As it stands, people can commit almost any crime and shrug off the legal penalty, which is liable to lead to both a lot of crime and a lot of people trying to prevent it in extralegal ways, and it seems important to head this off! He admits he doesn't have any statistics or even case reports yet.

Olive notes that some crimes, such as theft, arson, kidnapping, etc. can be completely prevented via automatic enforcement, but agrees that having reasonable legal punishments set up for crimes which cannot be wholly prevented is an important priority.

Self-enforcing laws! The Minister for Justice is captivated. What can be automated? Prevention of murder and any sort of personal injury, just like kidnapping. Trespass, theft and destruction of property - can the system track who owns land and objects, like it does with the private rooms that were gifted to everyone? Axis has ways to automate various contracts, which it wasn't allowed to sell to Golarion, but they can probably work it out on their own with this much magic!

He is going to fund research into this, as soon as they figure out how to fund things. (The government is used to buying a lot of intellectual labor from its bureaucrats and would really like to continue being able to pay them!)

It might perhaps be... undesirable to pin all of the law-enforcement and indeed the property-tracking on the fixity field, until they have worked an agreement with the Ash Tree to reliably and ideally permanently delegate control of its relevant functions to state officials.

Olive has a pre-written briefing document about what is already automated which they would merely need to opt into, what can in principle be automated but which has not yet been, and what it is not possible to automate with the current system. She notes that the last item is potentially inaccurate now that they know about magic, and that Osirian could join the S.P.T.O. in funding magic research on how to expand these.

She agrees that it is reasonable not to want to delegate their enforcement before they have a binding commitment about how fixity fields will be used, but suggests that this means that they might not need a permanent policy solution from this meeting, merely an interim policy while diplomatic discussion is ongoing.

The Minister for Public Works (Recovered) would like to suggest that perhaps the crime wave the Minister of Justice fears would not be so very terrible, even if it occurs? People cannot directly hurt each other anymore, reparation of any property harm done is immediate and free, and the expense in time and attention of investigating, judging, and passing sentence might be greater than the damage from almost any crime. Osirion does not normally legislate against nuisances, and on previous standards, even attempted murder is now a mere nuisance.

Some laws are probably obsolete, but removing them does not seem urgent. Also, it seems valuable to clarify that some things are illegal, even if they appear to be impossible at present.

A crime wave would cause people to lose their trust in each other and in the government, but repealing all the laws would make people lose trust even more.

And the criminals wouldn't make Axis!

"Everyone can make Axis now. Chaotic people can Teleport there, both from Golarion and from the afterlives, and people of different alignments can afford to move to the same afterlive to stay together." The Minister for Public Works' earlier breakdown might have been occasioned by thinking slightly further ahead than his colleagues, and also using Wishes to enhance his cunning as soon as he was evacuated by the Ash Tree.

"And I understands the Evil afterlives are no longer dangerous. Those are the major reasons we have tried to make sure everyone in Osirion went to Axis."

"Non-Lawful people need to buy insurance to live in Axis proper."

"If crime is either impossible or ineffectual, and everyone is very rich, everyone will be able to afford that insurance."

"I do not know how Axis insurance will be priced this time tomorrow", says the Minister for Economy, "and I refuse to speculate instead of waiting and seeing what Axis does, but in any case we should not abandon the pursuit of Law because we think it might be less directly valuable!"

... Yes, that's probably wise.

"I concede your point. We should try our best to prevent and mitigate crime in the short term, without trying to change the long-term policy yet."

"Could we have such a law now? Requiring certain visitors or immigrants to buy insurance? We couldn't do it before, because boats can put ashore in too many places and anyone rich could Teleport in." He looks a question at Olive.

(His study of history suggests that having an overlord hegemon should come with perks for compliant vassals who want to better police their state.)

Olive nods. "Certainly. There are a few ways you could do that," she agrees. "You could redirect everyone entering the country to a specific location where you handle checking that they are permitted in the country yourselves; you could keep a registry in our systems of who has purchased insurance which meets your criteria, and only allow those people into the country; you could establish an insurance marketplace using our systems such that people can buy insurance on entry automatically; or many other possible approaches, including hybrids of those approaches."

She pauses for a moment, to think how best to phrase this.

"The general principle is that any regulation which a very diligent and observant, but uncreative and uncunning construct could enforce by considering each person who attempts to enter the country and applying a specific, written list of rules is possible to implement automatically. Anything that requires human judgement or creativity will require actual people be involved."

