09-09-2010, 04:14 PM
The Articles of Kingdom Magic
The first ideals of every Magister must be to the ideals and laws of the Kingdom of Britannia of which these articles form a part; then to he who is rightfully High King of Britannia; then to the supreme patriarch of the colleges of magic; then to the laws and ideals of their Order; then to the Patriarch of their order; then to the authorities that each Magister may be required to serve in the course of his duties; then to other superiors within their orders.
No magister may obstruct in malice or for financial or political gain the rulings of the High King, nor may they seek to overthrow him for these reasons.
Every magister of said colleges must adhere to the laws of the Kingdom, regardless or the province or region, just as any loyal subject must, except that the Magisters alone shall be permitted to study magic under licence and to perform such spells for the good of the kingdom.
The colleges are free to study, document, practise, and experiment with the arcane forces of magic that are present in this world, provided they adhere to the restrictions laid down by the first Loremaster of the Kingdom, keep the good of the Kingdom in their hearts and minds, and obey the articles of this document.
The colleges may bestow as they see fit upon all their own initiates full rights to study, document, practise, and experiment with the arcane forces of magic that are present in this world and also take apprentices to themselves to pass on such knowledge and wisdom as may be part of their Lore and for the good of the Kingdom.
No magister may cast a spell or enchantment outside the theatre of war and in public view without first being requested to by the High King or one of his representatives, or another legitimate employer as defined by the articles of this document. All spells and enchantments cast without these permissions may only be done so with and for demonstrably good reason.
No magister may ever study the forbidden lores of the demonic powers, nor the unholy ways of Necromancy, nor any other sorcery or witchcraft that utilises the powers of Dark Magic without specific permission and licence from the Black Mage. Any magister found disregarding this article is guilty of an abominable act and is both heretic and traitor and will be put to sword and fire immediately.
All Magisters must abide by the laws of magic and ensure that they are upheld by all members of the Kingdom of Britannia.
The colleges must respond favourably to any reasonable request for specific service from any of the High Kings chosen representatives.
The colleges must be ready to render service to the armies of the Kingdom and its nobles upon request, unless such service aids in the seceding of a region from the Kingdom, or unless such service is intended to cause overt harm to the laws of the Kingdom, or to the authority of the King who resides upon the Throne of Britannia.
The colleges must grant upon request protection for all such diplomatic missions and any other tasks of defence or warfare as required by the High King of Britannia.
All magisters may expect to receive accommodation, benefits, respect, and fair treatment, as would befit any noble of the Kingdom while in the employ of the High King or his representatives.
Magisters are permitted to pursue agreements of employment with any persons or organisations: civil and religious, public and private, noble and mercantile, providing their employers are not enemies of the Kingdom or the people and that will not lead to the breaking of any of these articles.
All magisters are required to seek out magic users as may exist within the bounds of the Kingdom of Britannia to ascertain their suitability to join one of the Orders of magic or else report them to the Orders of Templars, or else destroy them if they prove to be of immediate and grave menace to the subjects of the High King.
All magisters are required to render such aid as is deemed necessary to the Holy Orders of Templars, should said Templars provide satisfactory proof that the servant of malignancy they face is beyond their capacity to capture or else destroy without arcane means.
All magisters are required to exert themselves to seek out and counter such destructive and anti-Britannic machinations, practices, peoples, and creatures that are beyond the means of civil authorities and Church authorities to counter, but yet still serve the dark gods or advance the corruption of Kingdom subjects through any sorcerous or infernal means. This shall be the prime concern and purpose of the colleges, their Orders and the Magisters belonging to them, and to fail in this duty is to render void all the articles of this document and make obsolete their permission to practise arcane arts without hindrance.
The Laws of Magic
These are the base laws of the use of magic as sanctioned by the Articles and under the Accords of the Guilds of Magic Users. They are to be obeyed at all times by all magic users and are regulated by the Mage Guard, the Holy Orders of Templars and by the Inquisition.
