Article M-101 - Default on Lawful Debt

"Under the laws of the State of Wildoria, you are found in default of a lawful debt registered with the Bank of Wildoria. Failing to honor a credit contract undermines the trust on which the public economy depends; your liberty is therefore suspended until restitution is made or the term is served."

Of all the offenses the Civic Code names, debt default is the one the State watches most patiently. The Bank does not summon the Court at the first missed payment; it waits, records, and warns. Only when the borrower has fallen plainly past the line does the file move from ledger to bench.

Sentencing by Stage

Debt default is unique among the offenses of the Code: it is sentenced not by repeat count but by stage of default. The Bank tracks how far past the line a borrower has fallen, and the Court hands down the matching kademe.

A first stage is a warning made formal: a short suspension of liberty, served and then forgotten. A second stage doubles that term - the Court is no longer warning, but disciplining. The third stage carries a household reckoning: every character on the same account is sentenced together, on the reasoning that prolonged default is a household-level breach of trust, not the failure of any single member. Beyond the third stage the Code does not go; the State holds the cap firm.

The Repeat Clause

"The Court has reviewed your prior defaults. Under the Recidivism Clause, the base term is doubled for each prior conviction within the past thirty days; the public credit system cannot absorb repeat breaches by the same party."

The clause is appended to the verdict whenever the convict has a prior M-101 sentence on record within the past thirty days. The State's position is the same as the Bank's: trust extended in good faith may not be broken twice without consequence.