Edict

Carrying an Edict marks you as a Faction agent who is licensed to participate in any form of martial justice, from being drafted in a Duel of Assassins to serving out Death Warrants for wanted criminals. In the eyes of the law, you have the right to mete out justice and, if called for, death. Edicts are most commonly carried by licensed Bounty Hunters, but a wise Star Trader knows it is always valuable to have such a mark of the law ready.

Each Faction has a different title for their most powerful and supreme class of Edict -- Thulun’s Death Rose, De Valtos’ Sword of Justice, Rychart Crimson Seal, Cadar’s Silverwasp, or Steel Song’s Bloodbadge.

There are 9 possible Edict ranks to gain. Once you have reached rank 4, you are a highly decorated Captain and scrutiny on your actions increases. Any transgression that causes a loss of Reputation with the Faction of 3 points or more will automatically cause you to lose an Edict rank. You are protected from such loss by both military ranks of 13+ or trade permits of rank 4 as one of those will be lost first. However, if you have 100+ faction reputation with the faction, it will require a loss of 4 points or more to lose your edict, not 3.

Benefits of Edicts
Edicts grant a number of benefits, contingent on the level of the edict.

Many Missions require an Edict, such as kill or capture missions or prisoner transports. Note that missions to kill, capture and transport prisoners may not require an Edict if they are being performed illegally and out of sight of the law.

Steel Song Bonus
Steel Song gives a 1% discount per rank of edict to any ship component upgrades, in addition to any talents you might have to reduce component upgrade costs.

Negative Reputation
If your Reputation with the faction drops below 0, you are at risk of losing all grades of your Edict. For each transgression that causes Reputation loss below 0, you will lose an edict grade. Before you will start losing edicts, you will lose trade permits. Before you lose those, you will lose your military grades. Edicts are the last mark of honor to be revoked.