1. No Killing mortals with magic except in self defence, in times of war, or under instructions from a representative of the High King
2. No transforming others against their will except in times of war or under instructions from a guild head or their representative
3. No mind reading except under instructions from a guild head or their representative
4. No mind controlling except under instructions from a guild head or their representative
5. No necromancy except under license from the Black Mage
6. No time travel without regulation from a Licensed Chronomancer
7. No seeking knowledge or power from beyond the Outer Gates.
These laws are punishable by death after a trial by peers.
The First Law: Never take a life
Whenever magic is used to kill, some of the positive force of life that mankind is able to bring into the universe is changed completely. Kill with magic, and the darker things inside and outside of creation grow just a bit stronger. Whether you’re using magic to directly rip the life out of someone, summoning up flame or force to kill, or even murdering someone without magic and then using the energy created by the death to power a spell, you are breaking the First Law of Magic. It is important to remember that fighting is not the same as killing. Magic can be used carefully, indirectly, or subtly to affect a fight. Accidental death still happens, and in those cases killing with magic still counts as killing when it comes to the law. The grey area exists on the political, enforcement side of things. When the kingdom is at war or when requested by an agent of the High King then the Mage must act to fulfil those requests and duties placed upon him by the Articles. In those cases they must kill mortals with magic if necessary and although they will receive no punishment under the Law, they must still live with themselves afterwards. It is also important to remember the ‘with magic’ part of the Law. This may seem like splitting hairs but it is an important part of the Law. This means that if a warlock were to kill someone with his sword or a mage was to bash in a fellow’s head with his staff, they would not have broken the Law of Magic, although they have committed a mundane crime and would be charged as such.
The Second Law: Never Transform Another
The image of a witch turning someone into a newt is a popular and even amusing notion, but in the eyes of the Council of Mages, it’s a deadly serious matter – emphasis on the deadly. The council views such transformations as being tantamount to murder, and they’re pretty much right on that count for one simple reason: human minds like to live in human brains. Transform someone into a newt, and you’ve just tried to cram a human mind into a newt’s brain. Such an effort usually ends in near-total destruction of the target’s self. Even if you could manage such a feat, the psychological shock the victim undergoes is bad enough that it would make no actual difference. Not to mention a lot of transformations are pretty ham-handed by necessity. The average rogue mage attempting such a challenge usually aren’t well versed in the ins and outs of human and animal biology, so they have to “fake it” with the new body, putting it together based on an intuitive understanding of how it all fits together. As a result, the new body doesn’t have much of a shelf life once the sustaining magic gives out, as improvised organs rapidly fail.
Fake Flesh
Those looking for grey areas and loopholes will be quick to point out that ectoplasm – real seeming stiff from the gauntlet given a temporary form and reality by magic – can be used to built something that works a lot like flesh. You can certainly pull off a number of nifty effects that way, so long as you’re building on top of an otherwise unmodified human chassis. There are still some ‘operators manual’ difficulties that can come from such a change, but there are plenty of ways to get around that.
Shapeshifters
So why’s transforming someone else so tough when a number of supernatural creatures transform themselves into other forms with no trouble at all? Like so many things to do with magic, there are many answers. First, a number of the creatures that you’re thinking about – ghosts, demons, faeries, and others – are straight out from the gauntlet. Shapeshifting isn’t much of a problem for these creatures; their physical form is sort of optional to begin with, so reconfiguration is, relatively speaking, easy. By and large, that leaves us with humans who are able to take on alternate forms of some sort, and usually some nasty bit of loophole is in effect. The cursed Shapeshifters called loup-garou change their shape – involuntarily – by getting possessed by a ravenous demonic spirit, and others such as hexenwulfs form a pact, usually brokered by someone with real power, with a kind of hunter-spirit that jeeps the human mind safe and can drive the new body according to the host’s instincts. Sadly, the hunter-spirit’s nature tends to bleed over into the human mind, whittling away at its sense of self and replacing it by inches. And second, that leaves us with the margin case of natural talents like were-creatures (Thereomorphs) and the change-the-mind-not-the-body version of lycanthropes. These folks have the natural gift for being able to change their natural form without wrecking their own minds in the process. It’s easy to see these as learned abilities – some Shapeshifters may have the aptitude, but still need training to access it. The humans that have mental lycanthropy leave the body entirely out of the equation and instead they connect their minds with the nature of the beast without taking its form.
