D&D General Where is magic prohibited in your world??

[MichaelSomething]

Are there places in your campaign world where magic is prohibited? Where there are strong cultural edicts or laws that disallow the casting of magic? Anything beyond the obvious, "don't use magic to commit crimes"? Bonus points if magic is available for use but isn't allowed anyway. I never thought about that much. Though I do know of an example in My Little Pony.

 

[cbwjm]

I have a region which was conquered by Graz'zt descended tieflings where the main form of magic is from warlocks who form the nobility and priestly caste. Divine and primal magic is outlawed and if you're a wizard or sorcerer you'd best be careful about showcasing your abilities, if you get to the point where you throw a fireball or two then you'll likely wake up one day to find you've disappeared (likely dead). The tieflings allow no challengers to their power.

 

[The Grinning Frog]

I don't have whole regions that outlaw all magic but I do have those that regulate magic. Certain magic isn't allowed - not just things like raising the dead, but teleportation magic or certain magical research relating to familiars etc. I see magic as a technology that is regulated by the people in charge so this comes up from time to time.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

There is a holy state in our world that only allows divine magic. All other magic is considered corrupt or evil and banned. Use of any non-divine magic is pretty harshly punished.

 

[Shiroiken]

Beyond the obvious "in the presence of the king" type thing, criminal courts typically do not allow the use of magic. This prevents charmed testimony and other methods that can twist the outcome of the trial. Conversely, this also prohibits Zone of Truth from being used as well.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Most of my cities dont allow magic to be cast inside their walls.

Now, how they enforce those regulations vary from town to town. A small village with 5 militia men wont have much power to stop a 15th level warlock from doing their creepy stuff in the village square.

''Winners dont use drugs, polite society dont use magic''

 

[The Grinning Frog]

Most of my cities dont allow magic to be cast inside their walls.

Now, how they enforce those regulations vary from town to town. A small village with 5 militia men wont have much power to stop a 15th level warlock from doing their creepy stuff in the village square.

''Winners dont use drugs, polite society dont use magic''

Do they have mages working with the authorities who shut down the magic if it is used?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Do they have mages working with the authorities who shut down the magic if it is used?

Those small villages? Not really.

Larger towns dont have spellcasters ''on retainer'' for those situations, but will send for adventuring parties to deal with those type of things.

Now, that's in theory. In practice most village have a good witch leaving in the woods nearby they are quite content to visit when they fall ill, and many nobles have a chamberlains that are suspected to be magical healers or other hidden spellcasters.

 

[The Grinning Frog]

Those small villages? Not really.

Larger towns dont have spellcasters ''on retainer'' for those situations, but will send for adventuring parties to deal with those type of things.

Now, that's in theory. In practice most village have a good witch leaving in the woods nearby they are quite content to visit when they fall ill, and many nobles have a chamberlains that are suspected to be magical healers or other hidden spellcasters.

I was thinking the major towns. When there is a law, there is always a means to enforce the law.

 

[Richards]

In my current campaign, there's the city of Baron's Haven where unauthorized spellcasting is not permitted. If you wish to cast a spell within the city's walls, it needs to be at one of the clerical temples and after having first gotten permission from the clerics there. (The Baron ruling the city has a recurring dream/fear he'll be struck down by a magic spell.) The PCs broke the law by using spellcraft to fight off a menace to the city (rampaging giant apes), but the fact that they were aiding the city in doing so only meant they got a lesser sentence when they were hauled before the magistrate.

Johnathan

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I was thinking the major towns. When there is a law, there is always a means to enforce the law.

I guess most treat it like etiquette more than laws.

Larger cities will send the guard to deal with the magical persona non-grata, like they would for any other crime committed. If said troops arent enough to deal with the spellcaster doing nasty stuff, that's when PCs enter the stage. But yeah, my worlds dont have that many high level spellcasters, and even less with the lowly ambition to be a nuisance to a provincial town.

Again, its only illegal if you get caught!

 

[Longspeak]

Haven't really considered the question. But in one of the jobs one of the mercenary crews did...

