Time-Debt forgiveness begins with a Contract
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– Mr. Greebles
Kandia possesses more citizens than its Lawkeepers could ever hope to police conventionally. Across the innumerable precincts of the ecumenopolis and its even larger metroplexes, the promise of mutual gain keeps petty crime to a relative minimum. The Lex, the Hegemon’s overarching set of rules, regulations, and cost-preventative guidelines, provides Consumers with the incentive to report crime, but even this can only do so much on a planet of trillions.
Organized crime is far more common, protection rackets and the shadow markets a natural part of every day life below the upper strata levels. The higher credit holders are not without risk either, with kidnappings, targeted burglaries, and robberies of banks and medical facilities being commonplace.
The criminal world is never far away.
The Lawkeepers of Kandia compensate for their limited reach by employing those same criminals to go after the worst that the Urbanate government has declared must be brought to justice.
These operatives are known as Forfeits.
Forfeits are those who have been convicted and sentenced to hard labor or extended confinement. In the Hegemon, the death sentence has largely been abolished as there is nothing to be gained by one’s premature biological conclusion. “Time-debt” is applied to many crimes, associated with the cost they incur on the CorpoSoci, but is normally applied to the Indentured, those who fail to manage their own debt.
Like the Indentured, Forfeits owe a measurable portion of their lives as compensation for the harm they have caused, but it is directly associated with their identity in Kandia’s underworld. Not every criminal is ‘flipped’ or contracted into the ranks of the Forfeits. This is reserved for advanced Debtbeats who gamed the credit system, criminal accountants, or even Unionists, but the most valuable are those who did crime bosses’ dirty work.
“Ravok” – A Lowsider Forfeit that operates in the Samarka Metroplex, where he works with local precincts to uncover threats to the political heart of Kandia.
Artwork by Dan Zay
A Forfeit possesses contacts and know-how that would take an undercover Lawkeeper fiscal cycles to acquire, nevermind the risks therein of such an experience. They know where the bodies are buried, which officials can be bribed, and which gangs to work with. Detectives sometimes use Forfeits as special informants, but more often as a kind of ‘skiptracer’ that can hunt down targets that the Lawkeepers need apprehended, threatened, or even killed.
Unlike skiptracers, the Forfeits are paid with time. Regular collars and successful cases lead to years off a Forfeit’s overall time-debt. Instead of imprisonment, they get a stipend from their handlers, and can live close to their contracted precinct.
This arrangement should never be mistaken for freedom.
Every Forfeit carries an implanted organoid, typically installed at the base of their skull in place of a vertebrate of the upper spine. Upon activation via signals sent by the handler of a Forfeit, a paralytic compound is released into the body, ensuring partial or total paralysis. This safeguard is considered more a means of restraining a Forfeit rather than punishment, a failsafe in case the individual attempts to flee their responsibilities.
Criminal masterminds are often too valuable to be allowed to rot in a prison stakk, and yet, as a free-roaming Forfeit they could figure out a way of becoming more harm than good. In these instances, the Urbanate places the operative into a state of cryogenic stasis, similar to the process used for mass interstellar travel, but with higher-end engram conditioning via mentanic programming.
Substantial memetic construction is expensive and delicate work, but the result can be a relatively controllable Forfeit who can offer invaluable consultation. Iakobus Gomm, the Shift Ripper, preyed upon hundreds of Consumers before Forfeit Nasdubael Ambedo, another pattern killer, was brought back from stasis and utilized his extensive understanding of the Self to assist the Lawkeeper manhunt into the Substrates.
Most Forfeits conceal their identities behind masks, extensive cosmetic disguises, and with new identities. Genesmithing is not uncommon for more extensive cover, although it is important that the mind and Self retains all of its original knowledge and instinct in order to remain useful.
Each Forfeit is assigned to a Lawkeeper department, investigator, or detective who acts as their sole point of contact. This handler possesses authority over the Forfeit’s assignments and livelihood. Successful service reduces a Forfeit’s time-debt, but all such reductions remain at the handler’s discretion. The degree of a Forfeit’s liberty is carefully parsed out, enforcing need in the operative, as to better leverage their unique talents and understanding of the criminal underworld.
On Kandia, freedom is simply another debt, and every debt has an owner.
You’ll be able to go toe-to-toe against the Forfeits or maybe even get to ally with them as you explore the Hegemon’s most populous world of Kandia in Avarice: The Morningstar RPG. Sign up now and get discounts, dice, and more on our Backerkit launching this month!