The Third Law: Never Invade The Thoughts Of Another
The Third Law, though it might seem to be about a relatively harmless act, recognises a single, simple principle: a violation of the mind is as much a crime as a violation of the body – by some lights, it’s worse. To read someone else’s thoughts, you have to cross one of the most fundamental borders in all of creation: the line that divides one person from another. When you break into someone else’s mind to listen to his thoughts, you’re disrupting the natural order of things. Think of the mind as a locked house and yourself as someone lacking a key. Sure, you might need to get in there for the very best of reasons, but once you’ve done it there’s a picked lock, broken window, or busted hinge somewhere. In short the act is always a violent intrusion, no matter how gentle you are with it. Even beyond breaking the sanctity of another’s thoughts, there are problems with what you find when you invade someone’s mind. Knowledge is power, after all, and when you get inside someone’s head, you take a position of profound power over him. And in this case, were definitely talking about the kind of power that corrupts.
The Fourth Law: Never Enthral Another
A close cousin of the Third Law, the Fourth Law goes beyond the simple invasion of another’s mind to outright mastery over it. Here enthralling is any effort made to change the natural inclinations, choices, and behaviours of another person. And due to its cousin Law, it’s pretty easy to see the Fourth as an extension of the concepts there – a case of more equals worse. It’s easy to see someone who uses mind magic to turn a handful of free thinking people into his sex slaves as a bad guy, but this is definitely one of those situations where the paving stones of good intentions are particularly slick. Much like the Third Law, the Fourth is an easy one to want to break for all the best of reasons. Plenty of people out in the world make bad decisions that destroy their lives, by using mind magic you could make them no longer even want to make those same choices or act in such a destructive manner. Of course, the problems here are substantial. You have to hit someone with some pretty vicious psychological trauma in order to change his mind enough to force a different course of behaviour. Worse, you may not even realize you’re doing it at the time. It might sound relatively harmless to implant an aversion to unhealthy food in order to help someone lose weight, but it would be the same as wrapping a person’s legs in an iron maiden just to stop them walking to the pantry. Why so violent? A lot of it comes down to the principles of free will. The thing that makes people fundamentally human is free will; when you enthral someone, overriding his will with your own, you’ve robbed him of his essential ability to be and act human. You’re making a monster.
The Fifth Law: Never Reach Beyond The Borders Of Life
Necromancy has all sorts of applications, from keeping someone from crossing over death’s door, to reanimating a host of corpses as your bodyguards, waking the ghosts of long dead soldiers or wrapping ectoplasmic flesh on the skeleton of a long dead lizard. It’s all bad news and most of it breaks the Fifth Law. This is all about preserving the natural order of things. When magic is used to confound death, the cosmos sits up and takes notice. The things out in the worlds that want the natural order disrupted are sure to come knocking and bring all the baggage that comes along for that ride; after all, when nature is confounded, the reality mortals call home get just a bit weaker, and what’s not to love about that? The Fifth Law marks the beginning of the section of the Laws of Magic that addresses the mortal desire to confound the conditions of mortality itself. In a word, death sucks, even if it is a part of the natural order – ironically, it’s only natural to want to do whatever you can to avoid it. While the first four Laws essentially address the rights of the victim, the Fifth Law and the ones beyond it are basic “that’s just wrong” principles. Undeniably death itself contains an incredible amount of power thanks to the significance of the ending of a life. But ultimately it’s power that belongs to the dead. While it is true that, in general “you can’t take it with you,” the power of your own death is something you can take with you into the afterlife. And when upstart unlicensed necromancer comes along to snag some or all of that power for himself, what does that mean for you, the dead guy? No one really knows for sure but clearly when the big nasties of the supernatural world get all excited and positive about mortal spellcasters trying such things, it’s probably a phenomenally bad idea. And like breaking any other Law of Magic, breaking the Fifth puts a strain on your soul, changing you for the worse. This could be anything from taking on an exaggerated arrogance about your power over life and death to taking on the belief that death is a better state than life, with the side benefit that the more death you soak in, the power you can draw from it. However there are times when the dread powers of necromancy are required for the sake of the kingdom and the kingdoms forces. At such times the Black Mage is entitled to grant licence to those whom he deems fit to practise necromancy. All necromancers are carefully observed and the Orders of Templars are required to hunt down any necromancer that is no longer abiding by the Laws of Magic and by the Articles.
