Property Law

PROPERTY LAW
Generally, formal laws regarding possessions and property exist only in kingdoms and other organized countries. Otherwise, might makes right, and the law is whatever the local lord or kingpin says.
In reality, this brute force, “My sword is the law” approach is always tempered by custom. Customs are formed by the habits of genera¬tions, built up into “the way things are done,” as well as by the expectations of locals (“You can push us, self-styled ‘lord,’ but only so far: my grandsire built that fence and my sire expanded it—tear it down and on their graves I swear I’ll tear,y0tt down!”) and by the unwritten “rules of wayfaring” as understood by caravan merchants, peddlers, pilgrims, and envoys, and enforced by priests and the Heralds.
An example of this policing: “If you set up an inn and then murder everyone who stops there and keep their goods, even if that’s morally ac¬ceptable to you as a devout follower of Bane or of Cyric, it will not be suffered to stand. Once word gets out, expect to be soon destroyed by several caravans arriving at once intent on murdering you. Or failing that, expect to be shunned and ig¬nored, with no one visiting you for any reason—so it would be best for you if there’s absolutely noth¬ing you need by way of trade, ever again, from now until the end of your life.”
Centuries of disputes all over the Realms have led to property laws that are usually akin to this arrangement: You can charge fees for the use 
of your land, or you can fence off your land and guard it, with notices, prohibiting all or specific uses of it—but you can’t simply butcher, maim, imprison, or rob individuals you find on your land. Moreover, you can’t flout local customs with regard to buying and selling land, or renting land to farmers to till, or providing stable and paddock space and room and board to travelers.
Border disputes between neighbors might be settled with violence, or by documents and rules and solemn (church or Herald-witnessed) agree¬ments. Borders between nobility or rulers or countries are always solemnized somehow, usually with agreements or treaties arising out of wars and enforced by periodic border patrols or even garrisons. Often, for clarity and convenience, such borders follow a river, a mountain range, a road, or a tiny, meandering stream. Miscreants fleeing across a border can’t depend on protection from their destination unless there are patrols or garrisons at the border. Without a patrol or gar¬rison to guard the border, those in pursuit of the fleeing miscreants will simply follow them, ignor¬ing the boundary.

Slavery

Officially illegal almost everywhere in known Faerun, except in Dambrath, Thay, and the Old Empires, the practice of slavery is known to be widespread in most eastern lands.
Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t go on in many other places. In the cold Savage North, ores take human slaves whenever they can—and eat slaves who are no longer considered useful. In the chill wilderlands north of the Moonsea, “beast-men” (ogres) capture humans for use as slaves and food. There has always been a thriving slave trade in Sembia, Westgate, and Marsember, but by the very nature of the business as practiced in that part of the Realms, there aren’t named, high¬profile groups of slave takers. Rather, it’s always a few individuals doing snatch-and-grab jobs and fetching captives, who are often drugged to keep them silent, eating and drinking little, and not trying to escape. The slavers then drag their cap¬tives to a hiding place they control, from which “the goods” can readily be transferred to the ship of a captain who is covertly dealing in slaves. This is an important source of income for some Sea of Fallen Stars pirates.

There aren’t a lot of ship captains involved, but there are a lot of little slaving cabals. Each is composed of a dozen people at most, and half of those are usually guards and “heave the drugged bodies” muscle, with six at most being the ac¬tive snatchers and thinkers. Many of these cabals can, if someone starts to hunt or hound them, call on the occasional assistance of evil wizards and priests in return for bodies to experiment on or use in rituals.
Because of the small, secretive, informal na¬ture of these gangs, there’s little official mention of slavers. Unofficially, Faerûnians hear a lot of horrific tales about slavers snatching innocent folk, causing them to be hated and feared. Folk in Marsember tend to be blasé about slavers, and Sembians know and accept that hiring someone to have a rival, a fellow heir, or a creditor “re¬moved” is a daily business option. But Dalefolk and rural Cormyreans will grab pitchforks and at¬tack suspected slavers on sight.