Editing Judge (section)

=== Powers ===
Judges serve as a final "court of appeal" in matters of [[karma]] and regulate (both passively and actively) which [[Other]]s of a certain type are present in an area.<ref>“You guys are the… we’ve been calling you judges. You make some of the decisions on the broader stuff. Karma, deals, minor things about power, or which Others get to appear or start to appear.”<br>[...]<br>“''Can'' I ask a favor?”<br><br>The boy leaned forward, the centipede lowering its head, until he was almost on a level with Avery. “You may. Karma is our currency, when judging you, your notions of fairness, and how well you cleave to the roles you assume. Would you spend yours? Or make demands on how it is directed?” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/18 Excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.1]]</ref><ref>Who: The carmine beast. One of four prominent judge-like Others that oversee Eastern Manitoba & a good chunk of Ontario, where Lords and other powers don’t already have sway.<br><br>Manages & influences violent & bloody Others. By just hanging around & holding the seat, influences the Others who appear & how they act.<br><br>Can be a final court of appeals for matters of Other and practitioner? - 2.1 Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/11 Interview Notes 1]</ref> To be a Judge is to essentially "make the laws" for your domain.<ref name=":4" /> They also make certain that Others that manifest in their domain are bound by the [[Seal of Solomon]] and maintain [[Innocence]] or take responsibility for when it's lost<ref>“In seal, we can use our influence to force Others to be bound to the Seal as they manifest naturally. Sometimes this is formalized, other times it is implicit, and imprinted on them at the moment of their creation, as instinct and innate understanding. To secure innocence, not necessarily to keep innocents alive, but in accepting responsibility if innocence is lost. To keep to Truth in rule of discourse, holding to one’s word.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/05/08/dash-to-pieces-11-3/ Excerpt] from [[Dash to Pieces - 11.3]]</ref>. They can step into associated roles as needed, such as filling in for an associated [[Incarnation]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

They also concern themselves with handling existential problems such as threats to the [[Seal of Solomon]] or breaches between worlds, they can also send people on quests to defeat the more dangerous Others<ref name=":14">“Again, what’s the point of them?” Lucy asked.<br><br>“I think they handle the stuff that’s really broken,” Verona said. “There wasn’t anything super relevant in the books, but there were figures that seemed judge-like who would set quests and point the right people in the right ways to handle anything that was really bad. In other places you get Lords and committees deciding what needs handling. The Others who are threatening the seal of Solomon, monsters too big for any one person to defeat, breaches between worlds, stuff.”<br><br>“Stuff,” Lucy said. “Not very helpful to us, that stuff.”<br><br>“We know they also hear appeals on forswearing. Our local forsworn ex-practitioner tried once or twice,” Avery said. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/05/01/dash-to-pieces-11-1/ Excerpt] from [[Dash to Pieces 11.1]]</ref>, one example of this would be the [[Primeval]] that [[Ted Heavens]] was forced to defeat.<ref>This was an arrangement of a court of judges in this region, who saw the danger and reached out to everyone in the area to ensure they had the power to set this into motion. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/12/22 Excerpt] from [[Gone Ahead 7.a]]</ref> They also act as a final court of appeal for forswearing.<ref name=":14" />

They have power over certain types of people/Other, and can take them into service as minions or companions; against their will, with some expenditure of power.<ref name=":5">Avery nodded. “We also wanted to ask… we need to know who the Carmine Beast was. You said she didn’t have many friends. But the Alabaster has these people in white. Did the Carmine…?”<br><br>She took nobody in. Others like her in other areas do, taking in killers, monsters, heroes and villains.”<br><br>“She tried to recruit a Faerie in our town, allegedly. And a Dog of War, and a Goblin.”<br><br>“She did not try very hard,” the Sable Prince said. “If she ''truly'' willed it, she could have made it happen. It would cost her power and position, but those things would recover over time. It was an effort for her to even broach the subject, because she was the type to weigh the options before her, and inevitably decide that she could do the job best if she did it herself. It kept her busy, and it kept her work consistent.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/18 Excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.1]]</ref><!--john during summer break, sable did this and talks about having a servant they show up when lucy visits him, chuck does this during the blue heron invasion-->

Their appearance is variable able to take a variety of forms when necessary.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6">She had long legs, taller than the trees or the mountain. A two-toed hoof touched the clearest patch of ground, a narrow leg extending straight up to the Alabaster’s form, a great pale deer.<br><br>A second hoof touched down, but it was more diffuse. Both hooves were becoming transparent, bright.<br><br>Until they were like shafts of light with a solid core where they overlapped.<br><br>The light grew more and more diffused, flaking away like flower petals and dust motes. The solid core remained. A woman with white hair, draped in white furs with light grey freckles, and a few decorative antlers worn so the the points turned toward herself or were buried in the furs. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/18 Excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.1]]</ref> While they generally wear the color related to their position they can look however they want.<ref>Guilherme’s voice was smooth, soft, and carried despite the low volume. “With vast power, the ability to shape how you appear, to be giant or small, titan or mouse, you choose to be this unkempt? A fur coat with no shirt, hair and beard shaggy? Charles, you no longer have the excuse of being forsworn.”<br><br>“I’d say it’s because it’s been a long day, but it doesn’t matter. I frankly like the look and feel of it.”<br><br>He looked at Verona as he said it, like it was an in-joke or something. Slightly scruffy Verona. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/10/29 Excerpt] from [[In Absentia 21.7]]</ref>