"Obviously it is not my place to say what policy is best for Osirion, but my initial suggestion based on what I've seen of your values so far would be something like 'anyone who is Lawful, or who has bought insurance meeting some standard on the fixity-crystal-mediated marketplace can simply walk in; anyone else is redirected to a specific location for government workers to deal with'," she concludes.

Reliably following a list of rules is almost the entire qualification for Lawful border police! (And overwhelming force, but that's the hegemon's job now.)

"We cannot forbid people from entering Osirion without a notice period for the new law," the Minister for Law cautions, "unless we declare a state of emergency. And I understand it may take some time for the necessary insurance policies and prices to be worked out."

"Is there an urgent problem here?"

If everyone in the world can now freely and cheaply Teleport to Osirion, some people might do so who they don't want to allow! Foreign criminals, tricksters, evil cultists ...didn't someone mention succubi earlier?

Put another way, until today the only people who could freely Teleport in and wreak havoc were the powerful and rich. There are only so many of those, and it's possible to deal with them more or less individually. But now anyone can do it, which means a billion people or more just on Golarion! Even if there's no reason for such people to visit Osirion in particular, the total number of malicious and harmful visitors could increase greatly.

They would definitely be more secure border police in place, and he recommends fast-tracking the laws and also having an implementation ready to go in case they do end up declaring a state of emergency.

"That seems wise. Add it to the list."

The discussion goes on for some time, but nothing else seems urgent. They will reassure the population and the state and church hierarchies, and try to remain visibly in control and not behind events.

The longer-term implications and changes will clearly require a great deal of planning and foresight. That means it's probably his duty to the state and to Abadar to boost his Cunning and Wisdom with Wishes, and then to spend a long time under Time Stop conferring with other wise people.

Being a cleric of Abadar is treated as a contract where He grants you power which you commit to use to advance your shared goals. The contract normally expires on death; Abadar can then propose to re-empower His petitioners in Axis, under new terms. 

It has not escaped Khemet's notice that the abundance of Wishes means people might no longer die of old age. Even if he doesn't know how it could be done, exactly, it doesn't seem the kind of problem that would stand up unlimited magic (unless Pharasma decides to object).

This would not change clerichood very much; people can already terminate that contract at will. Being pharaoh is nominally a contract of the same sort. There have not been enough pharaohs in New Osirion for one to decide to abdicate, but the law allows it in principle, although the pharaoh's lawful duty to the state might override that if the abdication stands to do harm.

He considers proclaiming that the pharaoh will not seek to prolong his mortal life. It won't be abdication of duty if it's announced long in advance, and there are potential benefits to term limits. Such a law might be seen as setting a precedent for other Osirian officers of state, and high society in general, so he'll need to discuss the possible social effects with his advisors. ...under Time Stop, with elevated Cunning and Wisdom, and once affairs have settled down enough to consider social effects at all.

Khemet firmly reminds himself that this is the best day in Osirian history, and that he was the luckiest man in the country even before that, and refocuses on the meeting at hand.

When Gord comes back, he's alone and looking a little troubled.

"We'll figure something out," he tells Azalea. "We shouldn't leave them - or I suppose I can say it, shouldn't leave her alone, but we can do that in shifts now. I lost first shift, so now I need to start working out what to do with the rest of my life."

Azalea sets aside her reading -- catching up on magic research -- and gives him a small smile.

"That's a perennial problem," she agrees. She suspects that he won't take advice like 'relax' or 'go exploring and make friends'. But, then again, she hasn't exactly always taken advice like that either.

"Do you know what goal you want to go after, generally, and just need to figure out how to pursue it?" she asks. "Or are you still at the 'trying to find a goal that seems meaningful' stage?"

"To set people free. To fight oppression. There's probably a better way to put it, less noble and poetic and more true to the bloody reality of war. Only I'm not sure if my goal is still meaningful."

"The only way forward has always been to fight, to do or die trying. That which does not kill us makes us stronger, but only if it could have killed us. Gorum teaches that's the fundamental truth of Creation, and I think he's right. If I'm not risking dying, I worry that I won't be able to grow stronger anymore. And if I can't hope to grow stronger, what can I do that anyone else can't? People will still need help, but - not the kind of help that I can give them."

"It might sound silly, thinking I could grow to rival the fixity fields and archmages and gods. Thinking that, by the time we find another world that needs our help, I could grow enough to matter next to you. And I'm not pretending I mattered in the fight today, next to you and the gods and everyone else who actually went out! Your victory is very well-deserved and very much yours! I just - used to always have a clear way forward, even if I didn't know how I'd get there, I knew I'd be stronger if I lived to see tomorrow. And now I don't."