# Pirates and brigands **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [October 4, 2024, 5:19pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736 "2024-10-04T17:19:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 5:19pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/1 "2024-10-04T17:19:13Z")
To provide a clarificatory footnote to the Senate’s judgment here: > [@Congratulations and Self-Congratulations](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/congratulations-and-self-congratulations/732/10): > > Eh, to an extent, but the warning flag I should raise here is that one should not confuse professionalism with mercy. Those agencies love to pull those sorts of “cut their heart out with a scalpel” operations, leaving behind no discernable signs of a chest-cracking, because it has a palpable memetic effect in making them look spooky and terrifying and not to be fucked with. But while they don’t have [DREAMING MALIGNITY](https://eldraeverse.com/2016/03/11/the-conscience-of-monsters), DREAMING SINISTER and INFERNO DAMPER do exist, and allocate non-zero collate… and in particular the term: > “uncivilized brigands of no worth” The word that’s doing all the work there is _brigand_. By a linguistic quirk dating back to the Selenarian/Cestian unification, Eldraeic has two very similar but distinct words. From the former, “brigandry”, meaning “being part of a group of the worst on land” and from the latter, “piracy”, meaning “being part of a group of the worst at sea”. As a consequence of this, there were long two separate crimes of brigandry and piracy, until the Great Clarification of 288 decided that this was redundant and made them the same crime, albeit chargeable under either name. What is relevant here is that brigands, like pirates, slavers, terrorists, etc., are considered both outlaws and _hosti sophi generis_, the common enemies of sophontkind, and as such are not entitled to various niceties which honorable enemies or gentlemen of the slash-trade might be accorded. There was, to be fair, once a certain level of controversy in the Conclave concerning the Empire’s policy of designating military units fond of warcriming and, in some cases, entire polities likewise as _eo ipso_ brigands, but this has mostly died down outside the Socionovist Association, that containing the polities which are mostly likely to enjoy that kind of thing. (It may also be worth a note for the chaps over in the [Post-Contact Hilarity (eldraeverse.discourse.group)](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/post-contact-hilarity/459/348) thread that the activities of modern-day Earth gangs are almost certainly brigandage by any reasonable definition and the interactions of this with interstellar law is likely to be fun. Well, for someone. Adventurers and warbarristers, mainly.) ---
**Author:** ![zakueins](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/zakueins/32/65_2.png) [@zakueins](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/zakueins)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/2 "2024-10-04T17:55:31Z")
I can see nothing but…joy in watching the interactions of South American gangs and Imperial citizens. Why? Because what South American gangs do to people that annoy them will cause people that are _much more heavily armed_ and precise to respond and respond very quickly to what happens to them. ---
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 7:15pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/3 "2024-10-04T19:15:01Z")
Boring! (I mean, seriously, this is the least interesting aspect of the whole situation inasmuch as it can be solved to their satisfaction by detailing a destroyer to spend a few weeks in orbit, lobbing KEWs into the rain forest until the whining stops.) The fun part is dealing with your new _[xia](https://eldraeverse.com/2012/09/16/glory-is-recklessness-leavened-with-success/)_ infestation, who find that starting epic wuxia street fights and ~~teahouse~~ dive bar brawls with every street, ethnic, biker, criminal, youth, etc. gang they come across in their wanderings to the tune of the traditional adventurer battle-cry - “Justice! And if we kill them, we get their stuff!” - is absolutely _hilarious_. (And who have a warbarrister on speed-dial prepared to make a very expensive argument that interstellar law is _technically_, the best kind of correct especially in court, on their side.) ((Your best option may be to wait until they get bored and head off to somewhere that poses a worthier challenge. In the meantime, try to convince the public that the post-yakuza-fight scene in _Kill Bill_ is just a normal part of city living, belike.)) ---
**Author:** ![zakueins](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/zakueins/32/65_2.png) [@zakueins](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/zakueins)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 7:36pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/4 "2024-10-04T19:36:11Z")
Or any of the big dance numbers in the _John Wick_ series. Especially for the gunplay… ---
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 9:59pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/5 "2024-10-04T21:59:00Z")
My general writing guideline for these things can be summed up as “Who let the fucking _Exalted_ in here?” ---
**Author:** ![JHPrime](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/jhprime/32/54_2.png) [@JHPrime](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/JHPrime)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 1:26am UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/6 "2024-10-05T01:26:35Z")
I suppose these brawlers would at least be sufficiently polite as not to drag other people into the fight or cause any property damage (to anyone but their targets)… Although I wonder if, thereabouts, there’s actual hero insurance, and if so, what the premiums are like. ---
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 2:24am UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/7 "2024-10-05T02:24:30Z")
> [@JHPrime](#): > > I suppose these brawlers would at least be sufficiently polite as not to drag other people into the fight or cause any property damage (to anyone but their targets)… Adventurers? Like the prototypes I modeled them on, they’re reckless, oft-violent, oft-drunken murder-hobos, only justified by their also being righteous and at least moderately enlightened, reckless, oft-violent, oft-drunken murder-hobos who fight tirelessly for a good cause. (Among other things.) If local geography escapes unscathed, it’s a good day. ---
**Author:** ![JHPrime](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/jhprime/32/54_2.png) [@JHPrime](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/JHPrime)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 3:01am UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/8 "2024-10-05T03:01:29Z")
Ooh… I don’t think their lawyer is going to get them out of the tickets for littering they’re going to catch, then. ---
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 3:36am UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/9 "2024-10-05T03:36:19Z")
Of course, they also have to catch them first, which works for much law enforcement about as well as it did for that in the _wuxia_ movies they stole half their paradigm from… (They do, however, at least pay for the damages.) ---
**Author:** ![january1may](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@january1may](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/january1may)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 4:16am UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/10 "2024-10-05T04:16:53Z")
> [@avatar](#): > > > [@JHPrime](#): > > > > I suppose these brawlers would at least be sufficiently polite as not to drag other people into the fight or cause any property damage (to anyone but their targets)… > > Adventurers? > > Like the prototypes I modeled them on, they’re reckless, oft-violent, oft-drunken murder-hobos, only justified by their also being righteous and at least moderately enlightened, reckless, oft-violent, oft-drunken murder-hobos who fight tirelessly for a good cause. (Among other things.) > > If local geography escapes unscathed, it’s a good day. …and now I’m imagining an Imperial brawler group setting off the local-tech equivalent of Banned From Argo. (They’ll fix most of it back. Probably.) ---
**Author:** ![BravoLimaPoppa](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/bravolimapoppa/32/68_2.png) [@BravoLimaPoppa](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/BravoLimaPoppa)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/11 "2024-10-05T19:26:35Z")
Yeah, and then there’s the Russian Maifyas and government. I’d sit back with popcorn (and under a lot of ground) to watch that hilarity. ---
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 10:13pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/pirates-and-brigands/736/12 "2024-10-05T22:13:22Z")
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