that can increase their reputation, gain influential corporate allies, or have high chance of including assets forfeiture, and at the same time try to avoid cases that have low chance of successful prosecution and political, social, or financial gains.
Lack of higher public education negatively influences the local pool of candidates for investigative branches of the departments. In fact, the various department offices often hire foreigners with law enforcement, military or investigative backgrounds, often overlooking troubled past of their candidates such as criminal convictions or disgraceful conduct.
There is no public health care on the island—there are numerous private hospitals, which are legally obliged to provide a basic ER care, but anything beyond that requires having proper health insurance. Some corporations keep their own medical facilities restricted to their employees and shareholders. Outside of the city, in the southern and western parts of the island lie two charity hospitals, formally private but sustaining themselves from voluntary gifts.
There is no public education on the island, either, with a small number of private schools in the city. Many corporations offer their employees some sort of high class tuition for their children, with small classes often providing education in a way favoring the corporate interests. Again, outside of the city the islanders have a few village schools maintained with local funding.
The city has very well developed cellular network with multiple companies competing over private and corporate customers with cheap phone services and high speed internet. All the departments are offered free phones and near-free services, a condition for communication company to operate on the island.
2015-10-26
2015-10-17
Evil Alchemy!
A new publication is here. I wrote a number of necromantic-themed alchemical discoveries for Wayward Rogue Publishing for their Vivisectionist Hybrid Class.
2015-10-12
City Of Mists: The Departments
City of Mists: Introduction
City of Mists: The Law
Since the forced removal of president and suppression of legislative assembly, the Departments are the controlling force behind the City Of Mists with the council composed of the departments' commissars being the real ruler of the island. The council is composed of heads of five major departments, and eight minor departments. The division between major and minor departments is fluid to a degree, based on their influence and relative power, with Departments Of Finances, Department Of Harbor, and Department Of Defense having their dominant positions unchallenged since the coup.
Department Of Finances oversees taxes, customs, and bank regulations giving it leverage over banks and other corporations operating in the city. It's main source of political power is balancing city budget and assigning funds to other departments. While other major departments and some of the minor ones are usually capable of finding alternate sources of revenue to finance their operations, all the commissars prefer to remain in the Department Of Finances' good graces. They have their own investigation branch in the form of the financial inspectors, with the right of investigating any transgression that involve money or loss of public profits, and include armed arrest and seizure unit.
Department Of Harbor controls the port, the warehouse infrastructure, and the customs. having great deal of influence over corporations that trade in physical commodities. They are the most financially independent of the departments, receiving port and warehouse fees, and control tariffs flowing into the city budget. Like financial inspectors, custom inspectors have very wide array of investigative powers, armed arrest and seizure unit (trained in infiltrating and capturing ships), and the harbor watch uniformed units. They also keep a number of military-grade gunboats and two helicopters.
Department Of Defense is the military force of the island. While the army (called the militia to present itself as the citizens' force) itself is predictably small, with few thousand soldiers, its four (not very modern) tanks, four APCs, two jets, two combat helicopters, and three transport helicopters are unmatched force on the island. The department own revenue is limited to fees on weapon trade coming through the city, selling obsolete equipment, but they have big influence of companies that manufacture, test, and trade weapons, and the commissar is experienced in reminding the Department Of Finances who removed the president and gave power to the departments in the first place. While the regular troops are rather poorly trained, the small troop of gendarmes has better training, better equipment, and the widest array of legal enforcement powers.
Department Of Justice oversees criminal investigations and judiciary proceedings. It is composed of a number of judges and procurators who keep their own retinues of detectives that examine facts and gather evidence of serious crimes and are de facto plain-clothes police. Department of Justice has the lowest amount of independent revenue of the major departments, and maintains its status mainly because of the need for civil courts in the city full of corporations. It keeps a small number of uniformed guards who provide security to the department buildings, the judges, and the prison in the middle of the island.
