Ibarran was a fantastic place for crime for precisely that. Not only were there vast lengths of land where nothing really was but there were also a lot of mercantile caravans on the road. Not all merchants could afford hired guards. Smaller businesses would likely rely on family to guard the caravan with him, and those ones would be ripe for banditry.
The same crime that troubled most everywhere in the Realm troubled Ibarran. But this was a nation that has mostly been embroiled in conflict. Like everywhere else in the world there was no standing army. The knights a Don might have in his lands could not be relied on as any kind of lawkeeping presence. Caballeros did roam Ibarran, and they would often serve to enact justice if there were pockets of crime in an area, but there weren't enough to be a constant presence.
Higher crimes like heresy and treason would be taken to a Don if not the local Duke himself. Theft on the road, however, would fall within the purview of the nearest town, the problem also being their reponsibility.
In the cases where a township was expected to deliver justice to a bandit, it came to a matter of the bandit's word against the victim, which almost always swung the proceedings in the victim's favour. Punishment varied from town to town. This could be anything from branding to a severing of a hand, or execution in some of the more extreme cases.
This criminal activity wasn't strictly lone bandits that had banded together. Criminal units in Ibarran tended to be families, fallen on hard times and driven to crime in desperation.
The same crime that troubled most everywhere in the Realm troubled Ibarran. But this was a nation that has mostly been embroiled in conflict. Like everywhere else in the world there was no standing army. The knights a Don might have in his lands could not be relied on as any kind of lawkeeping presence. Caballeros did roam Ibarran, and they would often serve to enact justice if there were pockets of crime in an area, but there weren't enough to be a constant presence.
Higher crimes like heresy and treason would be taken to a Don if not the local Duke himself. Theft on the road, however, would fall within the purview of the nearest town, the problem also being their reponsibility.
In the cases where a township was expected to deliver justice to a bandit, it came to a matter of the bandit's word against the victim, which almost always swung the proceedings in the victim's favour. Punishment varied from town to town. This could be anything from branding to a severing of a hand, or execution in some of the more extreme cases.
This criminal activity wasn't strictly lone bandits that had banded together. Criminal units in Ibarran tended to be families, fallen on hard times and driven to crime in desperation.
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