RULES
There are the rules and laws of men, and then there are what are called the physical laws. In Aramar, there are also the Rules.
At the end of the First Age, magic was wild. What was once considered reality was mutable by an idle thought. The first set of Rules imposed on the world was merely to make it possible for the races of Man to survive.
The gods first laid the Rules down, with what were originally three volumes that gave a semblence to the old reality. Then came more Rules. Eventually the gods turned over the making of these Rules to a Council Of Wizards. These continued to try to close loopholes and fix the problems left behind from the Time Of Chaos. For a thousand years, these wizards met in secret and did their duties without fail or much imagination. Survival was a unifying cause, then these original wizards began retiring, feeling that an active duty of a thousand years quite enough. Younger hearts and minds were needed.
Some of the Wizards of this second generation failed to see the need for unity, and put their own agendas forward. Some problems left behind by the First Generation continued, such as the translation effect.
Then came, during the end of the Second Age, came the advent of the Broken Man. With that came the desire on the part of the Council to limit themselves and their own influence. From the time of the gods, it had required a majority vote for a Rule to be put into effect. Now it would require, instead of seven - six, a majority of ten.
It was during the days of the Elven Empire that the Council first fell to bickering among themselves, the thin veneer of civility and cooperation vanishing among the factions that that conflict began.
Still, politics, vote trading, and the occasional common agenda come together and a new Rule is written. Today there are thirty four volumes of Rules.
"The newcomer to Aramar doesn't
have long before the Rules make their presence known. There is a
period of a few weeks while dealing with a Translation Effect
where the newcomer has to take care of their words and deeds and
even thoughts. This world will try to fit you into its
Rules, pigeonholing you to try and make you conform to an
acceptable set of behavior. Not that there isn't a lot of room
for individuality, except among some of the faerie, but there are
a lot of Rules and once you fit a template it's going to be hell
to change it."
--Wanderer's Journal