The Sixth Law: Never Swim Against The Currents Of Time.
Time travel is hard to spot or confirm if you aren’t doing it yourself. It is clear that don’t mess with time is another of the do not interfere with the natural order of things Laws. We just don’t know what the consequences are likely to be, even though we can speculate. There are the classics; paradoxes, altering the course of history for better or worse, questions about alternate universes, the elasticity of time, all of that. Due to the nature of that sort of magic it’s difficult to find solid conclusions. Similarly, we can reasonably anticipate what breaking this Law would do to the practitioner who broke it. We know what holding power over life and death can do to a necromancer; imagine the effect it would have on the personality of a Chronomancer without the special instruction, training and regulation offered by the Council of Mages to those who are deemed worthy. Instead of just holding power over life and death they can cause something to have never have existed at all. It’s bad news and it’s the kind of dark cloud with an even darker lining. How do you catch someone in the act of time travel? How do you enforce the Sixth Law in a way that’s meaningful? How do you prove the crime so that you can prosecute the criminal? We’ve already talked about how the body and the mind are too complex to alter successfully, without trauma – now take that up several orders of magnitude to contemplate the complexity of time itself, and what a single, blundering human agent might do if he had the power to change its flow. What sorts of cracks might form in the universe at such an unnatural strain?
The Seventh Law: Never Seek Knowledge And Power From Beyond The Outer Gates
The universe is finite and contains within it multitudes. The world. The gauntlet. Hell, and heaven. And every other possibility and world within the finite expanse of a multi-planar cosmos with infinite possibility bound within finite space. Everything and every being within those bounds has its place, even if that place may be horrible beyond mention. But there are Things outside this universe. To say that they hate the world would be to assume that we can even conceptualise their attitudes. It would be more accurate to say that they are antithetical to the world. They do not want to destroy the universe any more than a ball you drop wants to fall – it is simply the outcome. The Outer Gates are what keeps the world safe from such things, what locks them outside, and thus we most often refer to such things as outsiders. These are just the creatures that interact with this world the most, bound beyond the Outer Gates during the early days of creation sit the Old Ones who make the Outsiders seem like squirrels in comparison. They [outsiders and all who dwell beyond the void] are so alien, so not of this reality, that few methods of assault stand a chance of giving them more than a moment’s pause. Furthermore, the Outside’s intentions are so dark, so dire, that the Seventh Law is the only on the books that is not conditional on casting a spell. Just researching on the Outside and its inhabitants is enough to be beheaded under the Laws. There is no leeway on this law and no one can be ordered to break it. Those that do will be swiftly hunted and destroyed. The Gates are never fully closed. It’s through the tiniest of cracks that the darkest of things enter our world. And when someone does pull power from there – forging a bond with a malevolent Outsider or Old One – one of those cracks widens, just a touch. The mortal world and indeed all of the multi-versal cosmos is lucky that few have managed such an effort for long, thanks to particularly zealous enforcement of this Law.
