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The second law of Entropy's Code is known as the Chestnut Law or (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) as the Golden Rule. A Power once argued before the Locust Court that no human, Power, or Excrucian is ever wholly innocent. The Court replied thus: The Court grants that the victim was not innocent. It is agreed that innocence is found almost nowhere in Yggdrasil's worlds. It is, however, sooth that the defendant made no effort to determine the guilt or innocence of the victim—and that therefore the defendant was willing, ready, and able to break the laws laid out in the Code Fidelitatis. This is as much a crime against the brave defenders of the Valde Bellum and the Code by which we live as the literal breaking of any law.
Scorns Regal Joktan— a Power of Lord Entropy — was overseeing the Court that day. He let the Locust Court's judgment stand unchallenged. Direct knowledge or solid proof that another being has done harm is sufficient to remove the restriction of this Law. Rumor and hearsay are not. Further, the Court—recognizing that even the consumption of food does harm—has established a standard of allowable punishment for those who are not of Locus Medan. It is the Sevenfold Precept: a Power, perceiving harm, may visit that harm sevenfold upon its cause. It may seem strange that Lord Entropy would choose to cripple the Powers by extending the protection of this law to [Excrucians] as well — and strange that he would advocate protection of the innocent in the first place. In a candid moment, Desecrations Regal Meon admitted: By holding Powers to a higher ethical standard than the Excrucians, and even of he himself, he creates a spiritual—"differential"—between Powers and Excrucian-shards. This makes it easier for him to sense, not really the petty criminals, but the genuinely treasonous. This is his function, and that of the Council of Four, as the rulers of the Earth, and it is only natural that he should be more concerned with it than with the day-to-day details of how the Valde ellum is conducted.
It is very important to note that inducing Dementia Animus in a human is on the borderline of "harm" and inducing it in more than a few in any given week is definitely across that line. This is one reason that Powers use miracles circumspectly while on the Earth. |
