Given the fact that Lokiites are totally amoral...that they will do nothing that is not in their self-interest, how and why do they keep from killing each other over trivialities, and becoming totally anarchic? They come close...but the institution of Heirarchies, and the concept of--to use a human word--wergild--keeps them from really descending into same. It's very simple. Every member of a Hierarchy is assigned a certain value within the Hierarchy...a price, as it were. If they are killed, then it becomes in effect a bounty on the killer, which the Hierarchy will pay to any assassin who kills the killer of said Hierarchy-member.
If you are a janitor, you have a ridiculously low wergild, and few would think twice about killing you about minor matters. A Survivor, however, a leader of a Hierarchy, would have a wergild of millions of monetary units on his head. That's why an outsider, say a member of one of the small bandit groups or of an opposing Hierarchy, is ill-advised to kill a Survivor...because suddenly there will be a price on HIS head that would cause every assassin on Loki to hunt him. Only someone who becomes a Survivor in the place of the one just killed can stop the wergild on the previous Survivor.
This applies to every member of a hierarchy. A high priest of Fane would have a higher wergild than an ordinary priest, etc. Usually Lokiites wear badges indicating their wergild status, all the better NOT to be killed in a casual robbery, for instance. Faking, and, in turn, trying to make fake-proof wergild badges is a thriving industry on Loki.
Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I messed up, contact me at... E-Mail:a l.schroeder@nashville.com
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