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Comments thread for "The Laws of Magic: Part 6 of 8"

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iago:
The Fifth Law of Magic is:  Never reach beyond the borders of life.

http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/news/archives/2007/07/the_laws_of_mag_3.php

krvh:
Part of the law was "waking the ghosts of the Civil War for one last assault" 

In Grave Peril

(click to show/hide) Harry empowered the ghosts of the dead to take out Bianca and Co.  Given The White Council's general feelings toward him this should have been close enough to count even if in a gray area.
Edited it for spoiler because I'm compulsive

hollow49:
That particular scene has caused some debate on the boards before. The concensus seemed, IIRC, to be that real distinction is that when Harry did his trick, he was simply giving power to what was already present (thanks to the Nightmare) with his own energies, whereas necromancers bring raise ghosts from slumber, and empower them with the energies drawn from death. The drawing on death, not life, seemed to give a very different feel to the magic in Dead Beat. Perhaps Harry managed to do his bit only because the bit that really required necromantic energies had already been done for him. Even then, not that the GP ghosts had to make bodies for themselves in order to harm the living whereas the spectres raised by Cowl could do so while remaining incorporeal.

Kristine:
I have to agree that it has more to do with intention here.  If there is a ghost already present no one could blame a magic practitioner for working with them but to call up a spirit and force them to stay seems to be what this law was more about.  If having contact with the dead was out of line then the guy who spoke to the dead that Harry got his information from in Dead Beat (I don't remember his name and I don't have the books handy) would be in trouble all the time.  He also calls the dead but they come if they are willing - I didn't get the impression that he forces them back to answer questions.

Although I don't know how to fit this law in with the Bob from the TV series other than to say the White council seems to allow the breaking of the laws under curtain curcumstances for themselves alone.

Rel Fexive:
I guess I'd never really seen the "disrupt the natural order" part of this law before, which is a bit dense of me.

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