anctions are another way that the Hierarchy makes it appealing and profitable to become one of them. Imagine someone owes you a favor, and not only do you expect it to be repaid; it can be punishable by your legion or citadel for not being repaid. Acquiring sanctions is another form of wealth for wraiths; after all, there isn’t much wealth in the afterlife to begin with.

The breakdown of Sanctions is as follows:

Personal Sanction (Minor)

This is the most common type of Sanction. The favor usually does not cross Legion lines and is often repaid with just one action. This type of Sanction may include things such as: Allowing someone to use your haunt for a long period of time, or guaranteeing a wraith’s safety in a domain your legion already controls.

Personal Sanction (Major)

This Sanction is owed when a wraith sacrifices greatly of his time and resources, and/or subjects himself to a significant amount of risk. Repayment of this type of Sanction may include supporting any political action the possessor of the sanction desires, even against your own Legion. However an action this large would repay the debt in full. Other actions may repay this debt as well, though depending on the type of repayment requested, it may take one or more actions to be repaid.

Personal Sanction (Life)

This Sanction is much higher than the previous two. The debtor literally owes his continued existence to the Sanction-holder, and the Sanction-holder can demand quite a bit before considering the debt paid. It often comes down to, how much does the debtor value his own “life”? In the case of a Life Sanction, the debtor has effectively made himself the Thrall of another wraith.

Legion Sanction

This Sanction is one in which an Anacreon may make his legion obligated to repay a debt to an individual wraith, legion or Necropoli. This Sanction quite literally means that the Sanction-holder has the backing of the individual Necropoli Legion who issued the Sanction. The issuing Legion (including the Anacreon) is then obligated to repay the debt, quite often not an easy task.

Citadel Sanction

The Citadel Sanction is the highest Sanction that can be bestowed upon any wraith or Necropolis, and may only be bestowed by a consensus from that Necropolis’ Anacreon Council. This Sanction means quite literally: The Citadel owes me for a great deed or favor that was done. Be it large or small, ALL legions within this Citadel will aid me in whatever way they can.

Now let’s put these into perspective. 95% of Sanctions should be between levels one and two (minor and major Sanctions). Level 3 (life) Sanctions should be RARE! As for Legion and Citadel Sanctions... Legion Sanctions should be rare to the point of a wraith being party to one only once every 100 years; Citadel Sanctions should be rare to the point that a wraith may hear of one occurring just once during his entire wraithly existence.

The best thing about advancing in the Hierarchy is that holding an elevated position automatically allows you to collect Sanctions. For instance, if a Chancellor has an Inspector who wishes to petition the Anacreon directly, he may charge the Inspector a Sanction. If a Legionnaire wants special permission for a normally unauthorized activity, his Centurion may charge a Sanction. After all, legion loyalty can only go so far -- the argument that members of a Legion should not charge each other Sanctions is a bit like saying no American should charge another American money, simply because they work in the same country. Sanctions are currency, and a Wraith must make a living!

Anacreons have the best position of all for collecting Sanctions. Someone wants to cross over to help a loved one? That’s a Sanction. Someone wants to establish a new Haunt in your Legion’s part of town? Sanction. In this way Anacreons can collect numerous Sanctions – it almost goes without saying that having many wraiths obligated to you affords a certain amount of protection and support when your actions are less than popular. Simply put, an Anacreon without Sanctions is a like politician without money. They look the part but have no power to back it up.

An important clarification: When an Anacreon requests you to do something, he can often avoid owing a Sanction by claiming it is for the good or security of the Necropolis. Running a portion of the Necropoli and keeping it safe is every Anacreon’s concern, so it can be said that asking for a Sanction in return is undermining the Anacreon’s right to rule... not a good thing. A wraith can only charge a Sanction to an Anacreon if he is doing a personal favor; though one should tread carefully when asking anything in return from a high-ranking wraith or he may end up with more than he bargained for. Obviously, a request simply for the “good” of the Necropoli never works between Anacreons, as they should all be working together for that cause. However, Sanction exchanges between Anacreons often occur.

Last but not least to note is that the Unlidded Eye never does Sanctions. They are above such things. They don’t do favors. They do their duty. They don’t accept favors. You help them because if you don’t they will badly hurt you and/or turn you into a piece of lawn furniture. The Unlidded Eye doesn’t need Sanctions because they have the right to do whatever they feel is necessary - with full authorization from Charon.

Compensation

Sanctions and compensation work hand in hand, and together frequently have a minimizing effect on violence. As previously mentioned, a sanction in the wraith world is a currency of sorts and can carry an immense amount of value. Since sanctions are basically “owed favors” of varying degrees, what happens if another wraith comes along and destroys your “investment” (i.e. kills the favor-owing wraith)?

According to the Hierarchy, any wraith that destroys an “investment” must then compensate the original sanction-holder. Thus if you hold a minor sanction against a wraith that is killed, you now hold a minor sanction against his killer (assuming you know their identity). By the same token, if you kill a wraith that owes a Sanction, chances are you will now be held accountable to repay the sanction. So the upshot is: Be careful whom you strike against, for you may find you have slain your worst foe only to become deeply indebted to someone else. If you fail to provide adequate compensation (repayment), you will undoubtedly be brought before your Chancellor and punished under Hierarchy law.

The real secret to sanctions and compensation is that clever wraiths may actually seek out powerful, hated, or influential wraiths and offer to be in their debt in order to use their name as protection. That annoying Lemure in the corner may be ripe for a good butt kicking -- but if he suddenly announces that he owes a (Minor) Personal Sanction to a Chancellor, a (Major) Personal Sanction to an Anacreon, or a (Life) Personal Sanction to a Deathlord, you must realize that if you destroy him you will owe those sanctions. Indeed, powerful wraiths may well find many seeking to owe them a sanction, in order to access their protection. Not all wraiths will want to collect many sanctions, but others will accept all petitions and thus also collect significant amounts of power and influence. Often Gaunts are perceived to have power so younger wraiths seek to owe them sanctions, their power grows because they are owed sanctions, which in turn makes them more powerful… the cycle perpetuates itself.

The only people who are immune to paying compensation are Anacreons and Chancellors while acting in accordance with Hierarchy law and issuing punishments, and members of the Unlidded Eye. (The same protection extends to any wraiths that are ordered by the Anacreon/Chancellor to actually carry out the sentence.) If a wraith is discorporated as punishment for breaking Hierarchal law, then any investments in him are permanently lost.

Last but not least, if your Necropoli comes into Bad Standing with other Necropoli, all Sanctions owed to it’s residents are invalidated until it is lifted. Making sure that your Citadel remains in good standing is vitally important.