A hobgoblin woman from the Iron Kingdoms got the crew to help her. It seems her brother had become Prince of her city. This is done by combat, and he's always been a bit of a weakling who suddenly dominated in battle, killing their father. She hired the crew to prove her brother used something other than strength and skill, which would nullify his claim, or better to nullify whatever cheating he'd done so she could take him in a fair fight.

So, in the Iron Kingdoms, magic would seem to be restricted in... certain uses.

(The crew DID find and nullify his advantage, then join the fight when the brother called in minions to fight for him. Then they stood back and watched as the woman broke every bone in her bother's body. And THEN they stopped her from killing him by recommending she set all the bones wrong, and leave his crippled form as a warning to others who would cheat. Took me by surprised when they suggested that, but the woman agreed.)

 

[jmartkdr2]

In the Holy Ravenite Empire, magic is technically banned unless you are an exception - but there's quite a few exceptions, including 'any church official' which is a large number of people. But they generally have fairly strict rules about how they can use magic, defined for their specific role.

My unnamed Confucian-based setting puts spellcasting in the civil service exam, but if you haven't passed the exam you're generally prohibited (with exceptions). The village healer probably won't get in trouble, but a traveling circus that uses magic would be shut down on general suspicions.

Which is how I view it in general: in most places I build there's usually a magic-using class that has blanket permission and people not in that class are technically barred but de facto it's more that using magic to commit crimes has a harsher punishment because your weren't supposed to be using magic at all in the first place. It's less about preventing magic use and more about ensuring that magic is controlled by the people in charge.

 

[bedir than]

One of the main conceits of my world is: who gets to control knowledge?

Now that the dragons and their elves have returned to the world they have sent out Proctors to pull back the knowledge of magic from everyone who knows more than cantrips. In some cases they do so with kindness, but mostly they're the brutal enemy.

 

[Stormonu]

There's a few places in my where prior cataclysms or misuse of magic has ended in the outlawing of magic, usually enforced by a mob, sometimes by actual law enforcement. In the latter case, there is a metal that can be utilized by such individuals that absorbs/supresses magic, allowing them to face off against offending spellcasters.

At least one country has outlawed arcane magic, and the edic is enforced by divine casters (it also happens to be a Lawful Evil church...).

There's also a couple areas where there are issues with wild magic and magic use is frowned on due to capricious results that may occur from its use. If casters aren't taken care of by the populace, the effects of wild magic will usually do so.

Conversely, I've got a realm or two where you can't rise to middle class/nobility without the ability to use magic.

 

[Mad_Jack]

In my D23 world, there are some general laws about magic in the larger cities* (though they vary by country), and one "province" in the Old Empire is basically unofficially a theocracy, so they tend to frown on arcane/primal magic and actively discourage divine magic use by anyone but themselves.


* Mainly "For Entertainment Purposes Only" - i.e., no wizard duels, no setting stuff on fire, if you prank somebody it better wear off in a couple minutes, etc.... Using magic to commit a crime generally carries a stiffer penalty than the regular offense. Callously irresponsible use of magic like throwing a fireball into a crowd will likely get you vigilante justice by whomever survives long before the courts get you.

 

[Laurefindel]

When I DM, many taverns and inns have the stereotypical "no weapons or magic allowed" kind of policies, and the practice of magic is restricted to few officials at the court of most nobles, but i never had a whole town or nation criminalizing magic outright.

Otherwise in most towns, blatant use of magic is not illegal but a bit equivalent to walking around with a flamethrower on your back; people around you aren't going to be very forthcoming unless they have good reasons to believe you're accountable for its use.

People don't like to think you can fry them at a whim, charm them into giving you a more-than-generous tip, or teleport away after you robbed them of their stuff. The fact that they haven't seen you cast any spells only rises suspicion once they know you are a capable spellcaster. But the more capable the authorities are at apprehending rogue spellcasters, the more relax the populace gets.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In my worlds where magic is known, there aren’t many superaticions about it, and it’s as regulated as technology, sometimes less. My worlds are always built on the concept that magic is a series of skills that people can learn.

so killing someone with fire is the same crime whether you use chemicals or magic, and the firefighters might have water-gems that explode with dozens of gallons of water upon impact.

