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.

Rather than make this the first imm thread ignored by the players as opposed to vice versa, I'll post this slightly out of context discussion and see where it leads as it addresses points of Nepenthe's musings from a different point of view.

Imperials aren't terrorists.

If they were they wouldn't be orderly. Terrorists by definition defy the law and kill civilians to sway public opinion via fear the way they want it. That makes Outlanders and Maran using acts of terror. Ragers are simply committing class genocide on mages.

Imperials are more analogous to, ironically, the long dead Soviet Union in nature, or the governments in the Middle East.

Empire is a cabal, and as a political entity, other protected cities consider the Imperial Lands a CITY-STATE. All protected cities in CF are more or less City-States. This means that they have very little control outside their own walls, and this is true. They are more in the status of Ancient Greece than they are Europe as far as politics goes, complete with gods.

The Blood Tribunal are essentially beefed up rent-a-cops (security firms) each City-State hires.

The Empire considers other City-States under their government and rule them by force. The Tribunal tend to obey Imperial Law whether intentionally or unintentionally. The reason the Empire considers all peoples in Thera 'subjects' is precisely that if your opinion dissents they will react with force. Lightwalkers will always dissent, and neutrals, as always, are a case by case basis.

'Subjects' are not the same as Citizens as defined by the Empire. Citizens typically can (and in CF, are) drafted into the Imperial military, but in exchange get perks that are sect related, or if the given Citizen is an arcane, they are generally limited to powers for riot and provincial control (centurions). The rewards for working for the Empire other than the military powers are the plunder from their enemies and the latitude that more power higher up in the ladder offers. This is why Sect Leaders can, within reason, anathema people who piss them off rather than demote them.

So in your analogy the Empire would be Israel. (because Israel arbitrarily declares parts of 'Palestine' their territory. Same with Empire.) Israel due to it's allies' restrictions doesn't openly use terrorism, but obviously some may beg to differ, this is analogous to Imperials breaking Imperial Law and praying they don't get caught by Imms or otherwise, contrary to Graatch's belief of a lack of free will.

If you want to account for law breaking under Imperial Law you can attribute it to 'police brutality' and/or 'battlefield crimes' (such as the prisoner of war debacles by security firms and soldiers in Iraq), which is technically against the law, but still happens and sometimes goes unreported (imms don't catch you). Likewise the divine control over the Empire is analogous to Israel's religion of Judaism, or analogous to the Muslim clerical control over Iran. (before you disagree again Graatch, believing in a cause 100% and still absuing your power/setting aside tenets of that cause are two totally different things. That's how being a Muslim radical works, that's how being an ignorant Republican redneck works, that's how being a POLITICIAN works, etc. Humans are capable of doing both at the same time, if they weren't then Catholics would have no need for confessionals.)

I think that answers the question underlying your geography question. Personally I drew this conclusion from the helpfiles, but I'm sure teh Russians won't disagree with my assessment.

In the Middle Ages and earlier, history records an Oath as being a big ####ing deal.

You took an oath to show you were honorable, trusthworthy and loyal. This could be from a lord to his King or between two non-gay dudes making a man-marriage or something. Kind of like Thror and Kastellyn. I guess. Maybe. If you considered Ragers as homoerotic as pro-wrestlers.

Lame attempt at humor aside, Nepenthe is right about the blood oath in that it is backed by the power of magic from the Imperial Codex. Not only is the oath a Big ####ing Deal, it's an Uber Huge ####ing Deal because breaking it is probably fairly similar to a Maran killing a Goodie, or a police officer IRL killing someone and then failing to justify the use of lethal force which both gets him removed from the force and jailed. Another fitting analogy is how some parts of the world still stone people to death who violate parts of their religion. I believe more rural areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India still stone non-married non-virgins to death for instance.

There's really only a few reasons you broke an oath between kingdoms or between men:

You didn't fear the repercussions of breaking the oath.

You never meant it in the first place.

You have obtained enough power and authority to decide it no longer applies.

It doesn't benefit you anymore.

All four of those reasons are selfish ones that could ruin credibility in those days. Much like how getting Anathema in CF pretty much leaves you with Empire's cabal enemies, makes Imperials hunt you, and in addition anyone who trusts you is either considered as extremely powerful, extremely crafty, or a bloody idiot publically.

None of this means that you are breaking the RP of magical mind control. An Oath no matter how magical isn't mind control. The magic of the Oath was always designed to bind you to the Codex so you could use the cabal powers, and the incentive to continuing to serve the Empire was to preserve this bond. This is precisely why their powers are so good relative to all other cabals except arguably Ragers who have to make a similar sacrifice.

With the above in mind it is purely the choice of an Imperial IMM OOCly or ICly to bust a given Imperial for breaking Imperial Law. But unless you make an extremely big 'knee emperor' on Zulghinlour ####up Imms tend to only pass down judgement of any kind, beneficial or magnanimous, based on patterns. There is a reasonable assumption they will be able to tell the difference (while cloaked and/or snooping) between an innocent mistake that you cleverly weaselled out of or was largely unnoticed, and someone who isn't adhering to the game-balancing RP restrictions that those cabal powers espouse by regularly breaking the law just because no one is watching. In most cases like these, right along with the Blood Tribunal, they don't bust you for a single incident BUT IMPERIAL IMMS IN PARTICULAR HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO DO SO relative to just some Imm snooping you that decides to take control of the Empire Inners much how imms can pass down communication and punishment to Scions by controlling the Archmage. In this way Grurk could be as anal as Graatch for both tribs and imperials, and Astein as well.

Bard Repertoire Clarifications:
http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=23735&mesg_id=23735&page=