The Permanent Court
➼The wolf has a Head Courtwolf, elected by voting-stones amongst the Court, to decide on matters if wolves cannot come to an agreement, and officiate public Court meetings concerning punishments.
➼Wolves can be elected to the Court based on experience in guiding the pack (e.g. founders who first joined Fenris, the first leader of Alsace), or any other great acts of service, bravery, and honour that show great intelligence and wisdom. Unlike the Council, wolves do NOT get elected here based on their role.
➼The Court primarily concerns itself with evaluation of the Council's decisions. It can discuss these in private, then send the matter back, suggesting any changes- or, pass it. Passing a decision is like passing a law- the whole pack is made aware of it. If it is a minor change, it is declared inthe nearest meeting across the whole of Alsace, known as a Gathering. These meeting take place every quarter-moon, after the Council's quarter-moonly meeting. Gatherings are often held at early dusk to late afternoon, as the pack is most active at this time. They are moreso speeches from the leader, Court, and occasionally Council members- rather than requests for feedback.
➼If a particularly important law has just been passed, a special, immediate meeting may be called for announcing it.
➼Alongside weekly Gatherings, the Court is also asked to attend every other Council meeting. Council meetings, as mentioned, occur every week too, on the same day as gatherings. The Court attends every second one of these, so attends every half-moon. This is to ensure as much of the pack's major representatives are included and heard.
➼Finally, as the name suggests, the Court deals with the punishing of severe offences. This is done in a public meeting where all of Alsace is allowed to attend (minus those under one year of age) and no one wolf is higher-ranking. Still, the Court representatives conduct the case independently, but all input from Alsacians is valued equally.
➼A wolf's Council AND Court membership comes with a Covenant, which is a record of the degrees of different decision-making and how it must be conducted. This is short and passed down by elders to the younger ones in their puphood. For instance, the Covenant allows minor disputes e.g. fallouts between pups, squabbles over prey, to be sorted out by just one member of the Council or Court without need for a meeting. The Covenant includes seperate chapters for Council and Court members. Wolves must pledge to follow their respective covenants before joining the Council or Court.
➼If a wolf breaks a rule of the Covenant, then they are punished accordingly by the leader in accordance with Covenant Conduct. Each of the rules of the Covenant have a different degree of severity. Punishments range from mild verbal condemnation to exile. The latter has never been used so far. Punishments tend to be slightly harsher on Council wolves.
➼If the Council deems the rule to be broken in good judgement, or the rule was unserious, punishments can be milder, or skipped completely. If a serious rule of the Covenant was broken, resulting in the potential of punishment such as temporary of permanent exile, then the matter is passed to the Court, and publicly done with ALL adults present and involved.