The first ideals of every Magister must be to the ideals and laws of the Kingdom of Britannia of which these articles form a part; then to he who is rightfully High King of Britannia; then to the supreme patriarch of the colleges of magic; then to the laws and ideals of their Order; then to the Patriarch of their order; then to the authorities that each Magister may be required to serve in the course of his duties; then to other superiors within their orders.
No magister may obstruct in malice or for financial or political gain the rulings of the High King, nor may they seek to overthrow him for these reasons.
Every magister of said colleges must adhere to the laws of the Kingdom, regardless or the province or region, just as any loyal subject must, except that the Magisters alone shall be permitted to study magic under licence and to perform such spells for the good of the kingdom.
The colleges are free to study, document, practise, and experiment with the arcane forces of magic that are present in this world, provided they adhere to the restrictions laid down by the first Loremaster of the Kingdom, keep the good of the Kingdom in their hearts and minds, and obey the articles of this document.
The colleges may bestow as they see fit upon all their own initiates full rights to study, document, practise, and experiment with the arcane forces of magic that are present in this world and also take apprentices to themselves to pass on such knowledge and wisdom as may be part of their Lore and for the good of the Kingdom.
No magister may cast a spell or enchantment outside the theatre of war and in public view without first being requested to by the High King or one of his representatives, or another legitimate employer as defined by the articles of this document. All spells and enchantments cast without these permissions may only be done so with and for demonstrably good reason.
No magister may ever study the forbidden lores of the demonic powers, nor the unholy ways of Necromancy, nor any other sorcery or witchcraft that utilises the powers of Dark Magic without specific permission and licence from the Black Mage. Any magister found disregarding this article is guilty of an abominable act and is both heretic and traitor and will be put to sword and fire immediately.
All Magisters must abide by the laws of magic and ensure that they are upheld by all members of the Kingdom of Britannia.
The colleges must respond favourably to any reasonable request for specific service from any of the High Kings chosen representatives.
The colleges must be ready to render service to the armies of the Kingdom and its nobles upon request, unless such service aids in the seceding of a region from the Kingdom, or unless such service is intended to cause overt harm to the laws of the Kingdom, or to the authority of the King who resides upon the Throne of Britannia.
The colleges must grant upon request protection for all such diplomatic missions and any other tasks of defence or warfare as required by the High King of Britannia.
All magisters may expect to receive accommodation, benefits, respect, and fair treatment, as would befit any noble of the Kingdom while in the employ of the High King or his representatives.
Magisters are permitted to pursue agreements of employment with any persons or organisations: civil and religious, public and private, noble and mercantile, providing their employers are not enemies of the Kingdom or the people and that will not lead to the breaking of any of these articles.
All magisters are required to seek out magic users as may exist within the bounds of the Kingdom of Britannia to ascertain their suitability to join one of the Orders of magic or else report them to the Orders of Templars, or else destroy them if they prove to be of immediate and grave menace to the subjects of the High King.
All magisters are required to render such aid as is deemed necessary to the Holy Orders of Templars, should said Templars provide satisfactory proof that the servant of malignancy they face is beyond their capacity to capture or else destroy without arcane means.
All magisters are required to exert themselves to seek out and counter such destructive and anti-Britannic machinations, practices, peoples, and creatures that are beyond the means of civil authorities and Church authorities to counter, but yet still serve the dark gods or advance the corruption of Kingdom subjects through any sorcerous or infernal means. This shall be the prime concern and purpose of the colleges, their Orders and the Magisters belonging to them, and to fail in this duty is to render void all the articles of this document and make obsolete their permission to practise arcane arts without hindrance.
The Laws of Magic
These are the base laws of the use of magic as sanctioned by the Articles and under the Accords of the Guilds of Magic Users. They are to be obeyed at all times by all magic users and are regulated by the Mage Guard, the Holy Orders of Templars and by the Inquisition.
