Cardinal Power Wielder Act

OOC Notes

Included in this document is an abbreviated list of crimes that are particular to power wielder perpitrators, and the punishments incurred by them. Punishments are enforced, but are not meant as penalties against the player. We have done what we can to make justice for power wielders interesting.

Violent crimes perpitrated by power wielders usually cause the Ranger Guard to pursue and apprehend them, in place of the normal police. They may also be employed in situations where the suspect may be eluding capture, especially when the suspect seems to have escaped the major cities. Bounty hunters are frequently utilized for crimes in non-metropolitan areas. If a suspect causes sufficient damage and casualties to be considered a national enemy, the Special Adept Forces are brought in, and lethal force is often authorized, if necessary.

If you have a character who has committed a crime, an investigation may be played out by players with characters of authority. Unless your character has sophisticated, developed stealthing techniques, the investigating player may ask you to RP an encounter between the pursuing officers and your character. You must honor this RP -- intentionally dodging a capture RP can be considered metagaming. You are not obligated to have your character captured in this RP, but you must at least provide the opportunity for the authorities to make the attempt. Bounty hunters are NOT considered characters of authority (you do not necessarily have to honor requested RPs from bounty hunter characters), but they can still capture your character and bring him/her in for booking if you allow them the opportunity.

Once caught, the trial is usually not played out. However, if you believe your character may be able to escape conviction, you may bring this to the attention of the staff. The staff may then discuss how the trial may move forward and will decide whether or not your character gets off the hook. Your character may not be RPed between being captured and being sentenced, unless staff say otherwise.

This document only apply to crimes committed within Cardinal, using supermortal powers. Crimes committed in other countries, in international waters, on other planets or dimensions, or on non-Cardinalian space outposts, or perpitrated by actively serving people in Cardinal's military are not handled here.

Punishments

There are generally four kinds of punitive measures sentenced to power wielders:

Community Service

Community Service sentences are served by sacrificing every other passive training day earned. This is displayed on the character's sheet or tags as an in-progress technique called Community Service. As a suggested alternative to sacrificing training time, players may write solos for their characters similar to training solos, except with community service as its subject. Approved service solos may be credited for up to six days of service. Additionally, where it is appropriate, two characters sentenced to community service during the same period may RP the service together, unsupervised by staff, for nine days of credit. Community Service may not be served at the same time as Incarceration time. Community Service must occur after all sentenced Incarceration time. Community Service, when RPed, should generally reflect giving back to society in a way opposite to the crime committed, where appropriate and possible.

Incarceration

Incarceration sentences are served by containing the convict in a prison or jail, which almost always means a trip to Prison Island. During incarceration time, passive training is not restricted. However, item techs and techs that require the usage of items may not be developed, unless your character posesses the skill and can create the means of crafting the related items while within the prison -- all items are confiscated from convicts before they enter the Prison, and interdimensional storage areas are disabled. For every month a character is incarcerated (round up), he or she must be involved in at least one RP of some kind within the prison, whether it is a solo, social, spar, or training, during that particular month or during a later month. If this requirement is not fulfilled during a particular month, the sentence will continue to take as much as three times as long as indicated to actually be credited (The extended length is the actual IC sentence -- so long as your character behaves well in the RPs, they are considered credit for good behavior, shortening the character's sentence).

Execution

Execution sentences are reserved for criminals who commit crimes against humanity, treason against the country, or are proven to be impossible to rehabilitate. Execution is carried out as swiftly and humanely as possible. If the country lacks the capacity to execute a condemned criminal, he or she is contained in solitary confinement until the means is generated.

Deportation

Deportation is typically reserved for unauthorized, visiting persons from outside the country who commit crimes, or who stay in the country longer than they are permitted by law without authorization. Convicts who are deported are escorted back to their home authorities, where possible, and the remote authorities are directed to ensure he/she stays out of Cardinal.

Special Cases

Convicts sentenced to incarceration or deportation who persist based on ties to another dimension, such as certain kinds of spirits and demons, are instead banished from Earth's dimension as soon as it is possible, using any irreversible methods at the state's disposal. If it is convenient to the state, the banishment may be revoked when the sentence ends, but the state is not required to go out of its way to do so.

Persons unintentionally committing crimes directly in defense of innocents may be exonerated of charges, or never charged to begin with, depending on how necessary the commitment was considered. Similarly, in times of war, persons committing crimes in Cardinal's behalf may be exonerated or never charged. However, such behavior is not always excuseable, and may not always completely dissolve all sentencing. Committing crimes to capture a wanted suspect is not permitted. The only exception to this is if a character has a bounty hunter license. In this case, acts of violence are allowed to take wanted suspects into custody. Lethal force is only permitted if a wanted suspect is denoted by the government as wanted dead. Endangerment to those not involved and destruction of property may incur charges, regardless of license posession.

Typical admission defenses also work, such as self defense, insanity, or diminished mental capacity. However, just like in the real world, they will only exonerate a person under certain qualifying, proven circumstances.

Crimes and Punishments

Rules in progress: The rules on this page are in development and not yet implemented. Do not use them in regular play. Once this marker is removed, you may (and should!) begin to use them.

This section is divided into categories of crimes based on general severity. Each category has an associated punishment. The punishment may be altered by staff in unusual cases, but for the most part, this is what is sentenced for particular offenses. Keep in mind that this is not a complete list of offenses, and that only offenses caused by supermortal powers are listed here.

Category 1

Sentence: 3 days community service.

• Minor mortal crimes, w/ power (petty theft, minor property damage, reckless behavior, etc.)

Category 2

Sentence: 7 days community service.

• Moderate mortal crimes, w/ power (unintentionally causing mortals to be non-seriously injured, destruction of small property, harassment, endangerment, etc.)
• Sparring in an unlicensed public area
• Threatening mortals or outclassed power wielders with power
• Telepathic harassment

Category 3

Sentence: 30 days community service OR 1 week incarceration

• Serious mortal crimes, w/ power (grand theft, breaking and entering, threat and robbery, illegal trafficking, etc.)
• Unwarranted assault (sexual and/or physical) on a power wielder peer
• Unwarranted mental invasion on a power wielder peer (does not include basic telepathy)
• Posession of controlled arcane paraphenalia

Category 4

Sentence: 2 weeks incarceration AND 60 days community service, OR 30 days incarceration

• Greater Destruction (cars/buses, helicopters/small planes, entire rooms of a structure)
• Mass telepathic harassment
• Reckless public fighting
• Posession of super-empowering weaponry without a permit
• Unintentional mortal death (For first 5 killed, +10 days/add'l 5 beyond first 5, max 50 killed)

Category 5

Sentence: 90 days incarceration

• Greater mortal endangerment (For first 1k~10k endangered, +10 days/add'l 10k, max 180 total days/100k endangered)
• Threatening public officials with power
• Assaulting a power wielder peace officer
• Attempted mind control
• Conspiracy to prison break

Category 6

Sentence: 180 days incarceration

• Grand Destruction (buildings)
• Accidental power wielder murder

Category 7

Sentence: 360 days incarceration

• Intentional power wielder murder
• Grand mortal contempt (100k+ endangered)

Category 8

Sentence: 3 years incarceration

• Unintentional Devastation (levelling entire or most of entire cities)
• Mass power wielder murder (10+ killed)

Category 9

Sentence: Incarceration for life

• Intentional Devastation (levelling entire or most of entire cities)
• Low Treason

Category 10

Sentence: Execution

• Attempted destruction of Earth
• High Treason