The Articles of Imperial Magic are a list of laws pertaining to the use of magic, and rights of its practitioners, within the Empire.
History
Having been advised by Loremasters Teclis and Finreir, Emperor Magnus knew all magic came from the same nightmare void as the Daemon Gods of Chaos — just as he had been told throughout his Sigmarite upbringing. But Magnus also realised that just as human spellcasters had proven useful on the battlefield against the servants of Chaos, they could also aid the Empire in far more profound and long-term ways if they were trained well enough and watched closely by other authorities.
A few months after his return to Nuln from Kislev and his victory over the Forces of Chaos, Emperor Magnus ratified and made law in the presence of all the surviving Electors his wartime decree that had lifted the ban on the controlled use of magic and the practice of spellcraft. Though there was some resistance to his decision, particularly from the Grand Theogonist of the Sigmarite Cult and the High Priest of the Cult of Ulric, all protestations were swept aside and the law was passed through Magnus’ powers of persuasion, force of will, and his political influence in the wake of his stunning military success against the blasphemous Northern Hordes.
The Imperial Colleges of Magic were formally created in 2304 I.C., as part of Magnus’ sweeping reforms to Imperial Law. To free the Colleges to study and use magic, while also keep all the Empire’s new Wizards under his control, Magnus drafted and passed (with the guidance and advice of Teclis, the Theogonist, the Ar-Ulric, and several respected nobles and generals of the Empire), the Articles of Imperial Magic. These Articles defined the foundation of the Imperial Colleges of Magic that would garner the Empire with highly trained and dependable Magisters who were sworn to defend it if need be. The Articles also re-instated a partial ban on magic by defining anyone not a member of one of the new Colleges found wilfully using magic to be a “practitioner of dire witcheries” and stating they should be exiled or put to death for the good of all.
The Articles granted the Magisters of the newly formed Colleges “permission to perform magical research and practice thaumaturgy (magic) for the good of the Empire and within its bounds and territories.” The Articles were binding to all Imperial authorities as well as the Colleges, and any illegal or unprovoked attack against the Colleges (though not necessarily individual Magisters) was also to be considered an attack upon the Emperor himself and, therefore, treasonous. Yet the laws and rules of the Articles were even more binding to the initiates to the Imperial Colleges, who would have to adhere to all of them under pain of death — and if an entire College broke with them, that College’s right to exist and practice magic would be revoked.
There are many more Articles in addition to those listed above, including restrictions on how much political power a Magister may acquire, what positions of state authority they can occupy, and under what circumstances. The Articles also list such matters as appropriate conduct for Magisters and their apprentices within everyday society.
There are many grey areas in the Articles of Imperial Magic that have been exploited by both the Colleges and the Witch Hunters across the last two centuries to the benefit and detriment of both of these great power-blocks. Debates as to the exact definition of “good reason” as referenced in article 6 and “favourably” in article 8 are both good examples of the loose meaning of the Articles. Some Magisters have found themselves in considerable trouble for using magic to light a taper in a public place, while others have got away with turning down a request from an Elector on the basis that they have offered what they deemed a “favourable” alternative, which the requesting Elector did not view as satisfactory.
It seems unlikely that a shrewd and politically engaged leader like Magnus the Pious would fail to see the flaws and limitations in the Articles he drafted. There is some debate as to whether ambiguity came into the document as a result of continuous constitutional and political wrangling between the numerous powerbases of the time, or whether Magnus had intended for there to be some flexibility in the interpretation of the Articles, to assure that no one group could monopolise power or authority after his death.
For example, Magnus also both reaffirmed and limited in the Articles of the so-called Obsidian Edict of 2004 I.C. in which the Cult of Sigmar claimed the sacred duty of hunting down and wiping out witchcraft, necromancy, daemonology, sorcery, and Chaos-worship in the Empire. It was reaffirmed in the sense that Witch Hunters were acknowledged as a social force — possessing a prime mandate to track down, try in a court of law, and even execute Witches, Warlocks, Necromancers, mutants, Chaos worshippers, and other renegades, but they were forbidden from pursuing sanctioned Magisters of the Orders of Magic or their apprentices, unless asked for aid by a legitimate spokesman of a College to track down a Magister that had turned traitor, or unless the Witch Hunters were witness to an abominable act by the hand of a sanctioned Magister.
The Witch Hunters were also required to turn over any magic user aged twenty-five years or less to Collegiate authorities, providing the magic user was not guilty of Daemon worship or witchcraft and had not committed an abominable act.
Of course, the Articles did not create exact boundaries of interest and influence between the Witch Hunters and the Orders of Magic, nor does any of it assure or enforce cooperation between them.
Source
- Warhammer RPG 2nd ED -- Realms of Sorcery (pg. 64-66).