Scarl

Name - Isle of Scarl

Capital: None. Hosting the Daíl (assembly of Chieftains and judges) rotates among the Clans. It meets once in three years.

Government: Decentralized. Tribes and Clans govern themselves. Inter Clan disputes are settled by Judges, negotiated at the next Daíl, or result in warfare.

Currency : Major coins in use are the gold Tarbh (bull), the silver Muc (pig), and the bronze Cearc (hen); one Tarbh is worth twelve Muc, one Muc is worth twenty Cearc. Each Clan issues it’s own coins, but standards of purity and weight are strictly adhered to, as it would be wasteful to issue better coins than your neighbor, and a lethal insult to issue worse.

Flag: Each Tribe and Clan uses it’s own colors and patterns in the brilliant knotwork banners that Scarlians can readily identify and outsiders recognize as Scarlian.

Scarl is a poor and barren place. It’s people are herdsmen, weavers, metalworkers and hunters. They value craftsmanship, storytelling, music, and poetry very highly. They are commonly surprisingly well educated. Their main exports are wool, whiskey, and economic refugees, not necessarily in that order. These exiles and their descendants are often found in armies, metal trades, and entertainment in all parts of the mainland. Dalisor has a considerable colony of them.

Scarlians resemble what the Milesian Irish or Scots Highlanders might have evolved into had they not been interfered with. The principle governing force in their law is not property, but respect. Judges resolve disputes by a system of fines governed by eraíc, or honor price. The offender is viewed as having damaged his honor, and needing to buy it back; therefore a noble would pay a heavier fine than a commoner for the same offense. The enforcement method is simply that failure to pay would not only be a renewed injury to the plaintiff, but an insult to the judge, both of which would carry their own fines, which can be extended by traditional rules to the defendants relatives. Eventually, persistent dodging of fines would result in a catastrophic bill that would ruin the defendant’s whole tribe. No one has ever pushed it that far in practice.

A few crimes are so vile that the eraíc fine is reduced. This seems backwards, letting the worst offenders off with a lower fine, but is actually a permanent social demotion to the rank of one who would normally pay at that rate. The worst offenses are gan eraíc, without price. These cannot be paid for, but set the honor price of the defendant at zero. There is no penalty for anything done to such a person, and he has no Tribe, Clan, or family.

Extremely offended or provoked Scarlian warriors have been known to be overwhelmed by "battlle madness", gealt cathach, an almost mystical state of rage similar in many ways to that of an Avianid berserker who knows he is in the right. This is but one of many strange similarities between Scarlian and Avianid psychology.