Crime

Crime in Elyria takes many forms, such as breaking contracts, stealing, forgery, and killing. Bounty tokens are used to incentivize bounty hunters, law keepers or hired mercenaries to find suspected criminals. Once detained, suspected criminals can be tried using the judicial system.

Punishments for Crime
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Attempted murder is a criminal offense, and a witness (which might include the victim) may choose to issue a bounty token upon the transgressor. When someone dies, there is a 2.5-hour lock on their spirit loss, so players can only lose two days of play-time per 2.5 hours. However, there is no cap on spirit loss for committing crimes. So if one player kills another three times in a row within 2.5 hour period, and is caught, they will suffer for a minimum six days of spirit loss, despite the victim serving only two.

If a player becomes known as a griefer - that is, if they develop a very negative in-game reputation - others can refuse to let them into their settlements. As those players need to eat, drink, sleep, etc., they would no longer have such easy access to those resources. Stuck in the wild with no food, no water, and no support structure, griefers quickly realize that the game's social mechanics does not support their activities.

Additionally, the punishment for a crime accounts for the Fame of the person wronged. Because more famous players have a higher spirit loss when they die, murdering a King, for example, incurs a higher penalty. The punishment for killing a king and being captured and convicted is roughly two months of game time. So criminals that attempt to harm royalty must be either very smart or very brave.