The Combat was a system by which in civil cases the litigants decided their dispute by mortal combat, after which the defeated party was allowed to fly the country.
-1066 And All That
Basic Information
Exile is a punishment consisting of forced emigration from the victim's homeland, usually including the removal (or suspension) of citizenship - if any - and the forfeiture of fixed property (and sometimes movable property as well). A exile's relatives may be permitted - or even forced - to accompany him, or they may be permitted - or obliged - to stay behind.
Exile may be de-facto (the offender is permitted to flee the jurisdiction in which he committed the offence) or official (whereby he is formally sentenced to exile) and may be for a limited period, for life or indefinite (the difference may be important if he dies and leaves heirs in exile). Exile may also be to a specific location (such as a penal colony1) or general (anywhere but "here").
If being made to go and live abroad doesn't sound like much of a punishment, consider that until very recently, citizenship was not treated as lightly as it is today, nor were people accustomed to leaving their native regions or being cut off from their kinship group. Exile was usually a way of forcing an opponent to live in poverty and ignominy as a second class citizen in a foreign land. It could also be very dangerous to the exile's home state if the wrong people were allowed to end up in the wrong places … such a rival heir to the throne at the court of a hostile foreign king.
Increasing international travel has made exile less popular as an official punishment - and, indeed, many "receiving states" would object to having criminals dumped on them - but a great number of people still live in de-facto exile, whether in fear or persecution or prosecution.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- As good a reason as any - indeed traditionally a leading reason - to become an adventurer.
- Exiles who return are a common cause of trouble - where exile is imposed from without, it may be that the banishing power has disappeared or been subverted, whilst a voluntary exile may have grown powerful enough that he no longer fears retribution.
- Likewise a time-limited exile… someone sentenced to "lesser outlawry" might return having spent three years stewing a grudge and plotting revenge.
- As noted, exiles who do not return may also be a nuisance - as many agents of hostile foreign powers and "kings across the water" have demonstrated.
- Entire nations may go into exile - the Israelite people probably being the Ur-example with three occasions: Slavery in Egypt, Exile in Babylon and the diaspora following the Hadrian genocide.
- A medieval or earlier state that exiles its worst criminals into an enemy is unlikely to be popular… a modern one even less so… but might not particularly care.
- A spy might arrange to be exiled as part of their final extraction. Can the PCs expose them before the target country sends away someone with a headful of its secrets?