Soul Contract

Sometimes written words and spoken vows are not sufficient. Some deals are too important to leave to simple concepts like honor or one’s word. In times such as these a law-mage is employed to create a contract so powerful that that agreement made cannot be broken under any circumstance. The paper is enchanted to never burn, though this is more a formality as the destruction of the physical contract is irrelevant to the actual spellwork at play. The ink is magically formed from a mixture of each participants’ very blood and infused with a small piece of their very soul. The signing of the contract is more a formality than for actual effect as the contract is formed chiefly in the astral plane and the words spoken translated into words of power by the law-mage present. Full knowledge of the contract is necessary for all parties involved or the contract’s power will be too weak and such a contract cannot be made under duress. It must be entirely and unequivocally consensual or the spell will not work at all.
Once made the physical contract acts as a reminder for what was agreed to that day but does not in itself hold any power over those who signed it. Even if destroyed the deal made is unbreakable and will persist for all eternity unless something occurs to make the contract no longer possible to uphold, such as the death of one or both parties or the subject of the contract ceasing to exist.
Soul contracts are commonly used all through society, though chiefly employed by large corporations or governments as a dedicated law-mage can be very expensive to afford. They are used chiefly in the form of confidentiality agreements between employers and employees with the most famous example being the binding contract between an aspiring young mage and their chosen college. The young mage will agree to not divulge the trade secrets of their college nor allow through inaction allow the secrets to be divulged under any circumstance. This prevents other colleges from learning how the intricate magic of their rival colleges function and in turn prevents each college form losing their stranglehold on entire domains of industry.
Once signed the young mage will find themselves able to talk about the secrets but never able to actually tell what the secrets are or how certain parts of their magic work. The words of power can never be written down or shown to someone not also a part of the college and any process of fabricating special solutions or materials unique to the college cannot be revealed. A mage who attempts to do so will find their minds unable to fully conceive of doing so, causing their bodies to fail to translate the necessarily information. They will be unable to speak it or write it down, or even through an elaborate game of charades even begin to convey the secret knowledge they now possess.
The consequences of breaking a soul contract are unknown as through all human and in-human history there has never been a case of a successful attempt. It is theorized, however, that if one were to somehow achieve this impossible feat they would simply die. Their very souls obliterated and minds scourged from their brain leaving only an empty husk behind. Of course, since this has never been proven it is unknown if this is what would actually happen or if it is just what high ranking wizards insist would happen to fewer people attempt to break their contract.
The contract itself is stored by the organization who had the contract made, though the company the law-mage works for will often keep a copy for themselves for the sake of posterity.