Lore · Gods of the Pantheon

The Tribunal

Shadowknights and warriors who prayed to the Tribunal were always a little unsettling. That is how the Tribunal likes it.

Painting of three hooded judges on stone thrones in a dark hall

The Six Hammers

The Tribunal is six beings, not one: the Council of Justice, orderly neutral, with no allies and no enemies. They wear heavy hooded cloaks, masks and plain black clothing and carry two-handed warhammers. A seventh figure, the Seventh Hammer, serves as their bailiff, with no authority beyond what the Six Hammers give him.

Justice above all

Their faithful, usually orderly and often good, seek justice above everything. Some become guards or magistrates, but the true believers recognise no court on Norrath and carry out the Tribunal’s ultimate justice themselves. Retribution and punishment are sacred duties. They must be methodical, patient and just, for if they punish an innocent, they believe, the Tribunal will judge them in turn and doom them for eternity.

Halas and the Shamans of Justice

Their heartland is Halas, where nearly every barbarian worships them, though warriors may also honour Rallos Zek. Margyn McCann, chief overseer of the Shamans of Justice, says no one in Halas is “above the scales o’ justice” and sends young shamans after fugitives. Shamus Felligan calls his order “judge, jury and executioner fer all misled Northmen,” and Waltor Felligan charges ten gold before he will bind your wounds: “The scales have been balanced and the Tribunal has spoken.” Out in the wild, the barbarian beastlords of the Field Priests of the Tribunal hunt those hiding from justice.

Order and Discord

Their law even reached the rules of the game. In Grobb the Priest of Discord offers the Tome of Order and Discord, “penned by the seventh member of the Tribunal,” as the key to a life of Discord, and reading it turned on player-versus-player combat for that character.

The Plane of Justice

Their realm is a sombre, bleak place that is mostly one great prison, holding beings of every race sent there for severe crimes against their society or the gods. Its only other residents are the golems the Tribunal built as guards. One prisoner, Al`Corisalm, still speaks Old Erudian, and says that when the dust settled, Erud himself turned him over to “the judges of the Low Men.” Zebuxoruk, too, is said to have once escaped from the Plane of Justice or the Void.

Mavuin’s case

In the Planes of Power a prisoner named Mavuin asks adventurers to plead his case before the Tribunal. Endure their trials and the Tribunal agrees to reconsider, and Mavuin passes on what he has learned: Mithaniel Marr and Karana hold knowledge you should seek.

Why a court is a god

Players once asked how a group that looked like bailiffs could matter so much to the return of the gods. The answer from the developers was that the Plane of Justice is one of the Inner Planes, and those planes have always been the primary forces shaping the mortal realms.

Sources

[1] Allakhazam: The Tribunal · [2] Library of Erudin: The Tribunal · [3] Library of Erudin: Planes of Power quest texts (Plane of Justice) · [4] EverQuest.com: The Fabled Planes of Power Lore, Part 22 · [5] Library of Erudin: EverQuest RPG Player’s Handbook — The Tribunal (White Wolf, 2002)