Rhyslin's Four Rules

An Honor Essay

Rhyslin’s Four Rules

About a month ago, One of the Krynn Brothers penned his code of conduct and asked several of us to write about the equivalent codes from our world.

At first, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do it because the World of Crann Na Beatha is still being created with each new book. 

There are parts of the world that I haven’t explored yet and people that I haven’t written about.  I don’t want to write rules or codes that would set the whole world in stone.  I had thought about writing about the codes that the citizens of Nan Raointean Mora live by, but that would consist mostly of the mercenary code.

After weeks of agonizing over this, I remembered that there is a code mentioned in “Voyage of the Dawn Breaker.”  In this scene, Rhyslin is trying to teach Rana (the daughter of one of his bonds) the code of conduct for those who live in his house.  Since he’s so emphatic about these four rules, there is an assumption that these are also part of the code of conduct for the citizens of the Saorsa. 

I’ll let Rhyslin speak for himself. 

“There are four basic rules in my house.  They are, in order of importance: Do not lie, because not telling the truth could get someone killed.”  He looked around the table and watched as Ria and Flur nodded in agreement.  He held up two fingers.  “Do not steal because taking someone else's property can get you killed or enslaved.”  He raised a third finger.  “Do not kill unless it is in self-defense or defense of others.  Murder will bring about the death penalty, and if Mathair deems it so, you will lose your rebirth.”  He paused, lifting the last finger.  “Lastly, do not break your oaths, promises, or contracts.  Lady Ananke will punish oath breakers, and oath breakers, like thieves, murderers, and liars, cannot be trusted.”  He took a slow breath.  “If I can't trust someone, I will have that person removed from my house.”

I’m sure that this won’t be the last honor essay I write, and others may follow a different code. The World of Crann Na Beatha is complex, and not everybody follows the same code of honor.