Rewriting Law

This song is by Sigur Rós, one of my all-time favorite bands. It is so beautiful it breaks my heart. If this is your first time hearing it, I suggest you put in your earphones, jack the volume up all the way, and let it just flow over you.

Moving on. I wrote a character death today. And as I was writing about this character's unhappy demise, a thought occurred to me about the nature of law in my books. Even though the civilization I have created is unique, it must still have law and order, right? I've even written about the laws, but I never really sparred a thought for them. I've always just assumed they were there and that people would just get it.

It is interesting that Valdevia, the empire in which my story takes place, is around two thousand years old. It has built on the civilizations that existed before it, and those built on others, and on and on, back until the Great Decline (a catastrophic event in my story). And all of these civilizations had laws. Or at least some ground rules.

Some laws tend to be basic to civilizations across our current world and reaching back into humanity's rich history:

• Don't kill people.
• Don't take what doesn't belong to you.
• Don't cheat. 
• Don't run around beating people up. 
• Don't thumb your nose at the Establishment.

Did I forget some? Yeah. I think you get the idea.

I believe I have taken these pretty basic laws for granted in my story. I've added some others, but those are pretty much the core.

So what happens when someone supported by the Establishment, also known as the people who make the laws, kills someone who the Establishment doesn't like? Is that cool? Are there any repercussions to that someone going around murdering other someones? It doesn't seem like that's a huge deal historically, as long as the stakes are high enough.

I'm sort of rambling now, but I have striven to learn a little (a very little) about the laws of ancient and modern civilizations across the world in order to write a more convincing set of laws for my own civilization. The major thing I've learned? People seem to need a lot of negative reinforcement to prevent them from doing bad things. I think that says something interesting about humanity. What do you think?

Also, check out my writer friend Dot Hutchison's blog. She does book reviews and has nifty insights on writing techniques. She even drops hints about her upcoming projects on her blog, which is super cool because she's a talented lady.