On Inheritance
A Treatise on the Balance of Desire, Purity, and Civic Stewardship
Bt the early 4th century, when the federations of Koina were still stitching their separate laws into a single fabric, disputes over inheritance had become the quiet wars of peace. Temples judged by creed, guilds by contribution, and cities by bloodline; a merchant’s estate could vanish between ledgers simply because his partnership was not recognized in another region’s register. It was into this confusion that Menaea of Ecbatana, newly appointed Whisper of Trade and Stewardship, introduced her Treatise on the Registry of Bonds, Stewardship and Inheritance. Where others saw a tangle of customs, she saw an opportunity to redefine continuity itself — not as possession, but as relationship made visible in law.
The challenge was immense. To reconcile a world of overlapping loyalties, Menaea and her cohort first had to disassemble affection itself — to catalogue the varieties of union that bound one life to another. Marriage, companionship, mentorship, shared trade, communal household, sworn stewardship — each was examined, stripped of its temple or tribal ornament, and measured by the labor and trust it embodied. Only those bonds demonstrably tied to livelihood and shared creation were formalized within the civic registry. By separating spiritual devotion from civic stewardship, the Treatise created the first trans-federative system of inheritance — one that could cross borders without crossing faith.
Ratified in the Year 248 zc, the document became known simply as On Inheritance. It was not a moral manifesto, but an act of repair: a means to prevent affection from becoming erasure. The Registry of Bonds it established remains one of the oldest continuous legal institutions in Koina, its principles still echoing in every covenant, adoption, and civic trust. Through it, Menaea ensured that the wealth of a life would follow the hands that built it — and that the measure of inheritance would forever be the measure of relationship.
On Inheritance
In every exchange of property, there lies a trace of relationship. To pass on what one has built is not merely to transfer ownership, but to affirm the bonds that gave that life meaning. Yet too often, the act of inheritance has been governed by presumption — blood above companionship, creed above consent, tradition above equity. This treatise begins where all rightful succession must begin: in relationship. It asks not who is sanctioned by birth or temple, but who stood beside, who labored with, who sustained and was sustained. The Registry of Bonds exists so that affection, partnership, and shared stewardship are no longer shadows beside the law, but its foundation. To the priests, inheritance preserves lineage.
To the merchants, it preserves continuity.
To the philosopher, it preserves intention.
To the federations, it preserves peace.
The purpose of this registry is to make these four inheritances one:
On the Political Ramifications of Empire
The Ownership of Bodies
Empires extend property into flesh. By defining heirs through sanctioned union, they transform affection into lineage, and lineage into power. Thus the regulation of intimacy becomes an instrument of governance. The Roman Edicts of Scantinia and the Levantine Purity Codes share this logic: they defend inheritance, not virtue.Moral Edicts as Instruments of Control
What began as priestly counsel within shrines was carried outward by conquerors as law of empire. Levitical injunctions meant for the Levites were recited in the streets of Babylon; Persian purity rules written for fire-keepers were invoked against common artisans.In every case, empire universalized what temple had localized.
The Federative Correction
Koina’s federations reject this fusion of throne and altar. Civic law concerns the balance of persons in community; religious law concerns the sanctity of those who serve their gods.To confuse them is to make tyranny sacred. Therefore, the citizen’s body belongs first to conscience and consent, not decree.
On the Priestly and Ritual Contexts
Purity as Function, Not Virtue
From the Avestan Vendidad to the Hebrew Torah and the Indic Dharmashastra, codes of abstinence guard the sanctity of sacred work. Fire-priests avoid bodily emission before tending flame; Levites abstain before sacrifice; Brahmins cleanse before chanting the Vedas. Such abstentions preserve concentration and symbolic order, not moral hierarchy.The Error of Universalization
When priestly abstinence becomes public mandate, faith becomes tyranny.A vow taken for a day of ritual cannot govern the lifetime of a shoemaker or weaver.
Koina jurisprudence therefore limits priestly law to those under ordination; to extend it beyond the rite is trespass.
The Boundary Restored
Each faith may define its own cleanliness; none may define another’s virtue.The civic compact protects diversity by drawing the line between temple and forum: the first serves the divine, the second the common good.
On the Emotional and Philosophical Dimension
The Nature of Desire
Desire is neither sin nor virtue; it is the motion of life seeking symmetry.When guided by reason, it becomes affection; when clouded by fear, it becomes hunger.
The wise therefore govern desire through mindfulness, not prohibition.
