Goldfall�s first Justice and Marshal release is deliberately simple: Illegal Actions controls risky attacks; witnessed offences can give a five-minute Criminal status; a lawful arrest sends the Character to prison and opens a local Court Case conversation. The prisoner works toward release while the local Marshal and Judge can speak with them.
This is the system available in V1. Full trials, judicial death sentences and appeals are not part of this first gameplay loop.
A look at the ranks
The video below is a decorative presentation of the Criminal, Marshal and Judge badges, with different clothing, weapons, shields and coats of arms. It shows the visual identity of the ranks and possible equipment combinations. It is not an arrest demonstration or a tutorial showing working judicial powers.
1. Illegal Actions and Criminal are two different things
Illegal Actions is the player's safety option. It is disabled by default to prevent accidental attacks against other players, peaceful NPCs, guards and horses. Hostile enemies and dungeon creatures can still be attacked with that option disabled. Turn it on deliberately when you intend to allow those otherwise protected attacks.
Switching this option on is not, by itself, a conviction or an arrest. Criminal is a separate timed status caused by a qualifying witnessed offence. The guard must actually be able to witness the incident; merely entering a town or walking near a guard does not make you Criminal.
The Criminal badge has a countdown of five real minutes. While it is active, Illegal Actions stays enabled and cannot be switched off. You cannot attack, turn the safety back on, and use it to erase the immediate consequences. A new qualifying offence can extend the expiry; disconnecting does not create a new five-minute timer or clear the saved status.
The timer concerns the active Criminal effect. It does not cancel a prison sentence if you have already been arrested.
2. Who has Marshal authority?
A Marshal is an authorized law-enforcement officer, not simply someone wearing a particular outfit. The game checks the current appointment and its territorial authority. A badge shown in the video does not grant its wearer arrest powers everywhere.
The Mayor, County, Ducal and Royal badges distinguish the wider political ranks. V1's physical enforcement uses the current regional and county authority rules for eligible Mayors and appointed Marshals. A Mayor's enforcement is not limited to a tiny radius around a building: running a few steps beyond the town centre is not a way to end a lawful pursuit. Guard assistance still follows the guards' own allegiance and authority; another town's guards are not a private army that every visiting Marshal can command.
The Marshal enforces; the Judge is the judicial contact. A Judge badge alone does not turn its holder into an arresting Marshal. Current offices matter: a dismissed official does not keep private case access because they once held the title, and a legitimate successor can gain the access belonging to that office.
This guide illustrates the rank hierarchy and the enforcement idea. The current appointment, region and supported V1 rules determine actual powers.
3. What happens during an arrest?
Guards and authorized Marshals can pursue an arrestable offender and incapacitate them. The server must confirm the lawful enforcement and incapacitation; an ordinary player winning a fight does not automatically become an arresting officer.
A confirmed arrest begins the regional prison transfer. The destination must be a supported, ready prison. The custody record belongs to the Character and survives reconnecting, so logging out is not a way to escape it.
The prison flow stores the prisoner's carried possessions and equipment through guarded property storage and supplies prison clothing. Arrest does not simply delete the player's belongings. Release and retrieval use the supported prison and Guard House flow.
4. Every arrest opens a local Court Case chat
The arrest automatically creates a numbered private conversation in the local Justice section of the Golden Messenger. Its title identifies the court and the case, for example Court Case 01 � Havenmoor, then Court Case 02, Court Case 03, and so on. Numbering belongs to that local court rather than mixing every town's cases together.
The conversation is linked to the prisoner's actual sentence. It is not a public forum thread, and it does not require everyone to be online at once.
The people involved in V1 are:
- The prisoner, who can explain the incident and speak about their custody.
- The current Marshal of that jurisdiction, who can discuss the arrest.
- The current local Judge, who can hear the people involved.
For a settlement case, the current Mayor also has the Marshal access that comes with that office. Access follows the live office and jurisdiction rules, not a permanently copied list of names.
This is the important V1 addition: imprisonment now has a local human conversation attached to it. The Judge and Marshal can talk to the prisoner while they are in custody. It does not yet mean that the Judge can issue an execution, run the full future trial system or send the prisoner through an appeal ladder from this chat.
5. How the prisoner earns release
V1 keeps the existing work-based prison sentence. The required credited work rises with the Character's arrest count:
- First arrest: 100 units.
- Second arrest: 200 units.
- Third arrest: 300 units.
- Fourth arrest: 400 units.
- Fifth and later arrests: 500 units, the current maximum.
The prisoner gathers the required prison work and deposits it through the designated prison deposit flow. Mining without depositing is not enough. Only work credited to that Character and sentence advances the requirement; ordinary materials brought from elsewhere do not bypass the sentence. A deposit cannot be credited twice.
Progress is saved. A reconnect continues the same custody and deposited total rather than resetting the work or granting another reward.
Once the required work has been credited, the normal release flow returns the Character from prison. Release closes the corresponding Court Case conversation. Its messages and case history are retained; closing it does not erase what was said. A later arrest creates a new sentence and its own new numbered case.
6. A complete V1 example
A player deliberately enables Illegal Actions and commits an offence witnessed by a lawful guard. The Criminal badge appears with its five-minute countdown, and the player cannot disable Illegal Actions during that period.
A guard or authorized Marshal incapacitates and arrests the offender. The game records custody, arranges the prison transfer and opens the appropriate local Court Case conversation. The prisoner can now speak with that court's Marshal and Judge while serving the work requirement.
If this is the Character's second arrest, they must deposit 200 credited prison-work units. Completing that requirement releases them and closes that case chat, preserving its history. Letting the Criminal countdown expire while inside prison does not replace those 200 units.
7. What is reserved for later?
The Judge appeal infographic below describes the broader intended court hierarchy, not buttons or sentences that V1 currently makes available in this custody loop.
Local, County, Ducal and Royal review are part of the wider justice design. General appeals, judicial executions, death-sentence deadlines and expanded judicial punishments are deferred. They should not be read as current V1 gameplay.
The first release is about making the basic loop clear and durable: a deliberate attack setting, a visible Criminal status, legitimate enforcement, a saved prison sentence, and a numbered local conversation with the people responsible for justice. More elaborate court powers can build on that foundation later.
Visit the Atlas, or use the discussion below to talk about this first implementation.