Each judge has a domain, also called a throne, a little pocket dimension fitting their nature, generally (magically) requiring exactly a day's travel to reach.<ref name=":7">Wooden pieces of building were sunken into the surroundings, but the wood hadn’t gone soft. Dirt overlapped the edges, or moss grew into the sides, until they were part of the landscape. A burned out house with the burns covered up, or pieces of an old church that had collapsed in a storm, reclaimed by nature in a way that held them strong, the walls upright.<br><br>Avery ascended stairs, with white flowers on the rising slope to her right, and a brook noisily trickled in a dip to her left.<br>[...]<br>The trail took a sharp turn toward the interior of the mountain itself, but as Avery ducked through some of the branches, she found herself in a space open to the late afternoon air. The pieces of building that had been on the path here were omnipresent in this space, elaborate, stacked onto one another and glued together by moss and vegetation. The flowers were everywhere, as were fruit trees, vegetables and ferns.<br><br>Ten people were present. Young, old, male, female. Two of the men wore the thin white fabric as kilts, one short, one knee-length. An older man with long white hair wore it as a toga. Two of the girls were topless, but one of them was, like, six, so it didn’t really count. They lay down, sat on tree branches, and walked around the extensive space. Some had wreaths of flowers in their hair. Others laurels of leaves, like some old Roman thing.<br><br>“Who are they?”<br><br>“The most innocent. People with nowhere else to go. People who were hurt. People who were sick, or struggling with some form of madness. The cursed, the hunted, the unfortunate.”<br>“She collects them? You?”<br><br>“When she can. But the conditions have to be precise, so she can’t get many that way. More often, we ask. When we seek to escape it all for long enough, traveling for a day into uninhabited places, sometimes we end up at her feet. Then you have to ask for help. Sometimes you have to ask multiple times, depending. Then you must abide by the rules to stay.”<br><br>“I think I’ve been conditioned to think there’s a horrible catch or something,” Avery said.<br><br>“No. The only rules are to be kind, to be gentle, and to protect this space. Some leave and come back. Some stay for a while and then go. Many stay. Because the world hurt them enough, or because they have a relief here, from schizophrenia or addiction. Sometimes when you ask for help you get it. I think that’s what she represents.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/18 Excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.1]]</ref><ref name=":10">The Alabaster are a species that is rapidly growing extinct, and are simultaneously conserved by some and keenly sought after by others. They are becoming more spread out, and it is hard to say whether this is because of the aforementioned rule of ‘they are always at least a day’s travel away’ and the redefinition of that measure, or because they are being replaced or hunted at a faster rate than they are simply there. - Mile End: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/14jc7V-O3VsFPxWrwjTB5-uAFk9-JPobq2P1rXFpCxtg/edit#heading=h.1scam5298jm1 The Alabaster]</ref>In a way their physical domain is an inverted [[Knotted Place]] as they cover a section of the real world where anyone can meet with them after a day's travel.<ref>[busts of Sable, Alabaster, and Aurum]<br> Our judges have a territory that covers a lot of western Ontario + eastern Manitoba. This actually backwards from what we just established. Instead of getting powerful, having spirits move out of the way, and having rules start bending, there’s a kind of big, prearranged deal where the spirits and karma and everything will cooperate with anyone who takes the seat. So you don’t go from powerful to gradually becoming influential & having a demesne-ish space you carry with you, you take possession of the throne that’s the helm of this massive depression and you then get the power.<br><br>You don’t technically have to be strong to make a claim for the seat, but it’s hard to make a play for one of the fours seats if you aren’t.<br>[doodle of Cherrypop wearing a crown brimming with power]<br>Different types of power mean different types of influence in a depression. The Judges seem to have a lot of shallow influence over a wide area, and some major influence in terms of things they focus on: karma, deciding whether someone’s forsworn, the creation of new Others that they have affinity for, yadda yadda. A lot of this seems to be unconscious & automatic. The Carmine, for example, wasn’t with Charles & Edith when the Hungry Choir was made (or Yalda would have mentioned it) but she could still have influenced the outcome bcause of her reach over her territory.<br> [doodle of outline of something, with Charles saying oh no] - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/07/15 Excerpt] from [12.7 spoilers] [[Knots and Depressiosn]]</ref>
====Reputation====
While part of a system older then the seal most practitioners won't know about them directly unless the family practice specifically touches on them.<ref>“Do many practitioners even know about the judges and non-Lord powers, as a basic thing?” America asked. “Because I didn’t until shit started going down.”<br><br>“I don’t think most do,” Sebastian said, putting his bag down. “I’m at least familiar with them and the ideas surrounding them. The Alabaster? Not the Carmine?”<br>[...]<br>Avery wondered if Verona was feeling more motivated after last night’s talk.<br><br>“For our analogy, I would say yes, you’re mostly right,” Sebastian said, “but it’s more accurate to say it’s not in a highly trafficked area. Not everyone knows it exists. But it’s discoverable. Many texts and resources point to it. I know families in our area that give their newly Awakened children their Essentials texts as introductions to practice, and the Alabaster and other judges is explicitly mentioned in there. I think Ann Wint even does.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/10/11 Excerpt] from [[In Absentia 21.3]]</ref> It is in part a matter of culture.