5001-HârnWorld/3rd Edition/19

An alderman is a custodian and expounder of the law and member of the town court. Although aldermen must be invested in their office by the sovereign or his representative, the office is often inherited because this is the way that knowledge of customary law is passed from one generation to the next. Most Hârnic cities have 12 aldermen, all of whom are prominent guildsmen and often members of the Litigants’ Guild.

Mayor
Only freetowns have mayors, as such, but all others have some official who is responsible for administering civil and financial affairs. Mayors are usually appointed by the aldermen, often from a short list of candidates supplied by the crown. This official will run a sizable bureaucracy, including tax assessors and collectors.

Warden
Wardens command the city garrison and are responsible for maintaining civic law and order. A major expense for any city will be its military budget. In freetowns, the warden is appointed by the mayor; in feudal towns by the crown, usually the constable of the citadel.

Harbormaster
This officer is in charge of the town port, if any. Appointed by the mayor, he is either a retired member of the Pilots’ Guild or a political appointee who hires a master pilot as an assistant. Duties of a harbormaster include supervising port maintenance, providing pilotage services, and collecting maritime taxes such as pilotage, wharfage, and vessel registration fees. Harbormasters in the larger ports have several assistants.

Bondmaster
The bondmaster is responsible for overseeing the city bonding house and collecting hawking taxes and import duties. Appointed by the mayor, the bondmaster is usually a member of an important guild and may have assistants. Guards will be provided by the warden.

Town Law
Town law is quite different from rural justice and is sufficiently complex to support a guild of litigants. Towns are inhabited mainly by freemen, so royal justice is available to most citizens. Towns regard the right to operate their own courts, free from the interference of any local lord, as their most treasured prerogative. Freetown charters give their courts a place in the judicial hierarchy equal to a shire. Appeal from them is directly to the crown. Feudal towns are considered part of the shire in which they lie, so appeals are made first to the shire moot.

Towns are centers of trade and sometimes of scholarship and there is a somewhat greater dependence

on written statute and precedent in town law. Financial transactions are much more common and civic penal codes may view economic or civil cases as dimly as crimes of violence. The importance of a suit is often a matter of how much (and whose) money is involved.

Most cases are settled informally. The parties to a dispute make an appointment for adjudication and the case will then be argued before a single alderman. The financial interests of the participants often lend themselves to a quick execution of justice. The alderman will pass judgment and levy and collect fines with dispatch. Appeals may be made to a town court of assembled aldermen. Important or complex cases will usually go directly to the town court. Aldermen may issue writs and warrants but, in a corrupt town, it is usually cheaper to seek a writ elsewhere.

Urban Geography
Most towns are roughly circular. Streets tend to radiate from several key points, notably the market and citadel, but they may well detour around vanished ponds or trees. Many streets existed before the town walls were built but new construction will take into account the location of city gates and gradually make the city appear more planned.

Street names are rarely posted; they tend to be a matter of oral rather than written tradition and change from time to time. Houses are not numbered. There is no official post office; mail is carried privately, at considerable expense. Few can read anyway.

Crime is rampant in most cities. Street illumination is rare so the streets are dark and dangerous at night. Policing, such as it exists, is typically in the hands of notoriously corrupt and incompetent city garrison. The open carrying of weapons is discouraged by most civic authorities.

The quality of urban construction tends to be somewhat higher than in the countryside but there is wide variation from town to town. Aleath is famous on Hârn for its high standards of civic architecture; Golotha, on the other hand, is an urban blight. Sewers are rare.

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