Ironsgate Accord

The Ironsgate Accord is a set of constitutional laws regarding the practice of Necromancy that was established after the The War of the Undying as a means to maintain a set of checks and balances on necromantic Magic. It was constructed and drafted over a period of months with the consultation of necromancers who defected from the Awakened, proposing a way to study necromancy in controlled environments and record its various benefits to science, biology, divine and arcane studies.
The primary purpose of the Accord was to split and disperse the power of necromancy. Many nations sought to completely eradicate the practice after the War, but others argued that unsavory covens forced underground and out of sight would be left to stew in their own power-hungry madness until another necromancer lord would inevitably appear and begin a similar series of events that would lead to another War.
It was signed by leaders, kings, jarls, and emperors of many civilizations from across the world at the Ironsgate Keep. Other nations chose not to follow suit, opting to instead create their own rules regarding the legality of necromancy. Many kingdoms of the Karthan Commonwealth, the Kiteshi Empire, and and the Empire of the Celestial Dragon outright banned the practice, sometimes under penalty of death.
In today's world, the Ironsgate Accord has allowed necromancy to be used beneficially. Murder cases are more easily solved when certain people can speak with the dead. The bodies of the recently fallen can be more easily brought back to life. In some cases, powerful sanctioned necromancers have grown new bodies for those so deformed or diseased that life itself is painful.
Many sanctioned necromancers encourage a brand of necromancy that is considerate of the welfare of the souls being affected and that encourages experimentation on the bodies of those that have died of natural causes. While most texts on necromancy encourage novices to begin on fresh corpses, those who abide by the Ironsgate Accord discourage this because the body's original spirit remains tethered to the body for days, months, or even years after death. This "spiritual umbilicus" weakens over time, but the stronger it is, the greater the fight the original owner can muster against the necromancer. The necromancer can typically win this battle, but the original spirit would be tormented in the process. Many sanctioned necromancers view necromancy as just another branch of magic, whose beneficial applications are overshadowed by its taboo nature. Despite this, necromancy still has a societal and social stigma.
The rules of state-sanctioned necromancy have been written and rewritten over the centuries in keeping with modern language trends, and when clarification has been needed, but generally, they are as follows:

1. Under no circumstance shall a sanctioned necromancer openly display acts of necromancy to the public eye, and must keep utmost discretion in good faith whenever possible.
   
   
2. Do no harm to the souls or bodies of the innocent, the young, or those of royal blood. Seek instead the bodies of the condemned, the murderous, the lecherous, and the willing.
   
   
3. Command a thrall for no longer than is necessary for the task at hand, and only for that task, so long as the task is not considered a criminal offense by local authorities. The necromancer must release the souls from the thrall after their service and, when able, must give proper respect to one’s thralls once their service has ended, including but not limited to burial, cremation, and/or prayer.
   
   
4. The body is the property of the spirit. So long as the spirit is tethered to the body, a sanctioned necromancer has no right to usurp it for his or her own ends, nor does a sanctioned necromancer have the right to forcibly separate the tether. If a spirit is tethered, the sanctioned necromancer must seek explicit permission from the tethered soul by way of spiritual communion.
   
   
5. Graves and burial sites are sacrosanct and must remain untouched unless sanctioned by an official authority, or for the purposes of legitimate archeological study. Any sanctioned necromancer who defiles a grave is subject to the grave robbery laws of the local authority.

Should any of these tenants be violated, the local mage society will be notified, and the practitioner will face a revocation of their licensure, their official protections, and will be issued a fine of exactly one-hundred gold per violation. If the fine is not paid, then a bounty shall be set upon them for their capture, wherein the practitioner may serve extended prison time. In the most severe of cases, capital punishment is applied.

Type

Text, Legislative

Medium

Paper

Authoring Date

NC. 101

Ratification Date

NC. 102

Location

Ironsgate Keep

Signatories (Organizations)

• Dominion of Doubt
• Dominion of Indulgence
• Dominion of Torment
• Silver Kingdom
• Tahosian Dynasty
• Vaskarr