Department Of Infrastructure is responsible for regulating new constructions, maintenance of streets, power grid, and sewerage, and retains monopoly for providing electricity and fresh water. It is the only major department that does not field investigator agents but it keeps a large force of uniformed carabiniers, second only to military, for the purpose of maintaining public peace, enforcing traffic laws, fighting fire, and fulfilling the role of uniformed police.
Minor departments include Department Of Communication And Science (mostly assigning radio frequencies to corporations), Department Of Culture And Education (a sinecure, whose sole activity is occasional extortion of money and favors from the thriving porn and sex industry via veiled threats of issuing unfavorable regulations), Department Of Fishing (which is actually a department of the territorial sea and all its resources), Department Of Health (does a little regulation, all the local health care is private), and Department Of The Island (which oversees the farming and environmental regulations, and deals with most issues on the island outside of the city).
City of Mists: The Law
Since the forced removal of president and suppression of legislative assembly, the Departments are the controlling force behind the City Of Mists with the council composed of the departments' commissars being the real ruler of the island. The council is composed of heads of five major departments, and eight minor departments. The division between major and minor departments is fluid to a degree, based on their influence and relative power, with Departments Of Finances, Department Of Harbor, and Department Of Defense having their dominant positions unchallenged since the coup.
Department Of Finances oversees taxes, customs, and bank regulations giving it leverage over banks and other corporations operating in the city. It's main source of political power is balancing city budget and assigning funds to other departments. While other major departments and some of the minor ones are usually capable of finding alternate sources of revenue to finance their operations, all the commissars prefer to remain in the Department Of Finances' good graces. They have their own investigation branch in the form of the financial inspectors, with the right of investigating any transgression that involve money or loss of public profits, and include armed arrest and seizure unit.
Department Of Harbor controls the port, the warehouse infrastructure, and the customs. having great deal of influence over corporations that trade in physical commodities. They are the most financially independent of the departments, receiving port and warehouse fees, and control tariffs flowing into the city budget. Like financial inspectors, custom inspectors have very wide array of investigative powers, armed arrest and seizure unit (trained in infiltrating and capturing ships), and the harbor watch uniformed units. They also keep a number of military-grade gunboats and two helicopters.
Department Of Defense is the military force of the island. While the army (called the militia to present itself as the citizens' force) itself is predictably small, with few thousand soldiers, its four (not very modern) tanks, four APCs, two jets, two combat helicopters, and three transport helicopters are unmatched force on the island. The department own revenue is limited to fees on weapon trade coming through the city, selling obsolete equipment, but they have big influence of companies that manufacture, test, and trade weapons, and the commissar is experienced in reminding the Department Of Finances who removed the president and gave power to the departments in the first place. While the regular troops are rather poorly trained, the small troop of gendarmes has better training, better equipment, and the widest array of legal enforcement powers.
Department Of Justice oversees criminal investigations and judiciary proceedings. It is composed of a number of judges and procurators who keep their own retinues of detectives that examine facts and gather evidence of serious crimes and are de facto plain-clothes police. Department of Justice has the lowest amount of independent revenue of the major departments, and maintains its status mainly because of the need for civil courts in the city full of corporations. It keeps a small number of uniformed guards who provide security to the department buildings, the judges, and the prison in the middle of the island.
Department Of Infrastructure is responsible for regulating new constructions, maintenance of streets, power grid, and sewerage, and retains monopoly for providing electricity and fresh water. It is the only major department that does not field investigator agents but it keeps a large force of uniformed carabiniers, second only to military, for the purpose of maintaining public peace, enforcing traffic laws, fighting fire, and fulfilling the role of uniformed police.
Minor departments include Department Of Communication And Science (mostly assigning radio frequencies to corporations), Department Of Culture And Education (a sinecure, whose sole activity is occasional extortion of money and favors from the thriving porn and sex industry via veiled threats of issuing unfavorable regulations), Department Of Fishing (which is actually a department of the territorial sea and all its resources), Department Of Health (does a little regulation, all the local health care is private), and Department Of The Island (which oversees the farming and environmental regulations, and deals with most issues on the island outside of the city).