1. No Killing mortals with magic except in self defence, in times of war, or under instructions from a representative of the High King
2. No transforming others against their will except in times of war or under instructions from a guild head or their representative
3. No mind reading except under instructions from a guild head or their representative
4. No mind controlling except under instructions from a guild head or their representative
5. No necromancy except under license from the Black Mage
6. No time travel without regulation from a Licensed Chronomancer
7. No seeking knowledge or power from beyond the Outer Gates.
These laws are punishable by death after a trial by peers.
The First Law: Never take a life
Whenever magic is used to kill, some of the positive force of life that mankind is able to bring into the universe is changed completely. Kill with magic, and the darker things inside and outside of creation grow just a bit stronger. Whether you’re using magic to directly rip the life out of someone, summoning up flame or force to kill, or even murdering someone without magic and then using the energy created by the death to power a spell, you are breaking the First Law of Magic. It is important to remember that fighting is not the same as killing. Magic can be used carefully, indirectly, or subtly to affect a fight. Accidental death still happens, and in those cases killing with magic still counts as killing when it comes to the law. The grey area exists on the political, enforcement side of things. When the kingdom is at war or when requested by an agent of the High King then the Mage must act to fulfil those requests and duties placed upon him by the Articles. In those cases they must kill mortals with magic if necessary and although they will receive no punishment under the Law, they must still live with themselves afterwards. It is also important to remember the ‘with magic’ part of the Law. This may seem like splitting hairs but it is an important part of the Law. This means that if a warlock were to kill someone with his sword or a mage was to bash in a fellow’s head with his staff, they would not have broken the Law of Magic, although they have committed a mundane crime and would be charged as such.
The Second Law: Never Transform Another
The image of a witch turning someone into a newt is a popular and even amusing notion, but in the eyes of the Council of Mages, it’s a deadly serious matter – emphasis on the deadly. The council views such transformations as being tantamount to murder, and they’re pretty much right on that count for one simple reason: human minds like to live in human brains. Transform someone into a newt, and you’ve just tried to cram a human mind into a newt’s brain. Such an effort usually ends in near-total destruction of the target’s self. Even if you could manage such a feat, the psychological shock the victim undergoes is bad enough that it would make no actual difference. Not to mention a lot of transformations are pretty ham-handed by necessity. The average rogue mage attempting such a challenge usually aren’t well versed in the ins and outs of human and animal biology, so they have to “fake it” with the new body, putting it together based on an intuitive understanding of how it all fits together. As a result, the new body doesn’t have much of a shelf life once the sustaining magic gives out, as improvised organs rapidly fail.
Fake Flesh
Those looking for grey areas and loopholes will be quick to point out that ectoplasm – real seeming stiff from the gauntlet given a temporary form and reality by magic – can be used to built something that works a lot like flesh. You can certainly pull off a number of nifty effects that way, so long as you’re building on top of an otherwise unmodified human chassis. There are still some ‘operators manual’ difficulties that can come from such a change, but there are plenty of ways to get around that.
Shapeshifters
So why’s transforming someone else so tough when a number of supernatural creatures transform themselves into other forms with no trouble at all? Like so many things to do with magic, there are many answers. First, a number of the creatures that you’re thinking about – ghosts, demons, faeries, and others – are straight out from the gauntlet. Shapeshifting isn’t much of a problem for these creatures; their physical form is sort of optional to begin with, so reconfiguration is, relatively speaking, easy. By and large, that leaves us with humans who are able to take on alternate forms of some sort, and usually some nasty bit of loophole is in effect. The cursed Shapeshifters called loup-garou change their shape – involuntarily – by getting possessed by a ravenous demonic spirit, and others such as hexenwulfs form a pact, usually brokered by someone with real power, with a kind of hunter-spirit that jeeps the human mind safe and can drive the new body according to the host’s instincts. Sadly, the hunter-spirit’s nature tends to bleed over into the human mind, whittling away at its sense of self and replacing it by inches. And second, that leaves us with the margin case of natural talents like were-creatures (Thereomorphs) and the change-the-mind-not-the-body version of lycanthropes. These folks have the natural gift for being able to change their natural form without wrecking their own minds in the process. It’s easy to see these as learned abilities – some Shapeshifters may have the aptitude, but still need training to access it. The humans that have mental lycanthropy leave the body entirely out of the equation and instead they connect their minds with the nature of the beast without taking its form.
