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Yves de Courboisse, a Travelling Judge
Most of his predecessors have either deserted their job rather quickly or never returned from their first visit. His superiors were reluctant to appoint him to the post when Yves volunteered for the job, but much to the surprise of his fellows, Yves has held his position now for seven years. No one else wants the job. Because Yves is a travelling judge he has to report to Gisoreux once a year. He has given up the idea of establishing a permanent home and instead he has chosen to live in tents and run-down taverns that are on the roads he constantly travels. He visits every town and village in his circuit at least twice a year. During this time he will hold court for two days, before he continuing his voyage. Normally, he acts alone, although in large towns, especially those with a governor or mayor, he may have two assistant judges from the town. The assistant judges help Yves understand the local customs, relationships, and history; offering Yves advice and consel. Yves is fair-minded and strong-willed, with the ability to listen to the assistant judges impartially. Before Yves arrives in a town, a town clerk collects and organizes complaints in preparation for his visit. When Yves arrives and holds court, the clerk presents the cases to Yves, although citizens may present their cases directly to the judge. Before Yves leaves a town he appoints a new clerk, but he may chose the same one over and over again when he thinks that the person is still qualified. Before he decides on a case, the clerk will read the case aloud. Yves will listen to the plaintiffs and defendants directly, question them, and reach a verdict. There is no prosecutor; instead Yves questions the accused directly on circumstances of the crime. Although the defendants are entitled to a lawyer, they usually does not have one since these are poor, rural folk. Fortunately, Yves is unbiased almost to a fault and he has quiet a distaste for professional lawyers. His decision normally does not take more than a quarter-hour and the verdict is directly executed by the citizens of the village. Most of the decisions are fines, but in some criminal cases Yves has imposed imprisonment sentence and once even the death penalty. HistoryYves was born forty-five years ago near Gisoreux. His father was a minor retainer at the court of Gisoreux. Yves wanted to follow the career of his father and became a knight in the Brettonian Army. He was one of the youngest captains ever in the army, not so much due to his excellency, but to his birth and bribes of his mother, who was the daughter of a rich family from L'Anguille. In fact his father never really cared about his only son and spent most of his money on rich garments and new perfumes. He left the army at the age of twenty-eight for no apparent reason and decided to go the university in Bordelaux and study law. He was by far the oldest student in his class and finished law-school at the age of thirty-two. The next eldest student was eight years younger. After he has left university Yves wanted to become lawyer, but his law-school applications were declined three times. Undaunted, he learned that his district needed a travelling judge and, despite his excellent grades and his birth, he choose to pursue the career even though travelling judges are not very popular among professional jurists, being the province of lay-judges. Upon his first visit to the district as a judge, the villagers reacted with mistrust and hostility. None of them really cared about the government; they wanted to live on their own. They had no desire to have a minor noble tell them what was right or wrong. He suffered abuses and ambushes on the road and the commanders of the strongholds at the border taunted him. But he was determined to perform his duties and survived all these obstacles. His undaunted determination impressed his critics, who slowly learned respect for the grim judge. He has become a prominent figure in his district, much to the dismay and discomfort of his superiors. His name is well-known in almost every town and most of the commanders of the strongholds on the border, and some beyond the border, pay him their respect. His superiors have heard rumors that Yves now crosses the border into the Empire and the Wastelands and has held court there. Brettonia's relations with the Empire are strained at best, and his superiors in Gisoreux worry that Yves will somehow cause a political incident. Some have gone so far as to suggest that perhaps Yves should be retired, in any sense of the word, before he "does something inappropriate" again. Physical AppearanceYves is more than six feet tall. He is skinny, with prominent cheekbones, giving him a skeletal appearance. He looks much older than he actually is, due to his almost white hair and his fragile appearance. Nevertheless he is agile and quick and his training as a knight has given him surprising strength. Yves never seems to smile. The best he can give is a short lift of the ends of his mouth. As a judge he dresses in black, but his coat never has any decorations, as they are popular among other judges. He also wears a small black cap, that makes him look like a monk. Beneath the coat Yves wears a chain-mail vest, since he has learned that there are too many people, that would prefer to see him dead. As a symbol of his position Yves always has a bastard sword with him, attached to the side of his horse, and he is well able to use it. MotivationsYves is one of the very few judges that have chosen the position for the sake of justice, rather than has a position of power. He loves his job and is always as unbiased as you can expect a judge to be. This has led to some friction with his superiors, since he has more than once decided against noble and wealthy defendants. To their eyes, this is bad politics. Yves remains unphased by their disapproval of his methods. Yves has a very strong, harsh view of justice. He always orders the execution of a verdict on the spot. He has never brought a case to the next court, since he knows wealthy defendants will use bribery to win their cases under corrupt judges. He requires the village mayor to carry out his verdict personally. Yves worships Verena. His strict judgements come from his belief that people need examples of justice and they remember strict, harsh examples better. He follows the letter of the law and will never impose a punishment that is unjust or beyond the measure allowed by the law. Even though he lives an ascetic life, he is somewhat egocentric and convinced that he never has never handed down a wrong verdict. In fact, he suffers from a mild insanity. He cannot tolerate disent and will become unreasonably angry if someone questions his judgement. Yves is well aware,that he has crossed the border in a literal and a figurative sense. His opinion is simple: he must justice everywhere in the world and political borders are inconvenient obstacles in his way. Yves is pathologically stubborn. His overriding compassion is not for individuals, but for justice and order in society. SecretsYves never talks about why he left the army. Just before he left, his unit was sent to a small garrison in the south of Brettonia, near the border to Tilea. His captain and the commandant of the garrison went into a burger's house, accompanied by a few officers. Meanwhile the ordinary soldiers began to bully the inhabitants of the village next to the garrison. When Yves tried to interfere he was held back. He then tried to inform his commanders of what was going on. He entered the burger's house, he stumbled into a Slaanesh cult orgy. His commander and most of the other officers were followers of chaos themselves. He fled into the night, abandoing the army. Afterwards, he decided to become a jurist. The memory of the orgy still haunts his dreams, driving him slowly insane. Yves now believes that the wealthy are corrupt and he is the only and last defender of justice in Brettonia. Lately the dreams have begun to become stronger and they may drive him further into the depths of madness. Profile
Alignment: Neutral, moving towards Law (Verena, strong) Skills: Cartography, Disarm, Dodge Blow, History, Law, Lightning Reflexes*, Linguistics, Orientation, Public Speaking, Read/Write, Ride - Horse, Secret Languages - Classical and Battle Tongue, Specialist Weapon - 2-Handed, Sixth Sense, Strike to Injure, Strike Mighty Blow, Strike to Stun, Swim, Very Resilient* Trappings: chainmail vest, black coat, black cap, bastard sword, horse, register book (for all cases decided by him), law books, tent, blanket, flint, rope (20 feet), hourglass Psychology: 1 Insanity Point, Insanities: Extreme stubborness, Egocentric, Delusional
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Created by Claycle
Yves de Courboisse is a
Brettonian travelling judge who operates near the border with the Empire and the Wastelands. Due
to the high tension between Brettonia and the Empire and the difficult Brettonian
relations with the Wastelands, the Yves' is not very popular
among the judges and bureaucrats in Gisoreux.