“ In the Middle Ages, and even up to the early twentieth century, most of Europe's executioners were related: the Sansons and Deiblers in France, the Pierrepoints in England, etc. The reason for this was that, it generally not being socially acceptable to, well, kill people, executioners and their children could, generally, only marry other executioners or <i>their</i> children.
The parallels with massively inbred, Hapsburg-style dynasties are obvious- imagine a rather clever but politically inept satirist noting this, and being sentenced by the latter to a meeting with the former; even worse, imagine a dynasty of deranged and deformed executioners- think Texas Chaisaw Massacre with government funding.”
“ In a warrior based society, when you make a threat of violence or death towards another, you had better be prepared to back it up with your weapons. Because this is considered an implied challenge to combat and should the person who you threatened call you out on it, it constitutes as accepting this challenge. Trying to back out at this point is considered cowardice and results in being disgraced.”
“ Magical Fiends: When a mage or wizard casts a spell and draws more energy than s/he needs Magical Fiends are drawn to that spot and they feed of the extra magic as long as they can. When someone's magic is being fed off of they can't cast spells as well and they feel weaker. The only way to remove a magicial fiend is for it to be drawn away by someone else's power or to go to the very spot you first cast the spell and kill them”
