§3.1 - Legal Personhood and Equal Recognition Under Law

(a) Legal personhood within the Sovereign Territory of Rivermarch shall extend to any entity—natural, constructed, or arcane—capable of autonomous action, contractual obligation, and moral agency, as recognized by the Council or duly convened tribunal.

(b) The following classifications shall be presumed to possess legal personhood unless otherwise barred by tribunal ruling:

• (i) Mortal beings of sapient ancestry, including but not limited to humans, elves, dwarves, kobolds, halflings, ysoki, gnomes, and orcs;

• (ii) Automatons and other constructed intelligences bearing self-awareness and oathbound intent;

• (iii) Summoned or extraplanar entities granted conditional personhood by pact, treaty, or arcane contract filed with the Magisterial Office of Binding Records;

• (iv) Individuals affected by magical transformation, planar displacement, or reincarnation, provided continuity of identity is affirmable.

(c) Legal personhood may be denied, suspended, or revoked only by order of tribunal following due process, or by lawful Council edict in cases of existential threat or planar destabilization.

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§3.1.2 - Equal Recognition and Status

(a) All persons recognized under §3.1.1 shall be entitled to equal protection under this Codex, including access to judicial remedy, participation in public petition, and the right to be free from arbitrary harm, detention, or magical coercion.

(b) No law, ordinance, policy, or decree shall abridge or impair the rights of personhood on the basis of:

• (i) Ancestry, race, heritage, planar origin, spiritual alignment, or arcane classification;

• (ii) Faith or lack thereof;

• (iii) Physical form, mutation, or magical enhancement;

• (iv) Language, cultural practice, or place of birth.

(c) Any policy, statute, or enforcement action that imposes disparate burden, exclusion, or sanction upon a specific ancestry, race, or classification shall be presumed unlawful unless justified by an existential threat or overriding interest in the preservation of Rivermarch.

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§3.1.3 - Rights Inherent to Legal Persons

(a) All legal persons shall possess, at minimum, the following rights:

• (i) The right to speak, assemble, and petition the Council;

• (ii) The right to due process before seizure of body, mind, property, or arcane essence;

• (iii) The right to defend oneself in tribunal by word, weapon, proxy, or magical invocation where permitted by law;

• (iv) The right to enter into lawful contract, to own property, and to transfer said property in life or death by testament;

• (v) The right to refuse enchantment, domination, summoning, or binding without informed consent, except in cases of lawful detention or extradimensional risk.

(b) Rights may be curtailed only by lawful judgment rendered through tribunal or as defined in emergency protocols established under Title II.

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§3.1.4 - Recognition of Collective Entities

(a) Legal personhood may be extended to guilds, congregations, warbands, arcane circles, family lines, or other collectives provided they:

• (i) Register with the Council through the Office of Civic Rolls;

• (ii) Appoint a representative authorized to act on their behalf;

• (iii) Swear allegiance to Rivermarch and its Codex.

(b) Such collective entities may acquire property, enter contracts, and be held liable for breach of law in the same manner as individuals, subject to proportional penalties.

(c) Dissolution of a collective shall require a formal petition and Council acknowledgment, or lawful revocation upon tribunal order.

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§3.1.5 - Limitations and Special Cases

(a) Entities lacking volition, such as enchanted constructs, mindless undead, and magically compelled beings, shall not be entitled to personhood unless extraordinary cognition is proven and approved by Council vote.

(b) Possessed individuals shall retain personhood, but any action taken under possession shall be examined for liability under §4.2.

(c) The burden of proof for personhood in uncertain or unprecedented cases shall rest with the petitioner, who may request provisional recognition pending tribunal review.

(d) The Council reserves the right to issue a Declaratory Writ of Personhood for exceptional beings whose nature defies conventional classification but whose conduct aligns with the legal and moral obligations of citizenship.