The Third Law: Never Invade The Thoughts Of Another
The Third Law, though it might seem to be about a relatively harmless act, recognises a single, simple principle: a violation of the mind is as much a crime as a violation of the body – by some lights, it’s worse. To read someone else’s thoughts, you have to cross one of the most fundamental borders in all of creation: the line that divides one person from another. When you break into someone else’s mind to listen to his thoughts, you’re disrupting the natural order of things. Think of the mind as a locked house and yourself as someone lacking a key. Sure, you might need to get in there for the very best of reasons, but once you’ve done it there’s a picked lock, broken window, or busted hinge somewhere. In short the act is always a violent intrusion, no matter how gentle you are with it. Even beyond breaking the sanctity of another’s thoughts, there are problems with what you find when you invade someone’s mind. Knowledge is power, after all, and when you get inside someone’s head, you take a position of profound power over him. And in this case, were definitely talking about the kind of power that corrupts.
The Fourth Law: Never Enthral Another
A close cousin of the Third Law, the Fourth Law goes beyond the simple invasion of another’s mind to outright mastery over it. Here enthralling is any effort made to change the natural inclinations, choices, and behaviours of another person. And due to its cousin Law, it’s pretty easy to see the Fourth as an extension of the concepts there – a case of more equals worse. It’s easy to see someone who uses mind magic to turn a handful of free thinking people into his sex slaves as a bad guy, but this is definitely one of those situations where the paving stones of good intentions are particularly slick. Much like the Third Law, the Fourth is an easy one to want to break for all the best of reasons. Plenty of people out in the world make bad decisions that destroy their lives, by using mind magic you could make them no longer even want to make those same choices or act in such a destructive manner. Of course, the problems here are substantial. You have to hit someone with some pretty vicious psychological trauma in order to change his mind enough to force a different course of behaviour. Worse, you may not even realize you’re doing it at the time. It might sound relatively harmless to implant an aversion to unhealthy food in order to help someone lose weight, but it would be the same as wrapping a person’s legs in an iron maiden just to stop them walking to the pantry. Why so violent? A lot of it comes down to the principles of free will. The thing that makes people fundamentally human is free will; when you enthral someone, overriding his will with your own, you’ve robbed him of his essential ability to be and act human. You’re making a monster.
The Fifth Law: Never Reach Beyond The Borders Of Life
Necromancy has all sorts of applications, from keeping someone from crossing over death’s door, to reanimating a host of corpses as your bodyguards, waking the ghosts of long dead soldiers or wrapping ectoplasmic flesh on the skeleton of a long dead lizard. It’s all bad news and most of it breaks the Fifth Law. This is all about preserving the natural order of things. When magic is used to confound death, the cosmos sits up and takes notice. The things out in the worlds that want the natural order disrupted are sure to come knocking and bring all the baggage that comes along for that ride; after all, when nature is confounded, the reality mortals call home get just a bit weaker, and what’s not to love about that? The Fifth Law marks the beginning of the section of the Laws of Magic that addresses the mortal desire to confound the conditions of mortality itself. In a word, death sucks, even if it is a part of the natural order – ironically, it’s only natural to want to do whatever you can to avoid it. While the first four Laws essentially address the rights of the victim, the Fifth Law and the ones beyond it are basic “that’s just wrong” principles. Undeniably death itself contains an incredible amount of power thanks to the significance of the ending of a life. But ultimately it’s power that belongs to the dead. While it is true that, in general “you can’t take it with you,” the power of your own death is something you can take with you into the afterlife. And when upstart unlicensed necromancer comes along to snag some or all of that power for himself, what does that mean for you, the dead guy? No one really knows for sure but clearly when the big nasties of the supernatural world get all excited and positive about mortal spellcasters trying such things, it’s probably a phenomenally bad idea. And like breaking any other Law of Magic, breaking the Fifth puts a strain on your soul, changing you for the worse. This could be anything from taking on an exaggerated arrogance about your power over life and death to taking on the belief that death is a better state than life, with the side benefit that the more death you soak in, the power you can draw from it. However there are times when the dread powers of necromancy are required for the sake of the kingdom and the kingdoms forces. At such times the Black Mage is entitled to grant licence to those whom he deems fit to practise necromancy. All necromancers are carefully observed and the Orders of Templars are required to hunt down any necromancer that is no longer abiding by the Laws of Magic and by the Articles.
