Building A Civilized Society Part One

A week later, when Iris first woke up, she was greeted with the sound of the system notification.

[System 316: Host, now that you have your own tribe and have begun your journey towards building your own city, you will need laws to govern by. It is important to be both a fair and just leader who treats others with both compassion and leniency while also holding others accountable for their actions.]

[Info: Please create a minimum of ten laws and get, at least, 100 beastmen to swear an oath to uphold your news laws.]

[Time Limit: 14 Days]

[Reward: "Ancient Woodworking" Book]

[Penalty: Dangerous beasts attack]

Iris groaned as she got out of bed. She didn't want to do anything lately as her pregnancy was dragging her down. She constantly felt bloated, nauseous, sore, and tired. While this quest was one she could easily complete at home, it would require waiting for her mates to return home.

Ember gave Iris a concerned look as she got out of bed. Iris brushed her hand lightly across his beak as she reassured him

"Don't worry so much. I just got another task from the beast deity. This one can easily be done from home in a short period of time so long as we can get the others to have enough spare time to discuss the matter."

Basil who had just finished cooking breakfast and was bringing it up to Iris, gave her a worried look as he said

"You should go back to bed. I know you've been exhausted lately. I've got soup and tea for you this morning. Ember you can go get some meat from downstairs and come back up to eat.

Fern and Caspian already went out, but I can stay home today. Why don't the three of us get your task sorted together and we can run it by the others later tonight at dinner."

Ember eagerly went to consume the roasted meat Basil prepared. While all he did was to incubate the egg lately, it was still difficult to be stuck in the same position most of the day. When he returned, he looked at Iris expectantly as he ate.

Iris sighed as she explained to Basil and Ember the quest she had received.

"I'm supposed to create a minimum of ten laws for the beastmen in our lands to follow. Then, I also have to get at least a hundred beastmen to swear an oath to follow the laws."

Basil made a face as he brought up the most obvious issue with this task

"Even if we create fair laws that our tribesmen are willing to agree to follow, an oath would be difficult. What if they wanted to leave the tribe after a few years or found a mate in another tribe and their new decisions affect their abilities to follow the laws?"

Iris pursed her lips as she considered the problem. After a while, she hesitantly offered

"What if we leave a loophole in? Like we read off all the laws they'd have to follow and then have them swear an oath to live their lives by these laws or that they agree to be exiled from the tribe?"

Ember interjected to point out a new issue

"We've all been worried about your safety due to how different you are from others. We wanted to build the city to protect you via giving you a position of power with others who are willing to fight on your behalf.

These laws would be the perfect chance to have a stipulation that our people can't divulge information to outsiders. If just being exiled removes all penalty for telling others, someone could easily infiltrate our tribe and then tell others without any further consequences as long as they never return to our lands."

Basil was certainly used to solving problems as a witch doctor and he believed in using the simplest route to solve the problem.

"Then we can just word it as they agree to be exiled and never divulge any of the tribe's secrets after they leave. Then the death penalty would apply if they return to our lands or tell our secrets to others. That should give enough protection without leaving any loopholes for them."

Iris felt this sounded quite good, but wondered about one thing

"If we develop into a city, large city, or even a kingdom later on; will tribe still be sufficient wording for such a thing? Also, before you ask, a kingdom is similar to beast cities that have royalty. Only it can have several villages and cities ruled over by one group of royals."

Basil was perplexed by this question. When did a tribe become no longer a tribe? One no longer usually classified a beast city as a tribe even though they were similar to mixed tribes. So perhaps this was a real issue.

Ember was a simple man and had no such thoughts of what defined a tribe versus whatever else. Thus he eventually answered

"Then we can change the wording. Instead of mentioning a tribe, let's just call ourselves a city already. It's unlikely we are going to develop into a kingdom in our lifetimes without living to be ancient. Whoever is in charge by that point can figure out a new oath when it comes time."

Iris and Basil felt silly when Ember put it like that. It was true that even with only ten average sized family homes and ten single family homes, that other aspects could easily make them qualified to be comparable to a small city already. Their farmland took up a lot of space, they had intentions to expand to the size of a large city, they paid their workers, and charged fees. So while they'd barely qualify as a city now, within a year Iris could easily see it being impossible to argue they weren't a city.

Iris shook her head to try and shake off her embarrassment as she moved on.

"Alright, so then we just need to figure out the laws themselves. Besides keeping our secrets and not acting as a spy, we should consider things that benefit everyone. Things like not intentionally killing others, not altering buildings without permission, paying taxes, how the tribal leader position is passed on, and how vulnerable groups are treated are all important issues I think we should focus on."

Due to the immense responsibility it took to determine the laws, Iris had to discuss the matter with Ember and Basil for most of the day. However, Ember still spent most of the time in his bird form since the incubation could not be interrupted for too long.