Law of Magic

[Lameth]

I am running a fantasy world, and I wondering if anyone has established Laws for magic for their game? I am starting to work out the local kingdoms and have gotten to this part in the build. As an example, is it illegal to see aura on a person, or to scry in a person’s home? And on that, I guess if you don’t know it happened, it’s not illegal, and so forth. Or is it legal to use flamejet in self-defense, or is that considered "wrong" to burn a person?, and stuff like that.

[whswhs]

GURPS Locations: Worminghall has moderately detailed laws for magic in this sense, based on actual records of what medieval scholars taught about the attempt to practice magic. It wouldn't work for every campaign, of course.

[mlangsdorf]

Burglary is still illegal even if the authorities didn't know it happened.

Laws of Magic are up to you and the kind of game you want to have. The more restrictions you put on the use of magic, the less appealing it is to play a mage. If you're looking for a hunted or restricted magic vibe, then you need more restrictions. If you want magic to be used freely, then you want less restrictions. If magic isn't well known, there are going to be less rules against it.

The following laws are what I would consider typical for a PC friendly fantasy game with known magic.
* Using magic to harm another is assault; using magic to kill another is murder. There's no special exemption nor extra penalty for using magic. Self-defense is a defense against charges, just like it would be for using a sword or bow.
* Scrying, aura-reading, and such is at least rude, and probably illegal. It's certainly illegal to scry, aura-read, or whatever the local authorities (and more generally, anyone of a higher status than you). Nobles may be able to freely scry on peasants, though, and wizards may be authorized (by judges or nobles) to scry on other people under other circumstances.
* Mind control magic is illegal. Again, its use may be authorized under certain circumstances (warfare, as punishment, because the King wants to sleep with that guy's wife, etc).
* Necromancy is probably illegal, at least in the raising the dead sense. Communicating with the dead might just be a trade, but even then it's going to be licensed. (See the early Anita Blake books for examples of a necromancer who raises the dead so to settle probate disputes.)
* Sacrificing live humans or other sentients for magical power is strictly illegal. So is making contact with demons.
* Using illusions, short duration creation spells, and the like to pass false goods is fraud; altering the currency via magic is still counterfeiting. The penalties might be increased over common fraud, though.
* Visitors to a town or city (or village, possibly) must perform some kind of ritual or activity that demonstrates they are free from possession, mind control, that they aren't under an illusion or secretly a vampire or other disguised monster. In my games, the gates of a walled town will have a small no-mana zone that everyone must pass through for precisely this reason. Someone might be able to avoid this requirement, but only with authorization from the ruler: "Yes, I am a vampire, no, I don't need to walk through that" just like a guy with a plate in his head can present documentation to avoid going through an airport metal detector.

Not all of these rules are necessarily going to be easy to enforce. The King may have rules against scrying on him and against raising demons, but if you're a demonologist in a remote tower looking at the King via crystal ball while summoning Hastur, the King might not know much about it or be in a position to do anything about it. But if he finds out, he's well within the law to send a couple of knights and a wizard (and maybe a saint and a rogue for good measure) to collect you, rough you up, and take you to his castle for your execution.

[Phantasm]

I've toyed with the idea of certain spells having Legality Classes, but I haven't sat down and figured out just which spells have what LC. Usually, however, I've gone ahead and made the following broad guidelines:

Non-invasive utility spells are LC 4
Spells that can be used in or to enhance personal combat are LC 3
Invasive spells (such as many scrying spells) are LC 2
Necromancy, Mind Control, and similar Black Arts are LC 1
World-shattering spells (ala Move Terrain, Volcano, etc) are LC 0

YMMV, of course, and various nations have different laws upon restrictions. I have one nation where Necromancy is not only legal but the zombie/skeleton/mummy menial laborers outnumber the living populace (who are all considered middle class or higher) by about 5 to 1. There's another nation in which using mental resistance spells in a trial are illegal (effective LC0 rather than LC3 or LC4), as those testifying are made to drink truth potions and other similar deals, with no right to avoid self-incrimination.

[The Colonel]

Having laws change across national boundaries is certainly fun:

• In one, magic is regarded as no more than a tool and the crime is what you do with it.
• In one, magic is an aggravating factor in a crime (as a firearm might be) but not in itself illegal.
• In another, magic is highly regulated and/or illegal and (unlicensed) use of magic is a crime in itself.
• In another, as per medieval Europe, accusing someone of using magic against you can be a crime.

Then, as above, consider the various types of magic - compare, in fiction, the Dresdenverse and the Potterverse: in one, mind altering magic is a commonplace thing and winked at between school children, in the other you can get executed without warning for a first offence of using it.

[Lameth]

Well that may bring up another issue. Regarding shifting laws by empire or nation. On my world I have a major goddess that is wide spread and has a portfolio of Magic, judgement, and law. She is basically the fbi for magic users and polices magic use. Would her "laws" change depending on the nation, or would the nation bend to her laws? I can see that she (her faith) would police and stand as judge per the local magic laws, and a mix of hers, right?

[Gef]

I like some of these answers, and don't have much to add. Medieval Europe is a precedent for Ecclesiastic Law existing alongside a secular system. However, that worked because a single church held primacy across borders. In your campaign, Lameth, don't you have multiple religions, and in some of them, multiple gods with separate priesthoods?

[Lameth]

Originally Posted by Gef

I like some of these answers, and don't have much to add. Medieval Europe is a precedent for Ecclesiastic Law existing alongside a secular system. However, that worked because a single church held primacy across borders. In your campaign, Lameth, don't you have multiple religions, and in some of them, multiple gods with separate priesthoods?

Yes that would be true.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by Lameth

Would her "laws" change depending on the nation, or would the nation bend to her laws? I can see that she (her faith) would police and stand as judge per the local magic laws, and a mix of hers, right?

That's difficult to answer without knowing more about the setting. For instance:
* How easily can her clergy determine what she wants the laws to be? This is something of a difficulty in real world religions, for instance.
* How susceptible is her clergy to corruption? If they can get away with taking big bribes from the Guild of Necromancers, they may claim that she's okay with necromancy even though she's against it.
* How much political power does her clergy have? They may know what she wants and be trying to influence the local authorities, but if the local authorities are (say) the Guild of Necromancers, they may not care.

So in the Black Lands ruled by dark lords, necromancy is perfectly legal despite the goddess of magic's rulings. In the corrupt Arcane Empire, some forms of necromancy are illegal but the church has enough influence to forbid enslaving ghosts. In the Pragman Republic, necromancy is illegal (but contrary to church teachings) killing someone with magic is no more illegal than killing someone with a sword. And in the Theocracy of Elite, the laws are perfectly in line with the divine commandments.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

the Potterverse: ... mind altering magic is a commonplace thing and winked at between school children...

Which was always a dark unsettling thing to me.

The implications were, disturbing.