The Dresden Files > DFRPG
"Official" Perspective on Lawbreaking
Tedronai:
From my interpretations, the following would violate the Law:
1, 2, 3, and 6
I typically leave Council interpretation in the hands of the local Warden unless more senior individuals are called in, and thus depend on the personal aspects of such NPCs to answer the question of whether the Council considers an action to be a violation of the Law.
blackstaff67:
I might omit 6 for Lawbreaker purposes as it seems to be accident. See Dresden's 'Only you can prevent RCV's from living' approach in Grave Peril. They found human skeletons in the wreckage that may or may not have been dead when he threw the fire. Reckless, but not deliberate. No Lawbreaker.
Tedronai:
The novels are not actually incompatible with the 'vampire barbecue incident' being a Law violation.
The effects of violations on the perpetrator are not obvious each and every time.
We simply do not have sufficient evidence to definitively say one way or another
Emperor Tippy:
My take:
1: Clear cut violation both legally and metaphysically (take Lawbreaker, White Council will lop off your head if they find out/catch you).
2: Clear cut violation both legally and metaphysically (take Lawbreaker, White Council will lop off your head if they find out/catch you).
In both cases you cast the magic with the intent to kill another human (hence the metaphysically level) and the proximate cause of death is magic (hence the legal level).
3: Unless you specifically conjured the lighter with intent to start a deadly fire with it, not a metaphysical violation (no Lawbreaker); whether it is a legal violation depends on the mood of the White Council and the Warden who catches you.
4: Metaphysical violation (you cast the evocation with the intention of killing another human), take Lawbreaker, not a White Council violation (magic was not the proximate cause of death). The White Council might still kill you depending on their mood.
5: No metaphysical violation (no intent to kill when the magic was performed), no Lawbreaker, not a White Council violation (magic was not the proximate cause of death). The White Council might still kill you depending on their mood.
6: No metaphysical violation (no intent to kill when magic was performed), no Lawbreaker, may or may not be a White Council violation (reckless use of magic resulting in mortal death). Whether the White Council shortens you a foot or not depends on how many favors the Senior Council owes you.
7: No violation.
Thoughts?
Mr. Death:
--- Quote from: Lavecki121 on May 22, 2013, 10:10:04 PM ---Yea, but you also said magic comes from the soul. Souless creatures, therefor, would not be able to do magic.
--- End quote ---
I think it has to do with the human soul and its potential to change--in both ways.
A Fae's soul, if it has one, is static--it has no free will, it can't choose what to be. That's why they don't foul up technology. Same with vampires. With pretty much anything that isn't at least part human still.
Likewise, if a Fae kills a human with magic, that's not going to change it, because it means it's already in that Fae's nature to kill with magic.
But a human soul has free will, and the potential to change. A human being might start without a soul whose nature it is to kill--but in killing, that soul changes, becomes someone whose nature is to kill, bit by bit. Even taking magic out of the equation, it's fairly common knowledge, at least in fiction, that it gets easier to kill the more you do it. Magic is like that, only exaggerated, because the murder weapon is you--not you holding a gun, not you holding a knife, but you, the part of you that is the most you. You're killing with your own personal essence--saying that that essence, your soul, is meant to kill.
So when a human kills with magic, it changes them--just like killing without magic changes you, only moreso.
And also, when you kill a human with magic, you're snuffing out not only a person, but all the potential people that person could ever be. A Fae or a Vampire isn't going to change his spots--but the person who mugs you today might be the person who saves your life five years from now.
By killing with magic, with your own essence, the human mage is taking his soul, and destroying another life.
That's the best way I can explain it, I think.
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