2015-10-05
City Of Mists: The Law
City Of Mists: Introduction
Modern City Of Mists is a bureaucratic oligarchy with a tangle of vague and arbitrary laws.
Formally, all the laws should be issues by a legislative assembly—a body composed of "respected citizens", elected by and from the population of the island's citizens. The last legislative assembly gathered during the Presidential Crisis Of The 1958, when the military officers forced the president to convene the assembly using the restrictive criteria favoring the military and their allies as delegates, and resign. The puppet assembly "temporarily" reformed the ministries into Departments headed by newly instituted Commissars, and gave them an array of special prerogatives, including the right to issue executive orders that had the binding legal power of laws issues by the assembly itself, until reviewed by the assembly, canceled by the Commissar, or vetoed by two other Commissars. The commissars are restricted to issuing executive orders concerning only their own department's scope of activity but there are certain overlaps between various departments...
The legal mess could be cleaned by legislative assembly... But it has to be convened by the president, a function currently vacant. In theory any commissar could issue an executive order initiating the presidential election but of course any two commissars could veto it.
Many of the laws, including both the old official legislation and later commissioners' orders are deliberately open and relying on the judgment call of a magistrates or officers of the state involved in application of the law—including the option of not prosecuting a criminal action. The decisions of not prosecuting a crime does not shield a offender from being persecuted by another magistrate or officer of the state of the same or higher rank and right competences.
Citizenship
Majority of the residents are foreign nationals. There is also a very large number of stateless people here. Local citizenship is hard to receive, allowing for purchase of land on the island, voting in presidential and legislative assembly elections, and being elected for either. Citizens can't be arrested without warrant or by officer of the state witnessing them committing a crime. Non-citizens can be arrested without warrant and kept in jail for seven days, but they have the right to contact their legal representative immediately and inform a single person of their arrest after they are processed through the system. Employees of major corporations having their bureaus in the city can count on the leniency of the local law in most cases, going away with anything less than murder, bodily assault against officer of the state, or a crime against their own or another of the local corporations or their employees.
Punishments
There is a single prison on the island but it is used sparsely. The current laws favor high fines and expulsion of non-citizens guilty of serious crimes. Expelled individuals can't return for one or more years, depending upon specific sentence. Death penalty is formally legal, but currently only mass murder could warrant such sentence. This does not prevent law enforcement from being "less than careful" when apprehending criminals they would deem worthy of execution.
Vices
Most vices are not prohibited in the City Of The Mists: prostitution, gambling, alcohol, brutal sports. Narcotics were legal in the past, until USA pressed the local government in early nineties to ban them, partly because of number of USA citizens visiting the island to acquire drugs, and partly because of the drug trade passing through the city. The legislation banning the narcotics was mostly nominal, though—possession of narcotics is subject to forfeiture of the illegal substance, subject to destruction by apprehending law enforcement officer, and possibly fine if, in the officer's sole judgment, the narcotics were intended for sale. The new legislation did little to reduce amount of drugs flowing through the city, except for filling pockets of low and medium rank law enforcement and custom officers.
There is no statutory age of consent. The law makes it up to the court to estimate emotional maturity of the minor and circumstances of sexual contact with one in case of complaint, but due to international pressure, sexual contacts of adults with minors less than thirteen years old are always prosecuted.
Gun Control
Any non-military grade weapons can be owned and kept at homes. Carrying a concealed handgun around the city requires a permit issued by one of the departments—a quick formality involving a yearly fee (citizens are exempt from the fee). Open carry is frowned upon as a breach of public peace and might end with fine or forfeiture of the offending weapon if the owner of the weapon is unable or unwilling to conceal the weapon. Rifles and shotguns formally can't be carried around the city, but there is an exception for carrying them between home, firing range, and weapon shops, unloaded. Corporate security forces can bear long arms on corporate premises according to individual deals between their corporations and the council.