The Sixth Law: Never Swim Against The Currents Of Time.
Time travel is hard to spot or confirm if you aren’t doing it yourself. It is clear that don’t mess with time is another of the do not interfere with the natural order of things Laws. We just don’t know what the consequences are likely to be, even though we can speculate. There are the classics; paradoxes, altering the course of history for better or worse, questions about alternate universes, the elasticity of time, all of that. Due to the nature of that sort of magic it’s difficult to find solid conclusions. Similarly, we can reasonably anticipate what breaking this Law would do to the practitioner who broke it. We know what holding power over life and death can do to a necromancer; imagine the effect it would have on the personality of a Chronomancer without the special instruction, training and regulation offered by the Council of Mages to those who are deemed worthy. Instead of just holding power over life and death they can cause something to have never have existed at all. It’s bad news and it’s the kind of dark cloud with an even darker lining. How do you catch someone in the act of time travel? How do you enforce the Sixth Law in a way that’s meaningful? How do you prove the crime so that you can prosecute the criminal? We’ve already talked about how the body and the mind are too complex to alter successfully, without trauma – now take that up several orders of magnitude to contemplate the complexity of time itself, and what a single, blundering human agent might do if he had the power to change its flow. What sorts of cracks might form in the universe at such an unnatural strain?
The Seventh Law: Never Seek Knowledge And Power From Beyond The Outer Gates
The universe is finite and contains within it multitudes. The world. The gauntlet. Hell, and heaven. And every other possibility and world within the finite expanse of a multi-planar cosmos with infinite possibility bound within finite space. Everything and every being within those bounds has its place, even if that place may be horrible beyond mention. But there are Things outside this universe. To say that they hate the world would be to assume that we can even conceptualise their attitudes. It would be more accurate to say that they are antithetical to the world. They do not want to destroy the universe any more than a ball you drop wants to fall – it is simply the outcome. The Outer Gates are what keeps the world safe from such things, what locks them outside, and thus we most often refer to such things as outsiders. These are just the creatures that interact with this world the most, bound beyond the Outer Gates during the early days of creation sit the Old Ones who make the Outsiders seem like squirrels in comparison. They [outsiders and all who dwell beyond the void] are so alien, so not of this reality, that few methods of assault stand a chance of giving them more than a moment’s pause. Furthermore, the Outside’s intentions are so dark, so dire, that the Seventh Law is the only on the books that is not conditional on casting a spell. Just researching on the Outside and its inhabitants is enough to be beheaded under the Laws. There is no leeway on this law and no one can be ordered to break it. Those that do will be swiftly hunted and destroyed. The Gates are never fully closed. It’s through the tiniest of cracks that the darkest of things enter our world. And when someone does pull power from there – forging a bond with a malevolent Outsider or Old One – one of those cracks widens, just a touch. The mortal world and indeed all of the multi-versal cosmos is lucky that few have managed such an effort for long, thanks to particularly zealous enforcement of this Law.