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 If you are a resident of Ket, your exact legal and social status--largely determined by race--will have a large impact on your dealings with Ketites. Your legal standing can be one of four possible grades:
  • Citizen
  • Resident
  • Monster, either living in Ket or visiting
  • Non-resident non-Monster
Your social status can either be as a person or a non-person.

Persons & Non-persons
The word "person" has social meaning, but is not a recognized term in Ketite law--legally there is no difference between a person and a non-person. However, being a person will gain you admittance into most households and businesses in Ket; being a non-person will get you frosty silence at best, and likely something worse.

Citizen
Nobody--not even the Beygraf--is born into Citizenship. Citizens of Ket are residents who both belong to an eligible race, and have earned the privilege of Citizenship. They are considered persons, and enjoy the highest social status and full protection under the laws of Ket.
       To earn Citizenship, a resident must spend a year in service to Ket, usually as a member of the militia known as The Paighan.
       If your character is an eligible race--human, halfling or dwarf--and started play with Ket as home region, he is considered to have already earned his Citizenship through a year's service in the Paighan sometime before he started play. (This is the case unless you don't want your character to begin as a Citizen). Assuming your human, halfling or dwarven character is already a citizen:

  • He will remain a Citizen as long as he remains one of these races, and he is not sent to the mines or stripped of Citizenship for some other reason.
  • He can even switch his home region to another country and still maintain Ket Citizenship.
  • However, his Citizenship will be instantly removed, regardless of his stated home region, if he swears allegiance or fealty to any other country, leader or Oerthly power outside Ket, or becomes a citizen of any other country. (This includes accepting most noble titles granted outside Ket. Check the wording that accompanies the title being offered--if it mentions fealty or oaths of loyalty, your character will lose his Ket Citizenship if he accepts the title.)
Resident
Residents of Ket are the non-Monster people who have lived in Ket for at least one year (52 TUs) but who have not yet earned the right to become a Citizen. Residents are considered to be persons.
       If your character is a gnome, half-elf, half-orc, or hobgoblin (or a human, halfling, or dwarf whom you did not want to start as a Citizen) who either commenced with Ket as her home region or who has maintained Ket as her home region for at least one year (52 TUs), she is considered to be a Resident.
       Residents have about the same social standing as horses in Ket society (which is to say, reasonably high status.) Residents are protected by Ketite laws, although murder of a Resident is merely considered manslaughter and is punishable by a year (52 TUs) in the stocks. (In comparison, murder of a Citizen is punishable by life in the mines.)
       Residents who are an eligible race may be able to upgrade their status to Citizen through membership in the Paighan.

Monster
If your character is not one of the races mentioned above--halfling, human, dwarf, half-elf, gnome, half-orc or hobgoblin--he is legally a Monster, and his social status is that of a non-person. (Elves, centaurs, and asherati fall into this category.) In addition, anyone who has received a Warrant of Ket, or is currently a qashar (mine-convict) is also considered a Monster. Monsters have no intrinsic rights or standing under the law. Killing a Monster who lives in Ket carries the same punishment as tax evasion or vandalism--and if the killer is able to convince a Jurat (judge) that he had even a fairly good reason for his actions, it may be enough to remove even that slight taint from his record.

Non-Citizen/Non-Resident
If your character is a non-Monster race, and is a tourist, a visiting merchant, someone who is merely transiting the country, a diplomat from afar, or a visitor who has lived in Ket less than a year (52 TUs), she is considered to be someone with the social status of a person, albeit one with little protection from the law--in fact, she would have about the same legal consideration as a vase worth 100 gp. Murder of a non-Citizen/non-Resident person is considered aggravated assault causing death and is punishable by 10 TUs in the stocks.
      However, if your visiting character is of a Monster race, she is both a Monster and a non-person (although exemptions may be granted to elvish diplomats so as not to cause any ill-feeling with other countries--or at least no more ill-feeling than already exists.) Non-resident Monsters have no standing or legal protection under the law, and would be advised not to get into a serious argument with anyone, since there is no legal penalty for killing a non-resident Monster other than being accused of bad taste if it is done in a frivolous way.

Achieving Citizenship or Resident Status through the Paighan
A year's service in the Paighan--the Ket militia--is the usual route for a Resident to achieve Citizenship. It is also the way for a Monster to achieve Resident status and gain the social status of a person. (However, Monsters cannot become Citizens under any circumstances. Without special campaign documentation that explicitly overrides this rule, Monsters can only become Residents, not Citizens, even if they fulfill the Citizenship requirements through the Paighan.)

Can you lose your Citizenship that you earned through the Paighan?

  • Human, dwarven and halfling characters will still retain the Resident or Citizen status that they earned, even if they change their home region to another country. (They will lose their Citizenship if they are sent to the mines, or if they swear allegiance to another leader or country, or become citizens of another country.)
  • Characters of all other races must keep their Paighan membership in good standing--that is, they must continue to pay the yearly TU costs for membership--in order to maintain the status they have earned. Even if your character pays the annual TU cost, he or she will lose Citizenship status if:
    • your character switches home regions away from Ket, since being a member of the Paighan requires her home region to be Ket.
    • your character is convicted of a major crime (more than 10 TUs in the stocks, or being sent to the mines), since this also voids her membership in the Paighan.
    • your character swears allegiance or fealty to any other country or leader outside Ket, or becomes a citizen of any other country, since this instantly voids Citizenship
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