I saw an interesting discussion of these things going on elsewhere and I thought I'd kick in a few of my opinions.

As usual, I speak only for myself, and I Am Not An Imperial Imm.

First: the Bloodoath is a Big Deal. It's not just words. I mean, sure, your Fort elf paladin can proclaim on Fort cb, 'My heart, my soul, my life for the Empire' if he wants, and that's just words, (although the rest of the cabal might take it badly). Maybe your Herald bard whose dad was an Empire necro was forced to say it all the time growing up or he'd get beaten, and that's just words too. But as part of the bloodoath cabal power, whether from the recruiter or an Empire PC? That's not just words. That's your part of an ancient paranormal (I won't say 'magic' and kick off a generation of Battle who kill Empire specifically because they took the bloodoath, but it's whatever kind of primordial mystic juju that powers cabal items) ritual.

You can't take the bloodoath intending to not take it seriously. Well, you can intend that, but that's not how it ends up. It's a ritual powerful enough to permanently alter the very nature of your mind and soul (ethos changes, etc.) When the bloodoath is complete, what's left is someone who takes it seriously, whether they were or not when they started the oath. The bloodoath is a giant find/replace on your soul that, up to a point, subs order and darkness in for the 'naughty' bits.

Second: I like the idea that Imperial mortals would police Imperials breaking Imperial Law, and maybe there's a chance you did it and didn't get caught. However, that doesn't actually work out for the most part for much the same exact reasons that Imperial infighting/plotting/etc. purely among mortals with no influence also mostly does not work out. Joe Empire doesn't want to demote/anath Jane Empire for breaking Imperial Law -- he needs her to help fight roving gangs of murderous Fortlanders (tm)!

(The few exceptions always pleasantly surprise me, and I've seen a certain current much-maligned Empire character do it once.)

So, yeah. Sometimes an Empire imm is going to crack on you for breaking Imperial Law. Otherwise, instead of it being, my character's calculated his chances and decided to risk it, it's really more like, you're never going to get caught. With Empire imms in play, it actually is a calculated risk. You might get away with it, and you might not.