Love Between the Like
Philosophers of many lands agree:On Mentorship and Youth
On Consent and the Boundaries of Agency
1. Age of Discernment: after sixteen full cycles, confirmed by household or guild.2. Soundness of Mind: ability to understand consequence and express will.
3. Freedom from Coercion: absence of threat, debt, intoxication, or spiritual pressure.
Where these are lacking, “consent” is void.
A priest may absolve, but a council must restore.
Degrees of Consent
Thus Koina replaces guilt with balance, yet protects dignity with firmness.
On Property, Partnership, and Legacy
Property as Stewardship
All goods are held in trust for community flourishing.Inheritance ensures continuity, not accumulation.
Order of Succession (Decree of Bonds)
1. Declared Will — the expressed decree of an agent overrides all.2. Marital Union — registered spouse or life-partner, of any gender.
3. Legacy Custody — descendants only.
4. Enduring Partnership — cohabitation exceeding five years, witnessed but not registered.
5. Bloodline Custody — closest blood relative within three (3) degrees.
6. Guild or Civic Trust — if none above, property returns to public stewardship.
Equality of Unions
Because Koina law defines stewardship by contribution, not reproduction, same-sex and multi-gender partners inherit equally once union is registered.Conflict Resolution
When blood and partnership collide, councils weigh:Comparative Sources Consulted
Philosophical Affirmations
| Tradition | Core Teaching | Integration in Koina |
|---|---|---|
| Plato, Symposium | Love of the soul transcends body | Foundation for civic tolerance |
| Aristotle, Ethics | Virtue in mutual friendship | Defines equality of unions |
| Zeno of Citium | Desire judged by reason | Ethical neutrality of orientation |
| Analects 12.22 | To love is humaneness | Harmonizes Confucian civic virtue |
| Tirukkural | Compassion as universal law | Supports plural affections |
| Instruction of Ptahhotep | Cherish the heart that answers | Basis for emotional dignity |
| Gathas of Zarathustra | Passion and wisdom twin fires | Justifies self-discipline, not denial |
Sources of Restriction (Reinterpreted)
| Code | Original Scope | Koina Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Leviticus 18–20 | Temple purity for Levites | Ritual only, non-civic |
| Vendidad 8 | Pollution of elements | Cosmological, not moral |
| Manusmriti 11 | Penance for impurity | Purificatory, not punitive |
| Roman Lex Scantinia | Status protection of minors | Incorporated as age-of-consent law |
| Pahlavi Texts | Demonization of “seed among men” | Example of priestly overreach |
Civic Tolerances
| Jurisdiction | Practice | Koina Adoption |
|---|---|---|
| Athens | No law vs. consentual same-sex acts | Historical precedent |
| Achaemenid Persia | Local autonomy | Federative template |
| Han China | Accepted male favorites | Cultural legitimization |
| Mesoamerican Leagues | Dual-spirit myths | Theological parallel |
Synthesis and Decree
1. Ritual Codes remain the province of faiths.2. Civic Law governs harm, consent, and stewardship.
3. Philosophy arbitrates where the two intersect.
4. Consent requires agency; absence thereof is transgression.
5. Inheritance follows stewardship and longevity, not gender.
6. Priestly purity may bind the altar, never the marketplace.
Counter-Arguments and Their Replies
Objection I: “If affection between the like spreads, lineage will weaken.”Lineage is maintained through willing kinship and civic adoption; coercion breeds rebellion, not heirs.
Objection II: “Sacred law forbids it.”
Sacred law forbids within its own rites; civic law protects all rites by remaining neutral.
Objection III: “Desire distracts from virtue.”
All desire can distract; reason, not repression, secures virtue.
Concluding Reflection
Let it be remembered that property is transient, but relationship endures through it.The ledgers we keep are not monuments to possession, but instruments of remembrance — they testify to how lives intertwined, how communities prospered through cooperation.
In earlier times, empire made inheritance the measure of blood; in darker times still, creed made it the measure of worth. Let Koina, instead, make it the measure of stewardship.
The equitable passing of goods is not the end of life’s labor; it is its completion.
When the possessions of the dead confirm the dignity of the living, law has achieved its purpose.
May the Registry of Bonds outlast any empire of gold - for its wealth is not in treasure, but in trust.
May each record entered upon its scrolls bear witness that the truest inheritance of humankind is one another.
Type
Text, Legislative
Authoring Date
248 zc
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