Open Royal Court: 17th day of the 8th moon, 23YRA

A transcript of each petition is as follows:

Lord Boreas:
Honoured Lords and Ladies of the Winter Court, valiant Knights and gallant courtiers and gentry alike, I come before this Court to address the need for a rigorous and dependable law enforcement agency to maintain law and order within the Inner Bailey, that will no doubt come with the awakening of new guests directly into the home of the Winter Court.

As the Lord Chancellor it is my responsibility -- No, it is my vital duty to maintain law and order within my Queen's kingdom, all things pertaining to the law fall within my purview. To maintain the scales of Justice in Her Majesty's Realm has been my life's work, and my great honour. In the many years that I have held this office, I have relied upon my Winter Watch to act as the physical enforcement of Her Majesty's law, as edicts and decrees describing the laws of this Realm must come hand and hand with those authorized and capable of upholding and enforcing those rulings.

The Winter Watch has a long and storied history of upholding the Queen's peace, its legacy spans centuries and its ranks have seen the rise of many prominent and honourable members of this Court. In fact, most of the Knights standing amongst us today began their service to the Realm within the Winter Watch. Sir Petris, Dame Eeva, Lady Galatea and even my tempermental colleague the Lord Marshal once wore the grey.

And so it is only natural to me that the same organization that has been entrusted with enforcement of the Outer Bailey's law for generations, continue to be permitted to do so into the future, with an extension of its jurisdiction into the Inner Bailey. Of course this is a matter of contention. It has always been well understood that the Watch's jurisdiction ends where the Grand Bridge begins, it is not the way of things, after all, that common Watchmen be permitted to judge the actions of the Court, to determine the guilt of a courtier or, fates forfend, a peer of the nobility, and place them under arrest. Common denizens, we can all agree, should not enjoy such broad powers over aristocrats of the Court, and for this reason, the Watch has always stayed in the Outer Bailey.

And so what the Chancery proposes is an extension of the Winter Watch itself, we have dubbed it the Royal Black Watch. An Inner Bailey branch of the Winter Watch, open only to members of the Winter court, both martial courtiers and Knights if it please them to serve with us. Do not misunderstand this to be 'another martial guild', fates know we have more than enough of those already. This proposal is simply for an extension of the existing Winter Watch, comprised of court members. Their ranks would still be Watchman and Armsman and they would still answer to the same Corporal as the regular Watch, but these officers would be distinct in black uniforms instead of the traditional greys, and their focus would be to patrol and safeguard the Inner Bailey as their grey uniformed cousins do for the Outer Bailey.

Jurisdiction to enforce the law in the Inner and arrest court members if need be would fall then to these black Watchmen and Watchwomen who are themselves of courtly status. A simple yet elegant solution that the Chancery can implement immediately. Her Majesty has spoken much this day about widening the allowances for members of the court to continue to pursue the paths they started in the Outer Bailey here in the heart of the Court, and so I ask what better demonstration of that than to allow those loyal Watchmen and Watchmen who once served the law in the Outer Bailey to continue that legacy here in the Winter Court? I ask all of you who respect the Chancery's commitment to law and order, those of you who value Justice and harmony to support the Chancery in this endeavour, and help make the Chancery's vision for peace and prosperity in the Queen's home a reality.

Sir Alrik:
Your Majesty, and folk of the Winter Court.

Some of you gathered here do not recall the days of the old Royal Guard, but I can see some of you who do. For the first half of these awakenings, the Royal Guard was responsible for Inner Bailey in the way the Watch was the Outer. Moreso in fact, for during those days, all High Crimes regardless of bailey were the Royal Guard's responsibility to investigate, make arrests and forward to the Prosecution to meet the Queen's Justice.

Crime today isn't what it was then. I took the opportunity to look through the old Justice Archives a few days past; in the seventh year of these Awakenings, the Old Royal Guard made thirty arrests for that year alone, for High Crime related charges. That's thirty separate case files in one year -- some of those involved a half dozen crimes per file. This Castle hasn't seen thirty high crimes in the last decade let alone in a year, and that was the norm once. It was a different time, aye, and we were good at what we did. And when the Watch fell inactive as it did at that time, we handled all the misdemeanours in the Outer Bailey too, we picked up their slack.

There was much work to be done, but also reward to be reaped for those willing to shoulder it, opportunity for a man to prove his worth. We saw some of the castle's quickest risers at that time, some of its youngest knightings, but that was because those men and women did year's worth of work for the Realm with every moon that went by. But the old Royal Guard didn't just face unruly denizens of the Outer or crimes of passion, it defended this castle during the invasion of Riven Hills. It protected this castle during the Shadow Rebellion, and the Conclave's Rebellion afterward. The men and women of the Royal Guard proved their worth both as a policing force and a military one, demonstrating that these two things can go hand in hand.

But all good things come to an end. For reasons I won't bother the Court with today, the old Royal Guard fractured, it's membership grew smaller and in time it was disbanded in this very room at Royal Court almost a decade past. There it would stay until some years later when it would be replaced with the Queen's Regular Army as you know it today, the spiritual successor of the Royal Guard but different in one key element; it lacks the authority to function the way it used to, it lacks the authority to enforce the law as well as dispatch invaders. And I say, "Why, when it has already proven that it can?"

The answer to that question is that the Regular Army is not the Royal Guard. The Royal Guard were a smaller, more selective group, all veterans of other martial guilds that had advanced to our ranks; former Preceptors, Armsmen and Corporals, Senior Duelists, many of them already members of the Winter Court themselves or in the very least, Honoured Guests with storied backgrounds and the respect of the Court. But the Army of today is focused on the threats of today, and we have adapted to face those threats. Where once a small but elite group was sufficient to handle murderers and burglars and drunken brawls, today we face enemies who attack in unprecedented number, with weapons and magic powers not before seen in our time. And so, unlike the old Royal Guard who only recruited amongst folk of rank, the Regular Army opens it doors to recruits fresh to the Outer Bailey. Any man or woman who wishes to take a spear and shield to defend our home against these threats, those people are welcome in my eyes.

My proposal as Lord Marshal of the Royal Army of Castle Marrach is thus; that the Regular Army be given law enforcing jurisdiction in the Outer Bailey once more, and further we be given jurisdiction in the Inner Bailey as well - but with limitations on rank. For Yeomen and Serjeants, those not of courtly rank, I propose only that they be given authority over the new unestablished courtiers the Royal Necromancer will be waking into the Inner - those that have not yet proven themselves worthy of the esteem and trust enjoyed by the established Winter Court. In turn, our Lieutenant officers, who are normally expected to be members of the Court already, would have full law enforcement jurisdiction in the Inner to investigate and arrest for those crimes that fall outside the boundaries of the commoner Yeomen and Serjeants in our ranks.

This gives us a system of jurisdiction that allows the Royal Army to once again uphold the law in the Inner and Outer, but without subjecting the Court to the discretion of the common folk. Commoners in the Regular Army, our Serjeants and Yeomen, would only be permitted to handle disruptions to the peace posed by these new trial courtiers, or in cases where they witness a violent high crime in the undertaking and are required to intervene for the safety of the Court. For all other matters, members of the court can expect only to be handled by Army officers who are themselves of Courtly rank.