§ If a citizen accused another citizen and brought a charge of murder against the, but has not proved it, their accuser shall be put to death.
§ If a citizen brought a charge of malevolent sorcery against another citizen, but has not proved it, the one against whom the charge of malevolent sorcery was brought, upon submitting themselves to holy augury. If the augury goes against him, his accuser shall take over his estate; if the augury has shown that citizen to be innocent, the one who brought the charge of malevolent sorcery against him shall be put to death, while the one who underwent the augury shall take over the estate of his accuser.
§ If a citizen came forward with false testimony in a case, and has not proved the word which he spoke, if that case was a case involving loife, that citizen shall be put to death.
§ If he came forward with false testimony concerning grain or money, he shall bear the penalty of that case.
§ If a judge gave a judgement, rendered a decision, deposited a sealed document, but later has altered his judgment, they shall prove that that judge altered the judgement which he gave and he shall pay twelvefold the claim which holds in that case; furthermore, they shall expel him in the assembly from his seat of judgement and he shall never again sit with the judges in a case.
§ If a citizen stole the property of church or state, that citizen shall be put to death; also the one who received the stolen goods from his hand shall be put to death.
Well, you get the idea. Here are some more interpretive statements of the further law codes in no particular order.
§ Citizens can't kill citizens. Only the government can kill citizens. (After due process)
§ Death is often commuted to exile outside The Amphictyony.
§ Practitionsers of High Magic (7th or higher spells) must be lisenced.
§ Summoning elementals is dubious at best. Unless you are a cleric and it is related to your religion.
§ Summoning outer-planer creaters (demons, devils, etc) is right out.
§ Undead are reprehensible and are to be eliminated on-sight. (i.e. Vampires aren't cool in this game.) Same for Necromancers.
§ Resurrecting someone lessons the murder charge. (i.e. first degree murder goes to manslaughter, manslaughter to accidental death, etc.)
§ Practicing or proselytising a religion other than the State religion is prohibited. Exceptions are made for resident foreign nationals who are allowed to practice their home religion.
§ Amassing armed forces of any more than ceremonial degree is highly suspect and cause for considering economic sanctions.
§ Any vessel that looks like it can travel more than a mile from land is highly suspicious.
§ Conducting magic on someone without their permission is tantamount to assult (except for legal questioning.)
Having inherited the bureaucracy of the Eastern Roman Empire the Babelonians have a well developed government. The belief permiating government is that everything can be ordered and with the right laws, everything will go swimmingly. There are three levels of judges:
Judges of Destiny. The is the legislative branch. When a case is discovered that does not fit any of the laws it is up to this body to pass judgement, by enacting laws which meet the situation. Thus the whole system is self correcting.
Judges of Fate. This is the higher court. Nobles are automatically tried here. Cases from the lower court can be appealed here. They deal with national and international law.
Judges of Circumstance. This is the lower court. They are spread throughout the countries viliges and a few wander about. Local affairs are generally kept to this level.
The actual government is broken into three houses. It isn't explicitly said if any of the three houses is of greater precedence than any other. The Judges have avoided making any statements where possible while hinting that a circumstance where they had to make a statement would be one where they were on the brink of civil war. So the Eupatrids and Synod duke it out and, over time, each has greater sway.
Eupatrids. These are the well born. Traditionally they are the Roman aristocrats installed when Babylon was taken over. However they are thoroughly bred into the local population. There are exactly 66 of them. If a family dies out, then distant relations are "adopted" to fill the gap. They govern mundane local and foreign policy and tax collection.
Synod. This is a collection of the high priests of the state religion. Any ordained priest of 14th level and up can be here. They decide religious matters and collection of religious taxes.
House of Representatives. This assembly is elected by and for the common people of the Republic of Babylon. It is their great and glorious democratic system. In reality they continually argue amongst themselves and, as the system requires a 5/6 majority to pass anything, seldom delcare anything. They have no power to raise taxes so can fund anything either.
Under the purview of the Eupatrids is the Department of Local Affairs. The bulk of this is The Watchmen, who act as the local police force and constabulary. Additionaly there is The National Emergency Force which is the remains of the army. Lastly is the Special Branch who deal with national criminal activities, magical crime, and things that don't fit into other categories.
The much larger Department of Foreign Affairs is overseen by a committee of representatives from the Eupatrids and the Synod with a single person from the House of Representatives (unfilled as they can't agree on a candidatte). The bulk of this department is many sprawling bureaus dealing with international trade: policy, procedure and law. They also maintain the embassies and gather information. This structure is almost mirrored by the bureaucracy of the Amphictyony.
The main language tree comprises those languages descended from Italic, a theoretical predecessor to the oldest known human languages. The south island languages are assumed to be related but it is unclear how. Similarly Oltec and Arapahoe can't be diagrammed.
Dragon has many dialects but, as they are all mutually intelligible, they are not separated out here. An older language Serpentine, contemporary with Italic, is theorised which these derived from but evidence has been hard to gather.
Similarly it is known that there is an older Elvish language spoken by the few remaining Grey Elves. They are, however, characteristically reticent about informing modern scholars of details on themselves.
A number of other humanoid languages exist within the borders of the Old Empire: Lizard Man, Orcish, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Gnoll, and Ogre. These are highly localised, change frequently, and data can be hard to collect on them. That coupled with a lack of a written record make their history difficult to trace.
Mithril, true silver. 1 Mithril Piece = 500 Gold Pieces. Sometimes called Elven steel. This is the best metal for holding magic. It is not terribly strong, unless magically reinforced, nor can it hold an edge well. More often found in magic items or distributed armour like chain mail.
Adamantine, true iron. 1 Adamantine Piece = 2000 Gold Pieces. This metal is super strong, excellent rigidity and holds an edge well. It is pertty good at holding magic. Highly sought after for making weapons and rigid armour.
Tinium, true tin. 1 Tinium Piece = 20 Gold Piecs. This metal is super light but not terribly strong. It cannot hold magic at all but is an excellent channeler of magical energy. This is known for its novelty value. The process for its manufacture or synthesis is unknown but ancient worked pieces can be found in foil, wire, bars, and struts.
Laen, true glass. 1 Laen Piece = 40 Gold Pieces. This material is strong, but brittle. Magic behalves oddly with it, sometimes it is resistant, other times it can store it but only through suffering leakage. Glassteel is generally preferred as a construction material.
Aurum, true gold. 1 Aurum Piece = 1500 Gold Pieces. This is extremely rare and most pieces date from the Dwarven Building Period. It was believed to be use for large scale merchantile transactions between the seven dwarven cities.
Quaborum, true lead. 1 Quaborum Piece = 2 Gold Pieces. This substance retains the same general pliability and weight of the more mundane lead but it has twice the magic resistance Although the refining process was known to the late Roman Empire the secret is generally lost to all but the dwarves of Dwarrowdale.
Metallica, true mercury. 1 Metallica Piece = 150 Gold Pieces. Sometimes known as "fixated mercury", metallica is generally a liquid but, in the presence of a magical field can become rigid. An unfortunate side-effect of Metallica is that it disturbs mental processes in its presence and drives most creatures insane. The process of construction is not difficult but is seldom practiced.