Imperial Articles of War Revised!

[Fel]

Officers of the Empire:

With the assistance of Lord Syrtaras, I am introducing a set of changes to the Imperial Law, specifically in the Articles of War ( http://empirereborn.net/docs.php?page=artofwar ), to better deal with the matters that have been before the Emperor's Court in recent times.

I will reproduce the changes here, so everyone is well aware:

1) Role of the ISB General

As we lack a serving ISB General, policy thus far has been (by decree of the Supreme Commander) that the ISB General's role is served the division commander of the officer who stands accused. This is now codified in Section I.6.c : "Should the ISB General position be vacant, this role is served by the Division Commander of the officer who stands accused."

2) New Sentences

Two new sentences may be imposed by the Emperor's Court, as it deems fit: Facility Prohibition, and Clone Prohibition.

Facility Prohibition is simply a ban from a one or more specific facilities, such as the Message Boards. An officer's other privileges and responsibilities are not affected by such a ban. This lies in Section VI.1.iii: "Facility Prohibition: A temporary prohibition from one or more specifically enumerated Imperial Facilities, ranging between one and thirty days. During this time utilizing the named facilities is forbidden."

Clone Prohibition is used as a sentence to forbid an officer from having clones (multiple characters controlled by the same real-life individual) within the Empire. While the Empire has limited tolerance for clones (we typically permit one per division), some officers abuse this by introducing many clones to garner recruitment credit or expand their units... As such, the Emperor's Court is now empowered to forbid officers from the creation of clones, as explained in Section VI.1.iv: "Clone Prohibition: Removal of all clones from the Empire, and a permanent prohibition of all clones - present and future."

3) Clarification of Various Punitive Articles

To increase clarity, I have added several specific offences to the punitive articles, indictable offences (Section VIII.6). Nothing that has been added is new - all have been prosecuted in front of Lord Syrtaras - but now they have specific articles dedicated to them, owing to their frequency.

Three specifics have been added to Forgery (Article VIII.6.d):

"iii an item submitted for credit which has been altered or manipulated in any way outside of the normal creation and update process of said item; or"

- this specifically addresses tampering with pilot files, screenshots, save games, or other submissions...

"iv a multi-player event record which did not take place, was not completed, or did not involve all the named participants; or"

- which is self explanatory, I hope.

"v a multi-player event record in which all participants were controlled by the same real-life individual"

- also self explanatory.

Also added is article VIII.6.j: "Unlawful Cloning: Creating clones of oneself (additional characters controlled by the same real-life individual) in excess of what is reasonable, for any purpose.
Reasonability: The Empire considers one (1) clone in each currently open division to be reasonable. For officers who have lost the privilege of clones through a court sentence or decree of the Supreme Commander, no clones are reasonable."

This codifies our tolerance of clones. Having a clone (or some clones) is legal - the Empire tolerates them to a limited degree. Abusing this privilege will result in penalties. In the past, cloners have used their clones to inflate their recruitment count, expand their units, and other personal benefit, against the spirit and letter of the law.

I hope these changes are clear to everyone. The changes take effect immediately. Please e-mail myself or Lord Syrtaras if you have questions.