Which brings us to another point. Magic is better regulated in worlds where it’s better known. Water gems above a certain capacity could easily be used to drown a person in thier own house, and are restricted, just like magitech hovering vehicles, which take skill to operate safely, are just as restricted as automobiles IRL.

Types of magic are prohibited in certain places, like battle magic in schools, holy places, or government buildings, but I don’t think anywhere is a “no magic no exceptions” area.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

In one narrow sense, it's prohibited everywhere. In another sense, it's not technically prohibited anywhere, but is effectively so in some places.

Necromancy is a BIG no-no to the two major belief systems of the Tarrakhuna (the Safiqi priesthood, which the majority of the population follows, and the Kahina, druids and shamans who revere the spirits of the land and the afterlife.) To the former, it is a sin against the Great Architect, denying souls their just reward (or punishment) in the afterlife. Even regular resurrection would be suspect, except that they have a doctrinal explanation: resurrections fail when the One decrees that a soul has truly moved on (at least, that's how they see it), so resurrecting someone and having it work properly means it wasn't truly their time yet.

For the Kahina, it's an issue of defying the natural cycle. Birth and growth produce new life. New life flourishes, and the world grows more complex. Then, death ends life, but seeds the world with raw material. That raw material feeds new growth, and the cycle continues. Undeath both breaks the cycle, and removes material from it--sometimes destructively, actually erasing material and energy that could have fed other, new growth.

As a result of the above, necromancy is very disliked by most religious folks in the region. It is possible to practice necromancy, but you've got to be real careful about exactly how you do it to avoid being branded a heretic and finding that nobody wants to spend any time with you. It's not AS bad as breaking the Bond of Salt...but it's pretty close.

That's the first sense. A narrow but universal ban--necromancy. The second sense is on magic-in-general, but it only applies in a narrow context: dealing with noble genies.

See, noble genies were forced, by social evolutionary pressure, to come up with rules and guidelines for their behavior, lest their squabbles escalate to the point that they tear one another apart. But since noble genies pop up at random from the general population...there's no way for one single hegemonic ruler to control everything. Thus, they're left with having to do the political dance, and they've become exceptionally good at it over the past several thousand years. One of the officially unwritten rules of genie politics is that you don't cast or use magic, except for great personal need or to aid your host, while you are visiting another's court. This rule applies both to actual noble genies and to their "servants" (which can mean actual servants/slaves, but also proxies and employees.) But being unwritten, there are edge cases.* For example, using an illusion to conceal an ugly scar. Any noble genie worthy of the title will be able to detect that you're using some kind of illusion. As long as you aren't completely concealing your identity, and declare that you have the magic (sort of like declaring stuff at customs IRL), then it won't really be seen as an issue. Trying to sneak magic in under the radar, however, can get you into BIG trouble, even if it's just a tiny illusion spell to change the color of your eyes or whatever.

The rules of Jinnistani politics are byzantine and border on blue-and-orange morality. But on this one topic, they're relatively understandable, if almost never directly explained to mortal visitors. If you aren't smart enough to figure out such rules on your own, nobles aren't going to teach you, and will oftentimes enjoy meting out punishments for slights they consider "obvious."

*Other edge cases include being hired specifically for your magical skills, or being graced with tutelage from a noble genie, but both of these ultimately fall under the aegis of "declared magic used in public/with express permission."

 

[Stormonu]

People don't like to think you can fry them at a whim, charm them into giving you a more-than-generous tip, or teleport away after you robbed them of their stuff. The fact that they haven't seen you cast any spells only rises suspicion once they know you are a capable spellcaster. But the more capable the authorities are at apprehending rogue spellcasters, the more relax the populace gets.

I tend to think more along the lines of the "Wild West" and how others might view a gunslinger in areas where adventurers are common. Those areas that have regulations might be more akin to Dodge City ("leave them with the Sheriff while in town"/peacebonded) or further East where carrying weapons/magic openly was frowned on or illegal.