Customs

Crime and punishment

In the Mountain codes there are basically only three punishments available: financial compensation (holdgeld for damage to possessions or weregeld for personal injuries); expulsion from the community, or in more serious cases from the Covenant, i.e. from all the Ruetli communities; and death. 

The concept of a prison does not exist, except as a place to hold those awaiting trial, or more often as a place to put drunks, hotheads and similar cases to cool their heels for a few hours.  They are familiar with the idea, as it is practised in city-states such as Kir Vor, but would regard it as cruel and unjust.  To some extent this is a reaction to the standard of justice in the city-states, but it is also true that a prison is a somewhat impracticable institution in their social and economic organisation. 

Military and other Titles

There is no formal military structure in the valleys, and not much of one in the Kir Vor army.  Titles are not fixed, and this is reflected in the English terms used. 

Much the same is true of the Feudal Titles of the Kir Vor lords.  They tend to mean “War Leader” i.e. a semi-autonomous leader of a group of armed men based in one specific locality.  For this reason the word Duke (Dux) is used, as the nearest English equivalent.  There are separate words for Duchess meaning wife of a duke, and Duchess in her own right.  For this reason the term Lady Duke is used for the latter.

The Kir Vor Army does have a definate structure, based on the Roman Army, but much simplified over the centuries. Each army unit (formerly a Roman Legion) has a commander and deputy commander. Below these are a quartermaster (stores), a prefect (organisation), possibly other officers in charge of engineers and other specialist services, and a number of tribunes. Below these are captains (centurians in the original) and the fighting men.

Measures

Under the old empire there were a collection of various measures. These were rationalised under one of the later emperors, although older measures are still retained in some of the areas which broke away first from the empire. In the table below the older measures are shown in italics. The names of approximate Imperial equivalents are used in the text

Time

The day is deemed to start at 06:00. It is divided into 12 equal hours, so noon is the sixth hour. In the same way the night is regarded as starting at 18:00 and to consist of 12 hours ending at 06:00 the next day. This of course means that in summer the sun rises about the second hour of the day and in winter about the tenth hour of the night.

Calendar

The counting of years is not as standardised. The calendar was reformed at the same time as the measures, with Year 1 fixed as the traditional founding of the city of Kir Vor. 

This start date was not acceptable to the newly independent states which arose from the breakup of the empire, and every state began its own calendar year, dating usually from the breakaway from the empire.  The result is, as might be expected, a mess. 

In most versions of the calendar the year is divided up into four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  Their names in the Ruetli dialect mean literally Sowing, Growing, Harvesting, and Resting.  Each season has thirteen weeks.  The new year begins with Spring which is reckoned as eight weeks from the shortest day, i.e. mid February.  As a result every twenty eight years or so there is an extra week in Winter.  The week is divided up into seven days, starting with Highday. 

This somewhat ad hoc arrangement works reasonably well, and is at least self-correcting.  It does however sometimes lead to disagreement about exactly when the shortest day was, and hence when the new year began. 

Approximate Month equivalents are:

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