Using a gun while committing a crime is a sure way of attracting heavily armed response from officers of the state, including military gendarmes, and corporate security forces.
Modern City Of Mists is a bureaucratic oligarchy with a tangle of vague and arbitrary laws.
Formally, all the laws should be issues by a legislative assembly—a body composed of "respected citizens", elected by and from the population of the island's citizens. The last legislative assembly gathered during the Presidential Crisis Of The 1958, when the military officers forced the president to convene the assembly using the restrictive criteria favoring the military and their allies as delegates, and resign. The puppet assembly "temporarily" reformed the ministries into Departments headed by newly instituted Commissars, and gave them an array of special prerogatives, including the right to issue executive orders that had the binding legal power of laws issues by the assembly itself, until reviewed by the assembly, canceled by the Commissar, or vetoed by two other Commissars. The commissars are restricted to issuing executive orders concerning only their own department's scope of activity but there are certain overlaps between various departments...
The legal mess could be cleaned by legislative assembly... But it has to be convened by the president, a function currently vacant. In theory any commissar could issue an executive order initiating the presidential election but of course any two commissars could veto it.
Many of the laws, including both the old official legislation and later commissioners' orders are deliberately open and relying on the judgment call of a magistrates or officers of the state involved in application of the law—including the option of not prosecuting a criminal action. The decisions of not prosecuting a crime does not shield a offender from being persecuted by another magistrate or officer of the state of the same or higher rank and right competences.
Citizenship
Majority of the residents are foreign nationals. There is also a very large number of stateless people here. Local citizenship is hard to receive, allowing for purchase of land on the island, voting in presidential and legislative assembly elections, and being elected for either. Citizens can't be arrested without warrant or by officer of the state witnessing them committing a crime. Non-citizens can be arrested without warrant and kept in jail for seven days, but they have the right to contact their legal representative immediately and inform a single person of their arrest after they are processed through the system. Employees of major corporations having their bureaus in the city can count on the leniency of the local law in most cases, going away with anything less than murder, bodily assault against officer of the state, or a crime against their own or another of the local corporations or their employees.
Punishments
There is a single prison on the island but it is used sparsely. The current laws favor high fines and expulsion of non-citizens guilty of serious crimes. Expelled individuals can't return for one or more years, depending upon specific sentence. Death penalty is formally legal, but currently only mass murder could warrant such sentence. This does not prevent law enforcement from being "less than careful" when apprehending criminals they would deem worthy of execution.
Vices
Most vices are not prohibited in the City Of The Mists: prostitution, gambling, alcohol, brutal sports. Narcotics were legal in the past, until USA pressed the local government in early nineties to ban them, partly because of number of USA citizens visiting the island to acquire drugs, and partly because of the drug trade passing through the city. The legislation banning the narcotics was mostly nominal, though—possession of narcotics is subject to forfeiture of the illegal substance, subject to destruction by apprehending law enforcement officer, and possibly fine if, in the officer's sole judgment, the narcotics were intended for sale. The new legislation did little to reduce amount of drugs flowing through the city, except for filling pockets of low and medium rank law enforcement and custom officers.
There is no statutory age of consent. The law makes it up to the court to estimate emotional maturity of the minor and circumstances of sexual contact with one in case of complaint, but due to international pressure, sexual contacts of adults with minors less than thirteen years old are always prosecuted.
Gun Control
Any non-military grade weapons can be owned and kept at homes. Carrying a concealed handgun around the city requires a permit issued by one of the departments—a quick formality involving a yearly fee (citizens are exempt from the fee). Open carry is frowned upon as a breach of public peace and might end with fine or forfeiture of the offending weapon if the owner of the weapon is unable or unwilling to conceal the weapon. Rifles and shotguns formally can't be carried around the city, but there is an exception for carrying them between home, firing range, and weapon shops, unloaded. Corporate security forces can bear long arms on corporate premises according to individual deals between their corporations and the council.
Using a gun while committing a crime is a sure way of attracting heavily armed response from officers of the state, including military gendarmes, and corporate security forces.
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