Oaths

Desire: "I swear by the First Circle, and by the Other Side of the Sky, and by the Sword and the..."
- Neil Gaiman, Sandman.

Oaths are considered sacred things: your word and your honour are intimately bound together. All creatures swear Oaths and respect them: yes, even the Unreal. In recent years most of mankind has forgotten the importance of Oaths: the Iron Rule has disrupted their enforcement and only a few remember the days of the Gods. This is not likely to last for long: humanity has always been remarkably adept at finding its feet again after upheaval, and once humankind realise that an older rule is in force they will most likely regain their respect for the sacred ways. Everybody else, from animals to Children of Grace to Gods, still takes Oaths very seriously indeed.

Therefore, the swearing of an Oath is not taken lightly, and Oathbreakers are despised by all right-thinking peoples.

Important note: Oaths are not contracts. It is the spirit which matters, not the precise wording. The GMs, when deciding whether an Oath has been broken, will not consider semantics too deeply.

For example:

I swore to protect a baby monkey from tigers. Tigers attacked us, I fought them, they left me half-dead and they took away the monkey. I am not an Oathbreaker, despite the fact that technically speaking I've not protected the baby monkey: I did all I could to prevent it from being taken, and it was through no action of mine that the tigers stole the precious baby monkey. However, I would be expected to do as much as I could to set things right. (Things may be different if I knew I was taking the baby into an area where there was tigers.)
I swore not to cross the River Fronobulax. The river's name is changed by the Cartographer's Guild to the River Thasanolag. I cross the river. I am an Oathbreaker: it was clear, when I swore the Oath, which river was meant.
I swore not to cross the River Fronobulax. The river's course is changed. I cross the dry bank. I am not an Oathbreaker: the river is now elsewhere.
I have been harassing the Kingdom of Clocks for years. The Patron of the Clock-Kingdom gets pissed off and eventually convinces me to swear an Oath not to threaten the Kingdom. I attack the Kingdom without warning. "See," I say, "I only swore not to threaten it, and I didn't say anything." It's absolutely clear that the Oath was meant to stop me from messing with the Kingdom full stop: I am an Oathbreaker, a pedant and an appalling fucker who deserves to be tarred and feathered.

The Oaths of Gods

Gods are in the unique position of being able to change their True Name, and so if a God swears by their Name it is considered an important but not binding promise. Significantly, it is traditional that the Oaths of fealty to Court Rulers sworn by members of the Courts are by their own Names, so that if they feel compelled to they may change their Name and rebel against their Court Ruler: it is not considered right that the Gods should be unable to overthrow Court Rulers who become tyrants, or break their Oaths, or shirk their Duties.

When a God swears a binding Oath, therefore, they swear by something else: anything which exists in all of Creation: objects, places, emotions, ideals, concepts... If someone - and it can be anyone - believes that the Oath in question has been broken, then before the company of the Gods at their annual gathering they must call on whatever thing the Oath was sworn on to remember the Oath and punish the Oathbreaker, who need not even be present for this to work. If the one who swore the Oath has truly broken it, then what they swore the Oath on will visit upon them a doom which they will not recover from until they have made amends for what they have done. If the Oath has not been broken, a lesser doom will come upon the one who made the false accusation: this can take years to recover from if the accusation is particularly unwarrented. They will also have pissed off a God...

For example: Two Gods, Yannek of the Six Scented Winds and Kubo of the Pallid Aspect have been feuding for a long time. Eventually they come to an agreement which they hope will end their fight. Yannek says "I swear by the sword by my side that I shall fight no more against the Court of Teeth."

Later, Yannek changes his mind. "How can my sword punish me," he thinks, "if I break it asunder, and throw the blade into the Sun, and melt down the gold hilt into rings and give the rings to folk from all over Creation?" Yannek cares nothing for his honour, his hatred for the Court of Teeth is so great.

Therefore Yannek follows this plan, and then attacks the Court of Teeth and burns one of its palaces to the ground.

At the next meeting of the Gods, Kubo says "I call upon the sword of Yannek to adjudge him, for he has broken the Oath he swore by it."

And Yannek's side is pierced by an iron ray of sunlight, and he is wounded terribly, and the gold rings on the fingers of their mortal owners whisper to them and tell where Yannek has kept his treasures, and how to steal them.

Oaths must be sworn before at least one witness. Oaths are in the vast majority of cases sworn publically: it tends to benefit both the God swearing the Oath and the other concerned parties to let everyone know what has been sworn. It is considered especially appropriate to swear Oaths in announcements, but this is not always possible due to the limited number of slots.

OOC note: Please, if you swear an Oath and it isn't made obvious that you are doing so, tell one of the GMs that you're doing it and tell them what you swore and why.

The Oathbreaker quirk: if you take this it is assumed that you've managed to recover from the doom which came upon you. However, you will never entirely be able to regain your honour: it's very unlikely that anyone will ever trust you again.

The Oaths of Others

These are varied. As well as swearing on things, non-divine entities have been known to swear by Gods and by their True Name.

Normally, bad things have a way of happening to non-divine Oathbreakers, normally at the hands of the folk they swore the Oath to in the first place. Sometimes, when the person who swore the Oath are not particularly beatable to a pulp, whatever they swore the Oath by has to lend a helping hand. If, as a God, someone complains that an Oath sworn in your name has been broken, it is considered a massive failure on your part if you do not ensure that the Oathbreaker regrets it.

For non-divine beings, Oaths sworn by their True Name are the most potent of all: they cannot even conceive of breaking such Oaths.